Dura-Europos
E376673
Dura-Europos was an ancient Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman frontier city on the Euphrates in present-day Syria, renowned for its exceptionally well-preserved religious buildings and early Christian and Jewish art.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Dura-Europos canonical | 3 |
| Doura-Europos | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3643438 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Dura-Europos Context triple: [Deir ez-Zor, nearbyArchaeologicalSite, Dura-Europos]
-
A.
Durostorum
Durostorum was a major Roman military and urban center on the lower Danube, located in the province of Moesia (modern Silistra, Bulgaria).
-
B.
Aurelianum
Aurelianum is the ancient Latin name for the French city of Orléans, reflecting its origins as a Roman settlement.
-
C.
Panticapaeum
Panticapaeum was an important ancient Greek city and trading center on the Cimmerian Bosporus, located where the modern city of Kerch in Crimea now stands.
-
D.
Singidunum
Singidunum was the ancient Roman and earlier Celtic settlement that occupied the site of present-day Belgrade, Serbia.
-
E.
Hadrianopolis
Hadrianopolis was an important ancient Roman and Byzantine city in Thrace, later known as Edirne in modern-day Turkey.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Dura-Europos Target entity description: Dura-Europos was an ancient Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman frontier city on the Euphrates in present-day Syria, renowned for its exceptionally well-preserved religious buildings and early Christian and Jewish art.
-
A.
Durostorum
Durostorum was a major Roman military and urban center on the lower Danube, located in the province of Moesia (modern Silistra, Bulgaria).
-
B.
Aurelianum
Aurelianum is the ancient Latin name for the French city of Orléans, reflecting its origins as a Roman settlement.
-
C.
Panticapaeum
Panticapaeum was an important ancient Greek city and trading center on the Cimmerian Bosporus, located where the modern city of Kerch in Crimea now stands.
-
D.
Singidunum
Singidunum was the ancient Roman and earlier Celtic settlement that occupied the site of present-day Belgrade, Serbia.
-
E.
Hadrianopolis
Hadrianopolis was an important ancient Roman and Byzantine city in Thrace, later known as Edirne in modern-day Turkey.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (57)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
ancient city
ⓘ
archaeological site ⓘ |
| abandonedInYear | 256 CE ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Dura-Europos
ⓘ
surface form:
Doura-Europos
Dura ⓘ |
| artifactsHeldAt |
Louvre Museum
ⓘ
Yale University Art Gallery ⓘ |
| becameRomanColony | 2nd century CE ⓘ |
| controlledBy |
Parthian Empire
ⓘ
Roman Empire ⓘ Seleucid Empire ⓘ |
| coordinateLatitude | 34.748 ⓘ |
| coordinateLongitude | 40.727 ⓘ |
| country | Syria ⓘ |
| culture |
Hellenistic
ⓘ
Parthian ⓘ Romanitas ⓘ
surface form:
Roman
|
| destroyedBy | Sasanian Empire ⓘ |
| destroyedInConflict |
Sasanian invasion of Roman Mesopotamia
ⓘ
surface form:
Sasanian siege of Dura-Europos
|
| excavationStartYear | 1928 ⓘ |
| foundedAround | circa 300 BCE ⓘ |
| foundedBy |
Seleucid Empire
ⓘ
surface form:
Seleucids
Seleucus I Nicator ⓘ |
| foundedInPeriod | Hellenistic period ⓘ |
| function |
frontier city
ⓘ
military garrison town ⓘ |
| hasPart |
Dura-Europos church
ⓘ
Dura-Europos synagogue ⓘ Mithraea ⓘ
surface form:
Mithraeum of Dura-Europos
Roman military camp ⓘ Temple of Artemis Azzanathkona ⓘ Temple of Bel ⓘ
surface form:
Temple of Bel at Dura-Europos
city walls ⓘ |
| knownFor |
early Christian art
ⓘ
early Jewish art ⓘ exceptionally well-preserved religious buildings ⓘ multicultural religious architecture ⓘ wall paintings ⓘ |
| locatedIn | Syria ⓘ |
| locatedOn |
Euphrates
ⓘ
surface form:
Euphrates River
edge of Syrian desert ⓘ |
| majorExcavationsBy |
Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres
ⓘ
surface form:
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Yale University ⓘ |
| originalName | Europos ⓘ |
| preservationCause | sudden abandonment after siege ⓘ |
| rediscoveredBy | British soldiers ⓘ |
| rediscoveredInYear | 1920 ⓘ |
| region |
Deir ez-Zor
ⓘ
surface form:
Deir ez-Zor Governorate
|
| religionsPresent |
Christianity
ⓘ
Judaism ⓘ various pagan cults ⓘ |
| significance |
important for history of ancient Judaism
ⓘ
important for history of early Christianity ⓘ key source for study of religious diversity in Roman East ⓘ |
| strategicRole | frontier fortress on Euphrates ⓘ |
| timeDepth | Hellenistic to mid-3rd century CE ⓘ |
| urbanPlan | grid plan ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Dura-Europos Description of subject: Dura-Europos was an ancient Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman frontier city on the Euphrates in present-day Syria, renowned for its exceptionally well-preserved religious buildings and early Christian and Jewish art.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Northern Syria
this entity surface form:
Doura-Europos