House of Priests
ancient building located in the southeast corner of block H2 in Dura-Europos (Syria)
The building that is referred to as the Priests' House, or House of Priests, at Dura-Europos near the village of Salhiyah in eastern present-day Syria, is one of three buildings that were excavated in block H2. It is hypothesized to be the home of priests from the Temple of Atargatis based on its proximity to the two neighboring temples and graffiti found in the third Excavation season.
Discovery
The House of Priests was excavated between 1929 and 1930 under French archeologist and Egyptologist Maurice Pillet, who was then Field Director of the excavation at Dura-Europos on the Syrian Euphrates, during the third expedition to the site. Pillet's two assistants, André Naudy and Henry T. Rowell, took over the direction of the campaign after he fell ill and left the site in January 1930. The excavations of block H2 were disturbed by heavy rains in January and February 1930, especially since the temples and the house were on a low level which left them susceptible to flooding. To remedy this, the team built an embankment southwest of the block to prevent flooding and subsequently rebuilt it three times.
The house is located on the southeastern corner of block H2, which it shares with the Temple of Atargatis and the Temple of Artemis. This closeness to the two temples, along with evidence of a joint upper level, led to its classification as a place of residence for the priests of the Temple of Atargatis.
Architectural structure
The house is 440.5 m2 and has a total of 15 rooms with one entrance at H2-D6. There is no evidence of when the house was constructed.
“House of Priests” enters the record as ancient building located in the southeast corner of block H2 in Dura-Europos (Syria). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what House, Priests and ancient can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“House of Priests” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, House, Priests and ancient provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q115857912. Authority coordinates are 34.747, 40.731. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1929 and 1930.
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This entry incorporates text from “House of Priests” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.