Life in Palmyra did not stop in the third century but has gone on more or less continuously at the site for the 1,700 years since.

[R]ecently, the Getty Research Institute launched the online exhibition Return to Palmyra. Promotional material says the exhibition “re-presents” the Getty’s first online exhibition, The Legacy of Ancient Palmyra, from 2017. As with that earlier exhibition, Return to Palmyra centers on two rich sets of material illustrating Palmyra that the Getty owns: 18th-century etchings made after drawings by Louis-François Cassas (acquired in 1984); and 19th-century photographs by Louis Vignes (acquired in that fateful year of 2015). All of these, of course, are put in context of the recent devastation of the site during the Syrian Civil War.

Lepagelet and Pierre Gabriel Berthault after Louis-François Cassas, “Temple of Bel” (1799), etching, from Voyage pittoresque de la Syrie, de la Phoénicie, de la Palestine, et de la Basse Egypte, vol. 1, pl. 35 
Lepagelet and Pierre Gabriel Berthault after Louis-François Cassas, “Temple of Bel” (1799), etching, from Voyage pittoresque de la Syrie, de la Phoénicie, de la Palestine, et de la Basse Egypte, vol. 1, pl. 35 © The Getty Research Institute