Like other cities of the ancient world, Palmyra had several necropoleis located along the major roads leading from and to it. These cities of the dead and their monuments have long attracted the interest of visitors and scholars. The monumentality and unique form of its tower tombs have attracted interest from the 18th century, when Palmyra was established as a magnificent ruin in European imagination, and in the 20th century, as a marker of local identity. The iconography of the banquet, prevalent in relief placed over the foundation inscriptions of tower tombs and the sarcophagi used for the burial of families inside the tombs, has been the focus of study since the 1950s. The textile remains of the burial shrouds of wealthy Palmyrenes have revealed the city's trade links with China and other cities in the Near East.

The cities of the dead, however, were also in use by the living. Archaeologically, it is possible to detect rituals associated with the burial, while other finds may imply commemorative rituals taking place inside Palmyrene tombs. These have been little studied. This paper proposes a survey of the various ritual aspects and practices that can be associated with Palmyrene funerary spaces, and an investigation of the lived experience of tombs and how they were used by the living in specific moments in time.