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Dura-Europos

Dura-Europos was a Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman border city built on an escarpment 90 m above the southwestern bank of the Euphrates river. It is located near the village of Salhiyé, in present-day Syria. Dura-Europos was founded around 300 BC by Seleucus I Nicator, who founded the Seleucid Empire as one of the Diadochi of Alexander the Great. In 113 BC, Parthians conquered the city, and held it, with one brief Roman intermission (114 AD), until 165 AD. Under Parthian rule, it became an important provincial administrative centre. The Romans decisively captured Dura-Europos in 165 AD and greatly enlarged it as their easternmost stronghold in Mesopotamia, until it was captured by the Sasanian Empire after a siege in 256–257 AD. Its population was deported, and the abandoned city eventually became covered by sand and mud and disappeared from sight.

Dura-Europos is of extreme archaeological importance, and was called the "Pompeii of the Desert". As it was abandoned after its conquest in 256–57 AD, nothing was built over it and no later building programs obscured the architectural features of the ancient city. Its location on the edge of empires made for a commingling of cultural traditions, much of which was preserved under the city's ruins. Some remarkable finds have been brought to light, including numerous temples, wall decorations, inscriptions, military equipment, tombs, and even dramatic evidence of the Sasanian siege.

It was looted and mostly destroyed between 2011 and 2014 by the Islamic State during the Syrian Civil War.

Foundation and early history
Originally a fortress, the city was founded around 300 BC as Dura ("fortress" in Aramaic), at the intersection of an east–west trade route and the trade route along the Euphrates. The city was called Europos by Greeks in honor of the Macedonian origin of Seleucus Nikator, who founded it. In ancient times, either designation stood alone; the combination of "Dura-Europos" is modern, and was coined by Franz Cumont in 1922. Dura controlled the river crossing on the route between Seleucus's newly founded cities of Antioch and Seleucia on the Tigris. Its rebuilding as a great city after the Hippodamian model, with rectangular blocks defined by cross-streets ranged round a large central agora, took place in the 2nd century BC. The traditional view of Dura-Europos as a great caravan city is modified by the discoveries of local manufactures and traces of close ties with Palmyra. Dura-Europos is now seen as owing its development to its role as a regional capital. After the siege and destruction of the city its names were forgotten by local people, and the site was known as Salihiyeh, "a name thought to refer to Saladin". In Ottoman times the ruins were known as Qan Qal'esi, "Castle of Blood". Pierre Leriche, excavations director of the site in early 2000s, opposes the name Dura-Europos, because it "obscures what he sees as the fundamental Greekness of the city" and proposes to use "Europos-Dura" instead.

The city was probably built on the site of a previous town; a clay tablet dating to King Hammurabi of Hana's times, 1900 BC, refers to the place as Da-ma-ra. It is the only cuneiform writing found at Dura; no other evidence was found. The ancient settlement was probably deserted for a long time when Dura was found.

The earliest mention of Dura-Europos can be found in the Parthian Stations by the geographer Isidore of Charax (c. 26 BC).

"ἔνθεν Δοῦρα, Νικάνορος πόλις, κτίσμα Μακεδόνων, ὑπὸ δὲ Ἑλλήνων Εὔρωπος καλεῖται. [Then comes Dura, the city of Nicanor, a foundation of the Macedonians, called Europos by the Greeks.]"

Isidore is the only ancient historian who mentioned that the city had two different names. Isidore's account helped to identify the site, because both "Dura" and "Europos" were not unique names for that region.

When the town was founded, agricultural land was allotted to the members of the garrison, the size and quality of the allotments according to military rank. As the historian Paul Kosmin wrote, during its early history Dura-Europos was neither entirely a military outpost nor a polis, but something in-between:

"Out of this meager evidence, the early settlement of Europos emerges as an entity ambiguously situated between a simple fortress and a full polis. The absences are striking. As far as can be perceived, in terms of civic architecture and urbanism, third-century Europos lacked a temple, gymnasium, theater, and a 'Hippodamian' street plan. In terms of sociopolitical phenomena, it lacked a developed epigraphic habit, representative civic government, sophisticated bureaucracy, and its own mint (bar one short episode). The administrative center ('palace'), patterns of land ownership, royal cult, and state officials show, however, it was more than a fortified army community, isolated from its local and imperial environments. Its location and dependent territory gave Europos a dynamic and self-generating potential to expand and develop into the important, wealthier, and more complex settlement it would become."

In 113 BC, the Parthian Empire conquered Dura-Europos, and held it, with one brief intermission, until 165 AD, when it was taken by the Romans. The Parthian period was that of expansion at Dura-Europos, an expansion that was facilitated by the town's losing its function as a military outpost. All the space enclosed by the walls gradually became occupied, and the influx of new inhabitants with Semitic and Iranian names alongside descendants of the original Macedonian colonists contributed to an increase in the population, which was a multicultural one, as inscriptions in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, various Aramaic dialects (Hatran, Palmyrene, Syriac), Middle Persian, Parthian, and Safaitic testify. In the 1st century BC, it served as a frontier fortress of the Parthian Empire.

Rebuilding of the city
The entirely original architecture of Dura-Europos was perfected during the Parthian period. This period was characterized by a progressive evolution of Greek concepts toward new formulas in which regional traditions, particularly Babylonian ones, played an increasing role. These innovations affected both religious and domestic buildings. Although Iranian influence is difficult to find in the architecture of Dura-Europos, in figurative art the influence of Parthian art is felt.

In 114 AD, the Emperor Trajan occupied the city for a couple of years: the Third Cyrenaica legion erected a "Triumphal Arch" west of the Palmyrene Gate. Upon the death of Trajan in 117, Rome relinquished Mesopotamia to the Parthians, but Dura was retaken by the Roman army of Lucius Verus during the Roman–Parthian War of 161–166.

The townspeople, however, retained considerable freedom as inhabitants of the regional headquarters for the section of the river between the Khabur River and modern Abu Kamal. The historian Ross Burns states that, in exchange, the city's military role was abandoned. Its original Greek settler population was increasingly outnumbered by people of Semitic stock; and by the first century BC, the city was predominantly eastern in character.

The city regained its importance as a military outpost, when the Romans established it as a starting point for the conquest of the territories of Osroene, and as an outpost for expeditions against the Parthian empire and their capital on the Tigris in 198 AD. The city was later a border post of the Roman "Kingdom of Palmyra".

"In A.D. 194, Emperor Septimius Severus divided the province of Syria to limit the power of its previously rebellious governors. As a result, Dura became part of the new province of Syria Coele. In its later years, it also attained the status of a Roman colonia, which, by the third century, was what James (Henry Breasted) calls an 'honorary title for an important town.' He suggests that the 'Roman authorities wanted to present Dura as an important city of the Roman province.'"

The military importance of the site was confirmed after 209 AD: the northern part of the site was occupied by a Roman camp, isolated by a brick wall; soldiers were housed among civilians, among others, in the so-called "House of Scribes". Romans built the palace of the commander of the military region on the edge of a cliff. The city then had several sanctuaries, beside the temples, dedicated to the Greek gods Zeus and Artemis. There were shrines, dating from the 1st century AD, dedicated to Mithra, to Palmyrene gods, and to local deities.

In 216 AD, a small amphitheater for soldiers was built in the military area, while the new synagogue, completed in 244 AD, and a house of Christian worship, were embellished with frescos of important characters wearing Roman tunics, caftans, and Parthian trousers. These splendid paintings, which cover the walls, testify to the richness of the Jewish and Christian communities. The population of Dura-Europos is estimated at 10,000-15,000 people, at the most; more conservative estimates say that the agriculture of that region could only support a population of about 5,000-6,000 people.

The city received the status of "colonia" after the year 254 AD; official documents called the city "the 'colony of the Europeans of Seleukos Nikator' (κωλονεία Εὐροπαίων Σελεύκου Νεικάτορος)."

The good state of preservation of these buildings and their frescoes was due to their location, close to the main city wall facing west, and to the military necessity of strengthening the wall. The Sassanid Persians had become adept at tunneling under such walls in order to undermine them and create breaches. As a countermeasure, the Roman garrison decided to sacrifice the street and the buildings along the wall by filling them with rubble, to bolster the wall in case of a Persian mining operation. So, the Christian chapel, the synagogue, the Mithraeum, and many other buildings were entombed. The Romans also buttressed the walls from the outside with an earthen mound forming a glacis, sealed with a casing of mud brick to prevent erosion. As J.A. Baird writes, "the threat by the Sasanians was keenly felt by the Roman military, and what had been a walled city became a fortress—literally, in that it became a defensive place. A huge embankment was built against the interior of the city walls to hold back the Sasanian incursion, deliberately and with great effort involving the methodical destruction of buildings and the moving of many metric tonnes of earth, ruining a huge swathe of the site".

Siege and destruction

There is no written record of the Sasanian siege of Dura. However, archaeologists have uncovered striking evidence of the siege and how it progressed.

The buttressing of the walls would be tested in 256 AD when Shapur I besieged the city. True to the fears of the defenders, Shapur set his engineers to undermine what archaeologists called Tower 19, two towers north of the Palmyrene Gate. When the Romans became aware of the threat, they dug a countermine with the aim of meeting the Persian effort and attacking them before they could finish their work. The Persians had already dug complex galleries along the wall by the time the Roman countermine reached them. They managed to fight off the Roman attack, and when the city defenders noticed the flight of soldiers from the countermine, it was quickly sealed. The wounded and stragglers were trapped inside, where they died. (It was the coins found with these Roman soldiers that dated the siege to AD 256.) The countermine was successful, for the Persians abandoned their operations at Tower 19.

Next, the Sassanids attacked Tower 14, the southernmost along the western wall. It overlooked a deep ravine to the south and it was from that direction that it was attacked. This time the mining operation was partially successful, in that it caused the tower and adjacent walls to subside. However, Roman countermeasure bolstered the wall and prevented it from collapsing.

This brought on a third attempt at breaching the city wall. A ramp was raised, attacking Tower 14; but, as it was being built and the garrison fought to stop the progress of the ramp, another mine was started near the ramp. Its purpose was not to cause a collapse of the wall — the buttress had been successful — but to pass under it and penetrate the city. This tunnel was built to allow the Persians four abreast to move through it. It eventually pierced the inner embankment and, when the ramp was completed, Dura's end had come. As Persian troops charged up the ramp, their counterparts in the tunnel would have invaded the city with little opposition, as nearly all the defenders would have been on the wall, attempting to repel the attack from the ramp. The city was then abandoned, its population deported.

The siege was notable for the early use of chemical weapons by the attacking Persian army. During the siege the attackers dug several underground shaft mines under the city walls. The Romans dug tunnels to reach the mines and fight the diggers underground. In one such tunnel, when the Romans broke through into the Sassanian tunnel, the tunnelers ignited a mixture of sulfur and pitch, producing a cloud of poisonous gas, sulfur dioxide, which killed 19 Romans and 1 Persian, one of which was carrying a coin dated 256, allowing the dating of the siege. Archaeologists excavated the scene in the 1930s. In 2009, tests showed the presence of sulfur dioxide inside the tunnel. An archaeologist at the University of Leicester suggested that bitumen and sulphur crystals were ignited to create poisonous gas, which was then funnelled through the tunnel with the use of underground chimneys and bellows. The Roman soldiers had been constructing a countermine, and Sasanian forces are believed to have released the gas when their mine was breached by the Roman countermine. The lone Persian soldier discovered among the bodies is believed to be the individual responsible for releasing the gas before the fumes overcame him as well.

Shapur I destroyed not only Dura-Europos, but also other Palmyrene trade colonies along the Euphrates, including the colony at Anah, in 253. The sixth-century historian Peter the Patrician wrote that Odaenathus approached Shapur I to negotiate Palmyrene interests but was rebuffed and the gifts sent to the Persians were thrown into the river. The date for the attempted negotiations is debated: some scholars, including John F. Drinkwater, set the event in 253; while others, such as Alaric Watson, set it in 256, following the destruction of Dura-Europos.

After the siege
Clark Hopkins, the field director at Dura-Europos in the 1930s, opened his book The Discovery of Dura-Europos with an epigram:

"After the siege and victory by the Persians in AD 256, the record is blank. The mute testimony that remained was of a site desolate and forlorn, where the lonely and level sands covered the bones of the city and stretched away across the desert."

Some evidence of a Sasanian presence at Dura after the sack of the city was found, but is limited to several coins, and some burials. Many buildings apparently stood empty for a time before they collapsed: a house in a part of the site near the river that was excavated by the Franco-Syrian expedition in the 2000s had its floors covered in disarticulated rodent skeletons and owl pellets, apparently from time when birds inhabited the emptied homes. Coin hoards were found, which indicate that people hoped to return to the city.

Historians argue whether Dura-Europos was completely abandoned after the siege of 256. Lucinda Dirven wrote that, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, Dura-Europos was a deserted town when Julian's army passed there in 363. There is evidence from a Syriac document called Life of the Martyr Mu'Ain, dating from the fifth century, that a Christian (perhaps Byzantine) hermit lived there during the time of the Sassanid emperor Shapur II (c. 379). J. M. Unvala wrote that "The fortress of Doura-Eropos is mentioned by ancient authors like Polybius, Isidore of Kharax, Lucian, Ptolemaeus, Ammianus Marcellinus, Zosimus the Cosmographer of Ravenna. It is also mentioned in the Acts of the Syrian Martyr Mar Mu'ain, who lived in the time of Shapur II as follows: men madabra da doura "from the fortress of Doura"; madinta hada xarabta metkaria doura "the ruined city called Doura". Sebastian P. Brock describes the story of Mu'Ain as "The History of Ma'in of Sinjar, a general under Shapur II (309–79) who converted to Christianity and suffered as a confessor". He quotes Jean Maurice Fiey regarding the dating and place, and notes that "Dura is specifically described as being 'ruined'":

"Fiey is more plausible in his suggestion that the History was written at a monastery that had grown up on the site of Mar Ma'in's cell at Shadba (=Shadwa, Shadbo), 6 miles from Europos, and on the basis of this he is able to give c. 636, the end of Byzantine rule in that area, as the terminus ante quem, since the author is clearly writing at a time when the Byzantine emperor controlled the area."

Another piece of evidence is a single coin, of the Roman emperor Constantius II, that indicates some activity in the 4th century or later. A Yale–French expedition also found seven lamps dating from fifth century. Because of these finds, historians concluded that the city wasn't abandoned and that there is "firm evidence that not only did activity continue at Dura—even if it was only sporadic and cannot confidently be associated with permanent settlement—but that contact with the Mediterranean, though certainly even more sporadic, continued as well."

Inhabitants, languages and texts

Dura-Europos was a cosmopolitan society, ruled by a tolerant Macedonian aristocracy descended from the original settlers. In the course of its excavation, over a hundred parchment and papyrus fragments, and many inscriptions, have revealed texts in Greek and Latin (the latter including a sator square), Palmyrene, Hebrew, Hatrian, Safaitic (proto-Arabic dialect), Pahlavi, Parthian, and Middle-Persian. In such a multicultural city, languages used by people didn't tell of their ethnicity.

Dura-Europos was founded by Greek settlers. So, it is not surprising that the vast majority of the inscriptions are in Greek, and about 800 Greek texts are known so far. These are dedicatory inscriptions, graffiti, and documents on papyrus and parchment. Greek was primarily the language of business and seems to have gained in importance, especially after the Roman occupation. It is believed that the upper class of the city, in particular, was still Greek in Parthian times. Palmyric is known, with certainty, from various inscriptions on monuments from 33 BC. It is believed that a small number of Palmyric traders lived in the city, and in Roman times there were also soldiers from Palmyra. Parthian is not well attested to, and the few Parthian inscriptions seem to date to Roman times. Middle Persian is attested primarily by two parchments and numerous graffiti in the synagogue. The texts must date from the short time when the city was ruled by the Sasanids.

Historian George Kilpatrick described the linguistic diversity as follows (from examples of graffiti from the synagogue):

"Apart from a liturgical text written in Hebrew (on a parchment), the available textual sources from the synagogue consist of inscriptions and graffiti, which are more or less evenly divided in Aramaic (22), Greek (19) and Persian (12 Middle Persian, 'Pārsīk', and 3 Parthian, 'Pahlavīk'). [...] Most of the Persian ones were written on the wall paintings themselves and record appraisal on the part of visitors from elsewhere. Their presence can be explained by assuming that Mesopotamian Jews had sent someone 'like a consular representative nowadays' to the Euphrates stronghold, in order to approve of the frescos."

Because of the dry desert climate, numerous documents on papyrus and parchment have been preserved, materials that otherwise would have little chance of surviving for millennia. The documents were found under the brick ramp built against the western wall, where they were especially protected. In the temple of Azzanathana, documents of the Cohors XX Palmyrenorum, which was stationed here, were found in a room that apparently served as an archive. The texts offer a unique view of the organization of the Roman army on the eastern border of the empire, and include a religious festival calendar, various letters—some of which are in Latin—daily reports on troop movements, and various lists of names.

Although the documents found mainly regard administration (in Latin) and business (in Greek), some literary and religious texts were found in the city. Only a few documents can be dated with certainty to the time of Parthian rule. Only seven of them are definitely dated. They are written in Greek but use the Seleucid calendar. Among the literary texts there is a fragment by Herodotus and one by Appian. The Herodotus fragment comes from his 5th book and is written in extremely beautiful script. C. Bradford Welles describes the book as de luxe and dates the copy to the 2nd century AD. Dura parchment 10 (P. Dura 10), the fragment of a harmony of the Gospels, is particularly interesting. It is perhaps a fragment of Tatian's Diatessaron. There was also a prayer in Hebrew. The texts shed light on daily life in the city. In Parthian times, documents were dated from the Arsacian era and from the Seleucid era. Interesting is the appearance of women in the legal documents of the Parthian and Roman periods, which indicated that they acted independently and did not need a male advocate, as they did in the Mediterranean region.

Many Greek documents are in the Attic dialect and have few grammatical errors. Since most of the texts are legal documents, this shows that most of the writers were well educated in the Greek language. On the other hand, a letter dating from the third century that was sent by a person from the village of Ossa shows more deviations from the classic Attic. Still, there is no indication that any dialect of Greek peculiar to the city, a "Durene" dialect, developed.

The languages used by different people show how multicultural the city was. For example, on a ceiling tile of Heliodoros, an actuarius (an official responsible for the distribution of wages in the Roman military), there is a Greek inscription that identifies the man by name and occupation. The use of Greek to identify a Roman official is typical of the multicultural environment at Dura-Europos. Another example is an inscription that reads: "... brave in campaigns, mighty in wars, dead..." These words are part of the epitaph of Julius Terentius, tribune of the twentieth Palmyrene cohort. As historian Jennifer Baird wrote, Julius is known better than most of the Roman soldiers who were stationed at Dura, as he is recorded in papyri from the military archives as well as from a painting, depicting him with his men. His Greek funerary inscription was found in a house near the centre of the city, apparently incomplete—as can be seen, the last section was not carved, but the painted guiding lines are preserved. Whether his wife, Aurelia Arria, or the person she commissioned to create this, did not themselves survive to complete the memorial, we do not know. While it is incomplete, this shows a Roman tribune commemorated with a Greek inscription by his wife. Also, it is virtually unique at Dura, where no tradition of funerary commemoration was found: no funerary inscriptions, and, unlike its more famous Syrian neighbour Palmyra, no funerary portraits. One more interesting example is an altar of the local god Yarhibol. On it there is an inscription in Greek: "[For] the god Yarhibol, Scribonius Moucianus, chiliarch, made this as commanded." It is notable because it shows that a man who bears a Latin name, Scribonius Moucianus, and holding a Greek-titled office in the Roman army, worshipped a local deity and offered his dedication in Greek.

Some documents that were found are evidence of a local tradition of people having several names: for example, a Greek one and a Semitic one. One of the examples is Dura parchment 19 (P. Dura 19) (dating from first century AD), which records the division of a house inherited by four brothers from their father. As Baird wrote:

"The father is recorded as having the Greek name Polemocrates (his own father and grandfather also bearing the names Demetrius and Polemocrates, respectively), and amongst the younger Polemocrates' sons, all had both Greek and Aramaic names, for instance Demetrius, also known as Nabusamus. The document records the concern with noting patrilineal descent – descent along the male line – and a pattern of sons taking the Greek name of their grandfathers. They are described as Europaioi, 'of Europos', a designation of place which [...] is generally assumed to indicate citizen status."

Fragments of parchment scrolls with Hebrew texts have also been unearthed; they resisted meaningful translation until J.L. Teicher pointed out that they were Christian Eucharistic prayers, so closely connected with the prayers in Didache that he was able to fill lacunae in the light of the Didache text.

In 1933, among fragments of text recovered from the town dump outside the Palmyrene Gate, a fragmentary text was unearthed from an unknown Greek harmony of the gospel account—comparable to Tatian's Diatessaron, but independent of it.

Religious life
John Noble Wilford compared the ancient city with modern New York:

"New Yorkers would have felt at home in the grid pattern of streets, where merchants lived, scribes wrote and Jews worshiped in the same block, not far from a Christian house-church as well as shrines to Greek and Palmyrene deities. Scholars said the different religious groups seemed to maintain their distinct identities."

Greco-Roman, Palmyrene, and local cults

The Temple of Artemis Nanaïa was perhaps the oldest temple in the city. In the Seleucid period there was a temenos (a walled, sacred area) with a Doric colonnade and an altar in the middle. At the end of the second century BC it burned down. A naiskos (small temple) was built in its stead, but it was never finished. In the middle of the first century BC the temple was rebuilt: a courtyard complex was created, in the middle of which stood a new temple, with an anteroom and three-aisled cella. The temple was rebuilt several times before the city fell. A statue, found in its ruins, represents a woman's figure, probably Artemis, dressed in hunting garb. Only the upper part was found, both arms having been broken off. Historian Susan B. Downey writes that the statue has "an Amazonian aspect by the fact that one breast is left bare". There is a crescent-shaped necklace on the statue, and a veil of unusual form.

There were at least three Palmyric temples in the city. The Temple of Bel (also known as the Temple of the Palmyric Gods) was built in one corner of the city wall, in the third century BC. Several construction phases can be distinguished in the building. The plan consisted of various rooms ranged around a courtyard; the actual temple stood to the north and was later marked by four columns. This temple was once richly decorated with wall paintings. There was also a shrine here, which probably contained the cult image. A small sanctuary of Bel, consisted of a single hall, was also found.

The Necropolis Temple was built in 33 BC and, according to the inscriptions, was dedicated to Baal and Yarhibol. The temple was just outside the city and probably was maintained until the city's abandonment. Although the temple was located in the city's necropolis, it was built prior; and the cult there had no connection to the cemetery. The temple could have been a first port of call for caravans coming from Palmyra. A cistern next to the temple may have served to water pack animals. Remains of wall paintings were found in the temple. Three inscriptions are particularly important. The oldest of them, written in Palmyric, dates from 33 BC (year 279 of the Seleucid era) It is the oldest known inscription at Dura-Europos; and when it was found and published in 1935, it was the oldest known Palmyric inscription anywhere. The names of the founders of the temple are known: Zabdibol, son of Ba'yashu, and Maliku, son of Ramu. Zabdibol came from the Bene Gaddibol clan, Maliku from that of the Bene Komare. The donors were obviously Palmyrians who lived in Dura-Europos. It is noteworthy that the donors come from two different clans. In inscriptions at Palmyra, when different donors are named together, they come from the same clan. The Bene Gaddibol clan is well documented in Palmyra, where belonging to a clan was an important part of one's identity. In Dura-Europos clan membership obviously lost its meaning, and two people from different clans could appear together in inscriptions. In Dura-Europos, their identity was their common Palmyrene origin.

The Temple of Atargatis, which is south of the centre of the city (referred to by the excavators as the agora) and which occupies the northern part of H2 Block, was built on roughly the same principle. The temple complex had a large courtyard in the middle, a monumental entrance, and a sanctuary with a pronaos (portico) in front and three naoi (chambers) at the back. There were numerous small rooms around the courtyard, some of which were probably shrines that were consecrated to various deities. A relief on the sanctuary of the temple shows the goddess Atargatis, with a lion on either side of her, and her husband Hadad nearby. A cult standard is depicted between the two deities. Atargatis was the mother of Adonis; Hadad and Adonis could also be worshipped here. Various inscriptions by ancient visitors tell of the people who visited the sanctuary. That the temple was frequented by people from Hatra is shown by a visitor's inscription, in Hatran (an Aramaic language), that is addressed to the god of the city of Hatra named Šamaš. Otherwise, a striking number of inscriptions in the temple, some of which were scratched into the walls, were made by women. There is an inscription from the first half of the first century AD that mentions the consecration of a chapel. A number of other inscriptions date from 69 AD. Some of the women named in the inscriptions appear to have come from the family of the governors of Dura-Europos. One woman was the granddaughter of the governor Lysias, another woman the wife of the governor Seleucus. In a wall of the temple there was a cuneiform tablet with old Babylonian script, which names the place as Da-wa-ra, which may be an old name for Dura.

In the southeast part of the site, which was separated from the rest of the city by a wadi, apparently stood an acropolis typical of a Greek city. However, hardly anything has survived from the temples of that time.

The Temple of Zeus Theos was built in the second century AD and was among the most important sanctuaries of the city. The building was in the centre of the city. It had an area of around 37 m2 and occupied half an insula. The building had a monumental courtyard and in it a large naos. The cult figure of the god was depicted on the back wall. He stood next to a chariot and was crowned by two Nikes. On the side walls of the hall are the pictures of the donors, and their family members, who financed this temple.

The Temple of the Gadde was a double temple dedicated to the patron deities (gaddē) of the city and of Palmyra. The building is located near the agora. The temple was built in the last years of Parthian rule. A propylaeon (monumental gateway) led into a courtyard; opposite the gateway was the cella with other rooms. On the right side, a hall with benches on the walls led to another courtyard, with another cella there. The exact age of the temple complex is unknown. It was expanded several times over time. Two consecration reliefs were found in the temple. One of them shows the female protective deity of Palmyra in a guise modelled on the Tyche of Antioch. She sits between two figures, wearing a mural crown and Greek clothing. On her left is the dedicator of the relief, depicted as a priest, and on her right a Nike. The other depicts the male patron deity of Dura-Europos, bearded and wearing a tunic. It is very likely a depiction of Zeus Megistos. To his right is Seleukos Nikator, on the left is the one consecrating the relief. The city was founded by Seleukos Nikator, so the ruler enjoyed a special veneration here. According to an inscription, the reliefs were dedicated to "The god, Gad of Dura; made by Hairan bar Maliku Nasor, in the month of Nisan, year 470 [159 AD]." The cella also contained a relief that depicted the Semitic god Yarhibol. An inscription records "Bani Mitha, the archers" as the donors.

The Temple of Adonis was also built in Parthian times. It is also a temple complex that is grouped around a courtyard. The actual temple was located to the south and consisted of a pronaos and the naos. Wall paintings, which were discovered in a fragmentary state, depicted a statue and a family making an offering to the god on a fire altar at left. The scene has been reconstructed. In the temple complex there was also another relief, which shows the god Arsu on a camel. The inscription under the figure reads: "Oga the sculptor has made (this to) 'Arsu the camel-rider', for the life of his son".

The Temple of Artemis Azzanathkona was on the north side of the city and had two naoi. The temple has stood here since at least 13 AD. In Roman times, the complex was partly integrated into the military camp, although the cult worship was continued. The archive of the Cohors XX Palmyrenorum was found in one room of the temple. An inscription from 161 AD said that the temple was dedicated to Artemis Azzanathkona. Her followers believed in a "syncretized combination" of a Greek goddess Artemis and local Syrian deity Azzanathkona (Atargatis).

The Dolicheneum was a temple where Jupiter Dolichenus and the god called Zeus Helios Mithras Turmasgade may have been worshiped. The temple entrance was in the south part. The building had a columned courtyard with two altars; behind it were two cellae. The temple was therefore dedicated to two deities. Various rooms were arranged around the courtyard, some of them had benches along the walls. Remnants of wall paintings were also found in one room. Various inscriptions were discovered in and around the temple. One cella was dedicated to the little-known god Turmasgade. The second cella was for Jupiter Dolichenus, several dedications to whom were found in the temple. Another room was dedicated to an unnamed goddess, probably Juno Dolichena. The temple was built by units of the Roman army around 211 AD, and was in use until 256 AD, mainly by Roman soldiers stationed in the city. Soldiers left several inscriptions that mention "centurio princeps of a vexillation of IV (Scythia) and XVI Flavia Firma, a vexillation of Cohors II Paphlagonum with the titles 'Galliana Volusiana', a cohors equitata with the same titles, and Julius Julianus, of A.D. 251".

The Temple of Zeus Megistos (second century AD) on the Acropolis probably replaced a Greek temple of Zeus Olympius. The assignment of the temple to Zeus Megistos is based only on a dedicatory inscription, according to which parts of the building were made by Seleucus, Strategos (strategos kai epistates) of the city, rebuilt and consecrated to the god. The inscription dates to 169/170 AD and tells of numerous construction works on the temple, perhaps after it was destroyed by an earthquake. Probably then the building received its final form. The founder, Seleukos, was practically a governor in Dura-Europos and belonged to a Greek family who held this office for several generations. The governor's family's house was right next to the temple. Other members of the governor's family, such as Lysias, are also mentioned in inscriptions, but no titles are mentioned, so there is a possibility that these are other people of the same name who did not belong to the governor's family.

The Temple of Zeus Kyrios was a small sanctuary built against the city wall. A stele was found in the sanctuary, with either a cult image or a dedicatory relief on it. The stele shows Zeus seated on the right and a donor who appears to be a Palmyrene man. The stele has a Palmyrene language inscription that states that it was erected by Baratheh, son of Luke and his son Abubuhi in 31 AD. The god is named as Baalshamin. A Greek inscription also gives the name of the donor as Seleukos, son of Luke, and names the god as Zeus. A further Greek inscription on the stele again names Seleukos, gives the date, and refers to the god as Zeus Kyrios.

Multiple images of Greco-Roman deities were also found. Among them are Nemesis, Nike, and Aphrodite. One of the reliefs of Aphrodite was found in a private house, and is one of three such reliefs that were made in the same mold. The composition is derived from Hellenistic art, but the goddess's attributes—her bracelets, anklets, breast ornaments, and lack of modesty—is similar to the images of nude Near Eastern fertility goddesses. Perhaps it can explain her popularity at Dura-Europos. The relief is dated to 200-256 AD. The house where the relief was found is close to the military quarter and may have been a brothel. Two other nearly identical and one fragmentary versions of this relief were excavated across the site. One of the additional Aphrodite reliefs was found at what is called the House of Priests, which led to speculation about women's roles in the domestic cult. A marble statue of Aphrodite Urania was found in the Temple of Artemis; it is thought to have been imported to Dura-Europos. Wall paintings of Aphrodite and Cupid were found in the House of Scribes.

A relief of the goddess Nemesis was described as: "Marble relief of the goddess Nemesis (right) receiving a burnt offering by a priest named Julius Aurelius Malochus. The relief includes a 'floating' bust with a radiant aura around the bust. One interpretation is that the bust symbolizes the cosmic power of the goddess. At the feet of the goddess is a wheel (a typical symbol associated with the goddess) and a griffin." As noted by Dirven, the image of Nemesis here differs from those in Palmyra and Greece. Here she is associated with a sun god; in Palmyra she was most likely associated with the goddess Allat, who was worshipped in sanctuaries together with the sun god Shamash. Dirven concludes that "the popularity of solar deities among the military probably enforced this Palmyrene association of Nemesis-Allat with the sun god and resulted in the presence of the sun god in the Durene relief".

The dedication reads:

Θεᾷ Νεμέσι Ιούλιος Αὐρήλιος Μαλωχὰς Σουδαίου Παλμυρηνὸς εὐξάμενος ἀνέθηκεν

Translation: Julius Aurelius Malochas, son of Soudaios, Palmyrene, set this up in gratitude to the goddess Nemesis.

‘bd wmwd’ mlwk’ br šwdy tdmry’ lnmsys šnt 556

Translation: Maloka son of Shudai, Palmyrene, made (this), and with gratitude, for Nemesis. The year 556 (AD 244-5).

The goddess of victory, Nike, was also popular in Dura-Europos, especially with the military, who viewed her as "an active divine force influencing human affairs and bringing military success. One of the paintings of Nike was found in an enclosed wooden shrine in the Palmyrene Gate. That painting may have contained a depiction of the emperor. It was dedicated to the goddess by soldiers on behalf of their commander and his family.

Synagogue

The Jewish synagogue, located by the western wall between towers 18 and 19, the last phase of which was dated by an Aramaic inscription to 244, is the best preserved of the many ancient synagogues of that era that have been uncovered by archaeologists. It was well preserved due to having been infilled with earth to strengthen the city's fortifications against a Sasanian assault in 256. It was uncovered in 1932 by Clark Hopkins, who found that it contains a forecourt and house of assembly with frescoed walls depicting people and animals, and a Torah shrine in the western wall facing Jerusalem.

The discovery of the wall paintings in the assembly hall of the synagogue caused a tremendous sensation, as it is the largest cycle of paintings that has survived from antiquity. The find is important for religious history, as the Jewish communities there were generally judged to be hostile to images. The paintings are preserved at Damascus.

House church

The Dura-Europos house church, the earliest house church yet discovered, is near the 17th tower and was preserved by the same defensive fill that saved the synagogue. "Their evidently open and tolerated presence in the middle of a major Roman garrison town reveals that the history of the early Church was not simply a story of pagan persecution".

The building consists of a house conjoined to a separate hall-like room, which functioned as the meeting room for the church. Dating from 235 AD, the surviving frescoes of the baptistry room are probably the most ancient Christian paintings in existence. The "Good Shepherd", the "Healing of the paralytic", and "Christ and Peter walking on the water" are among the preserved paintings and are the earliest depictions of Jesus Christ ever found.

A much larger fresco depicts two women (and a third, mostly lost) approaching a large sarcophagus, i.e. probably the three Marys visiting Christ's tomb. There are also frescoes of Adam and Eve as well as David and Goliath. The frescoes clearly followed the Hellenistic Jewish iconographic tradition, but they are more crudely done than the paintings of the nearby synagogue.

Mithraeum

Also partially preserved by the defensive embankment, was the Mithraeum, between towers 23 and 24. It was unearthed in January 1934 after years of expectation as to whether Dura would reveal traces of the Roman Mithraic cult. The earliest archaeological traces found within the temple are from between 168 and 171 AD, which coincides with the arrival of Lucius Verus and his troops. At this stage it was still a room in a private home. It was extended and renovated between 209 and 211, and most of the frescoes are from this period. The tabula ansata of 210 offers salutation to Septimus Severus, Caracalla, and Geta. The construction was managed by a centurio principe praepositus of the Legio IIII Scythica and the Legio XVI Flavia Firma, and it seems that construction was done by imperial troops. The mithraeum was enlarged again in 240, but in 256—with war with Sasanians looming—the sanctuary was filled in and became part of the strengthened fortifications. Following excavations, the temple was transported in pieces to New Haven, Connecticut, where it was rebuilt (and is now on display) at the Yale University Art Gallery.

The surviving frescoes, graffiti, and dipinti (painted inscriptions, which number in the dozens) are of enormous interest in the study of the social composition of the cult. The statuary and altars were found intact, as was the typical relief of Mithras slaying the bull, with the hero-god dressed, as usual, in "oriental" costume ("trousers, boots, and pointed cap"). As is typical for mithraea in the Roman provinces in the Greek East, the inscriptions and graffiti are mostly in Greek, with the rest in Palmyrene (and some in Hellenized Hebrew). The end of the sanctuary features an arch with a seated figure on each of the two supporting columns. Inside, and following the form of the arch, is a series of depictions of the zodiac. Within the framework of the now-obsolete theory that the Roman cult was "a Roman form of Mazdaism" (la forme romaine du mazdeisme), Cumont supposed that the two Dura friezes represented the two primary figures of his Les Mages hellénisés, i.e. Zoroaster and Ostanes. This reading has not found favor with others: "the two figures are Palmyrene in all their characteristic traits" and are more probably portraits of leading members of that mithraeum's congregation of Syrian auxiliaries.

Timeline of known events at Dura-Europos

Based on the chronology found in.
 * c. 300 BC: Dura founded by the Seleucids as a fortress
 * c. 113 BC: Parthians take Dura
 * c. 65–19 BC: City walls constructed, including some towers
 * c. 33 BC: Dura becomes a Parthian provincial administrative centre
 * c. 17–16 BC: Palmyrene Gate begun
 * 116 AD: Trajan takes Dura and triumphal arch built
 * 121 AD: Parthians regain Dura
 * 160 AD: Earthquake
 * 164 AD: Romans under Lucius Verus again control Dura
 * c. 168–171 AD: Mithraeum first built
 * c. 165–200 AD: House converted to synagogue
 * c. 211 AD: Dura a Roman colony
 * post-216 AD: City walls heightened
 * c. 224 AD: (Parthians defeated by Sassanids)
 * c. 232–256 AD: House converted into a Christian chapel and decorated
 * 238 AD: Graffito stating "Persians descended on us" was written
 * c. 240 AD: Mithraeum rebuilt
 * c. 244–254 AD: Synagogue paintings
 * 253 AD: First Sassanid attack
 * post-254 AD: Defensive embankment built to bolster city walls
 * 256–257 AD: Dura falls to the Sassanid king Shapur I, the population was deported.

Overview
The existence of Dura-Europos was long known through literary sources. Its actual location was rediscovered by the American "Wolfe Expedition" in 1885, when the Palmyrene Gate was photographed by John Henry Haynes.

British troops under Captain Murphy, in the aftermath of World War I and the Arab Revolt, also explored the ruins. On March 30, 1920, a soldier digging a trench uncovered brilliantly fresh wall-paintings in the Temple of Bel. The American archeologist James Henry Breasted, then at Baghdad, was alerted. Major excavations were carried out in the 1920s and 1930s by French and American teams. The first archaeology on the site, undertaken by Franz Cumont and published in 1922–23, identified the site with Dura-Europos, and uncovered a temple, before renewed hostilities in the area closed it to archaeology. Later, renewed campaigns directed by Clark Hopkins and Michael Rostovtzeff continued until 1937, when funds ran out, with only part of the excavations published.

In 1986 excavations resumed in a joint Franco-Syrian effort under the direction of Pierre Leriche. Fifteen years of excavations led to a revival of issues on the Hellenistic levels (P. Leriche) and on the history of the city thanks to studies on the fortifications (J.-C. Bessac 1997) and stone architecture (J. Abdul Massih 2000) and mud brick (M. Gelin 2000). The mission also resumed the study of certain formerly excavated monuments, such as the odeon, the palace of the Strategos, the temples of Zeus Megistos, Bel and Azanathkona, the houses of islets C7 and D1.

Archaeological site
The site is divided between a flat part of 45 ha, delimited by the line of the western rampart and the irregular layout of the northern and southern wadis, a narrow part culminating at an altitude of 218 m, crowned by the walls of the citadel, and a lower part 20 m below the top of the plateau. This depression is the meeting of two ravines: the first begins in the northeast of the site and runs along the western limit of the citadel, before joining the east–west ravine incised in the center of the plateau. The current shape of this interior wadi is the result of natural erosion but also of considerable exploitation as a stone quarry, as shown by the faces of cuts erected under the edge of the plateau to the west. The site also suffered from earthquakes, recurring since the antiquity, which caused the collapse of the eastern part of the citadel and the south-eastern quarter of the site. The enclosure, entirely cleared by the Yale excavators, is preserved in elevation, except for a few segments of the north and south ramparts.

Palace of the Strategos
The Palace of the Strategos is organized around a central courtyard, 11 x 11.50 m, framed by a corridor on each side. Porticoes with two columns highlight the official rooms: the large vestibule at the entrance to the west and to the south, the reception room. To the north and west, corridors control access to more functional rooms. In a first phase, the courtyard covered a space a little further south with three rooms to the north, the walls of which were subsequently leveled and found in the north corridor laid out in a second phase, when the palace was extended to the north. A new facade was then built projecting onto the southern slope of the inner wadi. This extension resulted in the addition of the U corridor, along the courtyard, and three new rooms at the back of the bossed facade. The oldest floor, found in the northwest room, contained a coin of Antiochos III, which fixes around 200 BC. Dating of the first state could not be attested by the too eroded material; in relative chronology, it is dated to the course of the 3rd century.

Archaeological finds
Among the archaeological finds were astonishingly well-preserved arms and armour belonging to the Roman garrison at the time of the final Sasanian siege of 256 AD, which included painted wooden shields and complete horse armour, preserved by the very finality of the destruction of the city that journalists have called "the Pompeii of the desert". Finds from Dura-Europos are on display in the Deir ez-Zor Museum and the Yale University Art Gallery.

Two sets of horse armor were found at the site. As the historian Lisa Brody wrote, "[t]he discovery singularly transformed historians' understanding of Roman cavalry equipment." These are the only full sets of scale horse armor ever found. Each set of armor was made of nearly 2000 individual overlapping thin, scale-like plates bound together with wire. Such armor was used by Parthians, Sasanians, and later by Roman heavy cavalry. Archaeologist Simon James wrote about the discovery of the scale armor in Tower 19. Since Tower 19 was partially destroyed during a siege, sediment settled on the items inside the tower, which ended up preserving them well, allowing the armor to be incredibly intact.

A painted semi-cylindrical scutum was also found at the site; it is the only one ever found. The shield was found during the excavation campaign of 1928–1937 at Tower 19. The scutum is a rectangular arched shield that measures 105.5 by 41 cm and is made mostly of wood. It was found broken into thirteen pieces. It is made from strips of wood that are 30 to 80 mm wide and 1.5 to 2 mm thick. They are put together in three layers, so that the total thickness of the wood layer is 4.5 to 6 mm. In the center of the shield is a hole that was probably cut in the wood after the board was made; the umbo (central boss) is missing. The back of the shield should be provided with reinforcing strips of wood, but they weren't found. There appears to have been red skin covering the back; it is mentioned in the preliminary report of the excavation that later was lost. The surface of the front was covered with fabric and then with skin or parchment, with a painting on it. There are several decorative ribbons around the central hole. Decorations include an eagle with a laurel wreath, winged Victories, and a lion.

Another important find was that of three painted wooden shields with scenes of the Trojan War as depicted in the Iliad. On Friday, January 18, 1935, Clark Hopkins, field director of excavations, wrote in his notes:

"Just after breakfast, three painted shields were found one right a top of the other.... Herb and I spent all morning removing them. Most of the wood was strong enough to move easily and much of the painting is visible."

Each of the three shields was decorated with a distinct multi-colored scene; one showed the battle between the Greeks and the Amazons; the so-called Homeric Shield showed the tale of the Trojan horse; and a third was decorated with a warrior god. Constructed of multiple thin slats of wood joined along the long edges and painted, the oval shields—all approximately 4 ft high by 3 ft wide—were cleaned in the field after excavation and consolidated with polyvinyl acetate by the expedition artist Herbert Gute. When the shields were brought to Yale University in 1935, conservator George Stout and scientist Rutherford Gettens, from the Harvard University Fogg Art Museum, analyzed them and produced a comprehensive report. Also at that time, Yale School of Forestry professor Samuel Record investigated the wood and identified it as pine. The shields became the subject of close re-examination in 2011. Based on that analysis the painted surface appears to include carbon black; calcium-based whites, including gypsum and chalk; lead white; orpiment; organic red (likely rose madder); vermilion; indigo; and red and yellow iron oxide pigments. As noted by associate conservator Irma Passeri from Yale, the shields are interesting and important examples of painted shields:

"One of the more interesting aspects of the shield — one that relates it to later works such as medieval and renaissance paintings — are the preparatory and paint layers on the piece, in which we see the use of both organic and inorganic materials. It informs us how artists or artisans developed similar technologies and approaches throughout the centuries when creating works of art."

It was also noted by the examiners' team that "the shield has an interesting combination of materials — some that are indigenous to Syria and others that would have been traded."

Recognition

 * In 1999, Dura-Europos was included on the "Tentative List" of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In 2011, was again included on that list, with the nearby ancient city of Mari.
 * The jury of the International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens unanimously decided that their 2010 award, the twenty-first of those annual awards, would go to Dura-Europos.

Looting by ISIS

Between 2011 and 2014, during the Syrian Civil War, Dura-Europos was looted and mostly destroyed by the Islamic State. In 2015, according to satellite imagery, more than 70% of Dura-Europos was destroyed by looters; and National Geographic reported further plundering of the site on a massive scale by the Islamic State in order to fund their hold on the region.

In popular culture
Fire in the East (2008), the first book in the Warrior of Rome series by the Oxford scholar Harry Sidebottom, is centred around a detailed description of the Sassanid siege of Dura-Europos in 256 AD, based on the archeological finds in the site, although the city name was changed to "Arete."

The Parthian (2011) is the first novel in the Parthian Chronicles series by Peter Darman. These chronicles have, as their central fictional character, Pacorus I, King of Dura-Europos (although the royal name Pacorus features prominently during the Parthian Empire), who lived at the same time as the rebel Roman gladiator Spartacus and was part of Spartacus's army before being freed in Italy and then returning home to Parthia, where he became the most feared warrior in the empire.

The first edition of Agatha Christie's Murder in Mesopotamia of 1936 shows on its cover the view from the high escarpment at Dura. Christie, her husband Max Mallowan and Robin Halliday Macartney, who designed the cover, had visited Dura-Europos on 8 November 1934.

title: Dura-Europos


text:
Hudson Motor Car Company

The Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson and other branded automobiles in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., from 1909 until 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator to form American Motors Corporation (AMC). The Hudson name was continued through the 1957 model year, after which it was discontinued.

Company strategy

The name "Hudson" came from Joseph L. Hudson, a Detroit department store entrepreneur and founder of Hudson's department store, who provided the necessary capital and gave permission for the company to be named after him. A total of eight Detroit businessmen formed the company on February 20, 1909, to produce an automobile which would sell for less than US$1,000 (equivalent to approximately $0 in funds).

One of the lead "car men" and an organizer of the company was Roy D. Chapin Sr., a young executive who had worked with Ransom E. Olds. (Chapin's son, Roy Jr., would later be president of Hudson-Nash descendant American Motors Corporation in the 1960s). The company quickly started production, with the first car driven out of a small factory in Detroit on July 3, 1909, at Mack Avenue and Beaufait Street on the East Side of Detroit, occupying the old Aerocar factory.

The new Hudson "Twenty" was one of the first low-priced cars on the American market and became successful with 4,508 sold the first year. This was the best first year's production in the history of the automobile industry and put the newly formed company in 17th place industry-wide, "a remarkable achievement at a time" when there were hundreds of makes being marketed.

Successful sales volume required a larger factory. A new facility was built on a 22 acre parcel at Jefferson Avenue and Conner Avenue in Detroit's Fairview section that was diagonally across from the Chalmers Automobile plant. The land was the former farm of D.J. Campau. It was designed by the firm of renowned industrial architect Albert Kahn with 223,500 square feet and opened on October 29, 1910. Production in 1911 increased to 6,486. For 1914, Hudsons for the American market were now left-hand drive.

Coachbuilder Fisher Body Co. built bodies for Hudson cars (as well as many other automotive marques) until they were bought out by General Motors in 1919. From 1923, Hudson bodies were built exclusively by Massachusetts company Biddle and Smart. The lucrative contract with Hudson would see Biddle and Smart buy up many smaller local coachbuilders to meet the Hudson demand. Peak shipments came in 1926, when the company delivered 41,000 bodies to Hudson. An inability to stamp steel meant that their products were made using aluminum.

On 1 July 1926, Hudson's new US$10 million ($0 in dollars ) body plant was completed where the automaker could now build the all-steel closed bodies for both the Hudson and Essex models. Biddle and Smart continued to build aluminum body versions of the Hudson line and were marketed by Hudson as "custom-built" although they were the same as the steel-body vehicles. With Hudson now building in-house, Biddle and Smart saw their work for Hudson drop by 60%. From 1927 Hudson gradually began to utilize local coachbuilders Briggs Manufacturing Company and Murray Corporation of America to supplement Hudson's production which was expanding domestically and internationally. With car prices falling due to the Great Depression and the costs to transport vehicles from Massachusetts to Detroit becoming too expensive, the contract with Biddle and Smart was terminated in 1930, and Biddle and Smart went out of business shortly thereafter.

At their peak in 1929, Hudson and Essex produced a combined 300,000 cars in one year, including contributions from Hudson's other factories in Belgium and England; a factory had been built in 1925 in Brentford in London. Hudson was the third largest U.S. car maker that year, after Ford Motor Company and Chevrolet.

Hudson had many firsts for the auto industry; these included dual brakes, the use of dashboard oil-pressure and generator warning lights, and the first balanced crankshaft, which allowed the Hudson straight-six engine, dubbed the "Super Six" (1916), to work at a higher rotational speed while remaining smooth, developing more power for its size than lower-speed engines. The Super Six was the first engine built by Hudson, previously Hudson had developed engine designs and then had them manufactured by Continental Motors Company. Most Hudsons until 1957 had straight-6 engines. The dual brake system used a secondary mechanical emergency brake system, which activated the rear brakes when the pedal traveled beyond the normal reach of the primary system; a mechanical parking brake was also used. Hudson transmissions also used an oil bath and cork clutch mechanism that proved to be as durable as it was smooth.

Essex and Terraplane

In 1919, Hudson introduced the Essex brand line of automobiles; the line was originally for budget-minded buyers, designed to compete with Ford and Chevrolet, as opposed to the more up-scale Hudson line competing with Oldsmobile and Studebaker. Local coachbuilder Briggs Manufacturing introduced their first-of-its-kind closed coach body in 1922 for Hudson's Essex. It was the first closed vehicle available at a price close to its open-bodied brethren. The 1922 Essex closed body was priced at only $300 more than the 1922 Essex touring. Within three years, its popularity enabled Hudson to reduce its price so that both the 1925 Essex touring and coach were priced the same. The Essex found great success by offering one of the first affordable sedans, and combined Hudson and Essex sales moved from seventh in the U.S. to third by 1925.

In 1932, Hudson began phasing out its Essex nameplate for the modern Terraplane brand name. The new line was launched on July 21, 1932, with a promotional christening by Amelia Earhart. For 1932 and 1933, the restyled cars were named Essex-Terraplane; from 1934 as Terraplane, until 1938 when the Terraplane was renamed the Hudson 112. Hudson also began assembling cars in Canada, contracting Canada Top and Body to build the cars in their Tilbury, Ontario, plant. In England, Terraplanes built at the Brentford factory were still being advertised in 1938.

An optional accessory on some 1935–1938 Hudson and Terraplane models was a steering column-mounted electric gear pre-selector and electro-mechanical automatic shifting system, known as the "Electric Hand", manufactured by the Bendix Corporation. This took the place of the floor-mounted shift lever, but required conventional clutch actions. Cars equipped with the feature also carried a conventional shift lever in clips under the dash, which could be pulled out and put to use in case the Electric Hand should ever fail. Hudson was also noted for offering an optional vacuum-powered automatic clutch, starting in the early 1930s.

Hudson Eight
For the 1930 model year, Hudson debuted a new flathead inline eight cylinder engine with block and crankcase cast as a unit and fitted with two cylinder heads. A 2.75-inch bore and 4.5-inch stroke displaced 218.8 CID developing 80 hp at 3,600 rpm with the standard 5.78:1 compression ratio. The five main bearing crankshaft had eight integral counterweights, an industry first, and also employed a Lanchester vibration damper. Four rubber blocks were used at engine mount points. A valveless oil pump improved the Hudson splash lubrication system.

The new eights were the only engine offering in the Hudson line, supplanting the Super Six, which continued in the Essex models.

At the 1931 Indianapolis 500, Buddy Marr's #27 Hudson Special (using a Winfield carburetor) finished the 200 laps in tenth place.

1936–1942

In 1936, Hudson revamped its cars, introducing a new "radial safety control" / "rhythmic ride" suspension which suspended the live front axle from two steel bars, as well as from leaf springs. Doing this allowed the use of longer, softer leaf springs ("rhythmic ride"), and prevented bumps and braking from moving the car off course. The 1936 Hudsons were also considerably larger inside than competitive cars — Hudson claimed a 145 cuft interior, comparing it to the 121 cuft in the "largest of other popular cars" of the time. With an optional bulging trunk lid, Hudson claimed the trunk could accommodate 21 cuft of luggage. The 1936 engines were powerful for the time, from 93 to 124 hp.

The 1939 models joined other American cars in the use of a column-mounted gearshift lever. This freed front-seat passenger space and remained the industry standard through the 1960s, when "bucket seats" came into vogue. Hudson became the first car manufacturer to use foam rubber in its seats. The Hudson Terraplane was dropped. For the 1940 models, Hudson introduced coil spring independent front suspension, aircraft-style shock absorbers mounted within the front springs, and true center-point steering on all its models, a major advance in performance among cars in this price range. The Super Six model was reintroduced as well. Despite all these changes, Hudson's sales for 1940 were lower than in 1939 and the company lost money again. The advent of military contracts the following year brought relief.

The 1941 Hudsons retained the front-end styling of the 1940 models but the bodies were new with 5.5 inches added to their length giving more legroom. A new manual 3-speed synchromesh transmission was quieter with all helical gears. Wheelbases increased by 3 inches, with offerings of 116, 121, and 128 inches, and height was decreased with flatter roofs. Convertibles now had a power-operated top. Big Boy trucks now used the 128-inch wheelbase. In 1942, as a response to General Motors' Hydramatic automatic transmission, Hudson introduced its "Drive-Master" system. Drive-Master was a more sophisticated combination of the concepts used in the Electric Hand and the automatic clutch. It contained a vacuum-powered module on the transmission to switch between second and third gear and a vacuum-powered module to pull the clutch in and out. At the touch of a button, Drive-Master offered the driver a choice of three modes of operation: ordinary, manual shifting and clutching; manual shifting with automatic clutching; and automatic shifting with automatic clutching. All this was accomplished by a large and complicated mechanism located under the hood. They worked well, and in fully automatic mode served as a good semi-automatic transmission. When coupled with an automatic overdrive, Drive-Master became known as Super-Matic. Re-engineering of the frame rear end to use lower springs reduced car height by 1.5 in. Sheet metal "spats" on the lower body now covered the running boards and new wider front and rear fenders accommodated this.

Female designer
As the role of women increased in car-purchase decisions, automakers began to hire female designers. Hudson, wanting a female perspective on automotive design, hired Elizabeth Ann Thatcher in 1939, one of America's first female automotive designers. Her contributions to the 1941 Hudson included exterior trim with side lighting, interior instrument panel, interiors and interior trim fabrics. She designed for Hudson from 1939 into 1941, leaving the company when she married Joe Oros, then a designer for Cadillac. He later became head of the design team at Ford that created the Mustang.

World War II

As ordered by the Federal government, Hudson ceased auto production from 1942 until 1945 to manufacture material during World War II, including aircraft parts and naval engines as well as anti-aircraft guns. The Hudson "Invader" engine powered many of the landing craft used on the D-Day invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944.

During World War II Hudson had also an aircraft division that produced ailerons for one large eastern airplane builder. The plant was capable of large scale production of wings and ailerons as well as other airplane parts. On May 22, 1941, Hudson was given a contract for the Oerlikon 20 mm cannon with the Jefferson Avenue Plant, on Jefferson Avenue and Connor Avenue, responsible for converting the original Swiss drawings to American production standards. The company produced 33,201 Oerlikons for the United States Navy with the original mechanism continued in use without major change and with complete interchangeability of parts until the end of the war. Hudson also manufactured millions of other weaponry and vehicle parts for the war effort. Hudson ranked 83rd among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.

Fisher takeover attempt
The Fisher Body Company, later the Fisher Body Division of GM, manufactured bodies for many automobile marques throughout the early 20th Century. From 1926 the business had become part of General Motors. Just before World War II, the Fisher brothers contemplated a takeover of Hudson and commissioned engineer Roscoe C. (Rod) Hoffman, from Detroit, to design and build several rear-engine prototype vehicles for possible eventual production as Hudsons. One prototype was built in secret in 1935.

World War II forced the brothers to shelve their plans while the company shifted its focus to the war effort. When brothers Fred and Charles retired from GM in 1944 they revived the Hudson takeover idea with the view of establishing new, independent automobile manufacturing operations. The brothers contacted Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Hudson's main stockholder, offering to buy. Using an intermediary, Queen Wilhelmina expressed her interest in selling, prompting the Fisher brothers to begin devoting time to Hudson and their plant in anticipation of a deal. When news of these events reached Wall Street, the price of Hudson stock skyrocketed with the consensus by investors that a Fisher takeover would be the best thing for Hudson. However, the Fisher brothers tender offer fell short of Hudson's sudden increased market value and the deal did not go through.

1946–1954

Production resumed after the war and included a 128 in wheelbase three-quarter-ton pickup truck.

In 1948, the company launched its "step-down" bodies, which lasted through the 1954 model year. The term step-down referred to Hudson's placement of the passenger compartment down inside the perimeter of the frame; riders stepped down onto a floor that was surrounded by the perimeter of the car's frame. The result was not only a safer car, and greater passenger comfort as well, but, through a lower center of gravity, a good handling car. In time almost all U.S. automakers would embrace it as a means of building bodies. Automotive author Richard Langworth described the step-down models as the greatest autos of the era in articles for Consumer Guide and Collectible Automobile.

For the 1951 model year, the 6-cylinder engine received a new block with thicker walls and other improvements to boost horsepower by almost 18% and torque by 28.5% making Hudson a hot performer again. The GM-supplied 4-speed Hydramatic automatic transmission was now optional in Hornets and Commodore Custom 6s and 8s.

Hudson's strong, light-weight bodies, combined with its high-torque inline six-cylinder engine technology, made the company's 1951–54 Hornet an auto racing champion, dominating NASCAR in 1951, 1952, 1953, and 1954.

Herb Thomas won the 1951 and 1954 Southern 500s and Dick Rathmann won in 1952. Some NASCAR records set by Hudson in the 1950s (e.g. consecutive wins in one racing season) still stand even today. Hudson cars also did very well in races sanctioned by the AAA Contest Board from 1952 until 1954 with Marshall Teague winning the 1952 AAA Stock Car Championship and Frank Mundy in 1953. Often Hudsons finished in most of the top positions in races. Later, these cars met with some success in drag racing, where their high power-to-weight ratio worked to their advantage. Hudsons enjoyed success both in NHRA trials and local dirt track events.

As the post-war marketplace shifted from a seller's to a buyer's market the smaller U.S. automakers, such as Hudson and Nash, found it increasingly difficult to compete with the Big Three (Ford, GM and Chrysler) during the 1950s. A sales war between Ford and General Motors conducted during 1953 and 1954 had left little business for the much smaller "independent" automakers trying to compete against the standard models offered by the domestic Big Three. The Big Three could afford constant development and styling changes, so that their cars looked fresh every year, whereas the smaller manufacturers could only afford gradual changes. Hudson's once-innovative "step-down" unit-body construction, while sturdy and innovative, also made restyling difficult and expensive. Although Hudsons dominated racing during this period, their feats did little to affect showroom traffic despite incorporating their NASCAR success into a marketing campaign known as "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday". Sales fell each year from 1951 until 1954, and only Korean War military contracts kept the company solvent. On March 20, 1954, the Hudson Motor Car Company reported a loss of $10,411,060 in 1953 as compared with a profit of $8,307,847 in 1952.

After the company's high-priced Jet compact car line failed to capture buyers in its second straight year, Hudson CEO A.E. Barit engaged with George W. Mason, CEO of Nash-Kelvinator (makers of Nash and Rambler) to discuss the possibility of a merger with Nash. Mason already had the vision of merging the four independent automakers (Nash, Hudson, Packard, and Studebaker) into one company to compete with the Big Three, having floated the idea as early as 1946 with Packard to no avail. Mason had previously discussed the idea with Barit in 1952. On 14 January 1954 an agreement was reached and Nash and Hudson executives took the first steps to bring the two companies together.

1954 – Merger with Nash-Kelvinator
On May 1, 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator to become American Motors Corporation. George W. Mason became CEO and president of AMC while Hudson's president, A.E. Barit retired to become an AMC board member.

The Hudson factory, located in Detroit, Michigan, was converted to military contract production at the end of the model year, and the remaining three years of Hudson production took place at the Nash plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin building rebadged Nash cars with the Hudson brand name. Nash would focus most of its marketing resources on its smaller Rambler models, and Hudson would focus its marketing efforts on its full-sized cars. The first Hudson model to terminate production was the Jet. The new company could then focus on the more successful Nash Rambler. Henceforth, Hudson dealers would have badge-engineered versions of the Nash Rambler and Metropolitan compacts to sell as Hudson products.

One of the first things Mason did as CEO of the new company was to initiate talks with James J. Nance, president of Packard, for parts-sharing arrangements between AMC and Packard. At this time AMC did not have its own V8 engine and an agreement was made for the new 320 CID Packard V8 engine and Packard's Ultramatic automatic transmission to be used in the 1955 Nash Ambassador and Hudson Hornet models.

In July 1954, Packard acquired Studebaker to form Studebaker-Packard Corporation. However further talks of a merger between AMC and Studebaker-Packard were cut short when Mason died on October 8, 1954. A week after his death, Mason's successor, George W. Romney, announced "There are no mergers under way either directly or indirectly". Nevertheless, Romney continued with Mason's commitment to buy components from Studebaker-Packard Corporation. Although Mason and Nance had previously agreed that Studebaker-Packard would purchase parts from AMC, it did not do so. Moreover, Packard's engines and transmissions were comparatively expensive, so AMC began development of its own V8 engine, and replaced the outsourced unit by mid-1956.

1955–1957

For 1955, both Hudson and Nash senior models were built on a common automobile platform using styling themes by Pinin Farina, Edmund E. Anderson, and Frank Spring. Common-body shell production for competing makes of automobiles was a manufacturing technique that had been used by the Big Three for decades. Anderson set up separate design studios for Nash, Hudson, and Rambler.

Although the 1955 Hudson used the inner body shell of the Nash, the car incorporated a front cowl originally designed by Spring and the Hudson team to be put on the 1954 Step-Down platform. The 1955 models also used the Hudson dashboard, "triple safe brakes" and the Nash Weather Eye heater with Harrison Radiator Corporation-supplied lower cost Freon/compressor type air conditioning.

For the first time, Hudson offered a V8 engine starting for the 1955 model year. It was the Packard-designed and -built 320 CID engine rated at 208 hp. All cars with the Packard V8 also came with Packard's Ultramatic automatic transmission as an option for $494 with the Nash 3-speed manual was also available at $295.

Hudson dealers also sold Rambler and Metropolitan models under the Hudson brand. A total of 4,357 Metropolitans were sold as "Hudson." When sold by Hudson dealers, both cars were identified as Hudson vehicles via hood/grille emblems and horn buttons. Hudson Ramblers also received "H" symbols on fuel filler caps (and, in 1956, also on hubcaps).

In 1956, ex-Hudson president A.E Barit resigned from the Board in protest over the likelihood that Hudson would be phased out of production.

For 1956, the design of the senior Hudsons was given over to designer Richard Arbib, which resulted in the "V-Line" styling motif, a combination of "V" motifs that carried Hudson's triangular corporate logo theme. Sales fell below the 1955 figures.

With a wider front track than Nash used, Hudson was the better handling car and was powered by the famed 308 CID Hornet Six with the optional high-compression cylinder head and dual-carburetor manifold ("Twin-H Power"); the Twin H would disappear at the end of the 1956 model year.

The Wasp used the 202 CID L-head Jet Six engine (up to 130 hp) and this model (in sedan version) was Hudson's top seller. For 1957, Hudson dropped the shorter-wheelbase Wasp line, selling only the Hornet Custom and Super, which featured a lowered profile and slightly updated styling.

George W. Romney felt that Hudson and Nash were no longer relevant players in the automotive market and retired both names at the end of the 1957 model year production. Both Rambler and Metropolitan became makes in their own right, and no longer were identified as Hudson or Nash.

End of the line
The last Hudson rolled off the Kenosha assembly line on June 25, 1957, although at that time there were proposals of continuing the Hudson and Nash names into the 1958 model year on the Rambler chassis as deluxe, longer-wheelbase senior models. The combined Nash and Hudson production volume was insufficient to justify all-new design and tooling; therefore, the Rambler's platform was expected to be adopted by the longer cars. One major trade magazine said rumors of discontinuance were false and the 1958 Hudsons and Nashes "would be big and smart". Factory styling photographs show designs for a 1958 Hudson (and Nash) line based on a longer-wheelbase 1958 Rambler. Front-end prototype photos show separate Hudson and Nash styling themes.

American Motors' president, George W. Romney, concluded that the only way to compete with the "Big Three" was to stake the future of AMC on a new smaller-sized car line. Neither Hudson nor Nash brand names had as much positive market recognition as the successful Rambler and their sales were lagging. Together with AMC's chief engineer Meade Moore, Romney had completely phased out the Nash and Hudson brands at the end of 1957. The decision to retire the brands came so quickly that preproduction photographs of the eventual 1958 Rambler Ambassador show both Nash- and Hudson-badged versions. The Rambler brand was selected for further development and promotion while focusing exclusively on compact cars.

Eventually, however, something close to the Hudson design was chosen for the 1958 Rambler Ambassador. Hudson brand enthusiasts will note the triangular grille guard and 1957-like fender "gun sights" and the fast-selling 1958 Rambler Customs wore 1957 Hudson-styled front-fender trim.

International markets
Hudson, Essex, and Terraplane vehicles were either exported as complete cars or locally built from knock-down kits in many countries making the Hudson marque well-known internationally as well as domestically. In its 1929 report, the banking house Garden Detroit Company reported that in 1928 Hudson shipped 50,587 vehicles overseas, or 17.9% of total production. By March 1929 Hudson had topped all previous production figures having exported 44,295 cars in March alone, bringing the total of shipments for the first quarter of 1929 to an all-time high of 108,298.

Australia

Hudson vehicles were imported into Australia in 1913 by Brisbane company McGhie Motor Company.

In 1915 the Sydney branch of Dalgety & Co. Ltd became the distributor of Hudson and Essex vehicles for New South Wales. The company was also the agent for Wolseley, Daimler, and Buick passenger vehicles as well as Lacre and Halley commercial vehicles. Motor bodies were produced by Messrs Henderson, Boulton, and Kirkham in Regent Street, Sydney. The company also did trimming, fitting, painting, mechanical work, and repairs.

Established in 1922, Sydney company Smith & Waddington set up motor vehicle body building operations for NSW and Queensland at premises on Parramatta Road, Camperdown. The company built "custom" car bodies which, by the terminology of the day, meant "built to an individual order and to a special design." In addition to assembling Hudson and Essex for Dalgety, the company also built vehicle bodies for Rolls-Royce, Wolseley, Dort, Benz, Fiat, and Turkat Méry. After a slump in the economy which caused operations to cease in November 1927, Smith & Waddington resumed production in June 1928, again building Hudson and Essex vehicles for NSW and Queensland, and further adding Dodge, Chrysler, Erskine, and Studebaker for the whole of Australia. Additionally, Sydney coach builder G.H Olding & Sons are known to have built 6 Terraplane phaetons for Dalgety in 1934.

In 1926 a new company, Leader Motors Limited was formed to be the exclusive distributor of Hudson and Essex motor vehicles in Queensland. The bodies were made by South Australian company Holden's Motor Body Builders in Brisbane. In its main facility of Adelaide, Holden also made motor bodies for Austin, Buick, Chevrolet, Cleveland, Dodge, Fiat, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Overland, Reo, Studebaker, and Willys Knight.

Hudson and Essex assembly began in Victoria by Neal's Motors of Port Melbourne in 1927. The contract to build the bodies was initially given to TJ Richards & Sons of Keswick, Adelaide to supply for Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania as well as acting as a second source of supply for New South Wales and Queensland. Holden's Motor Body Builders also built bodies. Holden's records show that for 1927 the Adelaide plant built 1,641 Essex vehicles and 8 Hudsons, and for 1928 a total of 1,931 Essex vehicles and 59 Hudsons were assembled. Holden's final year for Hudson and Essex production was in 1928, and in 1931 the company was bought out by General Motors.

In February 1934 Ruskins Body Works of West Melbourne secured the contract to build Hudson and Terraplane bodies for the whole of Australia. In June 1937, Neal's Motors celebrated assembling its 30,000th automobile: a 1937 Hudson Terraplane.

In 1939 Dalgety sold their automotive business to agent for Packard motor vehicles, Ira L. & A.C Berk in Sydney, which thereafter became the distributors for Hudson in NSW and QLD. The company opened a manufacturing plant in Belmore, Sydney in February 1949.

After the end of World War II, Australia legislated to restrict the use of U.S. dollars which were in desperately short supply. The use of U.S. dollars to import cars thereafter required a government permit restricting the purchase of American cars only to those with access to U.S. funds held overseas such as consular staff and visiting entertainers. Despite this, Australian distributors of Hudson, Nash, Packard, and Studebaker were able to bring in limited numbers of US-built, factory right-hand-drive vehicles from 1946.

A report by Dunlop Australia about Australian car sales from 1932 until 1949 noted that Hudson vehicles (including Essex and Terraplane) totaled 10,424 units during the 17-years, coming in at 13th place overall. It was noted in the report generally that all marques in Australia experienced the greatest number of sales before World War II.

In 1960, six years after the merger of Hudson and Nash-Kelvinator to form American Motors Corporation, Australian Motor Industries (AMI) of Port Melbourne would form an agreement with AMC to assemble Ramblers in Australia.

Canada
Canadian assembly of Hudson vehicles commenced in 1932 by Hudson Motors of Canada in Tilbury, Ontario. The factory building was owned by Canadian Top & Body Co. which built the motor bodies for the vehicles. The first models assembled were a series of Hudson Eights. World War II interrupted operations and production ceased in 1941. Post-war operations resumed in 1950, with Hudsons being assembled by Chatco Steel Products in Tilbury, Ontario. Operations ceased in 1954 following the Nash-Hudson merger that led to the formation of American Motors Corporation. Toronto-based Nash Motors of Canada Ltd. became American Motors (Canada) Ltd. and all subsequent AMC operations continued in Toronto until its closure in 1957. Local production of Ramblers resumed after AMC's Brampton, Ontario plant opened in December 1960.

Germany
Hudson and Essex vehicles were assembled in Berlin, Germany, during the 1920s by Hudson Essex Motors Company m.b.H Berlin-Spandau. The cars were built with the speedometer in kilometers, while the fuel, oil, and temperature gauges remained in their original non-metric units.

New Zealand

Hudson and Essex vehicles were imported into North Island by Dominion Motors of Wellington which began operations in 1912. Dominion Motors amalgamated with Universal Motor Company of Christchurch in 1919 forming an assembly operation for Hudson and Essex as well as Oldsmobile, Crossley, Chevrolet, Stutz, Rolls-Royce, and (pre-GM) Vauxhall. Vehicles were assembled and finished in-house from partial knock-down kits.

For South Island, Hudson and Essex vehicles were imported by W.G. Vining Limited of Nelson, beginning in 1912. Vining had built a 31500 sqft garage in 1908 which was the largest garage in New Zealand at the time. A car assembly plant was established at the premises and shortly thereafter Vinings obtained licenses to import and assemble Cadillac, Maxwell, Haynes, and Ford vehicles from the United States; Bean cars from the United Kingdom; and Darracq and Unic vehicles from France. Along with Hudson and Essex, the plant later assembled Chevrolet and Rover vehicles. The business ceased when it was sold on 30 September 1927 upon W.G. Vining's retirement. Vining's son formed a new business, P. Vining & Scott, and continued the Hudson and Essex franchise, adding Morris in 1932.

New Zealand car sales for the first nine months of 1927 saw Essex in third place with 898 vehicles sold, behind Chevrolet in second place with 1,100 vehicles sold, and Ford in first place with 1651 vehicles sold. Hudson made 12th place with 206 sales.

From 1935, Hudson vehicles (along with Nash, Studebaker, and Standard) were assembled by Christchurch company Motor Assemblies Limited. Production ended when the company was acquired by Standard-Triumph International in 1954. Hudson production then went to Motor Holdings Ltd which had been founded in 1936 as the Zealand franchise of Jowett Motors. After Jowett's closure in the United Kingdom in 1954, Motor Holdings won the Volkswagen franchise, and its Auckland operation was renamed VW Motors for the production of VWs in New Zealand. VW Motors assembled Hudsons as a secondary line. Some were fully imported as special orders.

After the Hudson and Nash marques were discontinued by American Motors Corporation, VW Motors assembled AMC's new Rambler motor vehicles at its new Otahuhu Volkswagen plant from 1958 until 1962. AMC formed an agreement in 1963 with Campbell Motor Industries (CMI) of Thames to assemble Ramblers, production of which ran from 1964 until 1971.

South Africa
Beginning in the 1920s, Hudson and Willys motor vehicles were assembled in South Africa from right-hand-drive complete knock-down (CKD) kits sourced from Canada by Stanley Motors at their plant, National Motor Assemblers (NMA), in Natalspruit (Gauteng). After World War II, NMA built Austin, Standard, and Triumph vehicles at different times.

After the formation of American Motors Corporation in 1954, NMA continued to assemble AMC Ramblers until 1967.

United Kingdom
Hudsons were introduced to the United Kingdom in 1911. No shipments were possible during the First World War but as soon as the Armistice was signed exports resumed to the U.K. Hudsons and Essex vehicles were sold through ten concessionaires.

In 1922 Hudson-Essex Motors of Great Britain Limited was formed, with new premises on Dordrecht Road, in Acton Vale. Over 100 agents were appointed to sell the vehicles resulting in 2,000 sales in the next 12 months.

In 1926 a factory was built on a 4.5 acre property next to the recently opened Great West Road in Brentford. The plant opened in 1927 and a year later a three-story building was built as a service department for Hudson and Essex vehicles. The factory assembled the vehicle chassis locally, but the bodies were imported as complete units from Detroit.

From 1932, the bodies came over from the United States in sections to be assembled at the Great West Road factory. After the Essex marque was retired in 1932 the British company was renamed Hudson Motors Ltd.

Hudson's new Terraplane model was equally as popular in the U.K. as it was in the United States. English-designed and built bodies were built on the Terraplane frames and the cars were entered in many automobile races including the Monte Carlo Rally. Some of the cars entered were driven by personnel from the Great West Road factory. A Hudson Pacemaker won first place in the 1931 Scottish Rally and another Pacemaker took 7th place in the 1932 Torquay Rally. The Team Award was won by two Terraplane tourers and a Terraplane saloon in the 1933 Scottish Rally.

A triangular site from the railway was developed in 1926 for a new Hudson-Essex factory. This was the first major industrial facility and became a major employer along the Great West Road. Other firms followed to establish what became known as the "Golden Mile." The Chiswick Roundabout (the junction of Chiswick High Road, North Circular Road, South Circular Road, and the A4 Great West Road) also became known as "Hudson's Corner." After World War II, the property was used by the Kelvinator Refrigerator Company.

After the Hudson and Nash merger, the British company became a subsidiary of American Motors Corporation and was renamed Rambler Motors (A.M.C.) Limited in 1961, taking over from Nash Concessionaires Ltd. as the importer of AMC's new Rambler vehicles. The company imported AMC vehicles, many in factory right-hand-drive, well into the 1970s.

Legacy
For the 1970 model year, American Motors revived the "Hornet" model name for its new series of compact cars (the AMC Hornet). AMC was later purchased by Chrysler, which at one time considered reintroducing the Hornet name in the Dodge model line and ultimately did so for the 2023 model year with a car based on the Alfa Romeo Tonale.

The last Hudson dealership was Miller Motors in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which is now part of the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum.

The Hostetler Hudson Auto Museum in Shipshewana, Indiana, featured a collection of restored Hudsons. Eldon Hostetler was an inventor who owned a Hudson as a teenager and later purchased Hudson cars and restored them. The museum closed in 2018 after the Hudson Automobile Museum Board voted in favor of closing the museum and liquidating the collection.

A restored Hudson Dealership sign still occupies its original site on Highway 32 in Chico, California.

The 2006 film, Disney/Pixar's Cars, features a character named Doc Hudson, represented as a 1951 Hudson Hornet.

The 2011 racing video game Forza Motorsport 4 and 2018 racing video game Forza Horizon 4 features a 1952 Hudson Hornet.

The Hermes, a recurring car model featured in Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto video game series, is based on the 1951 Hudson Hornet and 1947 Hudson Super Six.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Hudson Motor Car Company


text:
Dart Flipcards

Dart Flipcards Inc. is a Canadian company based in St. Laurent, Quebec. The company is known for marketing mini lunch boxes and trading cards based on licensed properties. The lunch boxes were filled with chewing gum and were assembled in Canada from Chinese-made tins. Dart Flipcards Inc. currently specializes in outsourcing and offshoring consultancy.

Music
Aaron Carter, KISS, Ozzy Osbourne

Television
The Brady Bunch, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Hamtaro, The Osbournes, The Outer Limits, Pokémon, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Smallville, South Park, Stargate SG-1, Survivor, Witchblade

Film
Army of Darkness, Rocky

Sports
National Hockey League

Other
Baby Huey, Casper & Wendy, Felix the Cat, Hot Stuff the Little Devil, Mighty Mouse, Pink Panther, Richie Rich, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Little Rascals, The Three Stooges

Trading cards
The company also published trading cards. Each set consisted of approximately 72-100 cards and were typically based on licensed properties.
 * A Vietnam War fact card set in 1988
 * A FernGully: The Last Rainforest set in 1992
 * A Pepsi-Cola set in 1994
 * A Hershey's Chocolate set in 1995
 * A Battlestar Galactica set in 1996
 * A Smokey Bear set in 1996
 * A Titanic set in 1998
 * A Sailor Moon set in 2000
 * A Shrek set in 2001
 * A Crocodile Hunter set in 2002

title: Dart Flipcards


text:
There's Something About Miriam

There's Something About Miriam is a British reality television series broadcast by Sky1. The six-episode series premiered on 22 February 2004 and concluded on 24 March 2004. Set in Ibiza, Spain, the series depicted six men in competition for a £10,000 reward over who could make the best impression on 21-year-old Mexican model Miriam Rivera. The men were required to compete in various physical challenges in addition to going on individual and group dates with Rivera. In the final episode, Rivera selected the one contestant who left the best impression on her; upon selection, Rivera revealed to the contestants that she was a transgender woman who had not yet undergone gender-affirming surgery. The series was hosted by Welsh television presenter Tim Vincent.

The series aired on Fox Reality Channel in 2007.

Production and filming
Remy Blumenfeld first saw Rivera participating in a girl band, after which he planned to cast her in a TV show. The show was produced by the Brighter Pictures subsidiary of Endemol and was originally titled Find Me a Man. Recruitment ads for contestants promised "the adventure of a lifetime" with a £10,000 prize for men aged 20 to 35 who "want it all" and are "fit and up for everything." The contestants on the show were:

 * Mark Dimino, 24, optician
 * Toby Green, 23, student
 * Aron Lane, 22, chef
 * Tom Rooke, 23, lifeguard and ex-ski instructor
 * Scott Gibson, 22, martial arts expert
 * Dominic Conway, 28, Royal Marine

Brighter Pictures managing director Gavin Hay said "they had made a point of never referring to Miriam as a woman when getting the men to take part."

Rivera said "Several of them wondered about me in the first few days. But as the series unfolded, I really thought that we got to like and know each other as friends and had a lot of fun." In response to allegations that she revealed her big secret by lifting up her skirt she was quoted as saying "I would never lift my skirt up on national TV. My mother brought me up very well." On the version that aired, Rivera chose Rooke as the winner and then said in front of the assembled contestants:

"I tried to be honest with all of you, not just some of you. Yes, I am from Mexico, I am a model, and I'm 21. But Tom, I really love spending time with you and kissing you. You see, I love men, and I love being a woman. But... shh, quiet everybody, please, quiet. But you see, Tom... I am not a woman. I was born as a man."

Miriam's childhood friend suspects this quote was scripted.

Rooke initially accepted the prize money and the trip with Rivera on camera. Rooke later rejected the prize prior to airing and joined the other contestants in a lawsuit that sought to prevent the airing of the show.

Litigation and release
Following the completion of the show, it was scheduled to air in November 2003, but a lawsuit by the contestants delayed the airing. They alleged conspiracy to commit sexual assault, defamation, breach of contract, and personal injury in the form of psychological and emotional damage.

After the men settled for an undisclosed amount, the show premiered 22 February, and the sixth and final episode aired 24 March 2004.

The show was aired in Australia by Network Ten in May 2004, in Poland by TVN in January 2005, and in Argentina in 2005 on América TV. The show was picked up by Fox Reality for airing in the United States in April 2006, and was aired in October 2007.

Reception
Responses from critics were generally unfavourable, calling it part of a trend in shows that exploit unwitting contestants. A British reviewer noted "The whole premise of There's Something About Miriam was not a celebration of transgender people's lives. It was designed to elicit horror from the winning contestant discovering that his dream date had a penis." The show was also criticized by transgender groups, who feared a backlash of public opinion. When the show aired in Australia, reviews were critical of both the premise and Rivera:

"These guys were duped in more ways than one – while Miriam has a few unexpected bits in her package, she's notably deficient in others. It has become clear Miriam requires a personality implant. It must've been a challenge to find a transsexual pretty enough, mean enough and sufficiently attention-seeking to play this tawdry game, but what these producers found in Miriam is a sultry-looking dill prone to the cheesiest of clichés."

Other British commentators contrasted Rivera with the positive response to Nadia Almada, a Portuguese-born transgender woman who won Big Brother UK a few months later. That show was also produced by Endemol.

However, the show garnered high ratings in the final episode (970,000 viewers—large viewership for Sky One), and Rivera went on to become a guest on Big Brother Australia 2004.

There's Something About Miriam was featured on the 2005 clip show "40 Greatest Pranks" on VH1 and was ranked #11 on the 20 to One episode "Hoaxes, Cheats and Liars".

When the show aired in the United States on the 2007 Transgender Day of Remembrance, trans author Julia Serano noted "Programs like There's Something About Miriam not only reinforce the stereotype that trans people's birth sex is 'real' and our identified/lived sex is 'fake,' but they perpetuate the myth of deception and thus enable violence against us."

Video artist Phil Collins featured contestant Mark Dimino in an installation on "people who believe their lives have been ruined by appearing on reality TV."

In popular culture
In 2021 Wondery published an investigative podcast series, Harsh Reality: The Story of Miriam Rivera, into Rivera's life and her appearance on the show.  In June 2022, a similar three-part documentary series, called Miriam: Death of a Reality Star, was commissioned by Expectation Entertainment for Channel 4.

title: There's Something About Miriam