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The question of possible links with Hellenistic court life arises with another funerary inscription in mosaic, found in the northern cemetery of Edessa and part of the so-called Abgar mosaic (Am 10), which decorated the family tomb of a local notable, a certain Barsimya. This mosaic includes Barsimya’s portrait together with individual portraits of his grandfather, mother, brother, and son, but also, and most importantly, a prominent portrait of the king of Edessa, Abgar VIII (176–211), who occupies the central portion of the composition and is addressed as “my Lord and benefactor” in the inscription. Here, both iconography and text express the strong allegiance of Barsimya to the king, and there is a possibility that the Syriac terminology should be understood as a calque of the Greek euergetēs (Healey 2009: 243–245).

Several other inscribed mosaics from Osrhoene survive (mostly dating back to the second and third centuries CE) that similarly portray the deceased together with family members. Am 2, Am 3, and the Gadya family mosaic (Önal 2017: 132–134) represent 6, 13, and 4 individual portraits respectively; here, each person is represented individually, enclosed by a quadrangular frame, and is identified by Syriac labels. Conversely, other funerary family mosaics represent the figures standing as in a family portrait (Am 4, Am 5, Am 11, Cm 14), or, in one case, as an entire family taking part in a funerary banquet (Am 8). In this last mosaic, the deceased is depicted reclining on a couch, surrounded by his wife and members of his family; other inscribed scenes of funerary banquets survive also in stone (As 16/17, As 12, As 14; Drijvers 1977: 899 about possible links with the iconography in Palmyra). Conversely, a trace of rather more earthly banquets is represented by the fine silver jug that was found in a private house in Dura-Europos, inscribed, in Syriac, with the name of the owner and the weight of the silver (Bo 1): its decorative motifs, enriched by bunches of grapes and satyrs’ masks, indicate that the vessel was used to pour wine and likely attests to the adoption of the practice of the symposium among Syriac speakers (Baur et al. 1933: 178–181, 229–231, pl.XII). Other funerary inscriptions in stone (rather than in mosaic) include portraits of the deceased in relief, following a custom that might be compared with practices in Palmyra and Zeugma (As 6, As 26, As 40, As 43 possibly representing three women, As 50, As 60; ssss1); another link to burial practices in Palmyra comes from the remains of a tower-tomb south of Edessa, which is inscribed in Greek and Syriac and perhaps belonged to a member of the Edessene royal family (As 62; Healey 2017: 8–9).