A wall painting of a woman at the well, perhaps the earliest known representation of the Virgin Mary, is from the baptistery of the Christian building. It is painted on plaster, 3rd century AD.  Dura-Europos was the easternmost Roman stronghold in Mesopotamia, located in what is now Syria. The Romans, led by Lucius Verus, took control of the city from the Parthians in AD 164, and it stayed under Roman rule until the Sasanians, led by Shapur I, captured it and deported the population around