Nabataeans of Petra

The Nabataeans of Petra:

At the Crossroads of Civilization

In the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the adventure-bound

archaeologist goes on a quest to find his missing father who is in pursuit of the Holy

Grail. It is rumored to be housed in the “Holy Temple,” a great earthen structure carved

out of gigantic red rocks. Modern historians and archaeologists have come to recognize

this familiar petroglyphic monument as part of the vast ancient city of Petra. Located in

the southern part of the present Middle Eastern state of Jordan, Petra is nestled in the

mountains between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea). For over 2,000 years

it has stood as a timeless monument to a prolific people, the Nabataeans, and their

dynamic civilization. The Nabataeans’ cultural, social, political, and economic legacy

remains forever enshrined in the red rocks of Petra— πέτρα, Greek for “rock”—and in

the vast assortment of burial sites and permanent structures that remain to this day,

suggesting their genius as a people and a cornucopia of cultural influences.

A Brief History of the Nabataeans

Historians believe that the Nabataeans inhabited Petra, a land once held by the

Edomites (1200 B.C.), beginning around the fourth century B.C. A nomadic people, they

are said to have gradually migrated from western Arabia, forcing the Edomites to migrate

north toward Damascus and southward to Palestine (Touregypt.net 2005). Having

migrated from Arabia, they are considered to be Arab culturally; however, they used

Aramaic1 in correspondence, leading to the supposition that they might have emigrated

from Mesopotamia (Robinson 1930). The sandstone carvings of the city of Petra date

back to the first century B.C. and continue through the sixth century A.D. (Joukowsky

2002). A Nabataean history, authored by the people themselves, has yet to be discovered.

Most of what we know historically about the Nabataeans comes from the time of

Greco-Roman influence (200 B.C. to A.D. 300) via Roman historians Diodorus Siculus,

Josephus Flavius, and Strabo, a prominent historian at Alexandria (Robinson 1930).

Josephus’ account in the Jewish Antiquities (books XII, 334–37, and XII, 10–11)

describes how the Nabataeans were a peaceable people and friendly toward neighboring

Jewish tribes constantly at war with each other: “Jonathan, in fact, knowing that

1 Arabic, as Robinson notes (1930), was not an organized language until well into the time of Nabataean cultural dominance. It is interesting to note, however, how different historians account for their ethnicity and cultural ties—from “Arab,” as Roman historian Josephus describes them, to “Aramaic-speaking Semites,” as found in other sources (en.wikipedia.org).

The Nabataeans of Petra 2

Bacchides was coming against him, sends his brother, John,…to the Nabataean Arabs, in

order that he might leave his equipment until they should fight against Bacchides; for

they were friends [of the Jews].”2

Brushes with powerful neighbors were often diverted due to political infighting,

leaving Petra relatively unscathed for centuries. It was not until the expansion of the

Roman Empire that Petra lost its political autonomy (Tour Egypt 2005). In A.D. 106

Petra was incorporated into Arabia Petraea, a province under Trajan, after many

unsuccessful military campaigns by Roman generals to commandeer the Nabataean lands

and their prosperous trade network (Ortloff 2005). By the third century, vestiges of the

Greco-Roman world were easily evidenced in Nabataean social life, as spoken Aramaic

gave way to Greek (Robinson 1930).

Eventually both Christianity and Islam found their way to the region in the fourth

and twelfth centuries, respectively, but by this time the Nabataean system of political and

economic organization was on a steady decline. The trade routes, which had at one time

made them a thriving center of commerce, were bypassing the region for the larger and

more accessible urban centers of Venice, Constantinople, and other European locales en

route to the Silk Road and Asia (Robinson 1930; en.wikipedia.org 2006).

Artifacts Reveal a Vibrant, Technologically Advanced Society

As was mentioned earlier, the height of Nabataean society at Petra was filled with

signs of a solid and longstanding economic structure. Its wealth can be more easily

recognized in the myriad artifacts left at Petra, which speak of a culture caught in the

crossroads of many diverse civilizations. While history alone speaks to the various

cultural, social, and political influences on Nabataean Petra, nothing can account for this

better than Nabataean artifacts, with their myriad depictions of Greek, Egyptian,

Assyrian, and Asian forms that mysteriously morph into something that was, as

Joukowsky writes, “peculiarly Nabataean.”3

While Petra’s famous architectural monuments, carved out of the sandstone

boulders that blanket the area, date back to the first century A.D., some archaeologists

concur that the building of houses and other permanent settlements by the traditionally

2 Flavius, Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, Book XIII, 10. 3 Joukowsky, Martha Sharp, “The Petra Great Temple: A Nabataean Architectural Miracle,” in Near East Archaeology 65, no. 4:235.


nomadic Nabataean tribes began as early as fourth century B.C. (Ortloff 2005). The 200-

year span of petroglyphic architectural design occurs prior to Roman annexation

(Joukowsky 2002). Of the most widely recognized and well-preserved structures at Petra

are Ad-Dayr (the Monastery) and Al-Khazeh (the Treasury).4

Joukowsky writes that the Great Temple is an “architectural miracle” that

“represents the finest workmanship of the Nabataeans and their distinctive native style.”5

Constructed in two major phases, the Great Temple was replete with columns,

passageways and arches, an upper and lower sanctuary, and even a crypt area. Hints of

Greek architectural ingenuity show the extent to which the Great Temple mirrors other

striking edifices in Athens or Alexandria. Even Greek deities are etched into the walls of

the building suggesting Hellenistic religious connections.6

The greatest tribute to Hellenistic style lay in the Corinthian capitals that adorned

the temple’s many geometrically ordered and strategically placed columns; however, they

were composed of elements—acanthus leaves and hibiscus flowers—that represented the

native flora of the region. Some capitals were even found bearing the likeness of Asian

elephants, further implicating the extent of Nabataean social, economic, and political

contacts (Joukowsky 2002).

Their technological genius is expressed through their extensive network of water

supply and distributions systems. Water being a precious commodity in the arid

mountains of Petra, the Nabataeans utilized all native water sources—streams, springs,

rainfall, and runoff—to supply its citizens with enough water for drinking and basic

hygienic needs (Ortloff 2005). “This demonstration of engineering capacity,” writes

Ortloff, “indicates a high degree of cognitive skill in solving complex hydraulic problems

to ensure a stable water supply and may be posited as a key reason behind the many

centuries of flourishing city life.”7 It is clear that they borrowed ideas from Greek and

Babylonian irrigation and filtration techniques already in place at the time (Ortloff 2005).

Canals, cisterns, dams, and water-distribution tanks: all these led to management of water

from natural springs, stream beds, and flood plains. A bypass tunnel was even

4 Al-Khazeh was the “Holy Temple” featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.5 Joukowsky, Martha Sharp, “The Petra Great Temple: A Nabataean Architectural Miracle,” in Near East Archaeology 65, no. 4:235.6 Joukowsky (2002) believes that temple construction was most likely overseen by Alexandrian masons who taught the Nabataeans basic architectural style and interior decoration.


constructed to divert floodwater during heavy rainfall, channeling excess runoff out of

the city (Ortloff 2005). Within the Great Temple complex itself both Ortloff and

Joukowsky note the elaborately constructed piping and hidden channels (Joukowsky

2002; Ortloff 2005).

That the Nabataeans were able to endure for such a long span of time, being

surrounded by more powerful, land-hungry neighbors, speaks to the versatility and

ingenuity of the people who lived at Petra. Perhaps it was the fact that they were such a

stable enclave—well enclosed in natural mountain barriers—with no evidence of their

nomadic, less organized past being reflected during the height of their civilization that

allowed their way of life to flourish with little interruption from outside sources. The

merging of so many different cultural influences, however, seems to present the

Nabataeans as malleable and complementary to the likes of the Assyrians and Greeks—

those who would stand to gain from a dominion over their territory. Nonetheless, the

Nabataeans, and the monuments they left behind, will continue to puzzle and amaze

students of history and archaeology for many years to come.


7 Ortloff, Charles, “The Water Supply and Distribution System of the Nabataean City of Petra (Jordan), 300 B.C.–A.D. 300,” in Cambridge Archaeological Journal 15, no. 1:93.

References

Flavius, Josephus. Jewish Antiquities, Books XII–XIV. Trans. Ralph Marcus. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U.P., 1966).

Joukowsky, Martha Sharp. 2001. “Nabataean Petra,” in The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 324:1–4.

———. 2002. “The Petra Great Temple: A Nabataean Architectural Miracle,” in Near Eastern Archaeology 65, no. 4:235–48.

Kanellopoulos, Chrysanthos and Talal S. Akasheh. 2001. “The Petra Map,” in The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 324:5–7.

Ortloff, Charles. 2005. “The Water Supply and Distribution System of the Nabataean City of Petra (Jordan), 300 B.C.–A.D. 300” in Cambridge Archaeological Journal 15, no. 1:93–109.


Robinson, George Livingston. The Sarcophagus of an Ancient Civilization: Petra, Edom, and the Edomites. (New York: Macmillan, 1930).

Web Sites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabataeans, materials retrieved June 29,

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/petra1.htm, materials retrieved June 29.


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Nabataeans of Petra