What is known of the Nabataeans has been gleaned from very few sources that are mainly foreign and not always contemporary. Archaeology plays an important role in the recounting of a fascinating civilization that left its imprint on the Near East in a myriad of ways.
The pre-Hellenistic period.
Of the roots of the Nabataean people very little is known, sources are quiet and there is much argument and speculation on the area they originated from. It is probably best to declare their origin as unknown at the present time, until further information comes into reckoning, though evidence that does exist points to Arabian or Eastern origins, southern Mesopotamia for instance. What we do know is that they called themselves:
nbtw / nabatu
Official history of the Nabataeans starts in the late fourth Century (312 BCE) with a reference in the writings of Diodorus Siculus , his main source being Hieronymus of Cardia, an eyewitness to the events of the campaign of Antigonus Monophtalmos in the lands of Southern Syria and Jordan, Diodorus recounts the interactions and observations of Hieronymus of the people called the Nabataeans:
“Now the eastern parts are inhabited by Arabs, who bear the name Nabataeans.”
Diodorus goes on to recount the traits of the Nabataeans, including their nomadic existence, taboos , trading of Spices and incense, their erudition with ‘Syrian letters’ and their general wealth at this time. Due to the contradictory and literary style of this source it must be approached with utmost caution. The only documented source of this era is of 259 BCE in the archives of Zenon , this places the Nabataeans as part of the regular landscape in the areas of the Hawran and northern Jordan. This same area is recounted within the Book of Maccabees in dating to163 BCE.
The pattern of semi-nomadic life as viewed through the writings of Diodorus seems to have continued till around 100 BCE, with the Nabataeans using the desert as a natural barrier to inhibit invaders:
“…they retreat as a body into this region out of danger. For since they themselves know about the places of hidden water and open them up, they have for their use drinking water in abundance.”
The later glories of the Empire were built upon the control of international trade in the Near East that the Nabataeans managed to establish in these early years. This period ended with the permanent occupation of urban sites and increasing sedentary activities from 100 BCE onwards.
The Nabataean Hellenistic Period.
This period of Nabataean rule is considered to be their “golden age” , the main sources are again foreign, being partly due to the oral structure of mainstream Nabataean culture. There are many inscriptions but they are generally about religious edicts and other general religiously orientated graffiti. Of the foreign sources the most informative and well known is the description of the Nabataeans by Strabo in his “Geography”. Strabo recounts the visit of Athenodorus (a friend), who was in the company of Aelius Gallus in 24 BCE. The Petra that Strabo recounts is very different from that portrayed by Diodorus:
“The Nabataeans are a sensible people, and are so much inclined to acquire possessions that they publicly fine anyone who has diminished his possessions and also confer honors on anyone who has increased them…. Their homes, through the use of stone, are costly; but, on account of peace, the cities are not walled.”
Therefore the biggest change from the pre-Hellenistic era is the urbanization of their settlements and general sedentarization, with A.Negev postulating a population of 30,000 for the city of Petra. Around 100 BCE the Seleucid Empire collapsed leaving a vacuum of power, leading to the respective rise of the Hasmonaean and Ptolemaic dynasties, and their increasing influence on international trade. It therefore seems that sedentarization was forced upon the Nabataeans as there was a need for increased permanence in order to be increasingly competitive in trading.
King Aretas II (84-62 BCE) managed to secure Damascus into his realm as well as defeating the Greeks. The time of the Nabataean kings from the Seleucid’s fall, until the Roman Annexation in 106 CE was a time of much internecine warfare against the kingdom of Judea including involvement in the Jewish civil war of 67 BCE, control of Northern Jordan and Southern Syria were in and out of Nabataean hands. Judeans and Nabataeans shared many traits and even a general economy, espoused the same Hellenism and lived in each others’ realms as the Nahal Hever documents prove.
The reign of Aretas IV (9 BCE – 40 CE) was the time when the Nabataeans were at the apogee of their powers, it was during his reign that much of the building work was done in Petra, Hegra within the Hijaz and the settlements of the Negev, all growing in importance. There were many foreigners living in the country at this time, with many active in the use of the local law system according to Strabo:
“…he saw that the foreigners often engaged in lawsuits, both with one another and with the natives, but that none of the natives prosecuted one another, and that they in every way kept peace with one another.”
From around 50 CE the loss of trade meant that a change in the structure of the economy was needed for the Nabataeans to survive. By the end of the first Century CE the southern regions were being overrun and Bedouin raiders were causing havoc in the Negev, the last dated tomb of Hegra coming in the Year 74/75 CE. It was in the years of Rabel II (70-106 CE) that the capital was moved north to Bosra and agriculture was officially honored and activated as can be seen from the inscription left by Rabel II at Oboda (88-98 CE), thanking the king:
“…Rabel king of the Nabataeans who bought life and deliverance to his people”
Post Roman Annexation.
With the annexation of the Nabataean realms into the Roman Empire, the line of kings came to an end. There is little evidence if this was accomplished peacefully or not as it is not clear in the texts if they implied force was used or just simple moral suasion , though Bowersock suggests:
“In fact, the activity of the governor of Syria in bringing about the annexation would suggest that some force was indeed necessary.”
The Romans decided to keep with the administrative arrangements implemented by Rabel II, leading to a supposed decline of the southern areas including Petra, yet this conflicted with the evidence. It has been suggested that Petra continued as the de-facto capital and prominent urban center of the Province, even antedating Bosra in the awarding of Imperial titles, leaving Petra with an official name of:
Augustocolonia, Antoniana, Metrocolonia, Hadriana, Petra Metropolis.
Yet the economy slowly ebbed and Petra was replaced by Palmyra as the main trading hub of the Roman Near East. Settlements shorn of trading routes dissipated, but others gained a new lease of life, such as occurred with the transformation and breaking of religious and cultural taboos that led to the flowering of the Negev Settlements in the period of Byzantine rule.
There is some evidence that the area went through a cultural renaissance, Games being held in the honor of main deity Dushara – the Actia Dusaria - and the export of philosophers, Callinicus and Genethlius to Athens to teach Greeks to be Sophists. The language at this time became increasingly Arabic in Character, as can be seen in the inscription at en-Namara of 328 CE. The Nabataeans were active in the area up to the Islamic invasion, in which they played an integral part.
The Religion of the Nabataeans.
Nabataean religion is a dead religion, for which there are very few sources , the religion belonged to a complex society with its own myths, theology and cultic theories. The main deity was Dushara meaning “the one of Shara” or referred to as “the god of Gaia” ; he was the dynastic god of the kings of Nabataea. Each of the main gods would be identified with other gods, thus Dushara is identified as A’ra, Dionysus and Zeus and Allat is synonymous with Atargatis, Aphrodite and even al-‘Uzza. Each of the gods had an astral character too, therefore Dushara in an inscription at Hegra is known as:
“The one who separates night from day.”
Thus linking him probably to Mercury, Allat is known to be equated to Venus and Zeus-Hadad to Jupiter.
Though there were many gods the main deity held a preeminence that led to the identification of others to him, thus giving a type of diluted monotheism as there were many local gods inherent to certain areas of the realm. It has been supposed that Aretas IV initiated Ancestor Worship with the deification of his relative Obodas I:
“Oboda a settlement of the Nabataeans, Uranius [says] in his fourth book, [that] there King Obadas, who had been deified, had been buried there.”
The gods were generally represented by aniconic stone pillars (baetyls), though there is evidence that this was not always the case after the Roman annexation, with an anthropomorphic Dushara being represented on a coin of Bosra in 177 CE, but the mainstream continued to worship the aniconic baetyls. The lives of the Nabataeans were suffused with religion, both public and private as reported by Strabo:
“They worship the Sun, building an alter on the top of the house, and pouring libations on it daily and burning frankincense.”
Temples and the high places.
The high places and temples were the arenas of public worship to the Gods. Most Nabataean towns had a temple to either a main deity or a local derivative. The high places were more sacred and less common with the most important, the great high place of Zibb Atuf at the religious capital of Petra. It has been suggested that this high place was the most sacred and frequented, and probably being sacred since the pre-Nabataean era. The general layout of Zibb Atuf was followed by the plurality of temples in their respective designs. The most holy sites would have a processional (sacred) way leading to their base.
Many temples would have triclinia attached to them, serving as sacred banquet chambers, where the offerings of the worshipers would be shared by priests and pilgrims alike, in effect dinning on the food of the gods. A meal of this kind can be seen in the writings of Strabo:
“They prepare common meals together in groups of thirteen persons; and they have two girl singers for each banquet.”
The priests of a temple could include a, `pkl` - an exorcist -, and a ptwr` - a diviner.
Funerary rituals and tombs.
There are around five hundred funerary monuments in Petra and about eighty tombs in Hegra, some holding up to 53 places for burial if not more. With this abundant evidence of the reverence that was paid to their dead, what Strabo says on their funerary customs seems ridiculous:
“They have the same regard for the dead as for dung, as Heracleitus says: “dead bodies more fit to be cast out than dung”; and therefore they bury even their kings beside dung-heaps.”
G.R.H. Wright postulated that this was a ritual to be linked with the funerary act of ‘ritual exposure’ or excarnation, which was used previously by religions in Iran and Turkey. This though has generally been disregarded and the link to the practice of secondary burial was put forward, as this was common in the local vicinity, being practiced by the Jews of Judea and Samaria. Though it must be noted that the act of direct burial was used too. The results of this can be seen in the tombs where loculi to small to hold a direct burial could be used for a bone collection.
The act of eating and drinking with the dead was also important, to keep the fellowship and memory of the deceased relatives alive. For this reason most of the major tombs were supplied with triclinia to enable this to occur, and even the tower in the cemetery at Elusa included a ritual kitchen. An inscription on the Turcomaniyeh Tomb refers to this ritual act:
“Space with couches for funeral repasts.”
The inscriptions on the facades of tombs were legal texts laying down the law on behavior, the rights of the tomb owners, and the levels of fines to be imposed for any aberration on these. A fuller text of the inscriptions were placed in the main temple.
The Archaeology of the Nabataeans.
Archaeology is important to help unravel the still partial history of the Nabataeans, especially due to the lack of written sources. The major archaeological sites are Petra, Mada’in Salih (ancient Hegra) and Oboda in the Negev. Yet there have even been finds as far away as the island of Failaka in the Persian Gulf. In Petra there can be viewed over the two sides of Wadi Musa that bisects the town, a duel urbanistic system.
The first and most impressive is based on the Sanctuaries and official buildings, built along the rectangular system of Hippodamos of Milet. This area included, the Qasr el-bint, the temple of the winged Lions, the great temple or Bouleuterion-odeion , a festival theater, a nymphaeum, a bathhouse, a sacred way(s), a Monumental Gate and several other minor functionary buildings. These buildings enjoyed a political rationale in that they gave voice to Nabataean authority, richness and power, which was visible to any subject, visitor or trader in the past or present.
From the temples and tombs one is able to grasp the influences and technology available to the builders and to garner a general time correlation. The remains for instance can tell us that mass production of nails was used for the building of the temple of the Winged Lions. Graffiti can help bolster and translate the Nabataean onomasticon, allowing added knowledge of jobs and gods and language. Numismatics help in the dating of buildings and rulers of the Kingdom even to monitor the economy. Pottery has a hugely important role in Nabataean archaeology for dating, and for the rituals of the Nabataeans themselves.
The influence of Greece and Rome on the Architecture is stupendous, though it was to decrease over time, the Kazneh and Qasr el-Bint, two of the earlier monuments show the influence of Hellenistic styles.
The Nabataean civilization was a great example of an assimilation of a myriad of colloquial currents and ideas of both cultural and religious import. They have left the hillsides and deserts of the ancient realm of Nabataea dotted with majestic monuments that reflect the incredible advancement of their culture and technology. Five hundred or more years of rule in the area left its mark. The empire that originally got its boost from the vacuum of power after the Seleucid regime dissipated, found its end in the rise of the successor empire, that of Imperial Rome. Rome in 106 CE was too big and strong to be opposed, thus swallowing the Nabataean Kingdom and forming it into the province of Roman Arabia. Where the geographical position of Nabataea led to its rise over time it eventually conspired to its downfall and subjugation.
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