Everything about The Nabataean totally explained
The
Nabataeans (
Arabic:
الأنباط,
Al-Anbāṭ) were an ancient Arab, Semitic, trading people of southern
Jordan,
Canaan and the northern part of
Arabia- whose oasis settlements in the time of
Josephus gave the name of
Nabatene to the borderland between
Syria and
Arabia, from the
Euphrates to the
Red Sea. Their loosely-controlled trading network, which centered on strings of oases that they controlled, where agriculture was intensively practiced in limited areas, and on the routes that linked them, had no securely defined boundaries in the surrounding desert.
Trajan definitively conquered the Nabataeans and incorporated them into the Roman Empire, where their individual culture, easily identified by their characteristic finely-potted painted ceramics, became dispersed and was eventually lost.
Culture
Many examples of graffiti and inscriptions — largely of names and greetings — document the area of Nabataean culture, which extended as far north as the north end of the
Dead Sea, and testify to widespread literacy; but no Nabataean literature has survived, nor was any noted in antiquity, and the temples bear no inscriptions.
Onomastic analysis has suggested that a Nabataean culture may have embraced multiple ethnicities. Classical references to the Nabataeans begin with
Diodorus Siculus; they suggest that the Nabataeans' trade routes and the origins of their goods were regarded as trade secrets, and disguised in tales that should have strained outsiders' credulity. Diodorus described them as a strong tribe of some 10,000 warriors, pre-eminent among the nomads of Arabia, eschewing agriculture, fixed houses, and the use of wine, but adding to pastoral pursuits a profitable trade with the seaports in
frankincense and
myrrh and spices from
Arabia Felix (today's
Yemen), as well as a trade with
Egypt in
bitumen from the
Dead Sea. Their arid country was their best safeguard, for the bottle-shaped cisterns for rain-water which they excavated in the rocky or clay-rich soil were carefully concealed from invaders.
The extent of Nabataean trade resulted in cross-cultural influences that reached as far as the
Red Sea coast of southern Arabia. The gods worshipped at Petra were headed by
Dushara and
al-Uzza.
Origins
The Nabataean origins remain obscure. On the similarity of sounds,
Jerome suggested a connection with the tribe
Nebaioth mentioned in
Genesis, but modern historians are cautious about an early Nabatean history.
The
Babylonian captivity that began in
586 BC opened a power vacuum in
Judah, and as
Edomites moved into
Judaean grazing lands, Nabataean inscriptions began to be left in Edomite territory (earlier than
312 BC, when they were attacked at
Petra without success by
Antigonus I). The first definite appearance was in 312 BC, when Hieronymus of Cardia, a Seleucid officer, mentioned the Nabateans in a battle report. In 50 BC, the Greek historian
Diodorus Siculus cited Hieronymus in his report, and added the following: "Just as the Seleucids had tried to subdue them, so the Romans made several attempts to get their hands on that lucrative trade."
Petra or
Sela was the ancient capital of
Edom; the Nabataeans must have occupied the old
Edomite country, and succeeded to its commerce, after the Edomites took advantage of the
Babylonian captivity to press forward into southern
Judaea. This migration, the date of which can't be determined, also made them masters of the shores of the
Gulf of Aqaba and the important harbor of
Elath. Here, according to
Agatharchides, they were for a time very troublesome, as wreckers and pirates, to the reopened commerce between Egypt and the East, until they were chastised by the
Ptolemaic rulers of Alexandria.
The Nabataeans had already some tincture of foreign culture when they first appear in history. That culture was naturally
Aramaic; they wrote a letter to Antigonus in
Syriac letters, and Aramaic continued to be the language of their coins and inscriptions when the tribe grew into a kingdom, and profited by the decay of the
Seleucids to extend its borders northward over the more fertile country east of the
Jordan. They occupied
Hauran, and in about
85 BC their king
Aretas III became lord of
Damascus and
Coele-Syria.
Nabataeans became the Arabic name for
Aramaeans, whether in
Syria or
Iraq, a fact which has been incorrectly held to prove that the Nabataeans were originally Aramaean immigrants from
Babylonia. Proper names on their inscriptions suggest that they were true
Arabs who had come under Aramaic influence. Starcky identifies the Nabatu of southern Arabia (Pre-
Khalan migration) as their ancestors. However different groups amongst the Nabateans wrote their names in slightly different ways, consequently archeologists are reluctant to say that they were all the same tribe, or that any one group is the original Nabataeans.
The Nabateans invented the North Arabic Script that evolved into the Modern
Arabic script.
Language
The language of the Nabataean inscriptions, attested from the 2nd century BC, shows a local development of the
Aramaic language, which had ceased to have super-regional importance after the collapse of the
Achaemenid Empire (
330 BC). The
Nabataean alphabet itself also developed out of the
Aramaic alphabet.
This Aramaic dialect was increasingly affected by the
Arabic dialect of the local population. From the 4th century AD, the Arabic influence becomes overwhelming, in a way that it may be said the Nabataean language shifted seamlessly from Aramaic to Arabic. The
Arabic alphabet itself developed out of cursive variants of the Nabataean script in the 5th century.
Agriculture
Although not as dry as at present, the area occupied by the Nabateans was still a desert and required special systems for agriculture. One system was to contour an area of land into a shallow funnel and to plant a single fruit tree in the middle. Before the 'rainy season' which could easily consist of only a one or two rain events, the area around the tree was broken up. When the rain came, all the water which collected in the funnel would flow down toward the fruit tree and sink into the ground. The ground, which was largely loose, would seal up when it got wet and retain the water.
In the mid-1950s, a research team headed by M. Evenari set up a research station near Avdat (Evenari, Shenan and Tadmor 1971). He focused on the relevance of runoff rainwater management in explaining the mechanism of the ancient agricultural features, such as: terraced wadis, channels for collecting runoff rainwater, and the enigmatic phenomenon of "Tuleilat el-Anab". Evenari showed that the runoff rainwater collection systems concentrate water from an area that's five times larger than the area in which the water actually drains.
Another study was conducted by Y. Kedar in 1957, which also focused on the mechanism of the agriculture systems, but he studied soil management, and claimed that the ancient agriculture systems were intended to increase the accumulation of loess in wadis and create an infrastructure for agricultural activity. This theory has also been explored by Prof. E. Mazor, of the
Weizmann Institute of Science.
The Hellenistic and Roman periods
Petra was rapidly built in the first century BC in Hellenistic splendor, and developed a population estimated at 20,000
The Nabataeans were allies of the first
Hasmoneans in their struggles against the
Seleucid monarchs. They then became rivals of the Judaean dynasty in the period of its splendor, and a chief element in the disorders which invited
Pompey's intervention in
Judea. Many Nabataeans were forcefully converted to Judaism by the
Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus. It was this King who after putting down a local rebellion invaded and occupied the Nabatean towns of
Moab and
Gilead and imposed a tribute of an unspecified amount. Obodas knew that Alexander would attack, so was able to ambush Alexander's forces near
Gaulane destroying the Judean army (90BC) .
The Roman military wasn't very successful in their campaigns against the Nabataeans, since in
62 BC Marcus Aemilius Scaurus accepted a bribe of 300
talents to relieve a siege to Petra, partly because of the difficult terrain and the fact Scaurus had run out of food provisions. Hyrcanus who was a friend of Aretas was dispached by Scaurus to the King to buy the peace. In so obtaining peace King Aretas retained his whole possessions, including Damascus and became a Roman vassal.
During the King Malichus II reign, in 32 BC
Herod the Great started a war against Nabatea, with the support of
Cleopatra. The war started with Herod's army plundering Nabataea and with a large cavalry force, and the occupation of
Dium. After this defeat the Nabatean forces amassed near
Canatha in
Syria, but were attacked and routed.
Athenio (Cleopatra's General) sent Canathans to the aid of the Nabateans, and this force crushed Herod's army which then fled to
Ormiza. One year later, Herod's army overran Nabataea.
After an earthquake in Judea, the Nabateans rebelled and invaded Israel, but Herod at once crossed the Jordan river to Philadelphia (modern
Amman) and both sides set up camp. The Nabateans under
Elthemus refused to give battle, so Herod forced the issue when he attacked their
camp. A confused mass of Nabateans gave battle but were defeated. Once the defeated had retreated to their defences, Herod laid siege to the camp and over time some of the defenders surrendered. The remaining Nabatean forces offered 500 talents for peace but this was rejected. Lacking water, the Nabateans were forced out of their camp for battle, but were defeated in this last battle.
As allies of the
Romans the Nabataeans continued to flourish throughout the first century. Their power extended far into Arabia along the
Red Sea to
Yemen, and
Petra remained a cosmopolitan marketplace, though its commerce was diminished by the rise of the Eastern trade-route from
Myoshormus to
Coptos on the
Nile. Under the
Pax Romana they lost their warlike and nomadic habits, and were a sober, acquisitive, orderly people, wholly intent on trade and agriculture.
They might have long been a bulwark between Rome and the wild hordes of the desert but for
Trajan, who reduced
Petra and broke up the Nabataean nationality as the short-lived Roman province of
Arabia Petraea.
By the third century the Nabateans had stopped writing in
Aramaic and begun writing in Greek instead, and by the fourth century they'd converted to Christianity. The new Arab invaders who soon pressed forward into their seats found the remnants of the Nabataeans transformed into--
peasants. Their lands were divided between the new
Byzantine Vassals
Ghassanid Arabs and the
Himyarite Vassals
Knidite Arabs.
The city of Petra was brought to the attention of Westerners by the Swiss Burckhardt in 1812.
List of Nabatean kings
» See Rulers of Nabatea.Further Information
Get more info on 'Nabataean'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://nabataeans.totallyexplained.com">Nabataeans Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
