Bulletin of Nabataean Studies (BNS)

International Conference: The World of the Herods and the Nabataeans held at the British Museum 17–19 April 2001

Volume II: Konstantinos D. Politis (ed.), The World of the Nabataeans (2007)

392 pages, paperback
Oriens et Occidens Band 1
ISBN 978-3-515-08816-9

price € 62.- / CHF 105.40

Content:

• K. D. Politis, Prologue
• N. Lewis, The Rediscovery of Petra, 1807–1818
• R. Wenning, The Nabataeans in History (Before AD 106)
• J. F. Healey, Nabataean Inscriptions: Language and Script
• J. R. Bartlett, Nabataean Religion
• J. Patrich, Nabataean Art between East and West: A Methodical Assessment
• L. Tholbecq, Nabataean Monumental Architecture
• B. Kolb, Nabataean Dwellings: Domestic Architecture and Interior Decoration
• D. Graf, Nabataeans under Roman Rule (After AD 106)
• K. D. Politis, Nabataean Cultural Continuity into the Byzantine Period
• F. Zayadine, The Spice Trade from South Arabia and India to Nabataea and Palestine
• J. P. Oleson, Nabataean Water Supply, Irrigation and Agriculture
• J. Studer, Animal Exploitation in the Nabataean World
• P. J. Parr, The Urban Development of Petra
• H. Granger-Taylor, Textiles of the Graeco-Roman Period from the Dead Sea Region
• S. G. Schmid, Nabataean Fine-ware Pottery
• J. R. B. Mason, Experimenting the Manufacture of Nabataean Fine-ware Pottery
• J. M. C. Bowsher, Monetary Interchange in Nabataean Petra
• S. Rosen, The Nabataeans as Pastoral Nomads: An Archaeological Perspective
• Z. Aslan, The Cultural and Heritage Management of Petra
• G. W. Bowersock, Epilogue

BAR S1661 2007: Society for Arabian Studies Monographs 5 Natural Resources and Cultural Connections of the Red Sea

Proceedings of Red Sea Project III held in the British Museum October 2006 edited by Janet Starkey, Paul Starkey and Tony Wilkinson. ISBN 9781407300979. £36.00. ix+261 pages; illustrated throughout with figures, maps, drawings and photographs; Index.

The Proceedings of Red Sea Project III held in the British Museum, London, in October 2006. Contents:

• Environment, landscapes and archaeology of the Yemeni Tihamah (R. Neil Munro and Tony J. Wilkinson)
• The formation of a southern Red Sea seascape in the Late Prehistoric Period: Tracing cross-Red Sea culture-contact, interaction, and maritime communities along the Tihamah coastal plain, Yemen, in the third to first millennium BC (Lamya Khalidi)
• Products from the Read Sea at Petra in the Medieval Period (Stephan G Schmid and Jacqueline Studer)
• Continuing studies of plants and animals and their Arabic names from the Royal Danish Expedition to the Red Sea, 1761–1763 (F. Nigel Hepper)
• Coral reef conservation and the current status of reefs of the Ras Mohamed National Park in the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqabah (Steve McMellor and David J Smith)
• How fast is fast? Technology, trade and speed under sail in the Roman Red Sea (Julian Whitewright)
• Warships in the Red Sea, An Outstanding Phenomenon (Sarah Arenson)
• Features of Ships and Boats in the Indian Ocean (Norbert Weismann)
• Decorative Motifs on Red Sea Boats: Meaning and Identity (Dionisius A. Agius)
• The Red Sea Jalbah. Local Phenomenon or Regional Prototype? (James Edgar Taylor)
• Charting a Hazardous Sea (Sarah Searight); Red Sea Harbours, Hinterlands and Relationships in Preclassical Antiquity (Kenneth A. Kitchen)
• Sea port to punt: new evidence from Marsâ Gawâsîs, Red Sea (Egypt) (Kathryn A. Bard, Rodolfo Fattovich and Cheryl Ward)
• The Arabaegypti Ichthyophagi: Cultural Connections with Egypt and the Maintenance of Identity (Ross Iain Thomas)
• Aila and Clysma: The Rise of Northern Ports in the Red Sea in Late Antiquity (Walter Ward)
• Shipwrecks, Coffee and Canals: the Landscapes of Suez (Janet Starkey)
• What is the Evidence for External Trading Contacts on the East African coast in the first millennium bc? (Paul J.J. Sinclair)
• The ‹Arabians› of pre-Islamic Egypt (Tim Power)
• Red Sea and Indian Ocean: Ports and their Hinterland (Eivind Heldaas Seland)
• Bishops and Traders: The Role of Christianity in the Indian Ocean during the Roman Period (Roberta Tomber)
• Arabic Sources for the Ming Voyages (Paul Lunde)
• From the White Sea to the Red Sea: Piri Reis and the Ottoman conquest of Egypt (Paul Starkey)

«Papers from the thirty-ninth meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in London, 21–23 July 2005»

Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 36 (2006). 299 pages, numerous figures, plans, maps, drawings and photographs. Archaeopress (Oxford). ISSN 0308 8421, ISBN 0-905739-01-X. £ 45.00

Ehud Netzer, «The Architecture of Herod, the Great Builder»

Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 117 (2006). 443 pages. Verlag Mohr Siebeck (Tübingen). ISBN 3-16-148570-X. Euro 129.–

Herod the Great was one of the famous builders of the classical world. Judaea, his kingdom, a crossroads between the Eastern Mediterranean countries, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Egypt, symbolizes the transition between the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods as well as the climax of the Second Temple period, which witnessed the emergence of many religious and spiritual movements including Christianity. Beyond the influence of the matured Hellenistic architecture, the developing Roman architecture, and the local building activity of his predecessors, the Hasmonaeans, Herod’s buildings benefited from his analytical mind, creative imagination, and deep understanding of the process of building and planning. The consequences are outstanding structures such as Masada’s Northern Palace and Herodium’s cylindrical palatial fortress, and the peak of his achievements are Caesarea Maritima with its deepwater harbor and the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Having an architectural as well as an archaeological background, Ehud Netzer is able to highlight Herod’s personal involvement and contributions in his building projects. This book presents, in many aspects, the first comprehensive synthesis of Herod’s enterprises from archaeological and, mainly, architectural viewpoints.

Isabelle Ruben (ed.), «The Petra Siq: Nabataean Hydrology Uncovered»

Petra National Trust 2003. 140 pages, 158 b/w and color plans and plates, 3 maps, 7 tables. ISBN 9957855506. £ 17.50

The Petra Siq is an in-depth presentation of results from excavations between 1996 and 2000. The excavations re-expose the ‹Siq› as the Nabataean’s sacred entrance to Petra ans its significance to religion in Nabataean society; whilst highlighting the importance of the ‹Siq› as part of the larger water management system of the area.

Previously only available on-site in Petra or Amman, we are delighted to announce that «The Petra Siq: Nabataean Hydrology Uncovered» is now available internationally from Oxbow Books.

Shaher M. Rababeh, «How Petra was Built. An analysis of the construction techniques of the Nabataean freestanding buildings and rock-cut monuments in Petra, Jordan»

British Archaeological Reports (BAR) S1460. XII and 237 pages, 160 figures, maps, plans, drawings and photographs. ISBN 184171898X. £ 36.00

Abstract: Until now, no study has been made of the construction techniques of the Nabataean freestanding buildings and the rock-cut monuments of Petra, Jordan (built from the 1st cent. BC to the 2nd cent. AD). Their technical features were documented by fieldwork, and this evidence was then analysed to determine precisely when and why these features appeared or evolved. This leads to explaining how the Nabataeans developed their architecture, and what types of construction techniques they used to bring Petra’s architecture to its peak. The historical and geographical context for the architecture of Petra is presented, with a summary of previous scholarship on the site. The focus moves to the building materials used by the Nabataeans which are found to influence the construction techniques they developed. This is followed by a detailed discussion of quarrying and the rock-cut techniques. The procedures for dressing ashlar blocks and the facades of the rock-cut monuments are analysed to determine the tools used by the builders, as well as the lifting devices necessary for construction of the freestanding buildings. The technical aspects of the construction of walls, columns, floors, the anti-seismic and stabilising techniques developed by the Nabataeans are considered. Finally, the construction of roofs is examined in detail. The results of the study reveal the sources of the building techniques used at Petra and why they were further developed there.

Three reviews:

• J. J. Coulton, Formerly Reader in Classical Archaeology, University of Oxford. «Using his practical experience as an architect as well as extensive and detailed fieldwork, Dr. Rababeh has provided an illuminating analysis of Nabataean buildings, showing how they drew on, and modified, previous Levantine and Hellenistic methods to suit local materials and local requirements.»
• Judith McKenzie, author of The Architecture of Petra: «Other books cover the architectural styles of the monuments of Petra. Shaher er-Rababeh’s is the first to focus on the subject of how they were built, both the rock-cut tombs and the freestanding buildings. He methodically presents the results of months of first-hand examination of the evidence. Each aspect of building construction is analysed making wide-ranging use of recent scholarship on ancient building techniques. Just as the Nabataeans made their desert environment habitable with complex water-collection systems, they refined local, Egyptian, Greek and Roman construction techniques to suit the city’s rose red sandstone and other available building materials. Rababeh shows the Nabataean construction techniques were just as distinctive in their details as the style of their architecture – which they created from classical Alexandrian and Near Eastern elements. He makes interesting discoveries. The stone cut away when the tombs were carved was used to erect the city’s freestanding buildings. Rababeh shows how Petra has the earliest extensive examples of timber used to strengthen stone masonry buildings, as later seen on the Ka’ba at Mekka.»
• Ehud Netzer, author of Nabataeische Architektur: «This comprehensive study of the building systems in the Nabataean world is a pioneering work. It deals with all aspects from wall foundations to roof tiles; simple constructions and monumental ones; freestanding buildings and monuments cut into the rock. Shaher’s new book widens our knowledge of the enchanted world of Nabataean architecture.»