Bulletin of Nabataean Studies (BNS)

Bénédicte Renoult: «Petra and the Decapolis: questions of urban development and defensive aspects» (provisional title) (in French)

Since the beginning of the archaeological research about the defensive system of Petra (c. beginning of the twentieth century), some questions have not been dealt with or discussed in a very controversial way. There is not, at the present day, consensus about the existence and the date of eventual fortifications of the city of Petra. It turns out that, further to the intensification of archaeological research (at the end of the twentieth century), we start knowing more or less well the organization of the town of Petra during the Roman period; but the information is much less extensive for the Nabataean period. Therefore, the proposed study aims to examine, in a first time, the state of the question; and in a second time, to examine in situ the presumed fortifications of Petra, to clarify their existence, their chronology and their construction technique. So far, everything points to a much more ambitious defensive system that aimed to control not only the city itself but also the area surrounding it. This complex defensive system is the focus of prospection work in the Petra area, being integral part of the present PhD thesis.

Bénédicte Renoult, PhD candidate
France, Université Paul Valéry – Montpellier III
Started september 2004–2008 (estimated)
Supervisor: Stephan G. Schmid
E- mail: b.renoult@neuf.fr

Emilie Prost: «The relations between the Nabataeans and Egypt» (in French)

The thesis aims to deal with the totality of the relations and contacts between the Nabataeans and Egypt. Several previous and ongoing studies are devoted to specific aspects of contacts between Nabataea and Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, focussing on architecture, religion, trade and the like. The present work will try to understand the relations that the Nabataeans kept with the Ptolemies and their Roman successors as a whole, based on published data as well as personal field work.

Emilie Prost, PhD candidate
Université L. Lumière – Lyon II (France)
2005–2009 (estimated)
Supervisor: Jean-François Salles
E-mail: prostemily@aol.com or dounette34@yahoo.fr

Lucy Wadeson: «The Façade Tombs of Petra: From Exterior to Interior»

Despite the renown of the monumental façade tombs carved in the sandstone cliffs of Petra, their associated funerary practices remain elusive due to loss of burial evidence through looting and later habitation of the tombs and a lack of textual sources on Nabataean burial customs. In order to enhance understanding of this crucial aspect of Nabataean society, my research involves a study of the rock-cut installations for burial and ritual found inside the tombs, made possible through the recent clearance of a significant number of them and the departure of their modern Bedouin inhabitants.

Although the decorative façades of the tombs have received much scholarly attention for their unique blend of Eastern and Western architectural forms, the tomb interiors have not previously been the subject of a detailed study. Therefore, firsthand examination and documentation of the tomb chambers was required. The collected data has been subjected to a mathematical and comparative methodology in order to establish relations between the tomb interiors and their façade types and to find patterns that unite groups of tombs. Ascertaining developments in the internal arrangement of the tombs has so far enabled a re-assessment of their debated chronology and provided insight into the use of the interior mortuary space and the funerary tradition in which it functioned.

This new material will be placed in its wider cultural context through a comparison with published rock-cut tombs in Graeco-Roman period Jerusalem and Alexandria. My research aims not only to answer unsolved questions concerning Nabataean society, but also hopes to explore how cultural relationships between different societies of the Graeco-Roman Near East can be detected through the study of their funerary remains.

Lucy Wadeson, D. Phil. (PhD) candidate in Classical Archaeology
2005–present
Supervisor: Judith McKenzie
Keble College, Oxford University, OX1 3PG, U. K.
E-mail: lucy.wadeson@keble.ox.ac.uk

Christopher A. Tuttle: «The Nabataean Coroplastic Arts: A Synthetic Approach for Studying Terracotta Figurines, Plaques, Vessels, and other Clay Objects»

Coroplastic artifacts have been recovered throughout the region of the Nabataean kingdom since scientific investigation of the archaeological sites began in the late 19th century. The extant corpus of materials includes a wide variety of different objects, such as figurines, plaques, zoomorphic vessels, masks, affixes, molded vessels, and other miniature items. Although a significant quantity of «terracotta» artifacts is known, comprehensive studies of the Nabataean coroplastic arts have been impeded by the lack of a synthetic approach that encompasses the diversity of available object types for specialized and comparative analyses.

This dissertation introduces a synthetic methodology that can now be employed to identify, classify, and associate the varied artifacts for different types of analyses. The methodology was developed using the data collected from a corpus of 777 artifacts; 299 of these artifacts are previously unpublished objects from Petra and the Negev desert, which are presented here in a catalog that includes the empirical and provenience specifications, descriptions of the preserved details using formal analysis, as well as photographs and drawings of each object. Two tools are also presented that can aid future systematic studies of both the known artifacts and those recovered from new excavations. The first of these is a flexible typological framework that is designed to incorporate and correlate the full range of object types. The second is an adaptive interpretive analytic model that can be used to identify and assess the probabilities for the different function(s) and meaning(s) that the artifacts could have served during their periods of use. The study concludes with some observations about the frequencies, variations, and functional diversity demonstrated in the corpus, and presents several possibilities for additional analyses based on the research conducted here on the available data.

Christopher A. Tuttle, Ph.D.
Associate Director
American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR)
P. O. Box 2470, Amman 11181 Jordan
Jordan mobile (direct dial from USA): 011-962-79-644-5578
E-mail: tuttle@acorjordan.org

Zeyad al-Salameen: «The Nabataean Economy in the Light of Archaeological Evidence»

[no summary available]

Zeyad al-Salameen, PhD candidate
UK, University of Manchester, adv. J.F. Healey
September 2001 – September 2004
e-mail: zmslameen@yahoo.com

Virginie Alavoine: «Les modes d’occupation de l’éspace des Nabatéens»

[no summary available]

Virginie Alavoine, PhD candidate
Belgique, Université de Louvain
e-mail: ala.vi@econophone.be or alavoine@student.fltn.ucl.ac.be

Caroline Durand: «The role of the Nabataeans in the Oriental and Mediterranean Trade (4th c. B. C. – 2nd c. A. D.): historical and archaeological study» (in French)

Nabataeans are particularly known from textual sources for their role as caravaneers in the long-distance trade between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean world. Beyond the analysis of the literary sources, this thesis aims to propose a general study of Nabataean trade, by integrating all the archaeological data – ceramics, coins, architectural remains, etc. – whose number has considerably increased recently thanks to the excavations of Nabataean sites like Petra, capital of the realm, Khirbet edh-Dharih, Bosra, Ram, Aqaba …. Combined analysis of these various sources should enable us to draw up an inventory of the exchanged goods and to establish a map of the various roads followed by these goods. At last, we wish to engage a reflexion on the social structures which underlay the organization of this trade.

Caroline Durand, PhD candidate
Université Lumière Lyon 2 – UMR 5189 HiSoMA (Lyon, France)
2001-2007
Supervisor: Jean-François Salles
e-mail: caroline.durand@univ-lyon2.fr or carolinedurand@yahoo.fr

Moulay M’hamed Janif: «L’iconographie religieuse des Nabatéens»

Abstract: The main aim of this research is to shed light on the Nabataean religion through the available iconographic data. By religious iconography we mean a large field which includes plastic and graphic arts and whose elements convey us, as signs and symbols, ideas and religious feelings. Several contributions attempted to study the Nabataean religion on the basis of textual data. But in illiterate societies, and we suppose that Nabataean society was probably illiterate, texts had a marginal place in comparison with that occupied by the image, the means par excellence of transmission of the religious feeling. A main objective is to establish an iconographic data base grouping iconographic elements of religious connotations according to the following three categories: a) Simple baetyls; b) Mixed representations (baetyls with eyes); c) Figurative representations.

The question of relationship between «center» (i. e. Graeco-Roman world) and «periphery» dominated for a long time this field of study. Many studies granted a lot of importance to the Graeco-Roman interpretations of Nabataeans deities, while recent archaeological data, notably from Khirbet edh-Dharih, would plead in favor of influences coming from the «periphery» (Egypt, Mesopotamia, South Arabia …?) and would support the hypothesis of a certain «acculturation» independent from the «center».

Moulay M’hamed Janif, PhD candidate
France, Université de Paris I, adv. J.-M. Dentzer et Ch. Augé
2001
e-mail: janif21@caramail.com

François Renel: «La céramique de Syrie du Sud de la période hellénistique à la période byzantine: typologie, évolution et implications culturelles»

[no summary available]

François Renel, PhD candidate
France, Université de Paris I, adv. J.-M. Dentzer
2000
e-mail: hf.renel@caramail.com

Isabelle Sachet: «Le traitement de la mort chez les Nabatéens» (provisional title)

[no summary available]

Isabelle Sachet, PhD candidate
École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, adv. M. Reddé et L. Nehmé
started September 2001
e-mail: isabelle_sachet@yahoo.com

Laurent Tholbecq: «Les temples nabatéens»

[no summary available]

Laurent Tholbecq, PhD candidate
Belgique, Université de Louvain
e-mail: tholbecq@swing.be

E. L. Vote: «Towards of New Model for Data Analysis: The Chronology of Building at the Great Temple, Petra, Jordan»

[no summary available]

E. L. Vote, PhD candidate
Brown University, Special Graduate Study, Ph. D. Diss.

Sa’ad Ahmad Twaissi: «A Study of the Nabataean Remains Excavated at Wadi Musa in 1996» (M. A. Thesis)

Abstract: The study aimed at investigating the Nabataean remains revealed at Wadi Musa during salvage excavations conducted by the Department of Antiquities of Jordan in 1996, under the direction of Dr. Khairieh ‘Amr. The remains include a Nabataean villa with a private bath and its interior decorations, pottery; sculpture; coins, as well as other Nabataean cultural material. The research focused on the Nabataean domestic architecture and its furniture, both of which have received little attention from archaeologists. Also, archaeologists have paid little attention to the vicinity of Petra, especially Wadi Musa, which is thought to have been a preferred Nabataean domestic quarter as it is the closest location to Petra. The study has revealed that there are some differences in the plans of the Nabataean domestic houses according to their function (private or formal), as well as regional differences. The plans also reflect some Nabataean cultural values, however, some foreign architectural aspects, especially in the interior decorations, had influenced the architecture. This is indicated by the preference for the second Pompeiian painting style, for example. In addition, the study has shown that Wadi Musa was a preferred quarter for the Nabataean high social class. The study also brings to light unique styles of Nabataean fine painted wares, and it indicates the continuation of the Nabataean culture for a long time after the annexation of Petra by Rome in AD 106.

Sa’ad Ahmad Twaissi, PhD candidate
Jordan, University of Jordan, supervisor Prof. Nabil Khairy
2001 (Arabic)
e-mail: spat76@yahoo.com

E. L. Schluntz: «From Royal to Public Assembly Space: The Transformation of the ‹Great Temple› Complex at Petra» (Ph. D. Diss.)

E. L. Schluntz, PhD candidate
Brown University, Center for Old World Archaeology and Art
1999

S. G. Karz: «The Change in Color of «Colorless» Glass at the Great Temple, Petra, Jordan» (M. A. Thesis)

S. G. Karz, PhD candidate
Brown University Department of Anthropology
1998