History - Jordan - page 513

The most lucrative trade involved the transportation, by camel, of frankincense and
myrrh along the Incense Route from southern Arabia to outposts further north. The
Nabataeans were also sole handlers of spices shipped to Arabia by boat from Somalia,
Ethiopia and India. Suburbs at the four corners of their capital, Petra, received the cara-
vans and handled the logistics, processing products and offering banking services and
fresh animals before moving the goods west across the Sinai to the ports of Gaza and Al-
exandria for shipment to Greece and Rome.
The Nabataeans never possessed an 'empire' in the common military and administrat-
ive senses of the word; instead, from about 200 BC, they established a 'zone of influence'
that stretched from Syria to Rome. As the Nabataean territory expanded under King
Aretas III (84-62 BC), they controlled and taxed trade throughout the Hejaz (northern Ar-
abia), the Negev, the Sinai, and the Hauran of southern Syria. Nabataean communities
were influential as far away as Rome, and Nabataean tombs still stand at the impressive
site of Madain Salah in Saudi Arabia.
GATEWAY TO THE AFTERLIFE: THE NABATAEAN
RELIGION
A young family, arriving early for the Petra Night Tour, were waved on alone through the candlelit Siq (gorge).
Haunted by the sound of their own footsteps, they soon began to feel there was something amiss. By halfway, the
young daughter, overwhelmed by the towering shadows of this sacred way, begged her parents to turn back. A few
moments later, all three were hastily beating a retreat. Only those who have ever been in Petra's Siq alone will un-
derstand the power this extraordinary passage has on the soul. It was chosen surely for exactly this reason, for it was
no ordinary passage: it was a gateway to the afterlife.
Surprisingly little is known about Nabataean religion, considering that their preoccupation with the afterlife dom-
inates much of their capital at Petra. It is known, however, that the early desert polytheistic religion of the original
Arabian tribe absorbed Egyptian, Greek and Roman, and even Edomite and Assyrian beliefs, to create a unique
faith.
The main Nabataean god was Dushara, the mountain god, who governed the natural world. Over the years he
came to be associated with the Egyptian god Osiris, Greek god Dionysus and the Roman god Zeus.
For fertility, the Nabataeans prayed to the goddess Al-'Uzza (the Very Strong), who became associated with Aph-
rodite and Isis. Al-Kutba was the god of divination and writing, linked to Hermes and Mercury. Allat (literally
'Goddess') was associated with Athene.
Early representations of the Nabataean gods were non-figurative. Divine stones known as baetyls marked import-
ant wadis, junctions, canyons and mountaintops, representing the presence of the divine. Religious processions to
Petra's spiritual 'High Places' were an important part of the community's religious life, culminating in a sacrifice
(perhaps human) and ritual purification.