key concepts & orientation

Background

This first comprehensive exhibition about Petra brings the study of an ancient culture to life. It's the product of a unique collaboration between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History. The exhibition brings together some 200 works of art—sculptures, ceramics, metalwork, stuccowork, paintings, and drawings—most of which have never been seen in North America. They show why Petra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and illuminate the cultural diversity, both ancient and modern, of the Near East.

Key Concepts

The following key concepts correlate directly to the themes presented in "Teaching in the Exhibition."

Roman marble vase
© Cincinnati Art Museum, Peter John Gates
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Archaeology is a way to learn about ancient civilizations.
Archaeologists reconstruct and interpret the past. They excavate and analyze material remains in order to understand how people lived in the past, as well as broader issues like how societies and cultures change over time. In the process, they draw on information from other fields, such as chemistry, ecology, architecture, and linguistics. Little by little, collaborative research is bringing more of the story of the Nabataeans to light. Yet less than five percent of the site has been excavated, and our picture of urban life remains incomplete. We know what language they wrote, for example, but what did the Nabataeans speak? What was daily life like for an ordinary family? (Most archaeological finds, like jewelry and stone buildings, are artifacts of the elite; reconstructing the lives of the common people is more difficult.) As new information emerges, interpretations are revised, different questions asked, and new theories advanced. Examples of ongoing research by Brown University's Department of Archaeology, one of the international groups at work in Petra, are available at www.brown.edu/ Departments/ Anthropology/ Petra/ excavations/ excavations.html.

Nabataean god Dushares depicted as the Greek wine god Dionysus
© Cincinnati Art Museum, Peter John Gates
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As cultures emerge and mingle, some elements change and some persist.
Cultures influence each other through commerce, conquest, and other kinds of communication. Some values and ideas prevail and are assimilated, while others encounter resistance and never take root. Through trade, Petra came into contact with Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine cultures, providing a particularly vivid example of how highly diverse cultures may interact over time. As the city grew, these contacts influenced the style and content of Petra's art, architecture, religion, and language. Yet, the city never lost its own unique character. For example, although the Nabataeans attributed characteristics of Greco-Roman gods to many native deities, they continued to represent and worship their ancestral deities in distinctly Nabataean ways. After the Roman Empire took over the city in 106 A.D., this pattern of adaptation and integration contributed to the city's remarkably peaceful history.

Rock-cut tomb carved into the sandstone cliffs

Places are defined by both geography and by their inhabitants' modification of the environment.
People everywhere confront the task of shaping the natural world to create places that accommodate their needs and reflect their values. Petra nestles in a rocky basin entered by means of a deep chasm called the Siq, a strategically located pass that cuts through western Jordan's arid and rugged Rift Valley. The Nabataeans overcame serious environmental constraints: meager annual rainfall, seasonal flooding, drought, and earthquakes. Relying on camels to move goods across the barren sands, these desert traders took over the Arabian Peninsula's incense and spice trade and settled in Petra. Water management and revenue from trade and enabled them to transform the site from a tribal defensive stronghold and religious center into the thriving, agriculturally-based seat of an expanding commercial empire.

Sophisticated public waterworks at Petra included aqueducts like this one.
© Dan Gibson, Nabataea.net
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Technology and invention shape society.
Science and technological innovation are integral to social and cultural evolution—they change people's relationship to the land and to each other. The Nabataeans' technological capabilities enabled them to transform the rugged rocks and desert into temples and gardens. Sophisticated waterworks were the key. Still used by present-day Bedouin, a network of waterways and cisterns stored water from distant springs. An elaborate system of damming, terracing, and irrigation made farming possible on the surrounding plateau. More than 800 tombs and over 3,000 architectural elements carved from sandstone and limestone attest to the Nabataeans' genius as architects and stonemasons. Many of these technological achievements fell into disuse after a devastating earthquake in 363 A.D., by which time Roman trade routes were bypassing Petra, and the city entered a long period of decline. Petra was ultimately abandoned in the seventh century A.D.