Thursday, 18th March 2010
Prof. Piotr Bienkowski (University of Manchester)
THE FIRST NABATAEAN PALACE IN PETRA
The well-known Iron Age II village on the mountain of Umm al-Biyara in Petra was excavated in 1960-65 by Crystal-M. Bennett, and the final report by the speaker is in press. As part of her fieldwork on Umm al-Biyara, Bennett surveyed some Nabataean remains on the very edge of the mountain, which she interpreted as a 'Graeco-Nabataean sanctuary'. The lecture re-appraises Bennett's preliminary publication on those remains, reports on more extensive remains revealed by recent illicit digging, and plans for renewed fieldwork. It concludes that this was a major Nabataean public building, almost certainly a palace, with luxury elements, in a strategic location on the highest part of Petra. Several elements related to the architecture and the location of the structure make it likely that it can be considered as part of a kind of building rivalry between the Nabataean realm and Herod the Great and his descendants. This would make this building the first Nabataean palace to be identified within Petra.
Professor Bienkowski is Deputy Director of the Manchester Museum, and Professor of Archaeology and Museology at the University.
[Back]