Sarah E Wenner

In the late 1990s, Stephan G. Schmid published a chronological typology of Nabataean Painted Fineware (NPFW) that was widely accepted by scholars of Nabataea and Roman Arabia. Tali Erickson-Gini has since raised concerns about parts of his NPFW typology, specifically related to two decoration types dating to the end of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century CE (Dekorphases 3b and 3c). This article is a response to Erickson-Gini’s critique, published in this volume. We find that there is sufficient evidence to broadly validate Schmid’s proposed dating for the beginning of production of Dekorphases 3b and 3c to the late 1st century and early 2nd century CE, respectively.

Summary This paper presents new evidence, based on systematic fieldwork, concerning the most likely path of the Roman road, the via nova Traiana, in the area between Petra and Ayn al-Qana in southern Jordan. Special attention is given to the work of David Graf, the most recent fieldwork study, prior to the present investigation, dealing with the same issue, that of the via nova Traiana. It also presents a detailed description of the route of the Roman road, adds new information to Graf's study, and challenges some of his suggestions. The paper also considers other ancient roads that were directly connected to the Roman highway.

In the late 1990s, Stephan G. Schmid published a chronological typology of Nabataean Painted Fineware (NPFW) that was widely accepted by scholars of Nabataea and Roman Arabia. Tali Erickson-Gini has since raised concerns about parts of his NPFW typology, specifically related to two decoration types dating to the end of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century CE (Dekorphases 3b and 3c). This article is a response to Erickson-Gini’s critique, published in this volume. We find that there is sufficient evidence to broadly validate Schmid’s proposed dating for the beginning of production of Dekorphases 3b and 3c to the late 1st century and early 2nd century CE, respectively.

Although Nabataean Painted Fine Ware (NPFW) has been examined in light of Stephan Schmid’s chronological typology since the late 1990s, few stratified contexts with NPFW from outside Petra have been published, and none derived from contexts occupied continuously from the Nabataean through Byzantine periods. Questions remain about the dating of later dekorphases (3–4) due to a lack of contexts. This paucity is remedied, however, by Area K at Roman Aqaba/Aila, Jordan. Area K was a domestic complex, just inside the later Byzantine city wall, excavated from 1994 through 2002. Using associated numismatic evidence and imported fine wares (primarily Eastern Sigillata A and African Red Slip), this paper argues that NPFW Dekorphase 3b appeared at Aila in the second half of the 1st century CE, and Dekorphase 3c appeared shortly afterwards, around the time of the Roman annexation in the beginning of the 2nd century.

Conference: ASOR Annual Meeting
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Date: November 2017

While Ptolemy includes Wadi Ramm (Aramaua) in his list of cities for Arabia Felix, implying its position within the regional trade-network, archaeologists have largely considered the isolated site as only tangentially connected to the Nabataean economic centers at Petra and Aila. In the 90s, the Wadi Ramm Recovery Project, directed by Dennine Dudley and Barbara Reeves, documented a Nabataean villa and bathhouse complex (the Eastern Complex), located on a small hillock abutting the eastern flank of Jebel Ramm and situated just east of a Nabataean Temple to Lāt (a water-providing deity). Dudley and Reeves postulated that this elaborate villa complex built in an arid environment had been constructed to impress travelers who passed through the region. 

This paper explores the Wadi Ramm settlement’s evolving trade relationships with major Nabataean economic centers from the 1st-4th centuries AD through the study of the complex’s ceramic vessels, analyzed by the present author. While the majority (approx. 75%) of sherds recovered from the complex were produced in Petra, the amount of ceramics imported from Aila increased as the port city’s pottery industry grew exponentially in the 2nd and especially 3rd centuries. The appearance of 4th-century sherds from central Jordan suggest that although Wadi Ramm was a small desert community, it was closely tied to dynamic trade-networks, first exclusively in southern Jordan and then eventually including central Jordan, until the site was abandoned in the late 4th or early 5th century.

Conference: International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies (Limes) XXIII
Location: Ingolstadt, Germany
Date: September 2015

Traditionally, research on Nabataea and Roman Arabia has focused on larger cities, centers of trade, and military sites. Hinterland sites, on the other hand, remain almost completely unexcavated. This means that little is known about non-elite or nonurban life in the Classical periods (ca. 63 BC-AD 500), nor is the province’s shift away from Petra in southern Jordan—upon the construction of a legionary fortress only 15 km east of Petra—understood. When extensive excavation is impossible, surveys provide the best remedy for this knowledge gap, identifying smaller villages and even single farmsteads, examining field and water-management systems, and tracing general changes in landscape use over time. 
To explore these three topics, a Dutch-Jordanian team is currently surveying the marginal area around Udhruh, which receives around 100mm of rainfall annually. In ca. AD 300, the Romans built a legionary fortress for legio VI Ferrata at Udhruh, but the site’s history began long before its construction, with significant occupation beginning in the Nabataean era. In the 1980s a British team conducted a regional survey and excavated both the fortress and an associated pottery kiln, the latter only briefly mentioned in preliminary reports. A final report from this project was never published and, as a result, little is still known about the site, which is now experiencing rapid development. Partially in response to this growing threat, a Dutch-Jordanian team began an ongoing regional survey in 2011. 
This paper explores Petra’s relationship with its hinterland, specifically Udhruh, in the Nabataean (ca. 63 BC-AD 106), Roman (ca. AD 106-324), and Early Byzantine periods (ca. 324-500). Using ceramic evidence collected from the Udhruh survey and other regional surveys, as well as other archaeological and documentary evidence, it argues that Petra had an intimate but fickle relationship with its marginal desert environment.  In the 1st century AD, Petra served as the conduit between its periphery and the larger eastern Roman Empire, but settlement shifted dramatically after the Roman annexation in AD 106; many smaller hinterland sites were abandoned and their inhabitants moved either into the newly walled city of Petra or out of the area.  Only after the legionary fort at Udhruh was constructed ca. AD 300 did population resurge on the marginal hinterland.  Udhruh (later Augustopolis) went on to succeed Petra and became the largest settlement in the region—evidenced by the 6th century Beersheba Edict.

Conference: ASOR Annual Meeting
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Date: November 2016

In 2012, the Petra North Ridge Project began excavation of non-elite tombs and domestic structures.  After three field seasons, it is now possible to examine the ceramic corpora from lower-status shaft-cut tombs, dating from c. 100 BC – AD 100.  Initial results suggest that specific, uncharred cooking and drinking vessels were included in tomb contexts. Additionally, the dating of some Nabataean Painted Fineware (NPFW) cups can be further refined. Finally, the tombs contained far greater quantities of NPFW than the adjacent domestic complexes dating to the 1st-4th centuries.  However, less than 50 sherds of Dekorphase 4 (c. 150/200-400) were identified in both tombs and domestic contexts, in comparison with over a thousand sherds of both Dekorphases 3b (c. 70-100) and 3c (c.100-150/200), suggesting that the NPFW tradition declined dramatically by the start of the 3rd century. 

This conclusion seems untenable when considering that the az-Zurraba kilns in nearby Wadi Musa, which produced NPFW, were likely used at least into the 4th century.  However, the publication of Nelson Glueck’s Khirbet et-Tannur material suggests that NPFW might be found in greatest concentrations at religious sites, as Dekorphase 4 was especially well represented at the Nabataean temple, compared to numerous sites within Petra itself. As et-Tannur had a solely religious function with material mainly ranging from c. 100 BC – AD 300, it provides an interesting comparison for the Petra North Ridge material, despite a lack of knowledge regarding Glueck’s collection methodology.   

See https://youtu.be/dyBD4ClQzjg.

Conference: ASOR Annual Meeting
Location: San Diego, California
Date: November 2014

In ca. 300 CE, the Roman army built a legionary fortress for the Legio VI Ferrata at the site of Udhruh, 15 km east of Petra in southern Jordan. The site’s long history began prior to the construction of the fortress, with significant occupation beginning in the Nabataean era, although the most intensive period of regional settlement appeared to be in the Byzantine period (324–630 CE). In the 1980s a British team led by Alister Killick conducted a regional survey and excavated both the fortress and an associated pottery kiln, only briefly mentioned in preliminary reports. Results from this project were never published and, as a result, little is known about the site, which is now experiencing rapid development. 
Partially in response to this growing threat, a joint Jordanian-Dutch team began surveying the surrounding area in 2011. This paper explores the four seasons of data in order to examine how the Roman annexation of Nabataea in 106 CE impacted regional settlement in the Udhruh hinterland. Initial results indicate that regional settlement began to intensify in the final years of the Nabataean kingdom but decreased after the annexation and throughout the Roman period (106–324 CE).

Conference: Roman Pottery in the Near East: Where, Whence, Whither?
Location: Amman​
Date: Feb. 18-20, 2014

Although Nabataean Painted Fine Ware (NPFW) has been examined in light of Stephan Schmid’s chronological typology since the late 1990s, few stratified contexts with NPFW from outside Petra have been published, with none derived from contexts occupied continuously from the Nabataean through Byzantine periods. Occupation at Ez-Zantur in Petra, on which Schmid based his chronological typology, ceased for a period beginning in the early second century. A recent test of the Schmid typology, presented at ASOR in November 2013 by S. Thomas Parker and Sarah Wenner, examined a stratified sequence of NPFW from an excavation area (Area M) at Aila (modern Aqaba), a Roman port on the Red Sea, which offered some support for the Schmid typology. However, the usefulness of this analysis was limited by the fact that this area also experienced a period of abandonment in the early second century AD, i.e. the transition from Schmid’s Dekorphase 3b (which he dated to ca. AD 70/80-100) to Dekorphase 3c (which he suggested occurred ca. 100).  Therefore, I decided to examine another stratified sequence from Aila (Area K), which was continuously occupied from the first through fourth centuries.  Area K was a domestic complex, just inside the later Byzantine city wall, excavated from 1994 through 2002.  Using associated numismatic evidence and imported fine wares (Eastern Sigillata A and early African Red Slip), this paper will examine the NPFW from Area K in their stratigraphic contexts to determine if Dekorphase 3b was replaced by Dekorphase 3c ca. AD 100 (as Schmid suggests) or if Dekorphase 3b continued to be produced after the introduction of Dekorphase 3c, and thus were partially contemporary (as others suggest).

"The Egyptian Mummies and Coffins of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science"

Michele L. Koons and Caroline Arbuckle MacLeod, eds., The Egyptian Mummies and Coffins of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (Louisville: University Press of Colorado, 2021). 9781646421367.

Reviewed by Sarah E. Wenner, Cincinnati Art Museum, sarah.wenner@cincyart.org.