A Material Culture
I’ve had a fascination with the material culture of the Nabataeans ever since I began researching them for my novel The Stone Cutter. In the last few decades, a wealth of physical evidence has been uncovered by archaeologists as they sift through the layers of desert sand and dirt that has collected over the last couple of thousand years.
They have found objects like:
- stone inscriptions,
- sculpture,
- coins,
- jewelry,
- pottery,
- clothing/fabric,
- and even hand-written legal scrolls.
Coinage of the Kingdom is among the most common artifact found in Nabatea. Their abundance is great enough that the price of these authentic relics (at least the bronze coins) of two millennia ago is such that a mere mortal like myself can actually own one. Thus far, I have obtained bronze coins from each of the reigns of four kings of Nabataea: Haretat III, Haretat IV, Malikos II, and Rabbel II.
I also added an authentic Nabataean bronze coin to the inventory of my recent big giveaway of Petra-related items. On its front, the coin portrays the profiles of King Haretat IV and his second wife/sister/queen, Shuqilat, beside him. On the coin’s reverse are the monograms of the king and queen and a pair of cornucopias, the Kingdom’s symbol of abundance and prosperity.
What can be learned
Coins are not merely fascinating relics of the distant past. They can be windows of understanding into the details of history and culture itself. I have learned much of the Nabataeans’ history by reading through what might, from a cursory glance, appear to be a boring study of old coins. One that immediately comes to mind is the work of Rachel Barkay, whose field of experise lies in the deep study of coinage of the ancient Near East, connecting it with history.
One of her articles mentions a coin minted by the Nabataean King Haretat IV, in celebration of one of his progeny, Phasael, whose name is inscribed on the coin. A palm branch on the coin’s back typically signifies a festival occasion in Nabataea, like a birth or wedding. For many years this was thought to announce the birth of a second, or later son, his firstborn being Maliku, who ultimately succeeded his father as king. A nagging question about this coin was—”Why would Haretat celebrate the birth of a second- or third-born son, when his firstborn, Maliku, never appeared on a coin?”
More recently, stone inscriptions were found (in the Obodas Chapel), mentioning some of the progeny of the King. Among them, was “Phasael,” who in the list was described as a “daughter” instead of “son” of the King. It seems even more unlikely that the king would celebrate the birth of a daughter, than a second son. Putting together estimated dates of the inscription and the coin, and other historical records, Barkay surmised that the coin actually celebrates the important politically-motivated marriage of two important royal houses of the ancient Near East: Princess Phasael of the Nabataeans with the Tetrarch Antipas (son of the infamous Herod the Great) of the royal house of the Herods in Judaea.
Scuttle-butt from Rome
The coin, therefore, gives us the probable name of the woman who was originally married to this “king” Herod (Antipas) mentioned in the famous episodes in the Gospels (and by the ancient Roman/Jewish historian Josephus). As the story goes, this Herod Antipas, while legally married to the Nabataean princess, fell in love with his own niece/sister-in-law Herodias (yes, the Herods had very convoluted family trees!) while in Rome. His current wife, Phasael, heard rumors of her husband’s dalliances, and feared for her life, knowing that the Herod family’s typical way of dealing with incovenient people (even family) was to execute them.
To get ahead of her husband’s game, Phasael sent word to him that she needed a vacation at the Herod family’s palace, the citadel Machaerus, which lay on their eastern border with Nabataea. Then covertly, Phasael sent word to her father, King Haretat in Petra, that she needed an armed escort to take her from Machaerus, home to Petra. She was quite a perceptive and resourceful woman.
How not to celebrate a birthday
The rest of the story is quite well known. Denied the opportunity to simply kill his wife, Herod Antipas divorced Phasael, and then married his brother’s wife Herodias (who was also his niece). This moral outrage so inflamed the man known as John the Baptizer (cousin of Jesus of Nazareth), he called out Antipas to his face, which enraged his new wife Herodias. Eventually, Herodias succeeded in goading her husband to imprison the Baptizer, with the hope of someday seeing him executed.
The opportunity came as Antipas entertained guests at his lavish birthday party, thrown, ironically, at the palace at Machaerus. As part of the gathering’s entertainment, Salome (the daughter of Herodias and his brother Philip—this would make Salome Antipas’s step-daughter, niece, and grand-niece) danced for the pleasure of Antipas. Her dance so beguiled and enchanted Antipas that he vowed before his guests to give her “anything—up to half my kingdom!” She consulted her mother concerning what should comprise the reward. And of course, the answer was “The Baptizer’s head on a silver platter!”
Some years later, King Haretat’s rage still fumed toward Antipas who treated Phasael so badly, and he satisfied his revenge by engaging Antipas’s troops in battle, and slaughtering them.
Holding history in your hand
It is a marvelous thing to hold in one’s hand an item held and used by real people two thousand years ago. The coin probably changed hands many times, perhaps purchasing loaves of flat barley bread, or maybe small containers of olive oil. The coin may have paid a neighbor boy to sweep out a day’s accumulation of sand from the floor of a tent.
Most of the other types of material culture I listed above are far more rare, and are mostly held by either well-heeled collectors, or major cultural museums and institutions around the globe.
However, I also wanted to hold in my hand something beyond coins. I thought…if I can’t have the real deal I’ll come up with the next best possibility— faithful and precise replicas of authentic objects. But since no replicas are yet available on the open market, I knew I would have to make them myself.
I decided to produce a replica of Nabataean jewelry—a copper bracelet—and the scroll of a legal document, hand-written in the cursive Nabataean script. Two blog articles will follow, documenting just how I produced these items.