What is called the Petra archive or Petra papyri is a group of ca. 140 carbonized papyrus rolls found in 1993 in a room adjacent to the main Byzantine church of Petra. The documents date from the 6th century. They are private papers of a well-to-do local family, mainly financial documents concerning marriage, inheritance, sales, loans and disputes, but also documents connected with taxation. The documents are written in Greek. The Petra Papyri are one of the most important finds of ancient documentary texts ever made outside of Egypt.
What is called the Petra archive or Petra papyri is a group of ca. 140 carbonized papyrus rolls found in 1993 in a room adjacent to the main Byzantine church of Petra. The documents date from the 6th century. They are private papers of a well-to-do local family, mainly financial documents concerning marriage, inheritance, sales, loans and disputes, but also documents connected with taxation. The documents are written in Greek. The Petra Papyri are one of the most important finds of ancient documentary texts ever made outside of Egypt.
This book promotes the study of material spatiality in late antiquity: not just the study of buildings, but of the people, dress and objects used within them, drawing on all available source material. It seeks to explore the material world as it was lived in late antiquity, in an interpretative inquiry, rather than simply describing the evidence that has survived until today. The volume presents a series of comprehensive bibliographic essays which provide an overview of relevant literature, along with discussions of the nature of the sources, of relevant approaches and field methods. The main section of the book explores domestic space, vessels in context, dress, shops and workshops, religious space, and military space. Synthetic papers drawing on a wide range of archaeological, art-historical and textual sources are complemented by case-studies of context-rich late antique sites in the East Mediterranean and elsewhere, including Pella, Dura-Europos, Scythopolis, and Sagalassos.
Excavation of the Petra Church site was more than just an excavation, it was a complete project that included the excavation, publication, conservation, and presentation of the site. This beautiful book, published in 2001, was a milestone of the work of ACOR in the Petra Park that continues until today. This hardcover volume offers a wealth of detail and scholarship about not only the excavations but also the historical environment of the communities living in the Petra area. The contents of the book touch on the ecclesiastical history of Petra and of this specific church, the architecture, marble furnishings and mosaics of the church, and great details concerning the myriad of finds unearthed in the excavations, such as storage jars, lamps, coins and figurines. Excavations began in 1991, soon revealing important mosaics in the two aisles of the Petra Church. In order to preserve the mosaics after excavation, a competition was held to solicit architectural designs for a permanent shelter over the archaeological site. After much discussion and debate, a shelter designed by American architect Rob Shutler was chosen and funding for its construction was secured from USAID. The shelter was completed in 1997.
Thousands of documentary and literary texts written on papyri and potsherds, in Egyptian, Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Persian, have transformed our knowledge of many aspects of life in the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. Here experts provide a comprehensive guide to understanding this ancient documentary evidence.
This volume brings together studies which relate to the interpenetration of Semitic and Greco-Roman traditions of papyrus writing in the antique Middle East.
What is called the Petra archive or Petra papyri is a group of ca. 140 carbonized papyrus rolls found in 1993 in a room adjacent to the main Byzantine church of Petra. The documents date from the 6th century. They are private papers of a well-to-do local family, mainly financial documents concerning marriage, inheritance, sales, loans and disputes, but also documents connected with taxation. The documents are written in Greek. The Petra Papyri are one of the most important finds of ancient documentary texts ever made outside of Egypt. i-xix + 143 pp., illus., 26 plates
From 1981 until 1986, the archaeologist Judith McKenzie, then a graduate student at the University of Sydney, traveled to the ancient site of Petra in Jordan, living in a cave there for extended periods, in order to survey and measure architectural moldings on the rock-cut monuments. It was a critical time in the history of Petra, where, for centuries, its local inhabitants, known as the Bdoul, had lived and worked. But that tradition was coming to a close. In 1985, the Bdoul began a move to the nearby village of Umm Sayhoun, as directed by the Jordanian government. This first-hand account of life in a cave at Petra, based on diaries Judith kept at the time she lived among the Bdoul, is therefore important as a record of a lifestyle now largely vanished. As she writes in her introduction: "I spent so much time socializing with the Bdoul, I came to observe many aspects of Bdoul life in a series of visits over three main field seasons. As women we had access to the world of young girls and women, which men from outside did not, while we were also sometimes treated as honorary men." This memoir thus stands as a reminder of life at Petra before the arrival of modern-day tourism at the site. But this book is not only a memoir. Observations are made on the ways in which the Bdoul have adapted to their new environment. Changes at the site that have taken place since 1981 because of weathering and erosion are recorded through comparisons between photographs taken forty years ago and more recent images. Ramifications of the expansion of the tourist-industry at Petra in the 21st century are also considered. Life in a Cave in Petra with the Bdoul: 1981-1986 is therefore an important and essential volume on the archaeology and history of one of the best-known ancient sites in the world.
