02x03 - A Nabatean by Any Other Name

[bunniefuu]

What does it all mean?

This is where the archeology has been found.

Hi, how are you?

Look at that.

I need a planter.

A shrine to a bellybutton.

Look at that!

No one gets into this place?

Whoa! Don't take me too far.

Now that's naked archeology.

[theme music]

What if I told you that some twenty-two hundred years ago

in this amazingly spectacular setting there was a great empire,

and the people who ruled that empire

controlled the trade routes, the spice route.

And guess what?

They didn't do it through m*llitary might

Good business sense.

And what if I told you that they also were great builders?

They built cities, they built great structures,

and they built a capital city in a hidden crevice.

And what if I told you that these people

magically appeared twenty-two hundred years ago

and then some years later they seemingly disappeared?

[SIMCHA] They were called the Nabateans.

And this is Petra, their capital city.

One of the new seven wonders of the world

and the place where Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail.

But two thousand years before Indiana Jones

starting in BCE,

the Nabateans spent almost years

carving a spectacular city into square miles of rock

before suddenly disappearing.

And they left almost no written records,

so for centuries their identity has been shrouded in mystery.

Who built this ancient wonder?

Clues in the Bible, and local traditions

suggest that they shared customs with the ancient Israelites,

and that they may even be related to Moses.

I'm traveling through the ancient Nabatean kingdom

in modern day Israel and Jordan

because I want to know who the Nabateans were,

and if there's any archaeological evidence of a link to Moses.

What history tells us is that they began as a Nomadic tribe,

and first turn up in written records in BCE.

At the time they lived in tents

and crossed the desert in caravans.

Avdat, in the Negev desert in Southern Israel

was the most important caravan station

in the Nabatean Kingdom.

And I think there might be a clue here

that helps link the Nabateans to the Israelites.

Most of these ruins are much later than the Nabateans,

but evidence of a Nabatean settlement

under these ruins were found by archaeologist Moti Haiman,

who has excavated here for twenty years.

The church is beautiful,

and it's sitting on top of a Nabatean location.

But I gotta tell you, what gets me-

I'm trying to figure out the people

that would come out to the middle of a desert-

I mean it's not a place I would ever start building anything.

They're amazing.

Well let's start with what we feel.

A nice breeze, the entire country,

the entire middle east suffers from terrible heat.

Heat, yeah. -It's very hot.

But here it's cool.

It's cool, you feel very nice breeze.

And if you are under a roof in the shadow

it's like living in north Europe.

But you're in the middle of the desert.

Yeah.

So the people trying to att*ck you,

they would be dying of heat

and you would be up here.

Cool. Drinking your lemonade, no problem.

Yep, absolutely. -They're smart.

Rolling stones on top of them.

They would be listening to the rolling stones?

Oh you would be rolling stones down

on top of your attackers, yeah.

[SIMCHA] Underneath the Byzantine ruins,

archaeologists have unearthed

the remains of Nabatean structures,

and clues about their language and traditions.

So what we have here is an honest to goodness

Nabatean inscription?

Absolutely. You can see it was a nice stone,

carved and decorated around.

Here let me splash some water on it.

What does it say?

Well it mentions a guy that donated.

That gave a donation to the temple.

And I mean, it's clearly Nabatean.

What is interesting which is also typical.

Yeah, my Nabatean is rusty

but I can also tell that's Nabatean.

What is typical about the Nabatean

and this is reflected is that the letters are Nabatean

but the text itself is in Aramaic.

And Aramaic was the international language

of that time in that part of the world.

[SIMCHA] Some scholars think that the Nabatean alphabet

is the basis for later Arabic writing.

But the evidence here shows that they spoke Aramaic,

language of the ancient Israelites, and later Jesus.

Still, it's not exactly a connection to Moses.

Lots of people spoke Aramaic.

But Moti Haiman tells me

that if I follow the Nabatean's road back to Petra,

I'll find another clue.

So I drove back to Jordan,

and right on the road to Petra,

less than two kilometers from their ancient capital

you can't miss the evidence that links the Nabateans to the Bible

and to Moses.

[SIMCHA] I'm driving through Southern Jordan,

looking for clues linking the ancient Nabateans

to the biblical Israelites.

And in Wadi Musa, the modern part of Petra,

two kilometers from the ancient Nabatean Capital,

you can't miss the evidence

that links the people here to the Bible and to Moses.

Modern Petra, a souvenir shop.

You wouldn't think it had anything to do with the Bible,

but, right over here, next to the souvenir shop

you have Moses' Spring.

The Bible says that Moses struck a rock instead of talking to it,

and the water came out.

God said "talk to the rock",

because he struck it that little misdemeanour

caused him not to be able to go into the promised land.

He had to look at it from Mount Nebo

and die outside the promised land.

This, according to local tradition is the rock.

And look over here, there's a spring.

There's a beautiful spring. Look at this, it's fantastic.

[SIMCHA] This isn't archaeology, it's tradition

But this tradition tells us that years before the Nabateans,

the Exodus may have passed right through Petra.

Today, it's tourists who pass through here,

to see the Nabatean's most famous accomplishment.

It's hidden behind a thousand meters of rock.

And every year, countless tourists make the pilgrimage

down this crevice to the Nabatean capital

and one of the most famous buildings in the world.

This is what the tour guides tell you to do.

They tell you to turn around so that you don't see it.

You don't see it until you have to see it.

And I have to tell you I'm genuinely excited.

I mean, I'm in Petra. I can't believe it.

I don't want to fall.

Well, few things leave me breathless, speechless.

This is one of them. Wow.

Many of the things we know about the Nabateans

have gone from fact to legend.

Scholars and adventurers have written

that the Nabateans were brilliant m*llitary strategists,

hiding their capital in a crevice,

making it immune to att*ck.

They built a monastery, a treasury and a Roman Theater.

Even today tour guides and books say

their skills as architects and engineers

were way ahead of their time.

And that adds to their mystery

because in BCE these people were nomads.

And just a hundred years later they started to build this.

How?

Recent archaeological discoveries help to explain this mystery.

I'd give ten years of my life to solve this mystery.

There's no mystery.

Dr. Konstantinos Politis has excavated in Petra,

and is an expert on the Nabatean world.

Now, the question is that the Nabateans,

who mysteriously stride onto the stage of history,

really start as nomads.

How does a nomadic people

suddenly create what is still one of the wonders of the world?

Well, we're not totally sure where they came from.

Whether they were fully nomadic or not we also don't know.

We have very little evidence for the beginnings of them.

But what we do know is that they had-

they profited hugely primarily on the trade of frankincense.

Incense was b*rned constantly in all the Roman temples,

the pagan temples of Greece and Rome,

and everywhere, including here.

And it was like gold or like oil today.

They made an incredible amount of money.

So, yes, they were good business men,

and they sold this product,

and they had the secrets to where it was

in Yemen and modern Oman.

So did that change them from nomadic life

to city dwellers? Or what?

Once they had this great wealth,

they needed permanent urban centres,

market towns like Petra.

And then with their extra money

they wanted to emulate the people

that they were selling it to.

The Greeks and the Romans.

So perhaps they imported architects and builders

to build such monuments.

It's a bit like being nouveau riche today.

So, basically, when we talk about, wow,

the Nabateans did this and that,

Basically the Nabateans came into a lot of cash,

and then they hired the best Greek-Roman architects?

That's it exactly.

[SIMCHA] With their great wealth

they carved monumental buildings in the rock.

The Roman Theater, the Monastery,

The Tomb of the Roman Soldier.

And the Treasury of the Pharaoh.

Each of these buildings had elaborate stories

connected to them. In fact,

the legend of the Treasury is that the Pharaoh

of the Exodus pursued Moses here,

and left his gold for safekeeping.

While we're here,

I'm just in front of this classic Nabatean icon. Right?

It's what we all identify with Petra, with Nabatean,

you know, Indiana Jones. This is a classic.

It's called the Treasury.

Yeah. -Is it a treasury?

No. It's not a treasury at all.

It's--there's an urn--if you can see up there,

there's a large pot, and it's actually been sh*t at

by the Bedouin Arabs for years.

They think there's gold inside.

So they have this tradition that it, this is the,

treasury this pot of gold, literally.

Literally at the end of the rainbow,

or the gorge in this, uh-

Yeah, in the end of the gorge is a pot of gold.

And you can see the sh*ts that they-

They sh*t it because they wanted the gold to come out.

But nothing there obviously.

[SIMCHA]Dr. Politis tells me

that the Treasury isn't a treasury,

the Monastery isn't a monastery

and the Roman Theater isn't really Roman.

The Tomb of the Roman Soldier is a tomb,

but its only connection to the Romans

is a statue that looks like it might be a soldier.

Today Archaeologists know

that most of these structures are tombs.

For years scholars and writers speculated

that Petra was an ancient Necropolis, a city of the dead.

Others said it was a thriving metropolis.

But excavations have now revealed

that the relationship between living and dead

was far more complicated than anyone would have guessed.

[SIMCHA] In Petra, the Nabatean capital

it turns out that things aren't really what they seem.

Some of the facts I thought I knew

have turned out to be myths.

And so far, there's not much evidence of Moses

and the Israelites here.

Scholars and writers and tour guides

have written of the imposing structures

carved into the rocks, and the impression

they must have made in ancient times.

But excavations by Professor Stephan Schmid

have revealed a surprising picture.

So you're an archaeologist as well?

No, no, I'm a naked archaeologist.

Oh, okay, okay.

[SIMCHA] The Nabateans saw

a completely different Petra

than the one we see today.

So this is one of these nine hundred

and something tomb façades in Petra.

But it was not visible in antiquity from this spot here.

I mean, you came up the side

and you wouldn't see anything of it.

Meaning what we see today

as we get impressed right away by these tomb façades

is not the way they were really designed?

Just follow me. Exactly.

I love mystery.

You see that we are standing here

in massive built structures.

So from the point where we are starting our visit,

you couldn't see anything of the tomb.

Maybe, maybe the pediment, but that's all.

Oh, the built structures have collapsed.

Exactly.

The rock structures have remained.

Exactly.

That's why we see one part of the puzzle

but not the other.

Exactly. Exactly

[SIMCHA] Seeing only part of the puzzle,

and believing that visitors to the city

were confronted by hundreds of massive tombs,

scholars believed that Petra was actually a city of the dead.

But a remarkably simple discovery here

has helped to prove that the living and the dead

shared the city much more closely

Just one question.

Is this a living quarter where I'm looking?

At least partially it seems like,

because from the built structures

we do have information that they were heated rooms,

for instance, we had fragments of both floor heating

and wall heating.

That means that some of these rooms,

I can't tell you which exactly, were heated.

But how, exactly the working together

of the living and the dead functioned,

we are still far from understanding it.

It's amazing, actually,

that you can get so much by figuring out

that they were heating the rooms,

'cause heating the rooms means

that there were living and dead together,

and that opens a whole door to their way of thought.

Exactly. Exactly.

[SIMCHA] Archaeologists are still trying to understand

just how the Nabateans lived, and what they believed.

What archaeologist and scholars believed,

and is still accepted as fact today is that

Petra was a beautiful and cultured place,

where reverence for fine architecture was the rule.

And that it was built here, at the end of

a thousand meter long gorge to protect it from att*ck.

The strategic cunning of the Nabateans is rarely questioned.

But new discoveries about their day-to-day life

are casting doubts on these assumptions.

This is where big sh*ts got together

to have a big meal.

Exactly

Dancing girls, the whole thing.

Well, that we do not know,

but there's a good chance that exactly these features

were present as well

And the result, as you can see,

is a kind of ancient Las Vegas, which is probably

it's not a bad comparison after all.

The city of Petra, as we can see today

is one of the most uncomfortable places in the area.

They wanted to show that they do have the money

to do this tremendous work.

But wasn't it for defence reasons

that they came here?

Uh, it's the baddest place to defend yourself, actually.

No. But I thought the gorge was a natural defence.

The gorge is a myth,

because there are many other tracks leading to Petra.

The gorge gives access from one side,

but there are three other sides,

which gave access to the city of Petra,

which are not the gorge at all.

So what you're saying

is that there were a bunch of nouveau riche

who really wanted to show off.

This is exactly the term one would use.

I'm a little disappointed in those Nabateans.

I had at first I thought they were architects.

Then it turned out they just hired architects

from Alexandria or someplace.

Then I thought they were these incredible

strategic defence guys.

But turns out that they're really building

an ancient Las Vegas. It's a little bit sad.

I wouldn't turn it that way.

They were very intelligent, smart,

and flexible people. That will be my guess.

And good businessmen.

And definitely good businessmen, yes.

[SIMCHA] So many of the facts

that I thought I knew have turned out to be legends

and myths. Maybe the story about Moses is a myth too.

But I've been told I should look for clues

in the mountains around Petra.

I'm going to where few tourists go,

because in a place the Nabateans considered most sacred,

there seems to be is evidence of Moses.

[SIMCHA] Almost everything I've read and thought

I knew about Petra and the Nabateans

turned out to be wrong.

Now I think that the strangest part of the story,

that the Nabateans are linked to Moses,

may just be a story after all.

Still, I've been told to climb to the highest peak

in the city, and there, there's evidence

that the Nabateans knew of Moses.

I need more water.

It's degrees celsius or fahrenheit,

and if I survive I may find what I'm looking for.

So what is this place?

This is the highest place of sacrifice in Petra.

It's very impressive. Look at it.

It's the most impressive part of all of Petra,

and the Nabatean world, for that matter.

I mean, for me this is much more impressive than,

you know, the classic view of the Treasury.

I mean, this is this is huge.

And look at this. You see here the altar.

And maybe they're both altars,

but maybe that's where they have a feast

or they did libations. And look at this.

This is the high priest. What's over there?

Well, this is where you would actually

put your sacrifices, your primary sacrifices.

This is where a lot of paganism happened, eh?

So is this where they would have sacrificed the animals?

Well, the way it's cut here,

and there's a trough underneath

for some kind of liquid, i.e. blood, to collect.

It looks as if this is where the

actual initial cut would have been.

[SIMCHA] From the high place of sacrifice

you can see all of Petra.

You can also see south

into the land of the Biblical Midianites

where Moses led his people on the Exodus.

And to the West you can see Mount Hor.

In the story of the Exodus,

Moses accompanies his brother Aaron up Mount Hor,

where Aaron dies, and is laid to rest.

And to this day pilgrims still make

the daylong journey to the top of Mount Hor

and the place identified as Aaron's tomb.

The Historian Josephus writes of Aaron's Tomb here,

and Josephus lived at the time of the Nabateans,

so the Nabateans must have known of Moses

and his brother Aaron.

But did the Nabateans believe

that Aaron was their ancestor?

A startling discovery among the people

who still live in the mountains around Petra

suggests that they did.

It turns out that the people who live here

claim that they are descendants of the Nabateans.

But there's more to their story,

and I was introduced to a scholar

who documented a startling discovery.

By the way this is a first,

and you're not going to see this anywhere

but on The Naked Archaeologist:

we're going to interview a scholar

who's passed away. And here it is.

So I'm standing at the grave of Dr. Ken Russell.

He's buried here in the landscape

that he loved so much.

But what he said is very much alive.

[SIMCHA] There are tribes of Bedouin living here,

several thousand people.

of these beduin are called Badul,

the people Dr. Russell was most interested in.

After living with these people

he published an ethnographic paper,

that means a paper that researches

what the oral traditions, what the ethnicity,

what the culture says.

And he found that the people

who are living in the area of Petra call themselves

to this day Ben-i-Israel: the children of Israel.

Now, why should that surprise us,

given that tradition is that

that highest peak that you see behind me,

is Aaron's Tomb.

And below it there's an Iron Age site,

a site that dates back to the Exodus that

if that's Aaron's Tomb,

that's got to be an Israelite site.

[SIMCHA] Today, given the Middle East Conflict,

it may not be popular for a Bedouin tribe

to declare Israelite ancestry and the Badul

prefer not to talk about their origin.

But a scholar who lived and d*ed amongst them

concluded that it was not so very long ago

that some people living

in the shadow of Aaron's tomb