Rise of Nabataeans: A connection to trade, geographic reorganisation (Saeb Rawashdeh, Jordan Times).
AMMAN — The emergence of the Nabataeans is connected with the incense trade between southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula and the Mediterranean ports. First historical records on the Nabataeans appear in 4th century BC while before that period the Qedarites, the dominant Arab tribe of the Persian period, controlled the south from the Hijaz and all of the southern Palestine with a local centre at Lachish. The Qedarites established frankincense trade on their territory and they stepped on the historical stage when they became the main traders of frankincense from the Arabian Peninsula to the Mediterranean World.Ancient scrolls reveal astonishing information about the life of a Nabatean woman, who lived in the first century AD in Petra (oguz kayra, Arkeonews).[...]
The documents are now in the possession of the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Professor Hannah Cotton-Paltiel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is an expert on them.I'm surprised to find that I have never posted on Abi-adan. Two of the documents in the Babatha archive pertain to her. For more details, see this review by Elizabeth Shanks Alexander of Philip Esler's book Babatha's Orchard: Businesswomen Before Bar Kokhba (Jewish Review of Books).“Abi-adan is a Nabatean woman and the two documents are interesting because she’s selling the same orchard to one person and then to another,” she explained.
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