NABATAEAN TOMB COMPLEXES AT PETRA: New Insights in the Light of Recent Fieldwork Lucy Wadeson (University of Oxford) Introduction The decorative façades of the tombs at Petra are a visual testament to the wealth, prosperity and cultural contacts of the Nabataeans, who carved them from around the 1st century BC to the second century AD (Fig. 1). The role of the façades in monumentalising the tombs in the landscape has endured to this day, and they are considered one of the most treasured remains of Nabataean culture. Although invaluable to the study of Nabataean architectural history and carving techniques, 1 the façades provide us with little information on Nabataean funerary practices, knowledge of which is limited due to the looting of the tombs in antiquity and their re-use throughout the centuries. Some burial data has been recovered from less monumental tombs at Petra (such as pit graves and shaft tombs 2 ) and several façade tombs that were only partly looted and/or remained sealed for a number of centuries. 3 However, a novel approach was taken by the current author, whereby the burial chambers and rock-cut installations inside approximately 500 façade tombs were documented and examined in detail between 2005 and 2010, not only shedding light on their function in the funerary tradition, but also the debated chronology of the tombs. 4 Many of the tomb interiors had previously remained unpublished as a result of their use as houses by the local Bdool tribe, up until the mid-1980s. Having studied the interiors of the tombs and related them to the form and size of the façades, the next stage of research has been to record and examine the exterior structures (mostly rock-cut), which are considered part of the tombs’ surrounding property. 5 The aims of this study are to understand the overall architectural plan of the tombs and its origins, the function of individual installations and how the various components worked together, and ultimately to reconstruct the sorts of activities taking place at the tombs, in the area in front of the façades. Most tombs have at least a platform in front of their façades, which was a natural by-product of the façade carving process, as well as other features carved into this area or the enclosing rock- walls, such as niches, basins, receptacles and benches. Tombs with a large surrounding property have a much more complicated plan, consisting of porticoes, additional chambers, triclinia and hydraulic installations. These tombs are often referred to as ‘funerary complexes’ or ‘tomb complexes,’ given their multi-functional aspect. 6 Well-known examples at Petra include ‘el-Khan’/Tomb 4, 7 the ‘Soldier 1 For example, see McKenzie (1990); Netzer (2003); Rababeh (2005). 2 Bikai and Perry (2001) 59-78; Perry (2002) 165-70; Schmid and Barmasse (2006) 220-27; Schmid et al. (2008) 135-60. 3 For example, most recently the Renaissance Tomb (Huguenot et al. [2004] 203-10), the tombs beneath the Khasneh (Farajat and Nawafleh [2005] 373-93), and the el-Khubtha tombs (http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/petra.html – accessed 1 May 2011) . 4 Wadeson (2010a; 2010b). 5 This forms part of the ‘Funerary Topography of Petra Project’ (FTPP) directed by L. Wadeson. It is supported by the Council for British Research in the Levant, the G.A. Wainwright Fund and the Society for Arabian Studies. 6 Stephan Schmid’s work on the ‘Soldier Tomb Complex’ (n. 8) has initiated new research into tomb complexes at Petra.