     the nabataeans, also nabateans (;  ), were an ancient arabic people who inhabited northern arabia and the southern levant, their settlements in ce 37&nbsp;â c. 100, gave the name of nabatene to the borderland between arabia and syria, from the euphrates to the red sea. their loosely-controlled trading network, which centered on strings of oases that they controlled, where agriculture was intensively practiced in limited areas, and on the routes that linked them, had no securely defined boundaries in the surrounding desert. trajan conquered the nabataean kingdom, annexing it to the roman empire, where their individual culture, easily identified by their characteristic finely-potted painted ceramics, became dispersed in the general greco-roman culture and was eventually lost. ==culture== many examples of graffiti and inscriptionsâlargely of names and greetingsâdocument the area of nabataean culture, which extended as far north as the north end of the dead sea, and testify to widespread literacy; but except for a few lettersthe leon levy dead sea scrolls digital library no nabataean literature has survived, nor was any noted in antiquity,the carbonized petra papyri, mostly economic documents in greek, date to the 6th century: glen l. peterman, "discovery of papyri in petra", the biblical archaeologist 57 1 (march 1994), pp. 55â57p. m. bikai (1997) "the petra papyri", studies in the history and archaeology of jordanmarjo lehtinen (december 2002) "petra papyri", near eastern archaeology vol.65 no.4 pp. 277â278. and the temples bear no inscriptions. onomastic analysis has suggested that nabataean culture may have had multiple influences. classical references to the nabataeans begin with diodorus siculus; they suggest that the nabataeans' trade routes and the origins of their goods were regarded as trade secrets, and disguised in tales that sh
Ancient_Israel_and_Judah Ancient_peoples_of_the_Near_East Arab_groups History_of_Jordan History_of_Palestine History_of_Saudi_Arabia History_of_Syria Nabataea