Editing Petra (section)

=== Emergence of Petra ===

The [[Nabataeans]] were one among several nomadic Bedouin tribes that roamed the [[Arabian Desert]] and moved with their herds to wherever they could find pasture and water.<ref name="lost kingdom">{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=FcAoBq4_EnEC |title= Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans |last= Taylor |first= Jane |pages= 14, 17, 30, 31 |year= 2001 |publisher= [[I.B.Tauris]] |location= London |access-date= 8 July 2016 |isbn= 9781860645082 |archive-date= 3 July 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190703151114/https://books.google.com/books?id=FcAoBq4_EnEC |url-status= live }}</ref> Although the Nabataeans were initially embedded in Aramaic culture, theories about them having [[Aramean]] roots are rejected by many modern scholars. Instead, archaeological, religious and linguistic evidence confirm that they are a northern [[Tribes of Arabia|Arabian tribe]].<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=A0BdsFRX55cC |title= Arabs in the Shadow of Israel: The Unfolding of God's Prophetic Plan for Ishmael's Line |access-date=8 July 2016 |publisher= Kregel Academic |first= Tony |last= Maalouf |year= 2003 |isbn= 9780825493638}}</ref> Current evidence suggests that the Nabataean name for Petra was Raqēmō, variously spelled in inscriptions as ''rqmw'' or ''rqm''.<ref name=":1" />

The Jewish historian [[Josephus]] (ca. 37–100 AD) writes that the region was inhabited by the [[Midianites]] during the time of [[Moses]], and that they were ruled by five kings, one of whom was Rekem. Josephus mentions that the city, called Petra by the Greeks, "ranks highest in the land of the Arabs" and was still called ''Rekeme'' by all the Arabs of his time, after its royal founder (Antiquities iv. 7, 1; 4, 7).<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.loebclassics.com/view/josephus-jewish_antiquities/1930/pb_LCL490.79.xml?mainRsKey=zBRKmE&result=1&rskey=O69i4Z |doi=10.4159/DLCL.josephus-jewish_antiquities.1930 |title=Jewish Antiquities |year=1930 |last1=Josephus |via=[[Loeb Classical Library]] |access-date=2016-08-06 |archive-date=2018-12-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226020351/https://www.loebclassics.com/view/josephus-jewish_antiquities/1930/pb_LCL490.79.xml?mainRsKey=zBRKmE&result=1&rskey=O69i4Z%20 |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Onomasticon (Eusebius)|Onomasticon of Eusebius]] also identified Rekem as Petra.<ref>{{cite book | author = Hagith Sivan | title = Palestine in Late Antiquity | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2008 | page = 254}}</ref> Arabic ''[[wikt:رقم|raqama]]'' means "to mark, to decorate", so ''Rekeme'' could be a Nabataean word referring to the famous carved rock façades. In 1964, workmen clearing rubble away from the cliff at the entrance to the gorge found several [[nefesh|funerary inscriptions]] in Nabatean script. One of them was to a certain Petraios who was born in Raqmu (Rekem) and buried in Garshu ([[Jerash]]).<ref>{{cite journal|author = J. Starcky | title = Nouvelle épitaphe Nabatéenne donnant le nom Sémitique de Pétra | journal = Revue Biblique | year = 1965 | volume = 72 | number = 1 | pages = 95–97 | jstor = 44087833 | url =  https://www.jstor.org/stable/44087833}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author = J. Starcky | journal = Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan | volume = 10 | year = 1965 | title = Nouvelles stelles funeraires a Petra | pages = 43–29 & plates | url = http://publication.doa.gov.jo/uploads/publications/55/ADAJ_1965_10-43-49.pdf}}</ref>

{{see also|Sela (Edom)#Confusion with Petra}}

An old theory held that Petra might be identified with a place called ''sela'' in the [[Hebrew Bible]]. ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1911) states that the [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] name of the city, if not Sela, would remain unknown. It nevertheless cautioned that ''sela'' simply means "rock" in Hebrew, and thence might not be identified with a city where it occurs in the biblical text in the book of Obadiah. It is possible that the city was part of the nation of Edom.<ref name=EB1911/>

The passage in [[Diodorus Siculus]] (xix. 94–97) which describes the expeditions which [[Antigonus I Monophthalmus|Antigonus]] sent against the Nabataeans in 312 BC, was understood by some researchers to throw some light upon the history of Petra, but the "petra" (Greek for rock) referred to as a natural fortress and place of refuge cannot be a proper name, and the description implies that there was no town in existence there at the time.<ref name=EB1911/><ref>{{cite book| author-link= Diodorus Siculus| author= Diodorus Siculus| title= Account of Antigonus' expedition to Arabia| volume= xix| chapter-url = https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/19E*.html#93| chapter= Section 95 (note 79)| access-date= 2016-08-07| archive-date= 2020-05-27| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200527185917/http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/19E%2A.html#93| url-status= live}}</ref>