Nabataean

Abstract Located on the eastern periphery of the Roman Empire, the Nabataean client-kingdom played an important role in regional politics and international trade, but it is primarily known from Greek and Latin writers, of whom Josephus is of primary importance. What can be postulated about any native literature has to be culled from a variety of sources, including treatises on Arabika that survive only in fragments, a rather large corpus of Nabataean Aramaic inscriptions, and papyri. They provide glimpses at least of possible ethnographical, mythological, legal, and religious works. In particular, inscriptions and papyri refer to archives, and are saturated with Arabic loanwords implying this was the private or native Nabataean language. Nabataean religious festivals and activities were organized around a lunar calendar, preserved in a few zodiac representations, with well-regulated pilgrimages and related activities, suggesting records and texts were preserved in temple archives.