A Comparative Analysis of Mortuary and Domestic Artifacts from Petra’s North Ridge

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Interpreting the use of material culture in mortuary contexts provides an intimate view of social identity of both the deceased and mourners in ancient societies. However, the material remains of mortuary practices throughout the Nabataean Kingdom in Jordan have not been systematically investigated. Comparing the material culture between contemporary mortuary and domestic contexts allows for the preliminary characterization of uniquely mortuary material culture, and highlights objects that have a dual purpose within both spaces. This study focuses on portable material culture from two 2nd century BC to 1st century AD contexts within the capital city of Petra: at least three domestic complexes and five rock-cut shaft chamber tombs. Through this comparative analysis of the small finds, we found that coins, lamps, figurines, grinding stones and items of personal ornamentation are found in both mortuary and domestic contexts. However, they differed in abundance or in the case of jewelry, material. Additionally, items including game pieces and coffin studs are specific to mortuary contexts, while specific household items like spoons are only found in domestic contexts. Therefore, this research provides insight into not only formation processes of these contexts, but also a glimpse into meanings of the material objects they contain.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36734.0