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Chapter 3: Women and Family in Nabataea

To this point, discussion of cultural identity has been drawn from overall
observations based on space, landscape, and archaeological and historical evidence. For
the most part, the preceding two chapters have considered at issues anonymously, looking
at general operation of groups in the context of the fluid construct called Nabataea. In
Chapter 1, the land itselfwas considered in terms of its geography, history, and
population in the years prior to the establishment ofNabataea. In Chapter 2, the
character of the inhabitants, both nomadic and sedentary, was explored. In this chapter,
and in the two that follow, I shift from this broad-based approach to a more defined
analysis, considering how particular subsets of society engaged what it meant to be
Nabataean or to inhabit Nabataea. Here, I will look at the evidence for women and
family relations. In Chapter 4, I consider the royal family. In Chapter 5, the focus shifts
slightly to the action and priorities of non-royal elites. These three groups are the easiest
to track according to the available evidence. In the final chapter, the conclusions drawn
from these particular analyses are synthesized with the initial general observations from
Chapters 1 and 2, allowing us to access (at least to a degree) the elusive and largely silent
remainder, those who are poorly attested in the record but nevertheless claimed
association with Nabataea for one reason or another. Women are an appropriate starting
point, for while the evidence is largely drawn from elite contexts, it informs us in a
broader sense about concepts of gender and family and the reception of such ideas across
boundaries of class or custom.
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In what is surely one of the more salacious passages in the Geographia, Strabo
details the scandalous sexual behavior reported in Arabia Felix.
6:Se:\cpo't Ttl.ltWTEpOl Twv TeKvwv KaT6: Kat
oi EK TOV yevovs Kat aAAas apxas apxovor
Kotvi} KTi'jots aTTaot Tois ovyyeveot, Kvptos Se 6
l.lia Se Kat ywi} TTilotv, 6 Se cp90:oas eimwv l.liyvvTat npo6ets
TfiS 6vpas TTJV yap Seiv e6os
VVKTEpEVEI Se napa Sto 6:Se:\cpot
lTclVTWV eioi- l.liyvvvTat Se Katl.lTJTpaor l.lOIXc';l Se sTJI.lia
l.lOIXOS S' EOTtV 6 aAAOV yevovs.
Brothers are held in higher honor than other children. The descendants
of the royal family not only reign as kings, but also hold other offices,
in accordance with seniority of birth; and property is held in common
by all kinsmen, though the eldest is lord of all. One woman is also wife
for all; and he who first enters the house before any other has
intercourse with her, having first placed his staff before the door, for by
custom each man must carry a staff; but she spends the night with the
eldest. And therefore all children are brothers. They also have
intercourse with their mothers; and the penalty for an adulterer is death;
but only the person from another family is an adulterer.
1
It is not immediately clear whether or not this passage describes the Nabataeans or their
neighbors to the south. Strabo's account of Arabia is particularly muddled here; he
jumps back and forth between the Nabataeans and the 'five kingdoms' in Arabia Felix,
and he rarely signals his demarcation of the groups. (For example, in Geog. 16.4.21 he
claims that the "The first people above Syria who dwell in Arabia Felix are the
Nabataeans and the Sabaeans.") While such fuzziness is certainly appropriate in light of
the transient and fluid nature of the nomadic groups and subgroups operating in the area,
the vagaries in this text make a literal reading inadvisable.
As noted (above, p. 12), Roman authors were hardly objective in their approach to
Nabataea. With both Strabo and Diodorus, the relevant passages are epitomes of
travelers' reports (Hieronymus and Aelius Gallus, respectively). Josephus, too, makes
heavy use of the accounts ofNicolaus of Damascus in his treatment ofNabataean foreign
1
Strabo, Geog. 16.4.25, tr. H.L. Jones (Loeb Classical Library). The specific meaning ofyevos is open to
interpretation; while the focus on brothers, sisters, and mothers seems to support 'family', alternative
readings of 'kin' or even 'tribe' are possible.
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affairs. Even the late (6th c. C. E.) Ethnika of Stephanus of Byzantium utilizes the now-
lost Arabika of Uranius, which was written sometime during the first few centuries C.E.
The secondary character of these sources must not be overlooked.
We must therefore approach Strabo's account of Arabian sexuality with caution.
However, despite the difficulties in interpretation, this remains one of a very few
references in the classical texts that approach the issue of the role of women in Nabataean
society. As such it cannot be dismissed outright, but rather probed for potential (and
likely oblique) information on gender relations. To Strabo, marriage and family in
Arabia Felix are characterized by practices that are certainly foreign to any broadly
acceptable Graeco-Roman ethic. Even if Strabo exaggerates the details for dramatic
effect, as seems likely, his observation invites consideration of the different aspects of
gender and family in Nabataea. Through examination of archaeological, historical, and
epigraphic evidence, this chapter will seek to draw back the veil which has so long
shrouded the Nabataean woman in obscurity?
Non-Royal Women
As a foil to the external perspective offered by Strabo, it is instructive to begin the
examination by considering the tomb inscriptions ofMeda'in Saleh (Figure 7).
3
While
there are very few inscribed tombs at Petra, a series of monumental tombs at Meda'in
Saleh, the major Nabataean settlement in the Hejaz, bear inscriptions (Figure 16).
4
Generally formulaic, they name the dedicator of the tomb, the names of those interred,
2
This long-neglected field of study has only recently come under serious scrutiny, and the publication of
al-Fassi's dissertation (seen. 16 below) will surely expand our knowledge of the matter.
3
Located in the Hejaz. For discussion of the site, see Chapters 2 & 5.
4
These inscriptions are collected and discussed in Healey and al-Theeb ( 1993 ). Translations used are those
offered in the edition.
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and then invoke divine protection of the tomb. Notably, 24 ofthese 38 inscriptions
include references to women.
5
Women are named as dedicators as well as funerary
inhabitants. In addition, lineages are often traced through the female, as in the inscription
known (after Healey and al-Theeb) as Hll:
This is the burial-niche which Wushuh daughter ofBagrat made for herself
within the rock-cut tomb belonging to her and her daughters ...
6
In an act which surely underscores her prominence, this same Wushuh dedicated
another tomb (for reasons unknown), whose inscription (Hl2) begins:
This is the tomb which Wushuh daughter ofBagrat and Qaynu and
Nashkuyah, her daughters, Taymanites, made for themselves, each one,
and for 'Amirat and 'Usra'nat and Al'alat, their sisters, daughters of
this Wushuh, and for those under their protection, every one, that
Wushuh and her daughters mentioned above and all those under their
protection might be buried in this tomb ...
7
The designation 'under their protection' (0;'11l) is certainly interesting, since the
protectors are all female. Healey and al-Theeb (1993: 139-140) interpret the protected
ones as either minors or children of a different father. Cantineau understands it as a
patron-client relationship: "pour tous leurs clients".
8
This is the only time the word 0;'11l
appears in Nabataean, and therefore its specific application is not entirely clear. In any
case, it is noteworthy that the agents of protection/beneficence are women who
presumably possess a degree of authority. This is underscored by the case in H24, where
"the woman in this case has ownership of double the man's share, a fact which yet again
shows the prominent, property-owning role ofNabataean women in this area."
9
These tomb inscriptions from Meda'in Saleh are certainly noteworthy, and raise
questions about the status of women in Nabataea. By all appearances, the women in this
5
Healey and al-Theeb (1993); al-Fassi (1997).
6
Healey and al-Theeb (1993): 131.
7
Healey and al-Theeb (1993): 137.
8
Cantineau (1930): 1.66.
9
Healey and al-Theeb (1993): 184.
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particular geographic/social subset of society were able to purchase property in their own
names, and to designate their own beneficiaries. It is uncertain whether or not they
therefore had control of their own finances, but this would not be out of keeping in a
contemporary regional context. Similar evidence is found in papyri from Judaea and
Egypt.IO
In addition to an outlay of money, the act of dedicating a monumental tomb also
required communal acceptance. The tombs at Meda'in Saleh are the dominating features
of the civic landscape, carved in fine detail upon the large massifs that surround the
inhabited area. That two-thirds of the inscribed tombs mention women suggests that they
were wealthy and active in local affairs. How exactly this was manifested is unknown,
but it possible that they took part in ceremonial activity or the management of family
affairs.
There is, however, no evidence that Nabataean women held administrative power
in Meda'in Saleh, not even in the titular sense seen in Asia Minor during the Hellenisitic
and Roman periods. There, women occasionally bore titles associated with civic offices,
but van Bremen has shown that these were honorary designations and did not entail
actual participation in affairs of govemance.
11
The few Nabataean inscriptions referring
to the power structure in the city mention men only.
12
While not belonging to members of the royal family, the monumentality of the
tombs suggests that these women were well-positioned in society. On the basis of this
10
For a discussion on the property-owing status of Judaean women and the role of their male guardians, see
Cotton (1997). Note her comment, "There is no doubt at all that women could own property and dispose of
it as they wished." (273) For Egypt, see e.g., P.Mich.inv. 1271, a property settlement after a marriage,
dating to the 1st century C. E. Husselman et al. (1944): 340, recto, col. i-ii. See also case studies in
Rowlandson, ed. (1998): 105-12,74-88.
n For full discussion of the participation of women in civic life in Asia Minor, see van Bremen (1996).
12
See e.g., Winnett (1973).
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local elite subset, we cannot project any reliable observations on the character of
Nabataean women as a whole. Gender relations among the poorer families are
unattested, or at least not yet identified, in the archaeological record. And despite the
dedication of these tombs at a Nabataean cultural center, these women do not identify
themselves as 'Nabataeans' .
13
Wushuh and her family are from nearby Tayma, and
choose to append 'Taymanites' as their preferred epithet. While not surprising in itself,
as the use of one's home settlement as an identifier was a standard practice in antiquity, it
complicates our appreciation of just how 'Nabataean' they may also have considered
themselves. Did they still feel themselves part of the political unit that exercised
hegemony, limited as it may have been, in the Hejaz? Did they claim affiliation with the
nomadic group from which the elite at Petra was descended? Did they claim kinship or
commonality with other groups or individuals in other areas, either within or beyond the
kingdom? These remain open questions.
We are on somewhat surer footing in regard to the degree of association these
women held with the cultural expressions ofNabataea, insofar as Meda'in Saleh was an
important regional center ofNabataean administration and its funerary architecture and
cult practices (as expressed in the invocations on the inscriptions) align with those at
Petra. Wushuh, for example, chose to dedicate her tombs at Meda'in Saleh rather than at
Tayma, and did so in the same style and using the same types of invocations as other
tombs at the site. We can therefore conclude that she (and the other wealthy women who
are recorded in the tomb inscriptions) claimed membership as Nabataeans in some sense.
In the same way, it can be deduced that the inhabitants ofMeda'in Saleh, by allowing
these women to publicly commemorate themselves, were receptive to their actions.
13
'Nabataean' is the preferred designation used by the kings, as coin legends attest (see examples below).
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