Historic ‘eye idols’ unearthed in misplaced metropolis of Petra
The metropolis of Petra was as soon as the beating coronary heart of Jordan, attracting individuals from throughout the Middle East.
A hub of politics, it quickly attracted retailers, referred to as the Nabateans, who introduced with them extravagant items and tradition.
The inhabitants boomed, and Petra quickly turned one of many wealthiest settlements within the area, famed for its limitless provide of water in an in any other case dry and abandoned panorama.
Archaeologists have labored on the website the place the town as soon as stood for years, hoping to search out out extra about how the traditional civilisation got here to rise and fall.
Of all of the objects discovered, it’s a handful of stone “eye idols” that exposed probably the most concerning the historical metropolis and its individuals.
The Nabateans based what would develop into their capital as early because the 4th century BC, however the space was inhabited lengthy earlier than that, as early as 7,000 BC.
In discovering relics at Petra, snapshots of misplaced deities, gods that had been revered lengthy earlier than mainstream faith emerged.
The objects had been explored through the Smithsonian Channel’s documentary, “Sacred Sites: Petra”, the place Dr Glen Corbett, from the American Centre for Oriental Research in Jordan, talked about their significance.
The stones and the idols informed researchers that the Nabateans worshipped three feminine deities: Allat (Goddess), Al-‘Uzza (the Powerful One) and Manat (the Goddess of Fate), and commemorated them at their nice shrines and temples.
“The Nabateans themselves who lived in Petra seem to have worshipped in particular the goddess Al-‘Uzza, who is simply termed ‘the Mightiest’,” defined Dr Corbett.
Named after the carved winged animals that after adorned its columns, the Temple of the Winged Lions stands on the centre of Petra.
It was right here that archaeologists got here throughout the attention idols, the programme’s narrator explaining: “A unique eye idol was discovered here, ornately carved, it is a striking image of a goddess.”
Researchers consider that it was devoted to the goddess of Al-‘Uzza on account of it being discovered among the many rubble of the temple.
The temple itself hints at a spot of formality, with a cult surrounding Al-‘Uzza.
A sacred podium was specifically designed for the temple in order that e goddess might be stored hidden from sight till the “moment of climax” throughout chanting classes and the burning of incense.
Dr Corbett mentioned: “In a very dramatic way, pulling the curtains away, suddenly, you come face-to-face with the visual image of the goddess Al-‘Uzza, sitting atop the cultic podium.”
Priestesses would have performed an necessary half within the rituals, and the narrator defined: “Al-‘Uzza’s great status suggests that Nabatean women, too, were important in this society.
“Certainly, they’d far better rights and freedoms than the ladies of Europe or the Roman world.”
The Nabateans did not leave many written records behind, so it is difficult to gauge how exactly they lived, what their day-to-day was like, and what sort of system they existed in, among other things.
However, of the records that do exist, they show how women often held extremely powerful positions in society, with some suggesting they were for a time in control of Petra.
The city stood as an independent oasis for thousands of years before being successfully invaded by the Romans in 106 AD.
They ruled Petra for 250 years before an earthquake tore through the city and destroyed everything that had been built for millennia. From this point on Petra declined and never returned to its former self.
The West first heard of its existence in the 19th century when Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt stumbled throughout it on his travels.