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Personal Names in the Nabatean Realm
Avraham Negev
Qedem, Monographs of the Institute of Archaeology 32
(Jerusalem: Hebrew Univ., 1991)
The Nabateans, builders of magnificent Petra (now widely known as a setting for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), were masters of the desert as well, leaving caravan stops, burial grounds and graffiti over a wide area. This reference work by Avraham Negev (“Understanding the Nabateans,” BAR 14:06) lists 1,249 Nabatean personal names in Aramaic, indicating the geographic location in which they were found, the Arabic form of the name and an interpretation. Analytical tables divide the names by regional distribution, theophoric elements, ethnic origin, frequency of use and references to occupation, plants, animals, celestial bodies and physical and spiritual qualities. A valuable resource for understanding the long history (fourth century B.C.–second century A.D.) of the Nabateans.
Economic Texts From Sumer
Daniel C. Snell and Carl H. Lager
Yale Oriental Series, Babylonian Texts Vol. XVIII (New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press, 1991)
These 125 previously unpublished cuneiform documents (including 25 now lost) include sheep tallies, silver accounts, labor records and production estimates dating from about 2000 B.C. The tablets, copied by Carl Lager (1878–1949) and indexed and annotated by Daniel Snell, were found in three different sites in southern Iraq: Puzrish-Dagan, Umma and Lagash-Girsu. The texts are accompanied by five indexes to personal names, royal names, geography, relevant terms and dates.
Unearthing Atlantis: An Archaeological Odyssey
Charles Pellegrino
(New York: Random House, 1991)
In an archaeological detective story, astrobiologist/paleontologist Pellegrino combines a study of volcanoes past and present, the journals of Spyridon Marinatos (original excavator of ancient Thera), extensive visits to the site of Thera and interviews with current excavator Christos Doumas (see “High Art from the Time of Abraham,” BAR 17:01). Pellegrino describes the destruction and past history of the site, now called Akrotiri, buried nearly 4,000 years ago by a catastrophic volcanic eruption and identified by some as Plato’s lost Atlantis, or at least as the location of the event that spawned the myth.
Personal Names in the Nabatean Realm
