T. Springett
Researchers at the site survey the distant desert hills across the Dead Sea, near Masada, that serve as a backdrop for the cemetery of a once-vibrant community.
Qazone’s location in ancient Arabia, which had its capital in the Nabatean city of Petra, supports the identification of the site as Nabatean. But its proximity to Maoza, known to have been home to a Jewish community in the first and second centuries C.E., indicates the possibility of contact between the two communities—contact that could have led to the borrowing of tomb types. Only further excavations will tell.