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orion Khirbet Qazone cemetery, the Lisan, Jordan
As mentioned previously, an interesting cemetery has been discovered in the
Lisan peninsula: about 3500 individual shaft graves, aligned north-south
(as are the burials at [non-Nabataean] Kh. Qumran). The excavator, Dr.
Constantinos (Dino) Politis, dates the cemetery to second century AD and
characterizes it as Nabataean. An additional article has appeared on this,
"Salvage excavation identifies rare Nabataean cemetery, saves well
preserved ancient textiles and leather," by Rami G. Khouri, in his weekly
syndicated series, Jordan Antiquity # 80, Oct. 11.
Speaking of shrouds, mostly of wool, Politis said, "This is the
biggest group of complete textiles ever recovered from the ancient Levant."
A new development, not noted in previous publications, is that
"some papyrus scrolls associated with the cemetery or its still
unidentified settlement" have appeared on the antiquities market.
It would appear to be the case that an excavation at the site of
the settlement which supplied the burials--to the north?--would be quite
worthwhile, and deserving of support.
cheers,
Stephen Goranson
goranson@duke.edu