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Title: Was Dionysos, the Wine God, Venerated by the Nabataeans?
Author(s): PATRICH, Joseph
Journal: ARAM Periodical
Volume: 17    Date: 2005   
Pages: 95-113
DOI: 10.2143/ARAM.17.0.583323

Abstract :
Trying to comprehend the religious essence of an ancient people is not a simple task. Distance in time, a monotheistic mentality, the secular mind and rational approach, paucity of written sources, and the difficulty inherent in the interpretation of the mute archaeological structures and artifacts, are obstacles that make the endeavor so hard. The difficulty is even greater when the written evidence was transmitted by an ancient author who was a foreigner to the culture he was describing. His mistakes may lead us astray. Such mistakes are easy to trace when attributed to the religion of the Jews; it is much more difficult in the case of the Nabataeans.

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