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Document Details : Title: Once Again, Petra on the Frankincense Road? Author(s): MILDENBERG, Leo Journal: ARAM Periodical Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Date: 1996 Pages: 55-65 DOI: 10.2143/ARAM.8.1.2002185 Abstract : In 1994 I wrote a short note, which was published together with a map in 1995. I had argued that the northern branch of the main frankincense-road did not pass through Petra in Persian times for the following reasons: Petra proper did not exist in the fifth, or even in the fourth centuries BC; the ascent to and from the site would have been an arduous and unnecessary detour; and the ascent through the Siq would have been difficult. At the time, I was not aware of Zayadine’s pioneering article of 1992, which stressed that not all caravan routes passed through the Petra basin. Zayadine writes: “Par ces nombreux sanctuaires, son immense métropole, Pétra devait jouer d’abord le rôle d’un centre religieux et d’une ville sacrée des morts”. In the meantime, however, I was told that no-one had ever supposed that caravans were actually led through the Siq at Petra and that they came out on the other side of the city. I duly checked, and discovered that the maps at my disposal draw the route through just the Wadi Musa, the basin and the Siq. |
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