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The Art of
the Nabataeans
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| The art of the
Nabataeans can be explored in several fields: architecture, sculpture,
and pottery. |
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Sculpture of
the Nabataeans
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| In
the story of the Nabataean sculpture you can clearly see the story
of art in the region, it goes back to the stone age, as well as the
mythology and philosophy, people in this region used to make very
delicate sculptures, so simple and carrying so much expression at
the same time. The Nabataeans for example were known to sculpt
their idols in the simplest way imaginable- a cube,
the name of one of their goddesses Ka'bo, means 'the cube'. They later added some realistic elements
to their abstract forms, such as an equally abstract pair of eyes
and a nose, and later even more complicated decorative elements started
to take over. After some time and resistance of the influence coming
from Greece and Rome, Romans with their enormous armies and realistic
sculptures, invaded what we now know as the Middle East, and eventually
even Petra fell. |
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| Even after the Roman influence on their
sculpture, it is easy to see the last efforts to hold onto their own
form of the art. In the newer realistic sculptures, they would mold
the hair, the beard and the clothes in the old, beautiful, abstract
and yet simple way representative of their previous artistic history.
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