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The Nabataean
religion
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| The religion
of the Nabataeans changed dramatically throughout their history.
Since they started as a nomadic tribe, their religion at first had nothing to do
with fertility. Later as they began settling down and started
depending on agriculture, they had to add specialties to some
gods and add new gods to their religion. One of their main gods,
Dushara was against drinking alcohol, but later dropped this
attitude and even had grape leaves (representing wine) as one
of his symbols. Settling down resulted also
in building temples, and having contact with other civilizations
influenced the Nabataean religion, rituals and art. |
 A.
Maani |
| The Nabataeans
believed in life after death, and had great respect for their
dead. Anyone unwise enough to interfere with the sanctity of
a tomb was punished with fines and curses. Fines were to be
paid to the priest who had authority in legal matters in addition
to his role in religious ceremonies. One of their religious
ceremonies involved offering sacrifices to the gods in the form
of meals shared between the Nabataeans and the gods. The Nabataeans
worshipped their kings. The first king to be worshipped was
Obodas the second 62/61-59 A.D. |
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| Nabataeans
built a lot of temples in many places, the most important of
which are the temple in Wadi
Rum, Khirbet el Tannur, Khirbet el Threih and Qasr
al Bint, they built their temples inside their kingdom as
well as outside it, one of their temples was built in Puteoli,
Italy. |
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