Travelogue

Travelling The Chinese Stretch Of The Silk Road

Jordan: an unexpected link to the silk routes

Jordan is not normally considered to be part of the silk routes, but I found an unexpected link to a branch that came down through Syria and on to Egypt. Although the main silk route is considered to be from China to Europe, there were many side branches of varying importance.

I discovered evidence of trading links to the silk routes at the amazing Nabataean site of Petra and then, on a later trip to Naples (Southern Italy), that traders from Petra had lived in the nearby Roman town of Puteoli (now Pozzuoli) from at least 53/52 BCE and were still there in CE 5/6. A statue of one of their gods; Dusares, looking just like ones in Jordan, impressed me at the Naples museum.

The Nabataeans were originally a nomadic group from the area that is now Saudi Arabia. The society evolved into a kingdom around the third century BCE that eventually controlled most of what is now Jordan but was incorporated into the Roman empire about 106 CE. The biblical Herod’s first wife was a Nabataean. They were well renowned for their trading skills, especially in spices and silks. Petra was the centre of their caravan trade with a large caravanserai just outside the city similar to those on the silk routes. From here they could trade in all directions: Gaza to the west; Bosra and Damascus to the north; to Aqaba and Leuce on the Red Sea; and across the desert to the Persian Gulf.

The site was progressively abandoned from about 550 CE due to the area being earthquake prone.

The site is truly stunning, well worthy of its UNESCO World Heritage site status. It was reached after a hot, mile long walk along a path paved with limestone (probably in the 1st century BCE) and surrounded by tombs and sacred sites. This led into a picturesque sandstone gorge followed by a tunnel which opens up to reveal the “Treasury” temple in all its majesty. The rest of the site contains further impressive sandstone Nabataean buildings and Roman architecture, including a well preserved amphitheatre. Some of you might recognise the site from an Indiana Jones film.

A 2014 National Geographic article speculated that the buildings were orientated so that the sun would highlight the features of the temple structures at the solstices, particularly inside the building called “the monastery”.

One of the secrets of the Nabataeans success may have been their development of sophisticated methods of irrigation, as we also found in the civilisations along the silk routes. Jordan is one of the driest countries on earth and there were no springs inside Petra. The Nabataeans therefore developed water harvesting, flood control and water storage systems, probably later using knowledge from ancient Rome. The water was brought either from springs some distance away or from storm water captured in rock hollows and transported along aqueducts or pipes. One of these is dated to the

Above: Whadi Rhum, Aqaba, Jordan

Above: The Treasury, Petra, Jordan first century BCE. The water was stored in the city in large cisterns. This made sedentary life and agriculture, including wine and olive production, possible. The gorge leading to the site has a water conduit carved out of the rock along one side leading from the Spring of Moses (which is reputed to be the place where Moses struck the rock and water gushed forth). A fountain in the city is fed from this source. The tunnel leading to the site was built in the 3rd century BCE to protect from flash floods.

Like many such sites there is concern that the volume of tourists (pre COVID about half a million a year) will damage the site, but the income is crucial to Jordan’s economy (6% of GDP in 2015) and the local inhabitants who have given up their previous agricultural livelihood. Unfortunately the Heritage Department is under the control of the Ministry of Tourism, which has rather different objectives.

Nearby the main Petra site is the archaeological site of Beidha, inhabited in the Neolithic period, about 7,000BCE, and probably having about 100 inhabitants. At this time they had already started to domesticate wheat and barley and had domesticated goats as well as hunting local animals. There was also evidence of trading activity with items from Turkish and Egyptian areas.

There is also evidence of earlier inhabitation with Homo erectus and Neanderthal remains (1.4m years ago) having been found, and early humans arrived about 250,000 years ago. The earliest human huts in Jordan are dated to about 20,000 years ago in the Kharanah area in the East.

In the Old Testament the inhabitants of what is now Jordan are called Canaanites: Ammon, Moab, Edom.

Coming from a very religious family it was moving to travel through the countryside and stop to look over the border to Israel, including the place where Moses is said to have seen the promised land.. It brought back memories of working on a kibbutz in Galilee in 1967 and then hitchhiking around the country. We saw the Dead Sea from afar, which I had floated in, and other reminders of its history in the remains of crusader castles. 1n 2016, shortly before our planned trip, there was an attack on tourists at Karak castle. However it was all quiet when we visited a neighbouring castle.

We also drove to wadi rum (or valley of the moon), through amazing sculpted sandstone landscapes, where several science fiction movies have been filmed. This was inhabited from ancient times, including by the Nabataeans, who left the remains of a temple and marks on rock faces. The area was later made famous in T E Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom, his account of the role of “Arab Revolt” during the first world war. The local forces assisted the British but were then not given the territory they had been promised when the French and British divided up the middle east after the first world war. Tensions resulting from this colonial partitioning exist from Iraq to Egypt to the present day.

My trip concentrated on the landscape and the archaeology, including the excellent museum in Amman, the capital. However there is much else to enjoy in modern Jordan which has survived the conflicts that have whirled around it remarkably well. The country has a high development status with an economy in the upper middle income group and a well-developed healthcare system for the 10 million population. However it is very dependent on foreign aid.

Its largely Sunni Muslim population is very tolerant of other groups and the Christians hold seats in parliament. In an area where religious conflict is a constant threat the estimated 250,000 Christians, about 4% (2014), including some very old Eastern Orthodox communities dating back to the first century CE, are well integrated into society. It has also taken in a large number of Syrian refugees who started to flee to Jordan in 2011 and continue to arrive, but in much smaller numbers.

A memorable trip giving an insight into East and West links over millennia. Bruce Huett

Right: Nabataean betyl

Photo by Bjorn Anderson. From the Wikimedia Commons