Arabia Adquisita: The Romanization of the Nabataean Cultic Calendar and the Tannur ‘Zodiac’ Paradigm

Abstract

One of the most fascinating and enigmatic pieces of evidence of Nabataean ingenuity is the so-called Zodiac of Khirbet et-Tannur (Jordan), found in a temple built at the mountain summit close to Djebel Tannur in the first half of the second century CE, possibly when the ancient Nabataean Kingdom was already under Roman rule. However, Nabataean traditions and cults persisted during the Roman period and even survived well into Byzantine times. But one important change was the imposition of a Julian-like calendar, of Egyptian inspiration, instead of the original lunisolar calendar of the Nabataeans-earlier inherited and adapted from the Babylonian one-whose month names were however preserved under a solar perspective and a new time framework entitled Era Provincia Arabia.