Nabataean Farming and Rural Production in the Southern Levant and Northwestern Arabia

Farming supported Nabataean towns and trading routes as well as rural households. Communities grew grain, pulses and fruit, kept animals and adapted cultivation to a territory extending from the southern Syrian uplands to the oases of northwestern Arabia. This was a varied agricultural landscape: rain and runoff mattered around Petra, while wells and irrigated plots were essential at Hegra.

The independent kingdom ended with Roman annexation in 106 CE, but farms and orchards continued to operate. Excavated crop remains, water installations and property documents reveal both earlier Nabataean activity and later developments. The distinction is particularly useful in the Negev, where extensive terrace systems often belong to the Roman and Byzantine centuries rather than to the kingdom.

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Fields, terraces and the movement of water

Much of the country around Petra receives seasonal rain rather than a dependable flow throughout the year. Rain falling on rocky slopes can run away rapidly, carrying soil with it. A terrace wall holds soil behind it and slows that movement. Walls across a shallow valley can retain runoff in a cultivated strip, while channels guide water from a collecting area toward a plot. In this way, the rainfall received by a larger surface can be concentrated where crops are growing.

These installations changed the work of farming. Building a wall was only the beginning: breaches needed repair, channels needed clearing, and farmers had to maintain the soil retained behind the structure. A badly directed torrent could damage a field instead of watering it. Harvesting runoff therefore combined cultivation with repeated care of the surrounding landscape.

Agricultural activity around Petra expanded during the first century CE, alongside the growth of the city. Its hinterland contained farm sites and water-management installations that connected rural production with urban demand. Some crops could use direct rainfall; others benefited from additional watering. Spring-fed gardens and collected water offered further possibilities near reliable sources.

The Negev followed its own development. Research by Tali Erickson-Gini places early Nabataean cultivation there chiefly in settings using spring-water irrigation. Runoff farming with barrages and terraces became especially widespread in late antiquity, from the fourth to seventh centuries CE. These fields supported desert cultivation for centuries after the Nabataean monarchy ended.

Grain and pulses through the farming year

Archaeobotany, the study of plant remains from archaeological sites, has identified barley and wheat in settlements across the former Nabataean territory. Both appear at Petra and Dharih in Nabataean occupation, and at Hegra. Barley is prominent in the northern assemblages, while wheat is relatively more important at Hegra. Farmers were working with established Near Eastern crops adapted to different local conditions.

These cereals were winter crops. Sowing at the start of the rainy season allowed plants to use the cooler, wetter months before ripening in spring or early summer. Harvesting was followed by separating grain from stalks and husks and cleaning it for storage. Root and stem fragments suggest that some plants were pulled up during harvesting, although cutting with sickles could also uproot a portion of the crop.

Grain supported both people and animals. Crop residues could have further uses as fodder, fuel, bedding or material mixed into building products. A harvest therefore provided more than the edible kernels. Maintaining supplies between harvests also required keeping stored grain usable and distributing it to towns, households and travellers.

Lentils are the most common identified pulse in the studied plant assemblages, particularly in Petra’s ez-Zantur residential area. Other legumes occur in smaller numbers. Grain and pulses supplemented one another in the food supply, while the limited processing waste in some houses suggests that cleaned grain arrived from elsewhere. Agricultural work and household preparation could thus occur in different places.

Olives, vines and other fruit trees

Orchards and vines required a longer investment than annual grain crops. Trees had to be maintained over successive years, and their fruit needed harvesting and, in many cases, processing. The pairing of fruit remains with wood charcoal helps identify places where trees were probably grown locally rather than where imported fruit was simply eaten.

Olives and grapes have substantial evidence around Petra and at Dharih. An olive crusher from ez-Zantur dates to the late second or early first century BCE, demonstrating oil production within Petra during an early Nabataean phase. Crushing broke up the olives before pressing separated oil-bearing liquid from the pulp. Press installations at Dharih belong to the Nabataean and Roman history of the settlement, and rock-cut processing features also occur in the Petra region.

Figs grew at Petra and Dharih, while the warmer Hegra oasis had a different emphasis. Dates dominate much of its fruit evidence, with pomegranates also identified in Nabataean deposits. Hegra’s arid environment made groundwater particularly valuable: wells tapped the water table to sustain irrigated areas around the residential centre. Maintaining access to water was a condition of keeping productive orchards there.

These regional differences supplied complementary products. Dried fruit and grain could travel more easily than a fresh harvest, and oil and wine could be stored in containers. Towns and road stations drew on agricultural districts as part of the same economy that moved incense and other more conspicuous commodities.

Date palms and property at Maoza

Maoza, near the southeastern end of the Dead Sea, offers a documentary view of an orchard economy. The town belonged to the Nabataean kingdom before 106 and included Jewish residents as well as Nabataeans. In 99 CE, Shimon son of Menahem acquired a date-palm orchard there. The transaction survives among the legal papers later preserved by his daughter Babatha.

The papers reveal a sequence of dealings rather than a simple sale by a royal official to Shimon. Archelaus, a Nabataean official, had previously bought much the same orchard and then cancelled that purchase. He gave Shimon earlier documents to help secure his title. Shimon later gave the orchard to Babatha. Written deeds preserved the property’s history and could be used when ownership needed to be demonstrated.

Date growing depended on regular irrigation and skilled work above ground. Male and female date palms are separate plants. Transferring pollen to the female flowers by hand improves fruit production, and both pollination and harvesting require access to the upper part of the palm. At Maoza, irrigation involved periodic inundation of the fields, probably using water from the Zered drainage to the east. An orchard’s value depended on sustaining these recurring tasks as well as possessing the land.

Herding and production after annexation

Animal keeping accompanied cultivation. Sheep and goats, camels and other livestock appear in research on Nabataean sites. Herds supplied food and raw materials, while pack animals connected producers with consumers. Mobile herding and permanent farms could operate within the same region, with animals using grazing grounds beyond a settlement’s cultivated plots.

After annexation, Babatha’s documents show how orchard income interacted with Roman administration and family finances. In the census of December 127 CE she registered four date-palm properties at Maoza. Later papers concern loans, marriage obligations and the sale of harvests. In 130 she took control of the produce from three orchards belonging to her deceased husband at Maoza to recover money owed to her; his heirs contested her claim.

These were the affairs of a particular property-owning Jewish family under Roman government. They give agriculture a human and economic setting: an orchard generated saleable produce, secured obligations and could become the subject of a lawsuit. Together with the earlier deeds and excavated crops, they show rural production continuing across the change from a Nabataean king to a Roman province.