Friday, May 17 | 6:30pm | Little Theater
No Registration Required
Join us for an AIA (Archaeological Institute of America) Toledo Society lecture: “Pipedreams and Paradise: the Water System of Petra, an Ancient Desert Oasis”!
Visitors to Petra are typically amazed by its immense scale, imposing monuments, and dramatic sheer cliffs of variegated hues. The many hydraulic features—channels, aqueducts, cisterns, dams, and pipelines—that are visible throughout the ancient city are recognized as essential for an urban population to thrive in the desert. What is often not imagined is that the highly developed water system was designed not only to serve the basic needs of the people, their animals, and crops, but to produce a surplus of water used for display and recreation, an exhibition of conspicuous consumption that signifies abundance, wealth, and power. The city’s most striking example of the use of water for display and leisure is the pleasure garden (paradeisos), located at heart of the city center. Unknown to surveyors and archaeologists working in Petra for nearly a century of exploration, the Petra Garden and Pool Complex was first identified in 1998 and, since then, has been undergoing archeological excavation, under the direction of Dr. Leigh-Ann Bedal. It is the only known example of a Nabataean garden and one of only a few examples of garden archaeology in the region. This lecture will illustrate elements of the water system of Petra and its monumental garden and pool that have been uncovered through archaeological excavation and what they reveal about the role of water in a desert city.
