Khirbet et-Tannur is a Nabataean site dating from the second century B.C. to the fourth to sixth centuries A.D. located on a hilltop above the Wadi el-Hasa near Khirbet edh-Dharih, 70 km north of Petra along the King's Highway. In 1937, Nelson Glueck excavated Khirbet et-Tannur on behalf of the American Schools of Oriental Research and the Department of Antiquities of Transjordan, but died before completing a final report. Now in two extensively illustrated volumes, the results of Glueck's excavations are finally published, based on previously unstudied excavation records and archaeological materials in the ASOR Nelson Glueck Archive at the Semitic Museum, Harvard University. Volume 1: Architecture and Religion Volume 2: Cultic Offerings, Vessels, and Other Specialist Reports Volume 1 is devoted to the architecture of the temple, the dating of its successive phases, its sculptural decoration and iconography, and to a discussion of Nabataean religion, including the evidence for its connections with the religion of Iron Age Edom and its continuation at the temple of Khirbet et-Tannur well into the Christian era, before the A.D. 363 earthquake brought an end to the site. The volume closes with observations about iconoclasm at Khirbet et-Tannur, Khirbet edh-Dharih and Petra.
About the Author: Judith S. McKenzie lived in a cave while working on The Architecture of Petra. She won the Archaeological Institute of America Wiseman Book Award for The Architecture of Alexandria and Egypt, 300 B.C.-A.D. 700 (Pelican History of Art). She is University Research Lecturer in Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, and Director of the Khirbet et-Tannur project. Joseph A. Greene is Deputy Director and Curator of the Semitic Museum, Harvard University, and Series Editor of the Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Andres T. Reyes is member of Wolfson College, Oxford. He is an archaeologist who teaches Greek and Latin at Groton School. He is the author of Archaic Cyprus (Oxford University Press) and editor of C. S. Lewis's Lost Aeneid (Yale University Press). Catherine S. Alexander is an archaeological artist for the Archaeological Expedition to Sardis (Turkey), Harvard University. Deirdre G. Barrett is a Research Associate of the Semitic Museum, Harvard University, and a specialist in ancient lamps. Brian Gilmour is a metallurgist at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford. John F. Healey is Professor of Semitic Studies at Manchester University. Margaret O'Hea is Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Adelaide (Australia). Nadine Schibille is Lecturer in Byzantine at History, University of Sussex (England), and was a research chemist at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford. Stephan G. Schmid is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the Winckelmann-Institut, Humboldt University, Berlin. Wilma Wetterstrom is Research Associate in Botany in the Harvard University Herbaria. Sara Whitcher Kansa is Executive Director of the Alexandria Archive Institute (Berkeley, CA), Editor of Open Context, and a specialist in zooarchaeology. Kate da Costa is Honorary Research Affiliate in Archaeology, University of Sydney, and a specialist in ancient lamps. Patrick Degryse is Research Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Geology Centre for Archaeological Sciences, University of Leuven (Belguim). The late Sheila Gibson was an archaeological artist best-known for her reconstruction drawings in J. B. Ward-Perkins' Roman Imperial Architecture. Owen Gingerich is Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and History of Science at Harvard University. Elias Khamis is Research Associate in Classics, University of Oxford, and a specialist in ancient metal work.