Lucy describing her work in the interior of Tomb 781

Today we were treated to a tour of several Nabataean rock-cut facade tombs in the Al-Kubtha area, southwest of the North Ridge but also within sight of the ancient city center. We were guided by Dr. Lucy Wadeson, who excavated these tombs as part of her doctoral dissertation research on Nabataean tombs at Oxford University in the UK. Lucy visited us for a week to learn more about bioarchaeology and Nabataean pottery. One of our students, Lindsay Holman, will join Lucy in Amman for a couple of weeks after our season to help analyze the  pottery from her project.

Last evening Lucy gave a great lecture at our dig house about her project, which made today’s on-site your much more informative. Knowledge of these monumental tombs is a nice complement to the more humble shaft tombs which are the focus of our project.

S. Thomas Parker

The Petra North Ridge Team outside one of Lucy’s tombs at Al-Kubtha at Petra.