Wadi Musa
1
WADI MUSA (M.R. 196970). The name of an Arab village located E of Petra. As a designation of a settlement, the name is relatively recent. In Musil (1907–08) “Wâdî Mûsâ” refers only to the valley which derives its name from the perennial spring of ˓Ain Mûsâ. The name of the valley changes at its exit from the depression of Petra. The name of the wadi, “Valley of Moses” is secondary to the name of the spring, “Moses’ Spring.” The post-biblical, but pre-Christian Jewish tradition localized Kadesh (Num 20:1; 20:22) at Petra, and, accordingly, the miracle of the water from the rock (Num 20:2–13) and Aaron’s death (Num 20:23–29) in its vicinity. Aaron’s tomb, originally a pre-Islamic sanctuary (Jeremias 1958: 107), is traditionally located at the highest peak of the Petra region: Nabî Hârûn, “The (sanctuary of the) Prophet Aaron.” For the name of the village below that spring, Musil and his contemporaries still recorded el-Jı̂˒. This is the ancient name of the settlement: Gaia (Eus. Onomast. 62, 18–19 [4th century a.d.]), gy˒ in Nabataean inscriptions (1st century a.d.), and rĕqam gê˒â (Petra) for Kadesh-barnea in the Targum (Deut 1:19). “The Valley,” hag-gay˒ in 1 Chr 4:39 may refer to the same place (see infra).
Wadi Musa is situated on the first terrace of the Transjordanian Plateau’s escarpment leading down to the Wadi ˓Arabah. Relatively gentle slopes surrounding the village to the N, E, and S and continuing below the village to the W provided potential for terrace farming and horticulture. Annual rainfall averages 300 mm; together with the perennial flow of its spring, ˓Ain Mûsâ, the village occupies an environment that allows continuous settled occupation. This case is an exception rather than the rule in S Jordan. Manageable roads, transformed by Trajan into the Via Nova Traiana, linked Wadi Musa/el-Jı̂˒ to the N and to the S. A camel track, which was still used by pilgrims in the Roman period, connected Wadi Musa with the caravan station of Udhruh on the E side of the Transjordanian ridge. All traffic bound for Petra from the N, E, and S had (and still has) to pass through Wadi Musa.
Being continuously occupied, i.e., without standing monuments, and overshadowed by the magnificence of the architectural remains at nearby Petra, Wadi Musa had not yet become a focus of archaeological research. Monumental architecture which is epigraphically and literally attested (Eusebius called Gaia a polis, “city”!) has been destroyed and partially recycled by later building activity (Wenning 1987: 91–92). Nabataean and Roman architectural pieces have been reported by Dalman (1908: 359–60), Kirkbride (1960), and Zayadine (1981: 350). A Nabataean inscription from Wadi Musa was erroneously attributed to Petra (Khairy 1981). The foundations of a major temple were bulldozed in 1978 (Brooker and Knauf fc.).
The Iron Age predecessor of Wadi Musa was located at Ṭawı̄lān, which produced Midianite sherds (13th–12th centuries b.c.) and Edomite occupational strata (8th through 5th centuries b.c.). See TAWILAN. From the Hellenistic period onwards, surface pottery is reported from Wadi Musa (unpublished). 1 Chr 4:39–43 reports an action of Simeonites against hag-gay˒ (v 39) in Seir (v 42) with repercussions on mĕ˓ı̂nı̂m, Minaeans (v 41). Because this action cannot have taken place in the time of Hezekiah (v 41), it is likely that the account alludes to economic and political conflicts at the time of the Chronicler, i.e., the late Persian or early Hellenistic period (Knauf 1985: 116–17; and see MEUNIM). The text, then, reflects the prominence of Gaia/Wadi Musa in the early Nabataean period. Minaean presence among the Nabataeans and in the Petra region is epigraphically attested (Knauf 1985: 117, n. 17). The supreme deity of the Nabataean state is called “Dushara of Gaia” in two inscriptions from Dumah/el-Jôf (a.d. 44; Savignac and Starcky 1957) and Oboda (a.d. 98; Negev 1961: 127–28). The evidence from epigraphy and geography suggests that Gaia/Wadi Musa was the administrative center of the Nabataean realm (Milik 1982: 265; Brooker and Knauf fc.), whereas the significance of Petra was predominantly religious in nature. The precedence of Gaia over Petra is also reflected in the Targumic designation of Petra: Reqam Gê˒â, “Petra of Gaia” vis-à-vis a second rĕqam, Rĕqam d-Ḥegrâ (the Nabataean rock-cut necropolis Madâ˒in Ṣâliḥ near ancient Hegra, al-Ḥijr). Besides Dushara, Nabataean inscriptions mention the deities Baalshamin (Khairy 1981) and al-Kutbâ (Savignac 1934: 586–89) for Gaia/Wadi Musa. When, early in the 12th century a.d., the Crusaders erected a fortress NW of el-Jı̂˒ amidst an early Nabataean sacred area (Brown 1987), for the first time its name referred to the “Moses-Valley-tradition”: “Li Vaux Moyse,” today al-Wu˓ayrah.
Bibliography
Brooker, C. H., and Knauf, E. A. fc. Dushara of Gaia and His Sanctuary. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 21: fc.
Brown, R. M. 1987. A 12th Century A.D. Sequence from Southern Transjordan. ADAJ 31: 267–88.
Dalman, G. 1908. Petra und seine Felsheiligtümer. Leipzig.
Jeremias, J. 1958. Heiligengräber in Jesu Umwelt (Mt. 23,29; Lk. 11,47). Göttingen.
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Kirkbride, D. V. W. 1960. Chronique archéologique: Région du Wadi Ramm, ˒Ain Abu Nakheileh, Khirbet Rizqeh, . . . RB 67: 230–39.
Knauf, E. A. 1985. Mu˒näer und Mëuniter. WO 16: 114–22.
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Negev, A. 1961. Nabatean Inscriptions from ˒Avdat (Oboda), I. IEJ 11: 127–38.
Savignac, R., and Starcky, J. 1957. Une inscription nabatéenne provenant du Djôf. RB 46: 401–16.
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Zayadine, F. 1981. Recent Excavations and Restorations of the Department of Antiquities. ADAJ 25: 341–55.
Ernst Axel Knauf
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (6:864). New York: Doubleday.
