✦ The Ancient Atlas

Little Petra (Siq al-Barid)

RockcutMiddle East

Nabataean rock-cut complex 8 km north of Petra in Jordan. Known as Siq al-Barid (the 'cold canyon') for its narrow defile shaded from the sun. Conventionally dated to the 1st century CE as a caravan suburb of Petra, serving traders on the incense route. Features triclinia (dining halls), cisterns, a unique frescoed biclinium with surviving Hellenistic-style paintings, and a system of stairs and chambers carved directly into the sandstone cliffs. The interior wall surfaces preserve some of the clearest tool-mark evidence in the region : continuous diagonal raking, parallel vertical grooves running floor to ceiling without break, and curved sweeping arcs that do not match the chisel kinematics conventionally assigned to Nabataean stonecutting. Brien Foerster's field walkthrough documents the marks in close detail.

30.3727°, 35.4506°

Look Closer — this site carries open questions: tool marks suggesting advanced machining; stones fitted without mortar, almost no gap; stones heavier than the period's tools could lift.
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Walkthrough videos (1)

Little Petra : Strange Tool Marks in Stone | Brien FoersterLittle Petra : Strange Tool Marks in Stone | Brien FoersterBrien Foerster

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