in turn led to the discovery of methods and techniques of cultivation very different
from those used by the traditional agricultural societies.
All this however, was secondary to trade, and its decline caused the downfall
of the Nabataean state, and the more or less permanent dissapearance of settled life,
which must be understood as a return to nomadism.
Thus the phenomenon of Nabataean settlement is in many ways unique in the
Middle East, and it is to be hoped that further investigation and excavation in all
territories inhabited once by the Nabataeans willenable us to study the process of its
development on a larger scale and with more exactitude.
Warsaw, January 1977.
from those used by the traditional agricultural societies.
All this however, was secondary to trade, and its decline caused the downfall
of the Nabataean state, and the more or less permanent dissapearance of settled life,
which must be understood as a return to nomadism.
Thus the phenomenon of Nabataean settlement is in many ways unique in the
Middle East, and it is to be hoped that further investigation and excavation in all
territories inhabited once by the Nabataeans willenable us to study the process of its
development on a larger scale and with more exactitude.
Warsaw, January 1977.