AWRC-OCLW Joint Seminar Approaching Ancient Lives

Abstract: Life Writing in an ancient desert Michael Macdonald In the last century BC and the first four centuries AD the nomads in the deserts of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia learnt to read and write. They used this skill to carve graffiti on the basalt desert rocks. These graffiti are often quite long and tell us about their daily lives, the local gossip, events in the desert and in the settled areas, and particularly about their emotions. They are like single leaves from multiple diaries scattered across the desert which give us fragmentary pictures of the lives of many different individuals. From them we can build a unique first-hand picture of their way-of-life, families and emotions which is not available for any of their contemporaries in Roman Syria and Arabia.