Spanish Art Dealer Returns Carved Stones From a Nabatean Temple to Jordan

THE ART NEWSPAPER
By Maev Kennedy

Vine scroll frieze fragment from Period III Altar platform at Khirbet et-Tannur © Juan Orlandis Habsburgo

Stones carved with foliage which once twined around the altar of an ancient Nabatean goddess have been returned to Jordan, after an Oxford academic helped a Spanish art dealer to identify them as missing fragments from a temple excavated more than 80 years ago. The three stones were instantly recognised by Judith McKenzie, an expert on Nabatean history and culture, as once forming part of Khirbet et-Tannur, a Nabatean temple dating back more than 2,000 years. The site is famous for the altars of two fertility images known as the Fish Goddess, which one of the stones joins, and the Vegetation Goddess which now stands in the entrance of the Jordan Museum in Amman. [More]