Abdʿobodat (Nabataean Arabic: عبدعبادة ''ʿbdʿbdt'') son of Wahballahi, was a 1st-century Nabatean Arab stonemason who worked in the city of

Hegra HEGRA, which stands for High-Energy-Gamma-Ray Astronomy, was an atmospheric Cherenkov effect, Cherenkov telescope for Gamma-ray astronomy. With its various types of detectors, HEGRA took data between 1987 and 2002, at which point it was dismantl ...

, and constructed a number of monumental

rock-cut tomb A rock-cut tomb is a burial chamber that is cut into an existing, naturally occurring rock formation, so a type of rock-cut architecture. They are usually cut into a cliff or sloping rock face, but may go downward in fairly flat ground. It was a ...

s. He is named by inscriptions on five of the tomb facades Hegra as the executing craftsman. On the basis of the inscriptions, four of the facades can be dated to the reigns of kings

Aretas IV Aretas IV Philopatris (Nabataean Aramaic: 𐢊𐢛𐢞𐢞 𐢛𐢊𐢒 𐢗𐢓𐢆, ''Ḥārītaṯ Rāḥem-ʿammeh'' "Aretas, friend of his people") was the King of the Arab Nabataeans from roughly 9 BC to 40 AD. His daughter Phasaelis w ...

and

Malichus II Malichus II (Nabataean Aramaic: ''Malīḵū'' or ''Malīḵūʾ'') was ruler of Nabatea from 40 to 70 AD. He was the son of Aretes IV and Huldu. Biography Malichus' reign is sometimes perceived as a period of declining Nabataean power, but ...

. Abd'obodat belonged to a family of professional stonemasons. He inherited the family business from his father Wahballahi and his uncle Abdharetat and succeeded them in at least one workshop in the second generation of Nabatean architects. Abd'obodat is considered to be the main representative of one of the two main schools of the Nabataean stonemasons, to which his father, his uncle belonged.Keller, Daniel (2007). "Abd’obodat". Rainer Vollkommer (ed.), ''Künstlerlexikon der Antike. Über 3800 Künstler aus drei Jahrtausenden.'' 9999'(in German.) Hamburg: Nikol, p. 2, .

References

*Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum 2, 198; see Répertoire d'Épigraphie sémitique o
the site
Stonemasons 1st-century Arab people {{DEFAULTSORT:Abd'obodat