Snake Monument
About
A carved snake coils across the top of this cube-shaped block tomb south of the city center, guarding it in a Nabataean religious tradition where serpents symbolized protection. Local legend held the snake would strike any grave robber who came near. Cut in the early second century BCE, it ranks among the earliest surviving sculptural monuments in Petra, related in style to the Djinn Blocks near Bab al-Siq. It sat along the caravan route entering Petra from the Negev and Sinai, already three centuries old by 117 CE.
What happened here
Roman burial is a family matter conducted in public. The dead are carried out of town, cremated or laid in the ground, and mourned with formal noise; the funeral of anyone important is a procession with masks of the ancestors carried by hired men. The tomb that follows is designed to be read by strangers on the road: name, age, offices, sometimes a trade shown in relief, often a line addressed directly to the passer-by. Ordinary people appear here as they nowhere else — a baker with his ovens carved on the front, a freedman naming the woman he could finally marry, a child's age given in days. Anniversaries bring the family back with food and wine.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →