Greetings from the Negev desert, where traces remain of a vanished ancient civilization

Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR’s international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.

More than 1,500 years ago, an ancient Arab people built a Christian church in the Negev desert. Earlier this month, I got to see what remains of it when I was invited to join a small group of archaeologists who were doing pre-dawn excavations nearby.

You might know of the Nabataean civilization from its fabulous city hewn from sandstone in Petra, Jordan. An Indiana Jones movie was partly filmed there. The ancient Nabataeans were also formidable traders, trekking the deserts of the Arabian and Sinai peninsulas to deliver, among other goods, aromatic frankincense prized for its use in religious ceremonies. To support their long voyages, they built caravanserais, cities and churches like this one along their routes.

The rest of this long-abandoned oasis city, called Mamshit, has crumbled to its foundations, and the Nabataeans long since vanished as a distinct people.

So I was surprised at how intact the baptismal pools were, despite the punishing heat and sand of the Negev. The smaller pool was for baptizing babies, the archaeologists explained; the larger, cross-shaped pool for baptizing adults — speaking to the transition to Christianity the Nabataeans made, starting in the 4th century A.D.

Despite the early-morning sun beating down on my head, I paused for a moment next to the pools. To me, they spoke to the constant change people and societies go through. And in a land traversed by many people over millennia, it was a reminder that while things last a long time, they do not last forever.

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