Across borders and scales: investigating Nabataean painted heritage at SESAME and Bessy II Synchrotron

Nabataean wall paintings from the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Petra in Jordan are unique surviving evidence for Nabataean painted materials and technology. We aim at understanding these paintings by investigating their composition and painting technology using non-invasive and non-destructive lab and synchrotron microscopic and spectroscopic methods. A first journey from Petra-Jordan to Berlin-Germany took place over a decade ago to investigate the paintings at TUB and Bessy II Synchrotron facility. Results allowed successful identification of elemental and chemical composition of the various paint layers [1]. However, molecular investigations led us to another journey from Berlin to Allan-Jordan where EMIRA beamline at SESAME synchrotron opened its doors for studying the Nabataean painted heritage. Here, we present a selection of the results from our experiments at the lab and at the synchrotron.