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 carava

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