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Abstract
Siq al-Barid preserves one of Petra's few Nabataean wall paintings, and the only in situ example with figurative subject matter. Given our current very limited knowledge of Nabataean art and customs, the importance of the painting's survival in its original location cannot be underestimated. Since 2006, the Petra National Trust has collaborated with the Courtauld Institute of Art in London to conserve and clean the painting. Emerging from beneath obscuring dirt and graffiti, its extremely high quality and stylistic indebtedness to Hellenistic art is only now coming to be fully recognized, although scientific examination has revealed a surprisingly wide divergence from the Greek technological tradition. This paper will consider the techniques and conservation of the painting, including such issues as the problem of balancing site protection requirements against the demands of tourism, and the potential for integrating the local Bedouin community in these efforts.