Puteoli Nabataean inscriptions

The Puteoli Nabataean inscriptions are Nabataean Aramaic dedicatory inscriptions discovered at Puteoli (modern Pozzuoli, Italy), a Roman port in the Bay of Naples. They provide evidence for a community of Nabataean merchants active in Italy during the early Roman Empire and for the worship of the Nabataean god Dushara outside Arabia Petraea. The inscriptions are dated to the early 1st century CE, during the reign of the Nabataean king Aretas IV Philopatris.

The first known inscription was published in 1851 by the antiquarian Giuseppe Maria Fusco, who had acquired the stones among several inscriptions found in the port area. Ernest Renan examined the stone in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, together with a second stone, and obtained plaster casts with the assistance of the archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli. Subsequent publications were made by Johann Gildemeister and Joseph Halévy.

They are carved from Italian marble, and are held in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

They are thought to have stood near a temple used by Nabataean traders living or operating in Puteoli, which was discovered underwater in 2023.