(100 -200 AD) The pavement marks the emplacement of the main colonnaded street that ran through Petra's city center. Built by the Romans in the second century AD, it replaced an earlier Nabataean street – a spacious dirt-and-gravel road, which may have been lined with houses that followed the winding course of the Wadi Musa. Petra's main riverbed. The street probably hosted markets that traded good such as frankincense and myrrh from southern Arabia and east Africa, as well as semi-precious stones, textiles, and spices from India. The Romans straightened, narrowed and paved the road, ornamenting it with a double row of columns and constructing a stretch of commercial shops on its south side. As in all Roman cities, Petra's main avenue served as a commercial center and place of social gathering. Coins and bed supports found in one area suggest that there was even a tavern where patrons reclined fora meal.  Archaeological investigation has shown that this thoroughfare was badly damaged by the devastating earthquake of 363 AD which toppled its colonnades and commercial buildings. The nine columns presently standing have been re-erected from ancient column drums littering the street