by Laurent Gorgerat and Robert Wenning, with a note by Laila Nehmé
Althought the tomb was briefly mentioned in earlier studies Brünnow – Domaszewski 1904: 199; Zayadine – Farajat 1991: 278. , it was never measured nor excavated.
The recessed high façade measures ca. 4.70 m in width (Fig. 2). Although a fragment of an attic moulding was found in front of the entrance Gorgerat – Wenning 2010: 266 Fig. 23. it could not be proven that the façade and the entrance were decorated. The entrance itself measures 1.82 m in width and leads into a large, ca. 40 m square broad room with three loculi on each of the three sides (Figs. 3. 4). The loculi measure 1.70 m in height. The cutting of the loculi started 60 cm above the floor. The central niche in the eastern wall is framed by an arcosolium and is oriented parallel to the room (Fig. 4), while all other loculi are cut at right-angles into the walls. It is well-known that the loculus opposite the entrance seems to be the most important one in the chamber tombs, but there are only a few examples with such an arcosolium Bessac 2007: 37. 74. 77. .
The entrance to the tomb is made by two steps (Fig. 5). A great part of the upper step has got a large rectangular depression of few cm and wider than the entrance. A groove of 12 cm in width and 7 cm in depth is right-angled cut into the depression near the southern edge of the entrance. We suppose that this installation should be connected with some protection or closing of the entrance. Libation cups are cut into the threshold and beyond it connected by a small channel, a common installation among the tombs Sachet 2009: 97–112. . A further installation probably indicating rituals for the deaths consists of a a shallow depression of 56 x 70 x 10 cm cut into the floor, to the left of the entrance.
At this point it should be noted that the interior of the tomb shows different tooling then in the triclinium D17 on the Southern Terrace Gorgerat – Wenning 2013: 227–228; Gorgerat – Wenning 2010: 261. . The back wall of the central niche of BD 24 has fine diagonal lines tilted at forty-five degrees which hatched band-like in the opposite direction in the right upper corner of the arcosolium McKenzie 1990: 43. 152 Fig. 51a. . This might be an indication for the date of the construction of the tomb. Other walls are more roughly and irregularly quarried.
According to the fact that most of the rock-cut structure in Petra were (and still are) used as a shelter for animals, we first had to clean the tomb from dung. During this work, double cup-holes used for libation were discovered in the floor directly at the foot of three of the loculi. The cleaning also revealed the presence of a pit grave located in front of loculus ST1 (Figs. 4. 6). During its excavation, it soon became apparent that the pit grave was looted. As with most tombs, the robbers proceed in the most efficient way, which means looting the part of the grave were the head of the death (and therefore the jewellery) was supposed to be. In our case, the head of the death was supposed to lay in the northern part of the grave, according to the libation cup on the floor of BD 24 (Fig. 3). It could clearly be observed, that the northern section of the grave was broken up, while the southern part remained more or less untouched (Figs. 7. 10). The pit grave shows the typical shape of Nabataean rock-cut graves (Fig. 9). At a depth of approximately 1.9 m, a protruding ledge of 5–10 cm width was cut in the rock to support the heavy covering slabs, which were still in situ in the southern part of the pit (Fig. 8). The covering slabs themselves where sealed with a layer consisting of smaller stones and hard lime mortar. Comparing with similar excavated structures, the pit grave in BD 24 showed a slightly different type of filling. Usually there is, above the slabs, either a thick layer of sand completely filling the pit in the case of a single burial Schmid 2008: 137 Fig. 6. or, if the grave was used for multiple burials, vertical standing slabs which delimit the interspaces Schmid 2008: 141 Fig. 15. . In our case, a second layer of covering slabs was directly put on the mortar of the first layer and therefore let no space for a second burial. This procedure was obviously repeated three times to fill up the pit (Fig. 10), but no human remains were found in these upper layers. Although the pit grave was looted, the presence of Nabataean sherds which originally were mixed within the hard lime mortar and belong to Schmid’s Phase 3b Schmid 2000: 29. allow to date its last burial at the end of the 1st century AD or beginning of the 2nd century AD.
The second grave excavated in BD 24 is ST1 situated in the loculus below the arcosolium (Figs. 3. 11). Due to the prominent location within the arcosolium, one must assume that this was the main burial of BD 24. It was quite obvious that ST1 was looted in a similar way to the grave situated in front of it. The robber proceeded as economically as possible by focusing on the northern part of the structure where the most finds were expected. Therefore, we found two covering slabs which originally sealed the burial still in situ in the southern section (Figs. 12. 13).
Although they were broken, they still lay on the protruding ledge in the lower part of the pit (Fig. 14). The filling of the pit with further mixed fragments of covering slabs, small stones, bone and mortar fragments attest the looting of the structure (Fig. 15). Nevertheless, various elements found in the grave allow some conclusions concerning its dating: First off all, there is the mortar which was used to seal the covering slabs.
This mortar consists of lime, pebbles, charcoal and small fragments of pottery used as temper (Fig. 16) and is attested by other burials in Petra Schmid 2010: ?. . Luckily, the sherds used for this purpose belong to the Nabataean painted fine ware and provide therefore an indication concerning the dating of the at least the last burial (Fig. 17).
The largest part of this pottery belong to Schmid’s Phase 3b and indicate therefore the earliest possible date of the last use in the outgoing 1st century AD or the beginning of the 2nd century AD. This terminus post quem was corroborated by several other finds, i. e. an oil lamp of the later Negev 1a-type (Fig. 18) and 19 unguentaria (Fig. 19) which have escaped the attention of the robbers and which also belong to Schmid’s Phase 3b Schmid 2000: 77. .
Although not all the loculi were uncovered within BD 24, the indications concerning the dating for the use of the tomb are quite obvious. In this context, the pottery found between the entrance of BD 24 and Room 4 (Figs. 1. 3. 20) is of special interest. There, a package of debris yielded many fragments of pottery, mainly of plain ware, including cooking pots. The earliest group belongs to Schmid’s Phase 2b, i.e. the late 1st century BC Schmid 2000: 28, 38, 148–150. . This may well be the date of the carving of the tomb. These observations result in the conclusion that the northern part of the Aṣlaḥ-Triclinium-Complex with BD 24 as the main structure were probably built an the end of the 1st century BC or beginning of the 1st century AD and were used till the beginning of the 2nd century AD at the latest.
A similar abandonment took place at other rock-cut ‚sanctuaries‘ in Petra Merklein – Wenning 2001: 427, the veneration place of Isis in the Wādī as-Siyyagh; Tholbecq – Durand 2005: 310, the Obodas Chapel. .
