Preliminary Report on the 1996 Swiss-Liechtenstein excavations at ez Zantur
by Bernhard Kolb (with contributions by Daniel Keller and Regine Fellmann Brogli)
II. Ez Zantur IV: Soundings 1 and 2
During the 1996 campaign we opened soundings 1 (5 x 10 m) and 2 (5 x 5 m) close to the southern edge of the terrace. In sounding 1 (PQ 90–92/AO) four rooms had been partially exposed (figs. 2–4). The walls are preserved to an average height of 3 m. They stand directly on the bedrock and are of the usual double faced type. The bedrock surface was planed and the quarried material built into the walls – as the matching quality of the roughly dressed quarry stones in the walls shows. All walls had been covered with a thick layer of coarse under-plaster and fine finishing stucco. Wall B (corridor 2) had two doorways, which were blocked up and plastered over during a phase of secondary use (fig. 4).
Fig. 2: EZ IV. Top plan of soundings 1 and 2 (drawing: B. Kolb)
In the original building context pillar D and the corner of walls A and C demarcated a passage from corridor 2 to room 3. This passageway, as well as the doorway between rooms 1 and 3 were also closed off later on. In other words all the doors so far exposed in sounding 1 were walled up in a later phase. This implies that in the secondary use of the building only a small proportion of the rooms available were called into service.
Fig. 3: EZ IV. Sounding 1 from the east (photo: D. Keller)
Figs. 2–3 show that practically nothing remains of the original flooring. The carbonised wooden threshold of one of the blocked doorways between rooms 2 and 4 however, as well as two fragments of flagstones still in situ in the corner of walls A and C give an indication of the original floor level resp. the original covering: The floor level in rooms 2 and 3 was just a few cm above the bedrock and probably consisted entirely of flagging. This seems to be corroborated by the almost identical levels of the flagstones (913.94 m) and the plaster floor in room 1 (913.90–97 m). In sounding 1 we found a good dozen stone tiles of various size and stone quality – obviously elements of an opus sectile floor. It is, of course, far too early to draw any definitive conclusions after just one season but it is certainly not to be excluded that there may originally have been an opus sectile floor embedded in plaster in room 1.
Fig. 4: EZ IV. Sounding 1 from the south (photo: D. Keller)
Under the orginal pavements of rooms 2 and 3 two channels were carved out of the rock (figs. 3–4). The main channel runs down the middle of corridor 2 and falls at a slight inclination from north to south (3 cm per m). The second channel (room 3) is connected at a right angle to the main one. Both of them probably transported waste- or run off water Its possible that the main channel was connected to the huge cistern at the southern foot of the terrace. . The very shallow and irregular secondary channels, or rather, grooves in rooms 1 and 3 incline to the east and were, I suggest, for drainage The T-shaped system of grooves in room 1 falls 30 cm towards the east within a measurable length of 4 m. Compare the very similar grooves in room 3 (figs. 2–3). . The profile along wall C (room 1) shows the drainage-groove in the bedrock covered by a levelling earthfill, on top of which lay the plaster floor (fig. 5).
Fig. 5: EZ IV. Sounding 1. Profile showing plaster floor in room 1 (photo: D. Keller)
About 1.5 m under the surface level (room 1, locus 3019) we came upon a destruction layer of more than 20 fallen flagstones, roughly 50–80 cm long and 20–60 cm wide. While the fire-blackened surfaces of these slabs were smoothly worked, the reverse sides were only very roughly dressed and account for the enormous variation in the thickness of the slabs between 5 and 20 cm. Taking into account the variable length of the slabs as well as the irregular finish of the reverse sides, we must assume that they were part of the floor of the upper storey supported not by arches but by a vault construction. As there do not appear to be any springers in walls B and C – which are preserved, as already mentioned, to a height of 3 m – the vaulted ceiling must have started higher up and, given the length of the walls exposed, reached a crown height of at least 5 m This minimum is provisional and has been calculated on the basis of the exposed length of wall A. .
We have not yet reached floor level in sounding 2 (PQ 88–89/AQ) (fig. 6). The top plan shows that the exposed pillar with its stuccoed half column and the related wall to the south certainly belong to the same building as the rooms in sounding 1 but do not yet allow any more precise conclusions as to their function or architectonic incorporation in the building context. The most important finds from sounding 2 are fragments of a monumental Corinthian capital which will be discussed below and quantities of moulded architectural stucco. Fragments of painted and gold-plated cornices, modillions and dentils give proof of richly decorated wall systems.
Fig. 6: EZ IV. Sounding 2 from the north (photo: D. Keller)
It is of course, at present, impossible to determine the function of the structures on EZ IV. However, a comparison of the relatively poor quality of the masonry on EZ IV with the excellent quality of that of the temples and other monumental buildings at Petra indicates that we are more likely to be dealing with a wealthy private dwelling than a public building.
