The Association for the Understanding of Ancient Cultures

Preliminary Report on the 1998 Swiss-Liechtenstein excavations at ez Zantur

by Bernhard Kolb (with contributions by Laurent Gorgerat and Matthias Grawehr)

VI. Ez Zantur IV: Rooms 10, 11, and 14

The westerly corridor 11 is 1.2 m wide and runs allong the same axis as corridor 8 in the east (Fig. 1). The flagstones from the original building context are still in situ along wall K. They cover a canal which was probably connected to a cistern in the central area of the house (squares 89/AN–AP), which has not yet been investigated. The corridor ends in a poorly constructed flight of steps in its western extension (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8: EZ IV. Rooms 11, 12 and 14 from the north (photo: D. Keller)

Hewn-out areas in the bedrock beneath the threshold of the blocked door in wall K and below wall Y opposite, show that the flight of steps originally started just east of the door and was far steeper: a height difference of a metre had to be spanned by the steps in a length of just 1 m [15] Level of the eastern corridor: 923.75 m; level below the steps: 923.76 m. . In the course of cleaning the canal, which also runs through room 10, the steps in room 11 were removed to be shoddily reconstructed later out of spoils. This process is particularly clearly visible in the opus sectile pavement of the preserved part of room 10; the pavers of white limestone and slate, which had been ripped out from the simple opus sectile floor, were not returned to their original position after the canal had been cleaned but were reused to cover the canal (Fig. 9).

Fig. 9: EZ IV. Room 10. Canal and remains of opus sectile pavement from the south (photo: D. Keller)

A few interesting fragments of wall painting (Fig. 10) lay in front of the walled-up door in wall K. A polychrome painted modillion conrice is recognisable. Over dentils painted in white, yellow and brown follow the modillions which are painted bright red underneath. The dark blue cassettes between the modillions are decorated with golden rosettes.

Fig. 10: EZ IV. Room 11. Fragments of a illusionistic architectural painting (photo: O. Jäggi)

It is no longer possible to tell which wall was originally decorated with these paintings because no other fragments were discovered in corridor 11. A comparison with a moulded stucco modillion cornice from room 6 (Fig. 11) shows how closely related the painted and moulded decoration of the building were. The dentils are set of from the geison with an identical profiled fillet followed by modillions and rosettes or discs.

Fig. 11: EZ IV. Room 6: Dentile cornice with modillions and rosettes (photo: O. Jäggi)

Room 14 opens onto corridor 11. It is furnished with a floor of hexagonal sandstone paving (Figs. 1. 8). The floor has collapsed in two places and the substructure is visible: the floor lies on tiles placed at right angles to one another – a manner of construction typical for the hypocausts of Roman caldariae [16] Adam 1984: 291, Figs. 628–629. . The complete exposure of the room, planned for the 1999 campaign, will reveal whether the mansion was really furnished with a Roman style bath, as was house V 1 in Nabataean Khirbet edh Dharih which was also of a comparable size [17] al-Mouheisen and Villeneuve 1991: 751f. with Fig. 8. . Significant remains of the wall decoration with stuccoed corner pilasters decorated with cassettes were retrieved along walls U, Y and W.

The International Ez Zantur Project

Preliminary Report on the 1998 Swiss-Liechtenstein excavations at ez Zantur

VI. Ez Zantur IV: Rooms 10, 11, and 14