Preliminary Report on the 1998 Swiss-Liechtenstein excavations at ez Zantur
by Bernhard Kolb (with contributions by Laurent Gorgerat and Matthias Grawehr)
VIII. Ez Zantur IV: Clues to the dating of the first building phase
The earliest stratigraphically secure pottery finds are homogenous and belong to phase 3a 20–70/80 AD; see Schmid 1997: 134f. . They all come from the mortar beddings of the opus sectile pavement in rooms 1, 10 and 17. It seems rather unlikely that the floors in three rooms would have been replaced with an opus sectile pavement during a renovation; we can assume that these sherds are dating evidence for the first phase of building unless contrary evidence should appear. Light may be thrown on the dating and interpretation of the mansion by the building inscription of a cavalry commander, which is dated to the 18th year of the reign of Aretas IV (10 AD). Dr. Fawzi Zayadine was kind enough to draw my attention to this inscription which was discovered in the late 60’s close to EZ IV Starcky 1978: 50, No. 44. .
