Preliminary Report on the 2000 Swiss-Liechtenstein excavations at ez Zantur
by Bernhard Kolb and Daniel Keller
II. Ez Zantur IV: The Nabataean mansion
Fig. 1: EZ IV. Top plan (drawing: A.-C. Escher, A. Naef, B. Kolb)
During the successful campaign of 2000, 19 grid squares (PQ) of 5 x 5 m each (475 m²) were investigated. By resuming the excavation, the northern outer wall AQ/BB featuring the main entrance and the western outer wall AY were discovered (Figs. 1–2). On the southwestern edge of the terrace, we exposed a second room with floor heating (room 40) and its subsidiary rooms 38 and 39. First evidence of buildings independent from the mansion on the western flank of the terrace was provided by the large triclinium 32, the staircase 41 and other structures which as yet are only partially uncovered. However, the most important discoveries of the campaign were the remains of an earlier building, evidenced in courtyard 15 and especially in the substructions of room 17, where an oil mill and a cistern provided indications of a building dating from between the second half of the 2nd and the early 1st century BC. This agrarian processing unit is the first datable structure of this type discovered until now within the Petra city area.
Fig. 2: EZ IV. Schematic plan (drawing: B. Kolb)
As to the dating of the various phases of construction of the mansion, the campaign brought no additional data: The main structure was built in the early 1st century AD and a second phase has provisionally been dated to the turn of the late 1st to the early 2nd century AD. During the 4th century AD, the building underwent some minor changes. This third and last phase also coincides with the last phase of use, which ended abruptly with the earthquake in AD 363 Earthquake findings (AD 363) on site EZ IV: cf. D. Keller’s contribution in this report; Kolb – Keller – Fellmann Brogli 1997: 234; Kolb – Keller – Gerber 1998: 262 and 267–275; Kolb – Gorgerat – Grawehr 1999, 266f. .
