Preliminary Report on the 2000 Swiss-Liechtenstein excavations at ez Zantur
by Bernhard Kolb and Daniel Keller
IV. Ez Zantur IV: Courtyard 28 and rooms 35–37 (PQ 88–89/AK–AM; 90–91/AK)
Courtyard 28 measures 6.9 x 5.4 m (Figs. 1–3). Missing flagstones in the northwestern corner show that only a thin levelling fill of sand and flat stones separated the uneven bedrock from the limestone flags (bedrock surface approx. 924.90 m, floor level 924.95–925.05 m). Walls AE and AQ closing off courtyard 28 towards northeast are built upon bedrock ledges, ca 1–2 decimeters higher than the courtyard floor. Under wall AE the ledges slope off unevenly from north towards south, indicating the original surface level of the rock before ther ground was prepared for courtyard 28.
Courtyard 28 and so far only partially exposed room 37 were originally linked by a door in the eastern wall BA (blocked up at an unknown date), its width being 1.2 m and thus exceptionally large. Room 37 closes off the series of small rooms in the east wing (16, 35 and 36) towards the north. Its proximity to the main entrance and its close connection to the rooms of the east wing indicate that room 37 originally served as an ancillary courtyard not meant for the owners and their guests, but for their servants. Goods delivered for the daily welfare of the inhabitants would have been received there before being stored or processed in the rooms 36, 35 and 16 respectively. The proximity of room 16 to the reception and dining rooms 6 and 17 may point to the possibility that the room was originally used as a kitchen. Corridor 43 provided a short, direct and discrete access to exedra 7 and the banquet rooms 6 and 17. Unfortunately, the structural additions and alterations of the 4th century AD destroyed any evidence for determining its original use with any certainty Changes carried out in room 16 during the 4th century AD: The western wall was taken down to the foundations, a small L-shaped structure was built at the southern end of the lost western wall, the structures of unknown purpose built along the southern wall AA were added and the connecting door to room 35 was blocked up. .
Fig. 7: EZ IV. Room 36 and narrow staircase around pillar BG, seen from the northwest (photo: D. Keller)
This also applies to rooms 35 and 36, where shoddily erected divisions between walls BC and BE, a newly installed taboun between walls BE and BI and a structure of unknown purpose on the east side of wall BE (room 35) considerably changed the character of the east wing. The staircase built around pillar BC (Figs. 2. 7) – though as yet only partially excavated – seems to confirm the asssumption of storage and kitchen rooms in the east wing: it features steps of approx. 0.7 m width – only c. half the width of the steps in the spacious main staircase 9. It is likely that this modest staircase leading to the living rooms on the first floor was meant for servants only.
Corridor 25, room 21 and courtyard 15 (PQ 89/AL–AN)
In PQ 89/AL–AN the exposure of the rooms 25, 15 and 21 was completed (Figs. 1. 2. 8). Corridor 25 is 2.3 m wide and c. 14 m long, connecting in an elongated pi-shape the entrance courtyard 28 in the north with the main courtyard 19 in the south. Featuring the usual limestone flags the corridor is slanting off imperceptibly to the south The difference amounts to approx. 0.7 m (floor level at the northern end: 924.53–57 m; floor level at the southern end: 923.85–88 m). and was narrowed at its southern end by two shallow wall-projections (see Fig. 2: corridor 25, wall AC; cf. Fig. 8). Also at the south end, representative corridor 25 was separated by a door from the corresponding service corridor 43 (cf. above). On wall AC, fragments of wall-paintings preserved in situ indicate that the lower area of the wall was decorated with simple but elegant Feldermalereien in bright hues of yellow and red – a scheme known in the Roman world since about the late the 1st century BC Barbet 1985: 89–103. . Unfortunately nothing remains of the painted dado. A large number of recovered stucco fragments bear witness to a second decoration type in corridor 25, namely isodomic courses of white panels with red and blue drafts. It is not yet clear whether whole sections of the wall BC were covered with this old-fashioned, i. e. Hellenistic Masonry Style decor or whether the Masonry Style was used only in the upper zones of the respective walls.
Using chronologically and typologically different wall-decorations on the same wall at the same time is a well-known feature of the dwellings in the the cities at the foot of Vesuvius and should thus not come as a surprise if found in Petra. Nevertheless, since we know as yet little of the Nabataean private style of living, we must remain open to the possibility that the Masonry Style remained much longer fashionable in Nabataean culture than in the Mediterranean world. In other words, we cannot exclude a priori that Feldermalerei and Masonry Style in Petra were used concurrently. We will have to wait for the detailed analysis of the material scheduled for 2002–2003 before coming up with possible answers Reconstructing the wall-decoration in corridor 25 will be even more difficult by taking into account the significant fragments of a third decoration type, imitating a complex wall incrustation consisting of square, triangular and round elements which have no obvious connection with either the Feldermalerei or the stuccoed panels.
At some point in time the polychrome paintings on wall AC were plastered over with white rough-cast – possibly because that was easier and cheaper than restoring the damages the paintings had sustained over the years.
What can we say about the relative chronology of these different decor types? In the original layout, corridor 25 had a door at the northern end of wall AC connecting it with room 21. The door was blocked up in such a way that on the west side it is set back by 10 cm behind the alignment of wall AC, thus forming a shallow niche in the eastern wall of room 21 (Figs. 1–2). On the eastern face of wall AC it becomes clear that the rough coat, the finish coat as well as the paintings had been applied after the door was blocked up. Thus the preserved paintings most probabely belong to the second construction phase on EZ IV Cf. the provisional findings concerning the decoration of room 6 (Kolb, Keller and Grawehr 1999: 262) as well as the decoration in room 1 (Kolb, Keller and Grawehr 1999: 268f.). .
Fig. 8: EZ IV. Corridor 25, courtyard 15 and room 21 seen from the north (photo: D. Keller)
After removing the destruction layers of AD 363 from the eastern part of courtyard 15 (PQ 89/AM–AN) we made some interesting discoveries: The eastern wall AC is structured by two lisenes or pilasters on either side of a set back wall section; all three sections are 1.6 m wide (Figs. 1–2. 8) The lisenes are approx. 25 cm deep. . Two narrow wall-strips of 0.9 m length each terminate the wall to the north and south respectively. Wall AC obviously echoes its western counterpart: The set back sections of the wall relate to the doors opposite, i. e. between pillar Z as the southern limit and the corner of the walls G/AL as the northern one. Similarly, northern wall AL and its lisenes/pilasters mirror the position of the columns at the opposite side of courtyard 15.
Along wall AC, the final Abs. 5 (89/AM, FK 3397) and 6 (89/AN, FK 3361) brought to light the bedrock surface which is irregularly rising to the north as well as remains of the levelling fill of the pavement, mostly devoid of finds. Yet two of the sparse finds from the fill consisting of fieldstones and sand are two fragments of Hellenistic black-glazed ware which are of outstanding importance for the settlement history on EZ IV Fragment 1 was found in PQ 89/AN, Abs. 6, FK 3361; fragment 2 in PQ 89/AM, FK 3397, Abs. 5. . The two sherds can be dated between the second half of the 2nd and the early 1st century BC The dating of the sherds is based on findings made on site EZ I. Cf. Chr. Schneider, Hellenistische Glanztonware, 132 and 141 in: A. Bignasca et al., Petra Ez Zantur I. Ergebnisse der Schweizerisch-Liechtensteinischen Ausgrabung 1988–1992. Terra Archaeologica Vol. II (Mainz 1996). General introduction on Hellenistic pottery in Palestine cf. P. W. Lapp, Palestinian Ceramic Chronology 200 BC – AD 70 (New Haven, 1961) 71ff. .
Figures 1 and 8 show that the abovementioned levelling fill has to be related to the flagstone pavement which is partially preserved in courtyard 15. The southernmost flags are protruding at an oblique angle from beneath the stylobat of the columns and must thus be earlier than the distylos in antis of courtyard 19. Overall, the findings in courtyard 15 prove that there was a building on the site EZ IV predating the mansion of the early 1st century AD, which, according to the Hellenistic sherds, must have been erected between the second half of the 2nd to the early 1st century BC Further traces of a previous building were located underneath the southern end of room 17; cf. below: The substructures of room 17. . Further clues were provided by the substructures of room 17.
