Preliminary Report on the 2000 Swiss-Liechtenstein excavations at ez Zantur
by Bernhard Kolb and Daniel Keller
V. Ez Zantur IV: The substructures of room 17 – findings of an earlier building on EZ IV (PQ 86–87/AP–AQ)
The two substructures or cellar rooms in 86–87/AP–AQ divided by wall N were cleared of their alluvial deposits and the underlying débris of 363. In the northern cellar (width: max. 2 m, length: max. 4.75 m) there were no clues to be found of a floor – the rubble reached right down to the bedrock surface (approx. 920.10–25 m). Several bowl-like cavities of varying dimensions and shallow channel-like structures dug into the rock must have had a specific – but unknown function (Fig. 9). From the bedrock floor to the crown of the arches supporting the opus sectile floor of room 17, the northern cellar measures approx. 3.1 m. Slightly more than half the room’s height was dug into the rock, the remaining part was constructed in the usual dry wall-technique. To the west, the visible courses of the fill of hammerdressed blocks (room 7) were in such bad repair that we had to consolidate them immediately after removing the rubble, otherwise the cracked stones would have collapsed (Fig. 9).
Fig. 9: EZ IV. Northern substructure/cellar 17 seen from the east (photo: D. Keller)
The southern cellar measures 1.85 x 4.95 m, thus covering about the same space as its northern counterpart (Fig. 10). The bedrock floor level, however, is approx. 1 m higher (c. 921.15 m). Unlike the northern cellar, the rubble from the 363 earthquake (FK 3348) contained a large number of gilded and painted stucco elements in excellent condition, obviously parts of the wall-decoration of room 17. Through the hole left by the collapsed floor in the south-western corner of room 17 also a considerable number of marble fragments (opus sectile-tiles) as well as fragments of column bases and capitals had found their way into the cellar. Albeit these were certainly noteworthy finds by themselves, they were eclipsed by the unexpected structures discovered on the floor itself: In the easternmost part of the room we found a circular structure hewn into the bedrock, which was partially built over by a later partition wall. What had this structure been intended for? The answer to this question had been clearly visible even before the excavation had begun: a large crushing basin broken in two, approx. 1.8 m in diameter, fashioned from light-coloured breccia, had been built into the corner of walls H and I. This incredibly heavy stator of a round rotary olive crusher had originally been positioned on the bedrock-base. When the mansion was built in the early 1st century AD the crushing basin had been removed from its original position and built into the near corner of the walls H and I (cf. Fig. 1, PQ 86/AP–AQ) In the center of the round crushing basin (stator) a wooden pivot had been positioned on which the runner had been fixed; a wooden shaft was used to rotate the runner horizontally. For detailed comments on the technical side of mills see: R. Frankel, Wine and Oil Production in Antiquity in Israel and other Mediterranean Countries (Sheffield, 1999) 68 ff, Figs. 20 and 23. On the position of the millstone on EZ IV cf. M. Lindner-G. Gasteiger-J. Zeitler, Ez Zantur at Petra – Tower, Palace or Temple? Archiv für Orientforschung Vol. 40/41, 1993/1994, 310 with Fig. 6 documenting the two millstone fragments in walls H/I. The surveyors of 1990, however, did not realise that the huge fragments had originally formed a millstone. .
Fig. 10: EZ IV. Southern substructure/cellar 17 seen from the east (photo: D. Keller)
In other words, both the basin and the remains of an earlier floor covering in courtyard 15 must be considered as part of a building, erected in the second half of the 2nd or the early 1st century BC. These findings were further confirmed when the well (approx. 0.8 m in diameter) of a rock-hewn cistern in the western corner of the same substruction was exposed. The cistern is situated underneath the corner formed by walls H/BD (Fig. 10), and although only about half the rubble-fill has been removed yet, it was possible to ascertain the dimensions of the cistern. It takes the shape of a stout square bottle with horizontal shoulder and has been waterproofed with hydraulic mortar. It measures approx. 3.1 m in depth, the sides are approx. 3 m wide. The crucial point of this discovery in relation to the settlement history on the terrace EZ IV, however, is a second, shaftlike well leading upwards from the southwestern corner of the cistern and ending deep below the pavement of exedra 7. The well is carefully covered flush with the bedrock surface. Thus, in the area of what became later the exedra 7, the floor level of the previous building was identical with the rock surface (approx. 1 m lower than the later level of rooms 6, 7 and 17). Sometime during the 1st century AD the floor level was raised by filling in fairly large hammer dressed stones in order to level out the irregularities of the rock surface between courtyard 19 and the southern representational rooms Fig. 10 shows clearly the level of the living rock and how the floor level of rooms 7 and 17 was raised by courses of hammer dressed stones. .
Summing up we can say that the findings in courtyard 15 and in the substructions of room 17 prove that in the late 2nd or early 1st century BC a building was errected on EZ IV, dedicated at least in part to processing agrarian products. We have thus the earliest and only datable proof of agrarian activities within the Petra city area under Nabataean rule Agrarian installations within the urban area of Petra have been compiled by L. Nehmé in: L’espace urbain de Pétra. Unpubl. Ph.D. thesis (Paris 1994) 64. She stresses that nothing is known about the agricultural development in Petra between the 4th century BC and the 4th century AD. . Obviously, an olive crushing device on EZ IV would not have made sense unless the necessary primary product, i. e., olives were cultivated in the neighbourhood. This throws new light on the social structure, urbanistic and economic history of the city within the period under discussion.
