Preliminary Report on the 2001 Swiss-Liechtenstein excavations at ez Zantur
by Bernhard Kolb and Daniel Keller
V. Ez Zantur IV: Final soundings on the west flank of terrace EZ IV
The bath-house
In the southwest corner of the building, in the preceding year with room 40 and room 39 we exposed the caldarium and the praefurnium of a small private bath-house which, with room 10, included a definitively identified third room (Fig. 1). With the aim of determining the groundplan of the remainder of the installation, which could be reached from corridor 11, work was commenced in the area which falls steeply towards the southwest (squares 90–92/AS). In contrast to the whole of the structure unearthed on EZ IV, the eastern wall segment BX departs from the orthogonal layout and runs from the wall corner H/J for a distance of approx. 6.5 m along the bedrock flank which has been left in its natural state (Figs. 1 and 15). To the northwest it is joined by the square foundation zone of room 52 with a side length of 4.8 m. The visible faces of the walls BX and BW show the best masonry quality so far documented on EZ IV: the pseudoisodomic masonry of sandstone ashlars are precisely jointed into the structure of stretchers and headers.
Fig. 15: View from room 10 of wall BX (left half of picture) and the foundations of room 52 (photo: D. Keller)
The majority of the structures marked by erosion and the theft of stones could only be recorded in the foundation zone. The low surviving height can best be demonstrated on the basis of the levels of preservation. Room 27, with a height of 922.77 m, can be taken as a reference for the original floor level in the bath-house. If we compare this value with the preserved height of the western enclosing wall of room 52 (920.32 m), we see that there is a gap of approx. 2.5 m between the original floor level and the preserved masonry. Against this background, it is difficult to determine reconstructively the purpose of room 52 with its central, horseshoe-shaped foundation. If we make a comparison with the small private bath-houses of Herod’s Palestine, the horseshoe-shaped foundation seems to have supported a circular structure that could have been a tiny laconicum (sweat bath) Cf. the Herodian bath-houses in Netzer 1999: 45–55; Nielsen 1999: 42–43. . The position of room 10 in the groundplan suggests that it might have served as an apodyterium (changing room) which could have housed a small frigidarium in a partitioned-off area.
As regards the extent of the mansion in the western slope area, the work in squares 91–92/AS and 93/AR threw light on the matter: Only the bath rooms accessible from corridor 11 belonged to the main building, while the triclinium 32 and its subsidiary rooms belonged to a separate structure. With its exterior rising up like a tower, the bath-house built in the early 2nd century AD (construction phase 2) probably had a marked impact on the appearance of the mansion at the steep southwestern corner of the terrace.
V. Ez Zantur IV: Final soundings on the west flank of terrace EZ IV
The structure with triclinium 32
After the conclusion of the excavation work in 2001, the triclinium no longer stands isolated on the western side of the slope. In square 94/AP the small, trapezium-shaped subsidiary rooms 45 (1.2/2.2 x 4.8 m) and 46 (2.4/3 x 2.7 m) were uncovered which are incorporated between the banqueting room and the extended exterior wall E of the mansion (Figs. 1 and 16). In both rooms much of the floor covering has been lost. In room 46 the floor must have been stepped so as to descend in a southward direction since the rock surface in front of the wall BS, with a height of 921.04 m, is substantially higher than the threshold level of the door to corridor 48 (920.69 m). The thin walls AU, BR, BU and BT with thicknesses of 0.4–0.5 m are of good quality and needed to be consolidated from the bottom up largely because of erosion damage to the sandstone ashlars.
Fig. 16: Triclinium 32, corridor 48, subsidiary room 46 and room 51 seen facing west from wall E (photo: D. Keller)
The finds from the lowest excavation strata in rooms 45 (Abs. 4, FK 3483) and 46 (Abs. 5, FK 3489) place the last utilisation in the decades before 363. No clues as to the first utilisation could be obtained because of the torn-out floor coverings. The position of rooms 45 and 46 in relation to the triclinium suggest that they were at least initially used as service rooms. To the west of the triclinium are corridor 48 (approx. 7.2 x 1.8 m) with a floor of beaten earth, and the partly excavated room 51 (Fig. 16).
Fig. 17: Window opening of the rock-hewn room under rooms 48 and 52, seen from the south (photo: D. Keller)
In the final days of the campaign, approximately 1 m below the southern end of the corridor (square 93/AR) we came upon a vertical, roughly circular hole in the rock which proved on closer examination to be a window-like opening to a room hewn out of the rock completely with a floor area of approx. 7 x 7 m. (Figs. 1 and 17). Since there was insufficient time for a proper study of the room, we limited ourselves to a massive blocking of the window opening in order at least to substantially hinder the expected illicit excavations.
