by Stephan G. Schmid and Piotr Bienkowski
Following the results of our previous activities since 2010, two main areas were selected for excavation during the 2014 season, Structure 19 (ST 19 on fig. 2), being located on a second terrace, some meters inside the plateau. Structure 19 was the object of first excavation activities in 2013 during which a kitchen area including a taboun and a toilet were discovered, both apparently from Roman to late Roman date, built into older Nabataean structures see preliminary report 2013. . Structure 07 was the second area where we worked in 2014, a structure that had not been previously excavated, situated at the very edge of the cliff in the NE part of the plateau (ST 07 on fig. 2).
In order to obtain information also for structures that are not built directly on the edge of the plateau, in 2013 we started exploring Structure 19 (ST 19 on figs. 2. 3; fig. 4), a rectangular building located a few meters more to the inner part of the plateau of Umm al-Biyara. During the 2013 season, the NW corner of the building was excavated, revealing that this part of the building was used for various functional purposes, at least during its last phase, including a toilet – with reused seats from the bathing installation ST 20 – and a taboun with many bones.
During our 2014 season we continued excavating the structure in southern direction. The elements excavated seem to belong to several rooms as well as to a kind of corridor linking the various rooms (figs. 4–6). As observed in 2013, there was no artificial floor level (floor slabs etc.), but the structures seem directly built on the rock. No clear indication as for the functioning of the rooms was obtained. Behind a secondary pillar in the corridor, a small oven was constructed, maybe indicating that the use of the building was not anymore very strictly organised.
Interestingly, structure 19 underwent substantial modifications as for its layout, best visible at walls 16 and 17 (W 16 and W 17 on figs. 4–6). One single stone surpassing the actual end of the wall (fig. 7a/b), a corresponding but empty cutting of the stones on the rock about two meters to the N (fig. 8), and the more or less straight crack in the massive lime mortar that was applied on the wall (fig. 7a/b) indicate that initially, the wall was continuing and not forming the strange right angle that it did after the modification.
It is not really clear what was the purpose of the modification. Maybe the niches that were constructed in the new wall (fig. 10 top) have something to do with it, although we do not know what was the function of the niches. At the spot of the former wall, a densely packed layer of small stones, sand and mortar was used for levelling a crack in the rock (fig. 8). Inside that layer a few sherds of Nabataean pottery were discovered, all belonging to phase 3b, hence dating to the last quarter of the 1st c. AD (fig. 9). This gives either a terminus post quem for the initial construction of the first wall, or it already gives a terminus post quem for the modification and the building of the later wall. All depends whether the densely packed layer was used for levelling the ground before constructing the first wall, or before constructing the second floor.
In any case, the modification cannot be dated too late, since the mortar that was used for levelling the walls is of the highest quality (figs. 7a/b. 10). It is a very pure mortar of fine lime that contains no inclusions at all and it is used in big quantities to create a smooth surface of the otherwise quite irregularly constructed walls. The same technique, use and quality of mortar were already observed in ST 20, the bathing installations. And it remarkably differs from other buildings on top of Umm al-Biyarah cf. infra. and from the late Roman houses excavated at az-Zantur by the University of Basel Kolb 2000. .
Yet, there definitely is a late Roman phase of ST 19, that also includes the oven and the construction of the toilet excavated in 2013. This last remodelling of the structure can by dated by pottery, including a fragment of a jug similar to a pilgrim flask (fig. 11) and some glass fragments. Taking together the results of our 2013 and 2014 excavations, we would suggest an initial building phase, difficult to understand due to the remodelling, dating to the later 1st c. AD, a remodelling soon after and a continuing use until the 4th c. AD.
Structure 7 was selected for excavation as it offers comparable overall criteria as ST 20 and ST 26 further North. It is situated at the very edge of the cliff (ST 7 on figs 2. 3; figs. 12–14), offering a splendid view over the city center of Petra. It is also situated at a lower level than three cisterns in the immediate neighbourhood and could, therefore, have profited from a privileged water supply, as did ST 20 and ST 26.
The position at the cliff of Umm al-Biyara was underlined further by constructing a part (now lost) of the building wide into the rock, using massif substructures. Nowadays visible are only a few cuttings in the rock, indicating that the building initially was much bigger than what remains today. As in the previously discussed structures, here too, substantial modifications took place in later times. Several additional walls were added, not integrating the older walls and sometimes built on sand, not on the rock (figs. 13. 14). The best indication for its functioning, at least from the later period of use, was obtained by a room that can be considered a kitchen or at least a room related to food production (fig. 15).
In this room, near to wall W 23, an oven was built (T on fig. 12). Inside and around the oven, constructed by a huge slab supported by two lateral stones, thick and fat ashy layers were found, containing remains of the food production. Inside the hardened earth, entire grapes, parts of them, olive pits and other remains were preserved, such as egg shells (figs. 16. 17). After the taboun excavated in ST 19 in 2013, this is the second kitchen like construction from the buildings on Umm al-Biyara. Interestingly, despite some parallels in their construction, there are also clear differences. While the oven from ST 19 yielded huge quantities of bones, no bones whatsoever were found in relation with the oven from ST 7 excavated in 2014. The food that was produced in the two kitchens apparently was very different. For the time being it is not possible to state any more precise explanation, as we do not know whether the two buildings belonged to one functional unit and, therefore, we can reckon a kind of specialisation, or whether the differences are the results of a kind of social stratification, with one group having had access to specific types of products and food.
The overall spectrum of pottery from ST 7 covers the periods from the later 1st c. AD into the 4th c. AD. Some loci did contain almost homogeneous pottery from the 2nd c. AD, but the final use of the building has to be dated to the period shortly before the earthquake of AD 363, as is indicated by finds of African Red Slip ware (fig. 18), lamps and painted pottery in the late Nabataean tradition, illustrating, within others, birds (fig. 19).
