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Excavating a Nabataean Mansion

By Bernhard Kolb
he Wadi Musa bisects the basin-shaped site of Petra from east to west. Parallel to it is the most important traffic artery of the town, the Colonnaded Street, lined with public buildings. To the south is a rocky spur with its highest point, known as ez-Zantur, located to the southeast above the Great Temple, halfway between el-Habis and the theater (see centerfold). The surface finds conducted in the area of ez-Zantur suggested that there was no fortification wall on this slope, as had long been supposed. Instead we found a richly furnished residential mansion of about 1,100 square meters, which covered the central and southern part of the site. Erected in the first century CE, this two-story mansion towered above the surrounding buildings and offered its inhabitants spectacular views of the southern landscape of Petra.

No residential areas had ever plan opposite), the central and southern reception areas been excavated at Petra and so and luxury rooms (28, 25, 15, the Swiss excavations, which 1, 19, 67, 17, and 14), and a were conducted between 1988 west wing of private rooms (30, and 1997 in two areas on ez27, and 22). Numerous blackZantur, known as EZ I and EZ III and-white mosaic and opus (see illustration), have provided sectile (a stone floor technique dramatic insights into the with geometrically- shaped, domestic architecture and way colored stones laid in patterns) of life of the Nabataean urban fragments found in the debris middle class between the late above the stone tiled ground first century BCE and fifth floor clearly indicate that the century CE . The excavation of most remarkable private rooms the mansion, an upper-class were on the first floor, above residence on the terraced site of the three southern rooms (6, 7, EZ IV, began in 1996 with the and 17) and the east wing and goal of expanding our knowledge central rooms (15 and 1). Two of Petraean buildings in the ezstaircases led to these upperZantur residential district. These story rooms, including monuexcavations were completed in mental staircase 8, presumably the autumn of 2001. reserved for the owners, and a The last two field campaigns more modest staircase situated revealed the existence of densely between rooms 35 and 37 for packed buildings on the east and the servants. west slopes below the mansion. They bear witness to highly The area to the north and south of ez-Zantur with Swiss compact urban residences of the The Buildings History excavation sites EZ I, EZ III, and EZ IV. This area seems to have first century CE . The narrow Fragments of painted been residential. south tip of the EZ IV terrace Nabataean fine wares dating to drops steeply away. Below is rocky 2070/80 CE appeared in the ground gently rising towards the north, suitable for construction. mortar below the opus sectile flooring in rooms 1, 10, and 17, as Here we discovered an important architectural complex well as in the plaster bedding of the painted wall decorations in comprised of a monumental altar and a small temple, which we room 1. This evidence dates the earliest phase of this mansion believe may be the local shrine of this residential district. to the years following 20 CE. The mansion revealed a second construction phase that The mansion is comprised of three main functional areas: must have occurred sometime in the early decades of the an east wing of servants rooms (rooms 16, 3537 on the

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Aerial view of the Nabataean mansion under excavation. EZ IV. Schematic plan of the Nabataean mansion showing the structures three main functional areas: the servants quarters, the public area and the private residence.

second century CE. The main reason for this reconstruction was that some structural earthquake damage occurred that is, unfortunately, not documented by historic reference. After the earthquake, consolidation had to be undertaken to support wall sections P1 and P2 between rooms 6 and 7. At the same time wall K was reinforced by filling in the doorway between room 6 and corridor 11, blocking off the doorway in wall G of room 1 (Kolb, Gorgerat, and Grawehr 1999: 26869) and probably walling-up the doorways between corridor 2 and room 4. In this reconstruction, room 14, the connection between rooms 4 and 12, was eliminated, and room 14 was re-oriented towards corridor 11 and equipped as a floor-heated winter room. Also in this phase, the owners installed a private Roman-type bathroom in the west corner of the building (rooms 10, 39, 40, and 52) and undertook other minor changes as well. The mansions last phase of use abruptly ended with the massive earthquake of 363 CE.
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Painted architectural panels decorated the walls of room 1.

The Wall Decorations in Room 1

Within the scope of our protective roofing project launched in 2002 to cover rooms 13 with their wall decorations still in situ, we undertook a final study of the stucco and paintings of room 1, belonging to the later phase of the building. This study produced some extraordinary results, which we present as tentative reconstructions. We established that the paintings were divided into three zones covering the entire room. The lowest wall section (160 centimeters in height) was covered partially by painted architectural designs. Walls A and G each depicted a tripartite architectural facade, while walls C and F had two each. Thus a total of six architectural painted panels were set within painted frames consisting of pilasters supporting a rounded entablature. This superimposed architecture divided the paintings, which flowed into a continuous decoration. The middle 115-centimeter-high wall zone rested on a lower wall zone, above which were stuccoed coffers thirty-six centimeters high of varying widths. Above them was a projecting cornice with quadrant molding on which there were small stuccoed engaged columns twenty-four centimeters wide. The Attic stucco bases of the columns were reduced-scale copies of sculpted stone bases. The interpretation of the crown was less formal and was

comprised of an eight-centimeter-high profile strip that was, in equal parts, a crown of pilasters and an architrave. Recognizable by the impressions they left in the plaster bedding were narrow flat vertical supports, and although we lack any conclusive indications of their colors, the interplay of corbelled pilasters, flat supports and inset wall sections suggest that spatial depths were staggered along the central wall zone. The symmetry between the lower and middle wall zone is apparent and should be interpreted as a decorative architectural concept with an explicitly static vertical relationship. The slender, painted pilasters of the lower wall zone continue in the middle wall zone as stuccoed dwarf pilasters. Between the two demi-pilasters framing the wall surface, two fully-fashioned stucco supports can be reconstructed dividing the middle wall into three main sections. Walls A and G each depict corner pilasters turned towards their respective doorway openings. They may also represent a full pilaster. Further, the two lower wall zones resemble the monumental, so-called palace tomb facades in Petra. The higher dwarf designs also can be compared with the compressed entablature of the middle wall zone of room 1 (McKenzie 1990: pls. 145146).

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Fragments of the stuccoed dwarf pilasters that make up the middle zone decoration of room 1.

A relatively small group of painted fragments may be allocated to the uppermost zone that was decorated with comparably large-scale geometric motifs with rhomboids, triangles, and squares, painted in a green, blue, black, and red marble imitation on a white ground. The impression of a large-tiled cladding made of precious stones was obviously intentional. The fake inlays that had already played an important role in the decoration of the lower and middle zones now dominated the upper part of the wall. A stucco cornice provided the border between the wall and the vaulted ceiling arch voussoir. A vaulted ceiling was placed on a reinforced bedding comprised of corded reeds and rush mats and was fixed to the main body of the building; a style known today as a suspended ceiling. The same cornice that closed off the larger walls also closed off the two opposite semicircular short walls. A reconstruction of the decoration on West wall A, showing the lower, middle and upper zones of decoration. Two double-sided profiles with gilding The painting of the pilasters represented in the opus sectile style divided the semicircular zones into three parts. The extant is the same as the interior design of the architectural painting. fragments in the upper semicircular zone had a painted inlay Small geometric patterns with light/dark contrasts determine whose hues and motifs were comparable to the uppermost their appearance. However, the colored design of the zones wall zone. Their lowest frames were green and white double between the pilasters is unknown. Remains of iron and bronze bands. Between the arched double profiles and the semicircle, pins in the recessed south wall panel between the two supports the area seems to have been painted a light rose. The lunette indicate that this area was decorated with a prefabricated, decoration was separated from the wall surface by a cornice panel-type decoration. encircling the entire room.

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Above: These fragments are all that remain of the largescale geometric motifs painted in green, blue, black and red imitation marble that decorated the upper portions of the rooms north and south walls.

Right: A reconstruction of South wall C, one of the semi-circular short walls, showing all three zones of decoration.

In all three zones, the painted architecture of room 1 walls also was characterized by inlay imitation made of precious stones. The thematic point of departure within the context of the room was the flooring. Although looted in antiquity, an opus sectile floor covering seems certain based on some remaining alabaster and marble fragments, but primarily because of extant impressions in the bedding. These paintings represent architectural concepts that go beyond anything we know of the wallpaper-type decoration found at Pompeii in Roman Italy, nor are there many parallels with contemporary Trajanic or Hadrianic wall paintings (Mielsch 2001: 94100). The decoration of room 1 cannot be explained simply as deriving from Ptolemaic, Roman or Parthian traditions because it contains characteristics of all three cultures that were blended into a new, unique Nabataean style. However, the sequencing of similar architectural elements from room 1 may be found in Ptolemaic wall paintings from the third to first centuries BCE (McKenzie 1990: pls. 175ac, 197), while the various illusionist architectural renderings seem stylistically to mimic the traditional Roman paintings of early Augustan times (Carettoni 1983: 2324, pl. E) dominated by painted stone inlays that may have been inspired by Parthian stucco facades. But the raised architectural decoration of Room 1 predates the wall paintings in the building. Although the origin of the painting style does not come from the West (Rome), we do not yet know enough about Egyptian and Levantine painting styles to suggest them as potential sources of the style, either. With its relatively modest size of five by four meters, room 1 surely does not belong, within the hierarchy of such rooms, among the primary foci of the house. Although it is central to the overall ground plan, it is well outside the primary circulation flow pattern. Its elaborate decoration indicates that it was a room intended by the owner to receive and serve a small and exclusive group of guests.

References
Bignasca A., et al. 1996 Petra. Ez Zantur I. Ergebnisse der Schweizerisch-Liechtensteinischen Ausgrabungen 19881992. Terra Archaeologica, 2. Mainz: von Zabern. Carettoni G. 1983 Das Haus des Augustus auf dem Palatin. Mainz: von Zabern. Kolb, B.; Keller, D.; and Fellmann Brogli, R. 1997 Swiss-Liechtenstein Excavations at ez-Zantur in Petra 1996. The Seventh Season. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 41: 23154. Kolb B.; Keller D.; and Gerber Y. 1998 Swiss-Liechtenstein Excavations at az-Zantur in Petra 1997. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 42: 25977. Kolb B.; Gorgerat L.; and Grawehr M. 1999 Swiss-Liechtenstein Excavations on az-Zantur, Petra, 1998. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 43: 26177. Kolb B., and Keller D. 2001 Swiss-Liechtenstein Excavation at az-Zantur/Petra: The Eleventh Season. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 45: 31124. McKenzie J. 1990 The Architecture of Petra. Oxford: Oxford University. Mielsch, H. 2001 Rmische Wandmalerei. Stuttgart: Theiss.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bernhard Kolb received his M.A. in 1991 and his Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology in 1996 from Basel University concentrating on late antique dwellings in the Near East. Since 1988 he has been undertaking fieldwork at Petra/Jordan, and since 1996 he has served as the Director of the Swiss-Liechtenstein Excavations at Petra (ez Zantur). Since 1994 he has been an Assistant Professor at Basle University with a research focus on private architecture in the Nabataean realm.

Bernhard Kolb

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