RECENT DISCOVERIES IN CITY CENTER OF PETRA, JORDAN: A PRELIMINARY EXCAVATION REPORT (original) (raw)
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Recent work on the four great Nabataean temples of Petra -- Qasr el Bint, Great Temple, “Royal Palace” and the Temple of the Winged Lions – allow several new conclusions to be reached regarding the logistical, technical, environmental and morphological contexts of these key monuments. This paper provides an architectural analysis of the four buildings, a comparison of proportions pertaining to the specific formal characteristics of each, an examination of structural issues and their connection to the local geology, a consideration of environmental and economic factors as well as the impact of Hellenistic and Roman forms on the Petraean religious free standing architecture.
The History and Architecture of Petra
2012
Petra was a city of wealth, prosperity, and enormous ingenuity that allowed the Nabataean people to settle and even thrive in one of the harshest environments on earth. The city became the center of trade between the Middle East and the Roman Empire, which brought both wealth and power to its people. It also provided the resources for the construction of staggering tombs, monuments, and cities that turned the desert into an oasis. In addition, the confluence of cultures created the unique Nabataean art style, which incorporated some of the greatest elements of architecture from all over the ancient world and has left an unmistakable mark on the harsh desert landscape. Faculty mentor: Dr. Allison Smith
On the steps of the Qasr al-Bint: New architectural study on the temple area (Petra)
2019
The works carried out since 1999 by the French archaeological mission in Petra on the temenos of the Qasr al-Bint were complemented by a renew architectural analysis, allowed by the excavation of a peristyle building, located east of the temple (1999-2014), and the exposure of the monumental staircase of the temple itself (2015-2018). The paper integrates both the archaeological evidence and the architectural analysis of the excavated structures, presenting a revised reconstruction of the area during the Nabataean and Roman periods. We will first discuss the spectacular refurbishing of the monumental stairs with white marble in the second c. AD, displaying a rather original design; we will then develop hypothesis and reconstruction drawing concerning the second construction, a luxury Nabataean two stories building. It was centred on a courtyard surrounded by a Doric portico, supporting a Corinthian gallery at the upper level, with screen walls adorned with colonette. Beside this sop...
Jordan Journal For History and Archaeology, Volume 14, No 4, 2020 (Special Issue. Third International Conference on Petra and Nabataean Culture), 2020
The Jabal Khubthah summit, generally interpreted as a religious "high-place", remained poorly understood until an archaeological survey initiated in 2012. The new project revised this interpretation, particularly after the discovery of a bath complex built on a breathtaking location, at the very edge of the cliff. After three archaeological campaigns we were able to elucidate parts of its chronology and to reach a tentative reconstruction. The bath presents a rather classical plan, associating a cold area, a tepid one, and a hot room, endowed with two heated plunges. Most of those remains can be dated to the second half of the fourth century AD and will have been abandoned at the end of fourth century or the beginning of the fifth century. However, the excavation revealed that the building was built on an earlier bath complex, poorly preserved, but possibly dating back to the beginning of the second century AD. Connected with other structures, this first bath building seems to be linked to the small naos preserved further south. Altogether with other reexamined bath buildings, in and around Petra, this new discovery sheds new light on the adoption process of Roman bathing practices in the Nabataean world.
14th International Conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan, 2019
The works carried out since 1999 by the French archaeological mission in Petra on the temenos of the Qasr al-Bint were complemented by a renew architectural analysis, allowed by the excavation of a peristyle building, located east of the temple (1999-2014), and the exposure of the monumental staircase of the temple itself (2015-2018). The paper integrates both the archaeological evidence and the architectural analysis of the excavated structures, presenting a revised reconstruction of the area during the Nabataean and Roman periods. We will first discuss the spectacular refurbishing of the monumental stairs with white marble in the second c. AD, displaying a rather original design; we will then develop hypothesis and reconstruction drawing concerning the second construction, a luxury Nabataean two stories building. It was centred on a courtyard surrounded by a Doric portico, supporting a Corinthian gallery at the upper level, with screen walls adorned with colonette. Beside this sophisticated courtyard, the monumental gate of the building, with imbricated Nabataean and Corinthian orders, was studied, revealing two main successive construction stages. New perspectives are light out with those discoveries and enrich the debate about its function within the Qasr al-Bint complex.
The Petra Area and Wadi Silaysil Survey (or PAWS) undertook its initial season of fieldwork in the summer of 2010 as a major component of the Brown University Petra Archaeological Project (BUPAP). The PAWS research area is located some three to ten kilometers north of the Petra city-center, between the modern village communities of Umm Sayhun and Bayda, within which three zones were intensively surveyed: Areas a, b, and c (Fig. 1). Given its close proximity to Petra, it is no surprise that previous travelers, explorers, and archaeologists have investigated this region, with the earliest accounts going back to the 19th century (Robinson and Smith 1841). However, the diachronic, systematic, and intensive design of the PAWS survey represents a novel approach to the documentation of this landscape that has yielded substantial and provocative results after only a single season of fieldwork. In approximately a month long period between 28 June and 31 July 2010, the PAWS team systematically surveyed 133 hectares, in which material culture from all periods (from Paleolithic to the present) was counted and collected for some 334 Survey Units, and over 240 features, ranging from tombs to water management structures to agricultural installations, were recorded. The intention of this article is briefly to review previous research concerning the survey area, to discuss our methodological and theoretical concerns, and to summarize the preliminary results of the 2010 season.