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The ancient Nabataean capital of Petra in Jordan is a very populartourist destination. What many don’t know is that there is a second and important Byzantine Petra, with evidence of the spread of the Gospel in the first centuries of Christianity. Here is the story of a discovery of great archaeological significance told by one of its protagonists.

his is the story of an effort thatbegan with a tragedy and end-ed with results far beyond eventhe most optimistic expecta-tions. Kenneth W. Russell, anAmerican archaeologist, hadbeen working for many yearsin Petra on monuments of theNabataean-Roman period. Hewas convinced – and he tried toconvince me as well – that weshould not expect great novel-ties of the Byzantine period.For example, the novelties wethe archaeologists of theStudium Biblicum ofJerusalem had found in Mad-aba, and the novelties ourBritish and American prede-cessors had discovered in theDecapolis in Jerash. But Ithought exactly the opposite.Kenneth believed the Byzan-tine city, the metropolis of theProvince of Palestina Tertia,came to an end in 551, the yearof a devastating earthquakethat reduced the city and itsregion to ruins. Following thatfriendly discussion, I recall hebrought me one of the latest ar-

ticles he had written on theearthquakes which, accordingto the sources, had struck theMiddle East.

Perhaps, with some optimism,I had considered earthquakeslike pruning, something thatgives new life to a tree, and Itried to persuade him tochange his view. If we givecredit to the sources of the pe-riod, we could hardly imaginethe capital of the province as asimple village with a few hous-es spread amidst the ruins withthe archbishop reduced to acountry priest or a monk inhis cell. Byzantine Petra hadto exist.

I repeated my argumentswhich he also knew. As early asthe start of the fourth century,Eusebius of Cæsarea in com-mentary on Psalm 60 whichrefers to the Messiah as a newDavid points to Petra as thefulfillment of that promise. Asevidence he refers to the Trans-jordan in the land of the Am-

monites, the Moabites and theIdumeans, where there were somany converts that they wouldhave filled the churches of God.In a commentary of a text byIsaiah – “Let the desert and itstowns lift up their voice, the vil-lages that Kedar inhabits; letthe inhabitants of Sela (Petra)sing for joy” (Is 42, 11) – BishopEusebius wrote: “Kedar is onthe edge of the desert, and it issaid to be inhabited by theArab nomads. This term refersto all the inhabitants of thedesert and the edges of the ter-ritory. Petra is a city in Palestine,full of superstitious men, im-mersed in diabolical error, andits inhabitants and, this is saidfor the second time, will beunited to grace. Let those wholive in Petra rejoice! The truthof what has been said is shownby the course of events, whenthe churches of Christ werefounded in our time in the cityof Petra and its surroundingarea. But Kedar also meansdarkness, because of those who,

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Christian PPEETTRRAABy Father Michele PICCIRILLO O.F.M.

Studium Biblicum Franciscanum of Jerusalem (Faculty of Biblical Sciences and Archaeology of the Pontifical University “Antonianum,” Rome)

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The Holy Land Review Fall 2008

RICH MOSAICSA photo of the beautiful

Byzantine mosaic found in Petra. Ancient sources

attest to the presence of a bishop’s see.

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after having emerged fromthe darkness, were transport-ed to the light announced tothe people. It is also said thatthose who inhabit Petra willbe possessed by the same joy:the rock is Christ.” This in-sightful statement is con-firmed by the facts.

Asterius, a contemporary ofEusebius, was the first bishopof the city. St. Athanasius ofAlexandria made him his rep-resentative during the Ariancontroversy, and the EmperorConstantine decided to exilehim to Africa. He was suc-ceeded by Germanus, who asthe bishop of Petra took part inthe council of Seleucia in 359.Also originally from Petra wasthe abbot Paul, who was mas-

sacred by the Arab nomads inthe port of Raitu on the west-ern coast of the peninsula ofSinai, together with 40 of hismonks in 373.

In 447, in the times of BishopJason, the community was sopowerful that one of the maintombs of the city was trans-formed into a church, which isattested to by an inscriptionpainted on the wall of thetomb known as the Corinthi-an Urn Tomb. In 457, BishopJohn was in charge of the dio-cese, and in 536 Theodore, thedisciple and biographer of St.Theodosius the Cenobite, tookpart in the Council ofJerusalem. Towards the endof the sixth century in his “Spir-itual Meadow,” Johannes

Moschus refers to the monkAthenogenus, the son of theabbotess Diana, as the bishopof the city.

Other Christian monumentsexist amidst the ruins, in ad-dition to the tomb-church andthe traces of a monastery atthe summit of ed-Dayr. Themonastery of Aaron, the broth-er of Moses, was well known.It was built on the highestmountain in Petra, at an alti-tude of 1,200 meters (3,936feet), on a plateau at 100 meters(328 feet) below the summitand mentioned by pilgrimsup until the period of the Cru-sades!It was this rich history of thecommunity of Petra that mademe question and refute theconclusions based on earth-quakes. We were discussingthis when Kenneth secretly

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showed me, before showinganyone else, what he hadfound amongst the stones ofwhat looked like the apse of achurch on a terrace behind theRoman nymphaeum in thecenter of the city: some col-ored glass tessera, includinggolden pieces which camefrom a wall mosaic. He alsotold me that he had alreadypresented an excavation planto the U.S. Agency for Inter-national Development (U.S.AID) office at the American

Embassy in Amman on be-half of the American Centerfor Oriental Research (ACOR),the research center withwhom we were printing alarge volume on the mosaics ofJordan. With Kenneth’s per-mission, I also spoke to the di-rectors of ACOR to supporthis idea that would certainlyrevolutionize conclusions

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A PLACE OF FAITHOne of the decorative motifs of the nave of the principalchurch. On the left: thebaptismal chapel with its font.Below: a detail of a capital.

FACT

SHEETPrecious papyruses

found amongst the rocksPetra is one of the most important archaeological sites in Jor-

dan. Dug out of the rock (in Greek “petra” means rock), it was inhabit-ed by the Nabataeans, an Arab population who settled there on a perma-

nent basis around 500 B.C. It then came under the control of the Romans, and inthe sixth century A.D. it became part of the Eastern Empire. During the same period,it became an important bishop’s see, as shown by the church discovered in 1990 by

the American archaeologist Kenneth W. Russell. This was an exceptional discovery whichshed light on the history of Petra and the earthquake of 551 A.D. which, according to histori-ans, was believed to have led to the city’s decline. The excavations of the Byzantine churchbegan in 1992 under the supervision of ACOR, the American Center for Oriental Research,

and financed by U.S. AID, the U.S. Agency for International Development. An important con-tribution was also made by local authorities as the aims of the project included increasing

the numbers of tourists. In December 1993, in the same excavation area, 152 papyrusscrolls written in Greek were found, some burned. The researchers nevertheless wereable to decipher them; they were legal documents that contained references to years

after 551. Petra and its Christian community are thus believed to have survived theterrible earthquake, thriving in the years afterwards as well. The site of thechurch of Petra was opened to the public in 1998. Queen Noor of Jordan

and the highest authorities of the country were present at the inau-guration. Since then the church has become a new focus of

attraction for tourists who wish to discover theancient city of the Nabataeans.

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about the past of Christian Pe-tra, although they were pre-conceived ideas for me.A few days before the excava-tions were to begin, Kennethsuddenly died for unknownreasons, perhaps from ana-phylactic shock caused by aninsect bite. It is still a mysterytoday!

ACOR directors Pierre andPatricia Bekai decided to goahead with the project, whichwas entrusted to the youngmembers of the team: Zbig-niew Fiema, Ghazi Bisheh,Robert Sckick. And the dis-coveries were not long in com-ing. They found a huge eccle-siastical complex, consistingof the main church with threeapses and a baptismal chapelon the western side of theatrium and at least two otherchurches built higher up onthe slopes of the hill, recallinga church complex similar tothe one discovered in Jerashmany years before. The churchwas rich with marble liturgicalfurnishings, such as the altars,the ambo and the holy waterstoup on the door. It was

splendidly decorated with mo-saics in the lateral naves (a cat-alog of motifs) and an “opussectile” floor (made of inlaidmarble) in the central nave.The euphoric atmosphere atACOR regarding mosaicsmade these the first to attractattention. I tried to dampenthe enthusiasm so that theirartistic qualities were not ex-aggerated compared withthose of Madaba, which con-tinued to be unsurpassedwhile the restorers were put-ting together in glass paste theextensive fragments salvagedfrom the apse of the wall mo-saics coming from the vault.

With the expansion of thearchaeological research out-side the northern wall of thebasilica, the enthusiasmreached its climax when inone of the rooms used as a sac-risty, hundreds of charred pa-pyrus scrolls, which had fallenout of the wooden cupboardsleaning against the wall, werecollected from the floor. Thediscovery transformed the ex-cavation of the Petra churchfrom a local event into an event

in the realm of international re-search. The best experts in theworld were called in to takecare of the delicate discovery. Agroup of researchers from theUniversity of Helsinki, led byProf. Jaakko Frösén, was cho-sen. First of all, with carefulwork done in Amman, they“unrolled” the scrolls to pro-ceed with the first attempts toread them. They were all inGreek. The writing recalled atreasure of papyrus discoveredin a similar context in a churchin Netzana, in the PalestinianNegev, that had already beendeciphered. The scholars hadbeen able to read in this treas-ure of papyrus private docu-ments from the end of theByzantine period and the startof the Arab period.

As the work progressed, tomy great satisfaction, I saw myexpectations confirmed. Theywere legal documents, deeds ofproperty and sale, from theprivate family archive of a cer-tain Flavius Theodorus, theson of the priest Obodianos,deacon and the archdeacon ofthe church “of the blessed andmost holy lady, the very glori-ous Mother of God and alwaysVirgin Mary.” Some of the doc-uments referred to dates in thetime of the Emperor Maurice(582-602), much later than 551,accepted as the historical end ofPetra! My friend Kenneth willbe happy about this, too.

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THE SEASONSAn Arab worker cleans one of the Byzantine mosaicsthat represent the seasons.The female figure represents summer.

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