New research explores Hellenistic, Roman influences on Petra’s Treasury

AMMAN — Petra's architecture had been under the strong Greco-Roman influence, but other styles were also seen, originating from Assyria.

In 1862, the architect Jakob Ignaz Hittorffdrew similarity between Petra’s monument and a fresco belonging to the Second Style visible in the House of the Labyrinth in Pompeii, where a tholos with a bell-shaped roof appears between two half pediments.

It is an established fact that the Second Style spread in the Roman world during the second half of the 1st century BC. However, it is commonly believed that the amazing structures that animate these wall paintings are a work of fantasy, rather like theatre backdrops,

"In fact, real buildings that are from the same period as the Pompeian paintings and make use of the same technical solutions do not exist. Certain elements appeared only much later in a monumental Roman architecture, namely in the 2nd century AD, in the times of Hadrian and Antoninus," said Fabio Bourbon, the Italian researcher.

Bourbon added that in 1990’s, Judith McKenzie suggested that the Second Pompeian Style had been strongly influenced by the Hellenistic architecture of Alexandria. The scholar showed that some architectural remains found in the Egyptian metropolis, and strikingly similar to details of the Khazneh (including the floral capitals), date back to the Ptolemaic period, in any case before 100 BC.

McKenzie therefore reached the conclusion that monumental buildings, characterised by a style that today "we would call 'Baroque' had existed in Alexandria". These monuments inspired both the Second Pompeian Style and the Khazneh (and also later monuments like the Corinthian Tomb and the Deir).

"Therefore, the proposed date for the creation of the Treasury was the 1st century BC. However, recent archaeological excavations carried out in front of the monument have shown that the Khazneh was created in the following century, contradicting this theory," Bourbon underlined.

The researcher added that considering the macroscopic differences between the typical Nabataean rock cut architecture– Assyrian style tombs, Hegra type tombs, etc. – and the Khazneh, many writers have asserted that it was built by master stonecutters from Alexandria or at least from that area.

Boubon has a thesis that if one looks at the Pompeiian fresco in the House of the Labyrinth, they will see that the tholos is not aligned between the two broken pediments, but is set back from them and therefore is not part of one single building.

Moreover, similar tholoi, framed in perspective between colonnades or broken pediments, appear in frescos in the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii and in the villa of P. Fannius Synistor in Boscoreale.

"Moreover, in each of these representations, in addition to the fact that the tholos is set back from the buildings that frame it, all the structures rest on the ground, while in the case of the Treasury, these architectural elements form the second floor and are aligned on the same line."

"In addition, all the Pompeiian frescos appear to be characterised by an unreal architectural levity, with tall, thin columns that support delicate trabeations of absolutely unusual proportions." Bourbon underlined.

If the Treasury is then considered from a purely engineering point of view, it is obvious that in reality, a building constructed in masonry with similar proportions would not make sense, Bourbon continued.

The researcher noted that it probably would not be standing; the considerable weight of the tholos, without an underlying system of transverse, supporting arches, would entirely rest on the trabeation of the portico, as well as on the doorway giving access to the interior, leading to an almost irresolvable problem of static equilibrium.

"Ultimately, I believe that the Pompeiian painting and the oldest, sepulchral painting attested in Alexandria are both magnificent works of fantasy and by any means imply the existence of real buildings," Bourbon said.

"It is however very possible, indeed very probable, that the Roman decorators were influenced by a pictorial school that was already active in Alexandria in the 2nd century BC, and that this inspired the architect, or architects, of the Treasury, who perhaps had actually been called to Petra from Alexandria, with all his stylistic background, " the researcher said.

In Alexandria, as in the rest of the Mediterranean basin, masons were accustomed to constructing buildings, not carving them out of a rock mass.

"If we consider the purely technical problems the builders of the Khazneh had to solve, we realise that these are of a sculptural nature, even on an enormous scale, and not an architectural one."

"Imagine, for example, what it means to rough out the large bell-shaped roof of a tholos from a rock mass, or to give form to huge free-standing columns, proceeding from the top to the bottom," Bourbon underlined.