Al-Jaya Palace and the New Shawbak Town. A Medieval frontier and the return of the urbanism in the Southern Transjordan

Al-Jaya Palace and the New Shawbak Town. A Medieval frontier and the return of the urbanism in the Southern Transjordan The recent discovery – made during the 2018 campaign ofthe ‘Medieval Petra’ Mission of the University of Florence – of the residential al-Jaya Palace at the bottom of the hill...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal:	Guido Vannini
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN FR
Publicado:	Ksiegarnia Akademicka Publishing 2020
Materias:	Jordan Mission Petra Shawbak Light Archaeology incastellamento Ancient history D51-90 History of the arts NX440-632
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/1246530ee37e4e4a809feb0ffa4bca25
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:1246530ee37e4e4a809feb0ffa4bca25
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:1246530ee37e4e4a809feb0ffa4bca252021-11-27T13:18:48ZAl-Jaya Palace and the New Shawbak Town. A Medieval frontier and the return of the urbanism in the Southern Transjordan10.12797/SAAC.24.2020.24.041899-15482449-867Xhttps://doaj.org/article/1246530ee37e4e4a809feb0ffa4bca252020-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.akademicka.pl/saac/article/view/2636https://doaj.org/toc/1899-1548https://doaj.org/toc/2449-867X Al-Jaya Palace and the New Shawbak Town. A Medieval frontier and the return of the urbanism in the Southern Transjordan The recent discovery – made during the 2018 campaign ofthe ‘Medieval Petra’ Mission of the University of Florence – of the residential al-Jaya Palace at the bottom of the hill of Shawbak’s ‘incastellato’ site is of particular relevance both for medieval and Islamic heritage in Jordan (no architecture of a comparable quality from the Ayyubid-Mamluk periodhas ever been found in the country) and mostly for the archaeological confirmation that underneath al-Jaya, lays the ancient medieval capital city of southern Jordan, founded by Saladin, on the same site of the castle-capital of the previous Crusader Lordship of Transjordan. This result represents a triple confirmation for the scientific program of the Mission: the productivity of the ‘Light Archaeology’ methodology that characterizes our approach; the real existence of the city whose foundation we had deemed to be able to propose (owing solely to the ‘light’ reading son the walls of the ‘castle’); and the excellence of the formal level of the building – perfectly matching the quality of the political and productive structures documented earlier in the castle – that speaks of a cultured and refined city and of an extraordinary strategic project that can be attributed to Saladin’s political intelligence. A project that gave back a new centrality to the entire southern Transjordan and started a settlement and political tradition that is the basis of modern Jordan itself (it is not accidental that the first capital of the state was Ma’an). Once the urban structure that has now appeared is understood, future research will be able to direct the excavations so as to address another great historical question which 2018 investigations have highlighted: we know the birth and begin to read the life of this extraordinary town, butwhen, how and why did it perish so much so that it was forgotten by history (and to be rediscovered by archaeology)? Perhaps for the first time, we will have an opportunity to study archaeologically an aspect of the historical crisis that, probably during the 15th century, engulfed the Arab-Islamicworld, opening the way for the Ottoman conquest. It is an intriguing perspective to be addressed in tandem with a renewed public archaeology program: conservative restoration, social valorization, broad communication directed both to the local communities and to the international public with the implementation of the master plan 2010-14, and, finally, tourist routes connecting Shawbak with the Petra area. Guido VanniniKsiegarnia Akademicka PublishingarticleJordanMissionPetraShawbakLight ArchaeologyincastellamentoAncient historyD51-90History of the artsNX440-632ENFRStudies in Ancient Art and Civilization, Vol 24 (2020)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN FR
topic	Jordan Mission Petra Shawbak Light Archaeology incastellamento Ancient history D51-90 History of the arts NX440-632
spellingShingle	Jordan Mission Petra Shawbak Light Archaeology incastellamento Ancient history D51-90 History of the arts NX440-632 Guido Vannini Al-Jaya Palace and the New Shawbak Town. A Medieval frontier and the return of the urbanism in the Southern Transjordan
description	Al-Jaya Palace and the New Shawbak Town. A Medieval frontier and the return of the urbanism in the Southern Transjordan The recent discovery – made during the 2018 campaign ofthe ‘Medieval Petra’ Mission of the University of Florence – of the residential al-Jaya Palace at the bottom of the hill of Shawbak’s ‘incastellato’ site is of particular relevance both for medieval and Islamic heritage in Jordan (no architecture of a comparable quality from the Ayyubid-Mamluk periodhas ever been found in the country) and mostly for the archaeological confirmation that underneath al-Jaya, lays the ancient medieval capital city of southern Jordan, founded by Saladin, on the same site of the castle-capital of the previous Crusader Lordship of Transjordan. This result represents a triple confirmation for the scientific program of the Mission: the productivity of the ‘Light Archaeology’ methodology that characterizes our approach; the real existence of the city whose foundation we had deemed to be able to propose (owing solely to the ‘light’ reading son the walls of the ‘castle’); and the excellence of the formal level of the building – perfectly matching the quality of the political and productive structures documented earlier in the castle – that speaks of a cultured and refined city and of an extraordinary strategic project that can be attributed to Saladin’s political intelligence. A project that gave back a new centrality to the entire southern Transjordan and started a settlement and political tradition that is the basis of modern Jordan itself (it is not accidental that the first capital of the state was Ma’an). Once the urban structure that has now appeared is understood, future research will be able to direct the excavations so as to address another great historical question which 2018 investigations have highlighted: we know the birth and begin to read the life of this extraordinary town, butwhen, how and why did it perish so much so that it was forgotten by history (and to be rediscovered by archaeology)? Perhaps for the first time, we will have an opportunity to study archaeologically an aspect of the historical crisis that, probably during the 15th century, engulfed the Arab-Islamicworld, opening the way for the Ottoman conquest. It is an intriguing perspective to be addressed in tandem with a renewed public archaeology program: conservative restoration, social valorization, broad communication directed both to the local communities and to the international public with the implementation of the master plan 2010-14, and, finally, tourist routes connecting Shawbak with the Petra area.
format	article
author	Guido Vannini
author_facet	Guido Vannini
author_sort	Guido Vannini
title	Al-Jaya Palace and the New Shawbak Town. A Medieval frontier and the return of the urbanism in the Southern Transjordan
title_short	Al-Jaya Palace and the New Shawbak Town. A Medieval frontier and the return of the urbanism in the Southern Transjordan
title_full	Al-Jaya Palace and the New Shawbak Town. A Medieval frontier and the return of the urbanism in the Southern Transjordan
title_fullStr	Al-Jaya Palace and the New Shawbak Town. A Medieval frontier and the return of the urbanism in the Southern Transjordan
title_full_unstemmed	Al-Jaya Palace and the New Shawbak Town. A Medieval frontier and the return of the urbanism in the Southern Transjordan
title_sort	al-jaya palace and the new shawbak town. a medieval frontier and the return of the urbanism in the southern transjordan
publisher	Ksiegarnia Akademicka Publishing
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/1246530ee37e4e4a809feb0ffa4bca25
work_keys_str_mv	AT guidovannini aljayapalaceandthenewshawbaktownamedievalfrontierandthereturnoftheurbanisminthesoutherntransjordan
_version_	1718408483203710976

Al-Jaya Palace and the New Shawbak Town. A Medieval frontier and the return of the urbanism in the Southern Transjordan

Ejemplares similares