NOTES ON NABATAEAN CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES: A CRITICAL REVIEW AND INVESTIGATION OF EL-KHAZNEH SLOTS FUNCTION

Abstract

The Nabataeans were highly creative in their adaptation of the Greco-Roman construction techniques. Based on their specific natural resources and lexicon of architectural elements, the Nabataeans thus devel- oped their own techniques. Indeed, the size and elaborate nature of many of their monuments would require such innovations, as physically manifested in the two vertical rows of slots located on the recessed back face wall on either side of the façade of el-Khazneh in Petra in Jordan. These slots have been a matter of some debate on whether their function was for footholds or for scaffolding. Though the slots have been discussed in passing, no scholar has made the in-depth critical investigation in determining their proper technical and functional approach with reference to their preserved fully recorded dimensions. Thanks to a recent study using a combination of 3D laser scanner and reflector-less total station, we now have precise measurements of the well preserved individual slots. This article is concerned with the particular case of these slots. A de- tailed examination of these slots in relation to their size and depth, position and arrangement within the fa- çade, probably credits their use, both, as foot holes, and as supports for a smart and simple scaffolding struc- ture. The paper suggests and exemplifies that, these slots are part of an authentic Nabataean construction technique, and they were the foundations used to fix a wooden lightweight socket in a diagonal changeabla cantilever scaffolding. This new assumption is supported with schematic sections and illustrations showing alternative combinations of the cantilever scaffolding at different slot heights, using the embedded putlog and diagonal bracing on which the planks are held. Thus, providing the basis for further research, hopefully encouraging a further knowledge of Nabataean scaffolding construction techniques of rock-cut architecture.