Petra Church

Name of structure: Petra Church
Extended name of structure:
Type of structure: Church
Country or main area: Jordan
Region within country or main area: Pella
City or area within region: Petra
Date of structure: Mid 5C
Century of structure 1: 4 AD
Century of structure 2: 8 AD
Specific place of mosaic: Scattered tesserae on the ground.
Brief descriptive contents of mosaic: n/a
Date of mosaic: Contemporary with date of structure?
Century of mosaic 1: 5 AD
Century of mosaic 2: 5 AD
Silver tessera at site: No
Gold tessera at site: Yes
Colour tessera at site: Yes
Were other materials found at site (i.e., glass cakes)? Glass fragments and tesserae
Has analysis been done? Yes
Samples taken from where? Glass cakes on floor of Room IX, loose tesserae in different areas of the church (Fiori, 2001; Marii, 2001; Markou, 2005; Marii, 2006, 2008).
Excavation and restoration campaigns: 1990-: American Center of Oriental Research, Amman
Bibliography of mainly technical resources:

Marii, F., Glass, Glass Cakes and Tesserae from the Petra Church, Petra (unpubl, thesis. UCL Institute of Archaeology. London, University of London, (2008).

Marii, F., ‘Archaeological coloured glass cakes and tesserae from the Petra church’, AIHV Proceedings (Antwerp, Belgium) 7/12 (2006).


Markou, E., Glass Colorants in Byzantine Tesserae from the Petra Church, Jordan (unpubl, thesis. UCL Institute of Archaeology, University of London, 2005).


Fiema, Z.T., Kanellopoulos, C., Waliszewski, T., & Schick, R., The Petra Church (American Center of Oriental Research, Amman: Acor, 2001):  
-Marii, F., 'Typological and chemical analysis of the glass', 377-83.
-Waliszewski, T., 'Appendix D: the wall mosaics', 300-2.
-Fiori, C., 'Appendix E: the composition of the glass wall mosaic tesserae', 303-5.

Fiori, C. & Vandini, M., 'Caratterizzazione chimica di tessere musive vitree di epoca bizantina provenienti dagli scavi di una chiesa a Petra, Giordania', Ceramurgia 28/5 (1998), 333-41.


Roncuzzi Fiorentini, I. & Fiori, C., 'Applicazione dell'analisi chimica allo studio del vetro musivo bizantino del 5.-6. secolo', Mosaico e rstauro musivo - [Faenza]: C.N.R., Istituto di ricerche tecnologiche per la ceramica 5/2 (1996), 9-55.


Nicholl, A.W., 'The east church, area V', in Pella in Jordan, ed by A.W Nicholl et al., (Sydney, 1992), Vol. 2.




 
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Comments: Archaeologists have recorded that hundreds of thousands of loose tesserae have been excavated from the complex, therefore, the total weight of all tesserae roughly would be at least 150 kg considering that this figure include the stone tesserae as well (Marii, 2006, 9).

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