ACOR Director Brings to Life the Byzantine World of Petra

Archaeologist Barbara Porter

The AUB Museum was the venue where the Society of the Friends of the AUB Museum hosted its latest event: an illustrated lecture by archaeologist Barbara Porter. Held on March 19, the lecture was entitled "The Byzantine World of Petra: The Churches and Papyrus Scrolls" and, according to Porter, represents "the result of ten years of multi-million-dollar research and excavations in a nutshell."

Porter, who has been the director of the Jordan-based American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) over the past two years, spoke about three main churches, the Church of Petra, the Blue Chapel, and the Ridge Church, which distinguished the expansive city of Petra, largely marked by a multitude of thriving monastic complexes between the fourth and eighth centuries. She said that the famous pulpit of the Blue Chapel, known for its blue mosaics, has been recently restored.

In the Church of Petra, the subterranean chambers were designated as "courts of law" during the Byzantine period, even if the chambers were rarely used as such. Projecting a number of images of this church's elaborate floor mosaics, featuring birds, hunting scenes, camels, elephants, and giraffes, Porter said that this kind of imagery was "only considered appropriate in Byzantine churches and chapels, but not in villas or mansions." In addition, the mosaics also featured pictorial renditions of popular saints as well as of the benefactors whose donations made "the tedious process of mosaic production worthwhile."

The lofty artistry of the mosaics was not only exclusive to churches, but also served to promote the impression of a progressive Byzantine culture open to new ideas and imports. Accordingly, Porter reported that the basic tenets of this culture were inscribed on papyrus scrolls, which, albeit scorched, had been discovered intact by her team, having been preserved underground for several centuries.

In response to prominent journalist and parliamentarian Ghassan Tueini's question about how the Dead Cities of Syria compare to Petra, Porter said that while the wealth of both was primarily based on agriculture, it is Petra's success which, in light of the city's grave hydrological concerns and repetitive droughts, seems more impressive. She thus concluded that the decision to list Petra among the new Seven Wonders of the World is praiseworthy, noting, however, that stricter security measures need to be implemented to prevent the ongoing looting of the site's open-air treasures.