[Ricerca storico-archeologica in Giordania] 5. Two “Nabataean” mosaic floors from Wadi Musa-Petra

Two mosaic floors were discovered during salvage work by the Department of Antiquities in the Wadi Musa town centre in 1996 and 1999, in the middle of the suq area. The first pavement was uncovered in a Nabatean villa dated to the mid-late first century A.D. The pavement covered a room and consists of two parts, the main carpet and an entryway. The design is purely geometric in four colours: white, yellow, red and black. A feasible reconstruction of the carpet would have two central circles. The second floor decorated a room in a villa contemporary with and neighbouring that which contained the first mosaic, although a slightly earlier date within the mid first century A.D. is possible for the construction of this second villa. The mosaic floor showed a repeated geometric motif of interlocking circles in black and white to the south, and simple alternating black and white tesserae to the north.