Qusair Amra 2011

The article is a short presentation of two fieldwork seasons conducted in 2011 at the World Heritage site of Quseir ‘Amra by a joint mission of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro in Rome, and the World Monuments Fund. The structure built in the Omayyad period – 8th century – comprises a building (with a main hall, a so-called throne room, and a small bathhouse), a nearby saqiya (a well with a water-lifting device), and other structures, including the ruins of a quseir, a small mosque, another saqiya, and other unidentified structures. The main building contains a cycle of mural paintings in every room, evidence of the deep influence of Byzantine and Sasanian art on the early Islamic figurative tradition. The project included removing layers of cement replaced with lime mortar applied to stabilize the extrados of the vault during previous interventions, and a program to monitor the building’s environmental conditions. Also a procedure to remove the thick shellac layer applied to the paintings in the 1970s was developed during the spring campaign and then applied in the course of the fall campaign. Cleaning has exposed approximately 5 m2 of the south wall of the west aisle at present. Brilliant colours have been found under the layers of soot, grime, and products applied in previous conservation. Many new details were found on the scenes treated so far, such as a peacock-feather flabellum, the original, natural-looking form of a peacock tail, and the hands and legs of the figures located in the lunettes of the wall under conservation. Above the heads of these figures, two Greek inscriptions were found, possibly describing at least one of the figures as Jonah sleeping under a gourd tree, a well known subject from Early Christian iconography.