Renaissance Tomb
About
Nineteenth-century European visitors named this tomb for the six ornamental jars and urn-topped archivolt crowning its eight-metre facade, which reminded them of Italian Renaissance flourishes rather than anything Nabataean. Carved into red sandstone in Wadi al-Farasa, its triangular pediment rests on an entablature framed by engaged corner columns with Nabataean capitals. It faces the Petra Royal Tombs across the valley but stands as an entirely separate monument. Cut around the turn of the second century CE, it had settled into the cliff face well before 117.
What happened here
Roman burial is a family matter conducted in public. The dead are carried out of town, cremated or laid in the ground, and mourned with formal noise; the funeral of anyone important is a procession with masks of the ancestors carried by hired men. The tomb that follows is designed to be read by strangers on the road: name, age, offices, sometimes a trade shown in relief, often a line addressed directly to the passer-by. Ordinary people appear here as they nowhere else — a baker with his ovens carved on the front, a freedman naming the woman he could finally marry, a child's age given in days. Anniversaries bring the family back with food and wine.
Sources
Nearby
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Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →