La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le 'frontiere' del Mediterraneo medievale 9781407309781, 9781407339566

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BAR  S2386  2012  

VANNINI & NUCCIOTTI (Eds)

LA TRANSGIORDANIA NEI SECOLI XII-XIII

B A R

Limina / Limites Archeologie, storie, isole e frontiere nel Mediterraneo (365-1556) 1

La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le ‘frontiere’ del Mediterraneo medievale a cura di

Guido Vannini Michele Nucciotti

BAR International Series 2386 2012

Published in 2016 by BAR Publishing, Oxford BAR International Series 2386 Limina / Limites: Archeologie, storie, isole e frontiere nel Mediterraneo (365-1556) 1 La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le ‘frontiere’ del Mediterraneo medievale © The editors and contributors severally and the Publisher 2012 The authors' moral rights under the 1988 UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act are hereby expressly asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be copied, reproduced, stored, sold, distributed, scanned, saved in any form of digital format or transmitted in any form digitally, without the written permission of the Publisher.

ISBN 9781407309781 paperback ISBN 9781407339566 e-format DOI https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407309781 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library BAR Publishing is the trading name of British Archaeological Reports (Oxford) Ltd. British Archaeological Reports was first incorporated in 1974 to publish the BAR Series, International and British. In 1992 Hadrian Books Ltd became part of the BAR group. This volume was originally published by Archaeopress in conjunction with British Archaeological Reports (Oxford) Ltd / Hadrian Books Ltd, the Series principal publisher, in 2012. This present volume is published by BAR Publishing, 2016.

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Limina/Limites

Archaeologies, histories, islands and borders in the Mediterranean (365-1556) A new BAR International Subseries The Series management structure is articulated in a simple but dynamic form: * a group of Series Editors, who have conceived the series and who will take on the tasks of overseeing the production of the varied voumes, through transparent procedures of selection, negotiation, and peer review. Our group comprises the international scholars gruppo è composto da Miguel Angel Cau, Christine Delaplace, Demetrios Michaelides, Philippe Pergola, Helen Saradi, Guido Vannini, and Enrico Zanini, who interests and expertises span late antique to medieval settlement, urbanism, trade, religion, economics and society. * a Scientific Committee, composed of mainly young scholars given the honour of proposing themes, authors and texts for publication. The Scientific Committee is formed by Khairieh Amr, Ignacio Arce, Josipa Baraka, Thaddeusz Baranowski, Fabrizio Benente, Dario Bernal Casasola, Adrian Boas, Nathaniel Cutajar, Kristoffer Damgaard, Cedric Devais, Mario Gallina, Daniel Istria, Giuseppe Ligato, Paolo Liverani, Juan José Larrea, Elisabeth Malamut, Rossana Martorelli, Alessandra Molinari, John Moreland, Etlveni Nallbani, Michele Nucciotti, Giuseppe Palmero, Carmelo Pappalardo, Hamlet Petrosyan, Konstantinos Politis, Albert Ribera i Lacomba, Laurent Schneider, Pier Giorgio Spanu, Bruno Vecchio and Giuliano Volpe. * a group of Referees, comprising internationally recognised scholars, who will assure, in anonymous form, a peer review evaluation of manuscripts proposed for publication. So far, the following scholars have accepted to become part of the group of referees: Josep Amengual, Agustin Azkarate, Hugo Blake, Charles Bonnet, Henri Bresc, Andrzej Buko, Franco Cardini, Rosa Maria Carra Bonacasa, Neil Christie, Giovanni Curatola, Michel Fixot, Maria Vittoria Fontana, Josep Maria Gurt, Richard Hodges, Hugh Kennedy, Attilio Mastino, Rheinhold Mueller, Margarita Orfila, Paolo Peduto, Natalia Poulou, Paul Reynolds, Gisela Ripoll López, Stephan Schmid, Carlo Varaldo and Chris Wickham.

The title, subtitle, and chronological span of this new series require a few words of explanation by the editors. Firstly, ‘Limina/limites’ flags obvious assonances of the root of two Latin words that indicate respectively ‘thresholds’, ‘borders’, and thus ‘frontiers’, with that of the Greek word meaning ‘port’, which, for an island – and more broadly any city facing the sea – is both a point of connectivity and a boundary of isolation. Islands and borders are two of the many possible keys through which we can study the post-classical Mediterranean. From the time that the Mediterranean ceases to be a great Roman ‘lake’, that same Sea becomes an often uncrossable border that both separates and protects many worlds that developed with different forms and rhythms and along its extensive coasts. At the same time, however, the Mediterranean continues to be an element of unity: it provides a shared identity to communities that were culturally and geographically distant; and it can still be crossed to go to, and beyond, other frontiers. Islands and borders, forming connecting lines and lines of separation, offering unified identities yet socio-cultural diversities, from this point of view can become spaces for reflection by disciplines seeking to understand the past but which aim to make much more widely available the tools with which to interpret some of the basic needs of the contemporary world, solving, for example, in terms of ‘Public Archaeology’, ideas, results and outcomes of both pure and applied research. The subtitle – with all nouns in the plural - alludes to the need for a multiplicity of different approaches. History and archaeology – especially in the Mediterranean – are disciplines that today can only be defined in a plural form; these search much less for an a priori monolithic specific definition, but for an exploration of the limits to be overcome and the intersection points to be exploited. The points of contact between disciplines must surely be the territory, to be seen as a product of the interaction between culture and nature and forming the smallest unit of observation of historical change and of contextualization of the archeological traces. The chronological range, providing a ‘long-term’ vision, is seen by the editors as essential to explore in time-depth the multiple themes of study. AD 365 – or, more precisely, the 21st July, 365, the day of the most violent tsunami documented in the literary sources – marks the moment at which, in the midst of transformation of the ancient world, the Mediterranean reclaims, almost by metaphor, its physical centrality, made up of waves and winds, giving life to an epoch-making phenomenon, through its devastating effects and above all for its global visibility, as evident from the many different witnesses and voices from Eastern and Western shores describing the same event with different voices and languages. 1556 – more precisely January 16th, 1556, the day of the coronation of Philip II of Spain – symbolically marks the date on which the Mediterranean enters contemporary historiography through the major textual vision of the historian Fernand Braudel, by his rewriting of the rules of historiographical analysis, pursuing directions that have so many points of intersection with archaeology. The Limina/Limites series seeks to invite editors of proceedings of conferences and workshops, authors of individual monographs and collective studies which, regardless of their discipline, are targeted at the integration of diverse data sources and systems oriented at a global reconstruction, and geared to long-term trends and to Mediterranean-wide spatial dimensions.

Limina/Limites

Archéologies, histoires, îles et frontières de Méditerranée (365-1556) Titre, sous-titre et arc chronologique d’une nouvelle collection éditoriale ont besoin que leurs responsables s’en expliquent. Le titre joue à l’évidence autour de l’assonance des racines des mots latins qui indiquent à la fois des lieux de passages et des limites, donc des frontières, come pour le mot grec qui indique le port, lequel représente, pour une île -et plus largement pour toute ville qui donne sur la mer- un lieu de connexion et à la fois une limite qui isole. Iles et frontières sont deux des innombrables clés de lecture pour tenter d’ouvrir les portes de l’étude de la Méditerranée post antique. A partir du moment où elle cesse d’être un grand lac romain, la Méditerranée devient une frontière parfois insurmontable, qui sépare et protège réciproquement les nombreux mondes qui se développent à des rythmes et sous des formes différentes le long de ses côtes. Au même moment, la Méditerranée continue à être un élément d’unité : elle fournit une identité partagée par des communautés culturellement et géographiquement distantes ; elle peut être traversée pour aller vers, et au-delà, d’autres frontières. Iles et frontières sont à la fois des lignes qui unissent et qui séparent, des identités unitaires et des multiplicités socio culturelles. Elles deviennent ainsi de vastes espaces de réflexion pour des disciplines tournées vers la connaissance du passé, mais qui entendent mettre à la disposition des collectivités des instruments pour interpréter certaines exigences fondamentales du monde contemporain, en résolvant, par exemple, en des termes d’‘Achéologie publique’, des pistes, des résultats et des issues pour les recherches proposées, ou du moins pour une part d’entre elles, entre recherche pure et recherche appliquée. Le sous-titre, entièrement au pluriel, est une allusion à la nécessité d’une multiplicité d’approches différentes. Histoire et archéologie -à plus forte raison en Méditerranée- sont les disciplines qui apparaissent devoir être aujourd’hui déclinées au pluriel, non pas à la recherche a priori d’une définition disciplinaire monolithique, mais qui doivent explorer les limites à dépasser et les points de rencontre à exploiter. Le lieu de rencontre entre els disciplines ne peut qu’être le territoire, entendu comme le produit de l’interaction ente cultures et nature , à savoir des unités minimales où contextualiser les traces archéologiques. Les dates de référence se situent dans une optique de longue durée et se sont imposées comme l’une des conséquence logiques possibles de notre postulat de départ, pour rendre plus explicite encore notre projet. L’année 365 -et pour être plus précis, le 21 juillet 365, jour du raz-de-marée le plus violent qu’aient jamais rappelé les sources littéraires- marque le moment où, au beau milieu de la transformation du monde antique, la Méditerranée reconquiert, de manière quasiment métaphorique, sa centralité physique, faite de vagues déchaînées et de vents violents, pour donner vie à un phénomène qui marque cette époque par ses effets désastreux et surtout par la visibilité globale qu’il acquiert, comme le prouvent le grand nombre des témoins qui décrivent les dévastations de ce même phénomène, depuis les rives orientales et occidentales, en des langues et avec des voix différentes. L’année 1556 -et pour être plus précis, le 16 janvier 1556, jour du couronnement de Philippe II d’Espagne- marque symboliquement la date retenue pour l’entrée de la Méditerranée dans l’historiographie moderne à travers la grande leçon de Fernand Braudel, en réécrivant les règles du jeu historiographique dans une direction qui a de nombreux points d’intersection avec l’archéologie. Limina/Limites entend accueillir des actes de congrès et colloques, de séminaires, des monographies et des études collectives lesquelles, indépendamment de leur discipline d’origine, aient pour objectif l’intégration de sources et de systèmes, autour de données différentes, en focntion d’une reconstruction globale, orientée vers la longue durée et la dimension de l’espace méditerranéen.

 

Limina/Limites Archeologie, storie, isole e frontiere nel Mediterraneo (365-1556)

Titolo, sottotitolo e ambito cronologico di una serie editoriale richiedono qualche parola di spiegazione da parte dei curatori. Il titolo gioca evidentemente sull’assonanza della radice delle parole latine che indicano rispettivamente soglie e confini, dunque frontiere, con quella della parola greca che indica il porto, che per un’isola – e in senso lato per ogni città che si affacci sul mare – è al tempo stesso una soglia di connettività e un confine di isolamento. Isole e frontiere sono due delle tante possibili chiavi di lettura per provare a studiare il Mediterraneo postantico. Da quando cessa di essere un grande lago romano, il Mediterraneo diviene una frontiera spesso invalicabile, che separa e protegge reciprocamente i tanti mondi che si sviluppano con ritmi e forme diversi lungo le sue coste. Al tempo stesso però il Mediterraneo continua ad essere un elemento di unità: fornisce una identità condivisa a comunità culturalmente e geograficamente distanti; può essere attraversato per spingersi verso, e al di là di, altre frontiere. Isole e frontiere, linee di connessione e linee di separazione, identità unitarie e molteplicità socioculturali divengono da questo punto di vista spazi di riflessione per discipline volte alla conoscenza del passato ma che intendono mettere a disposizione della collettività strumenti per interpretare alcune esigenze fondamentali della contemporaneità, risolvendo, ad esempio, in termini di ‘Archeologia Pubblica’ spunti, risultati ed esiti delle ricerche proposte o almeno di alcune di esse, fra ricerca pura e ricerca applicata. Il sottotitolo, tutto al plurale, allude alla necessità di una molteplicità di approcci diversi. Storia e archeologia – a maggior ragione nel Mediterraneo – sono discipline che appaiono oggi declinabili solo in forma plurale, alla ricerca non di una monolitica definizione disciplinare a priori, ma di un’esplorazione di limiti da superare e di punti di intersezione da sfruttare. Luogo di incontro tra le discipline non può che essere il territorio, inteso come prodotto della interazione tra culture e natura: unità minima di osservazione del fenomeno storico e unità minima di contestualizzazione delle tracce archeologiche. Le date di riferimento, in un’ottica di ‘lungo periodo’, sono sembrate ai curatori una possibile conseguenza logica delle premesse e possono quindi rendere più esplicito il progetto. Il 365 – per la precisione il 21 luglio del 365, giorno del più violento maremoto narrato dalle fonti letterarie – segna il momento in cui, nel bel mezzo della trasformazione del mondo antico, il Mediterraneo riconquista, quasi per metafora, la sua centralità fisica, fatta di onde e di venti, dando vita a un fenomeno epocale, per i suoi effetti disastrosi e soprattutto per la sua visibilità globale, come dimostrano i tanti testimoni diversi che dalle sponde orientali e occidentali descrivono lo stesso evento con lingue e voci differenti. Il 1556 – per la precisione il 16 gennaio 1556, giorno dell’incoronazione di Filippo II di Spagna – segna simbolicamente la data in cui il Mediterraneo entra nella storiografia contemporanea attraverso la grande lezione di Fernand Braudel, riscrivendo le regole del gioco storiografico in una direzione che ha molti punti di intersezione con l’archeologia. Limina/Limites intende accogliere atti di convegni e seminari, singole monografie e studi collettivi che, indipendentemente dalla loro origine disciplinare, si propongano come obiettivo l’integrazione di fonti e sistemi di dati diversi in funzione di una ricostruzione globale, orientata alla lunga durata e alla dimensione spaziale mediterranea.

Il logo della collana Limina/Limites Elementi Il mare che entra nelle città e nei porti del Mediterraneo; fa riferimento al Maremoto dell’anno 365 e alla connettività marittima delle comunità culturali del Mediterraneo Le porte monumentali; sono riferite al paesaggio del Mediterraneo tardo antico e medievale, connotato da fenomeni di urbanizzazione e monumentalizzazione di porti e città fortemente connotati dalla presenza di edilizia in pietra (al contrario di quanto avviene ad esempio sul Baltico e nei mari del nord) Il cavallo che spicca un salto; rappresenta il passaggio attraverso il mare delle società continentali, caratterizzate dall’uso del cavallo. Nel Mediterraneo il mare non mette in comunicazione solo le comunità marittime ma, attraverso esse, veicola il trasferimento temporaneo o permanente delle componenti sociali degli entroterra europeo, mediorientale e nordafricano La legenda “Limina Limites”; riprende nella scelta grafica il riferimento al Mediterraneo come ‘mare caldo’ per antonomasia nella storia dell’Europa continentale utilizzando la legenda come rappresentazione di un sole al centro del mare.

Autore: Riccardo Polveroni, artista e designer internazionale è autore di progetti logo per enti pubblici e privati. Il Sig. Polveroni si è offerto di sviluppare gratuitamente il concept del Logo per la collana Limina/Limites nel quadro dei progetti di Archeologia Pubblica che l’Università di Firenze sta svolgendo con il programma UE ENPI Liaisons for Growth Italy | Jordan | Armenia. Consulenza scientifica: Guido Vannini (Cattedra di Archeologia Medievale dell’Università di Firenze), Michele Nucciotti (Coordinatore Scientifico di Liaisons for Growth), Laboratori Archeologici San Gallo soc. coop. (spin-off dell’Università di Firenze nel settore della comunicazione e valorizzazione dell’archeologia).

Logo de la série Limina/Limites Elements La mer qui entre dans les villes et les ports de Méditerranée REFERENCE au raz-de-marée de l’année 365 et aux conenxions maritimes des communautés culturelles de Méditerranée Les portes monumentales REFERENCE au paysage de la Méditerranée tardo antique et médiévale, marqué par des phénomènes d’urbanisation et de monumentalisation des ports et des villes fortement caractérisés par des édifices de pierre (à la différence de la situation des Mers du Nord et Baltique) Le saut du cheval REFERENCE à la traversée des société continentales qui s’effectuait à cheval. En Méditerranée la mer ne met pas seulement en rapport les seules communauté maritimes, mais par leur biais elle permet des transferts temporaires ou permanents des composantes sociales de l’intérieur des terres, en Eurpoe, au Moyen-Orient et en Afrique du Nord. Légende “Limina Limites” REFERENCE qui reprend dans le choix graphique l’allusion à la Méditerranée, comme mer chaude, par antonomase, de l’histoire de l’Europe continentale en utilisant la légende comme une représentation d’un soleil au centre de la mer. L’auteur: Riccardo Polveroni, artiste designer international è l’auteur de projets et de logos pour des institutions publiques et privées. M. Polveroni nous a offert ici gratuitement le concept de ce logo pour la collection Limina/Limites dans le cadre des projets d’Archéologie Publique que l’Université de Florence développe avec le programme UE ENPI Liaisons for Growth Italy | Jordan | Armenia. Expertise scientifique: Guido Vannini (Chaire d’Archéologie Médiévale de l’Université de Florence), Michele Nucciotti (Responsable de la Coordination Scientifique de Liaisons for Growth), Laboratori Archeologici San Gallo soc. coop. (spin-off de l’Université de Florence dans le domaine de la comunication et de la mise en valeur de l’archéologie). Logo for the series ‘Limina/limites’ Elements The sea entering the cities and harbours of the Mediterranean REFERENCE TO the seaquake of AD 365 and to the maritime connectivity of the cultural communities of the Mediterranean Monumental gates REFERENCE TO the transformation of the Mediterranean from late antiquity to the Middle Ages, which was connoted by phenomena of urbanisation and embellishment of harbours and cities characterised by the presence of masonry architecture (differently from what happens, for example, in the Baltic and in Northern seas) The jumping horse REFERENCE TO the passage across the sea by continental societies, characterised by the use of the horse. The Mediterranean sea does not only connect maritime communities, but, through them, it also allows the temporary or permanent transfer of social components from continental Europe, the Near East and north Africa “Limina Limites” REFERENCE TO (graphically) the Mediterranean as the ‘warm sea’ par excellence in the history of continental Europe; the disposition of the text reminds of the sun in the middle of the sea. Author: Riccardo Polveroni, an international artist and designer, who has designed logos for public and private organisations. Mr Polveroni offered to develop the concept of the logo for the series Limina Limites within the framework of the Public Archaeology initiatives that the University of Florence is undertaking as part of the project EU ENPI ‘Liaisons for Growth’ Italy | Jordan | Armenia. Scientific supervision: Guido Vannini (Chair of Medieval Archaeology of the University of Florence), Michele Nucciotti (scientific coordinator of ‘Liaisons for Growth’), Laboratori Archeologici San Gallo soc. coop. (spin-off of the University of Florence, working in the sector of communication and enhancement of archaeology).

A Padre Michele Piccirillo, francescano, archeologo, indimenticato amico

Michele Piccirillo mentre porta ai laboratori della ‘base’ sul Monte Nebo il ‘suo’ Karuf, da lui stesso appena rinvenuto in S. Stefano di Um-er-Rasas (agosto 1987; da dx ‘Abuna Michel’, Francesco Bandini, Riccardo Berretti, Franco Cardini. Foto di A. Marx Vannini)

Convegno Internazionale Firenze, Palazzo della Signoria, Palazzo Strozzi, 6-8 Novembre 2008

*ORGANIZZATORI:

Università di Firenze, SUM, Comune di Firenze

*PATROCINI:

Provincia di Firenze, Regione Toscana, Ministero degli Esteri, Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca

*Collaborazioni:

Diritto alla Studio, Frescobaldi, Ataf

Comitato scientifico: Khairieh Amr (Jordan Museum), Marco Bini (Università di Firenze), Franco Cardini (SUM), Letizia Pani Ermini (Università ‘La Sapienza’, Roma), Oystein La Bianca (Andrews University), Michele Nucciotti (Università di Firenze), Paolo Peduto (Università di Salerno), Michele Piccirillo (Studium Bibiblicum Franciscanum, Jerusalem), Jorge Lopez Quiroga (UAM), Pietro Ruschi (Università di Udine), Stephan Schmid (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Guido Vannini (Università di Firenze) Cura scientifica: Guido Vannini, Michele Nucciotti Segreteria scientifica e organizzativa: Chiara Molducci, Elisa Pruno Editing del volume: Rosita Bellometti Staff Sito: Alfonso Fiorentino Elaborazioni video: Guido Guidi, Guido Melis, Paolo Boanini (Csiaf) Interpreti: Elena Di Concilio, Vittoria Garofalo Laboratorio di Archeologia Medievale: Maddalena Bidi, Elisa Broccoli, Sara Collesi, Francesca Cheli, Arianna De Falco, Laura Mancini, Chiara Marcotulli, Alessandro Neri, Daniele Palagi, Michele Pisaneschi, Marta Ricci, Roberta Sciortino, Mariangela Serra, Lapo Somigli, Laura Torsellini, Rubina Tuliozi, Elena Vannacci -

Limina / Limites Archeologie, storie, isole e frontiere nel Mediterraneo (365-1556) - 1

LA TRANSGIORDANIA NEI SECOLI XII-XIII E LE ‘FRONTIERE’ DEL MEDITERRANEO MEDIEVALE

a cura di Guido Vannini e Michele Nucciotti

presentazioni

S. E. Zaid Al Lozi Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the Republic of Italy The land of ancient Jordan is considered to be the cradle of civilizations, and has always played an essential role as a theatre of charming cultural mixtures during the different historical eras. The abundant archeological sites in the region give an evidence that this land was heavily inhabited ever since man began settling down to establish the onset of wonderful cultures that greatly influenced the human race. The Archeological sites that witness this historical wealth enrich the whole country from north to south, beginning from the ancient city of Umm Qais ( known as Gadara) with its marvelous ruins from different historical periods ending by the roman period. Moving southwards to the wonderful roman city of Jerash (known as Gerasa), the best preserved roman city in the Middle East region, passing to Amman with its castle and roman theatre, to the breathtaking city of Petra with its Nabatean origins, one of the new seven wonders of the world . The same is applied to the Crusade-Ayyubid period, which left a very important legacy of architectural evidence, mainly through building their great famous Castles. The mutual cultural influence was surprisingly outstanding and the archeological sites and findings provide tangible evidence of this remarkable combination. The mission of the University of Florence under the direction of Professor Guido Vannini with its meticulous work of excavation illustrated in this book and presented during the International Congress “The Transjordan of the 12th and 13th centuries and the borders of the medieval Mediterranean” which was held in Florence at the end of 2008, is a relevant contribution to the identification and recognition of the extraordinary heritage of this region and offers a valuable scientific and archeological research to be used as a base for further studying projects. This book gives the readers the opportunity to explore the superb Jordanian region with its archeological wonders. It’s another step to support the efforts of our societies to reach harmony and peace through sharing knowledge and rich common heritage toward taking the past as an example for the future of acceptance, comprehension , as well as coexistence between different cultures and religions in our region.

S.E. Francesco Fransoni Ambasciatore d’Italia presso il Regno Hashemita di Giordania È con particolare piacere che saluto la pubblicazione degli atti del convegno “La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le frontiere del Mediterraneo medioevale”che, nel novembre 2008, contribuì ad assicurare adeguata diffusione a 20 anni di ricerche condotte dalla missione archeologica dell’Università di Firenze in Giordania e a gettare le basi per nuove proficue collaborazioni nel campo degli studi sul Mediterraneo. A partire dalla prima missione di esperti italiani nel Regno Hashemita, avviata nel 1927, i lavori, l’impegno e la professionalità dei nostri archeologi hanno concretamente contribuito a riportare alla luce testimonianze di un Paese denso di storia. In tale contesto, l’attività dell’équipe dell’Università di Firenze ha svolto un ruolo essenziale e viene oggi riconosciuta come uno dei simboli più significativi dei profondi e suggestivi legami culturali tra Italia e Giordania. La “specialità” del contributo della missione diretta dal Prof. Guido Vannini, che ho avuto più volte il piacere di incontrare nel corso della mia missione a Amman, risiede, a mio avviso, in due principali aspetti. Il primo è rappresentato dalla visione di archeologia “aperta”, “condivisa” con gli operatori culturali, economici, ma, ancora più importante, con tutti i giordani, di cui si è fatta portatrice l’Università di Firenze. Tale approccio ha creato una rete dinamica e innovativa di collaborazioni con istituzioni e operatori locali e ha guidato una serie di qualificate iniziative mirate a valorizzare nel modo più ampio possibile i risultati delle ricerche - evitando così di limitarne la fruizione ai soli addetti ai lavori - e, soprattutto, ad avviare virtuosi processi di crescita auto-sostenibile. Più in particolare, penso all’esposizione internazionale realizzata a Palazzo Pitti nel 2009 “Da Petra a Shawback. Archeologia di una frontiera”, che ha registrato un’affluenza di circa 200.000 spettatori e che viene ancora oggi ricordata, con apprezzamento e gratitudine, dalle autorità giordane. Dal 2010 inoltre la missione è impegnata nella concreta “utilizzazione” dei risultati delle ricerche per stimolare lo sviluppo del turismo e della filiera economica delle attività collegate

(patrimonio culturale, infrastrutture, comunicazione) nella regione di Petra e Shawback. La visione di archeologia pubblica consente così di assicurare continuità ai lavori della missione - integrando in un circuito virtuoso dimensione culturale e economica - e, soprattutto, di restituire ai giordani gli strumenti per poter apprezzare la profondità storica del proprio passato e trarre semi di sviluppo per il benessere futuro. Un secondo merito parimenti importante che va riconosciuto all’équipe dell’Università di Firenze è quello di aver contribuito a riscoprire e portare alla luce i “sorprendenti tratti comuni e coincidenze di tempi fra mondo musulmano e euromediterraneo (…) la condivisione di comuni riferimenti di civiltà, radici, valori e sensibilità fra contesti apparentemente distanti quando non addirittura contrapposti”. Il recupero di elementi comuni tra civiltà occidentale e islamica, esemplificato dalla trasformazione di Shawback da castello crociato a città islamica ayyubide, rappresenta un apporto prezioso all’approfondimento delle relazioni di amicizia tra i popoli e al superamento di clichés e barriere interculturali. Mi piace ricordare che il 14 agosto 1949, Pierluigi La Terza, il primo diplomatico italiano destinato ad Amman, presentò le proprie credenziali a Re Abdallah I stabilendo così ufficialmente le relazioni diplomatiche tra i due Paesi: “Vedo con molta simpatia il consolidamento delle relazioni con l’Italia – disse in quell’occasione il Sovrano hashemita – perché il vostro Paese è come la Giordania: Paese mediterraneo. Ed i Paesi mediterranei sono oggi forse più di ogni altro chiamati a fare da ponte tra Oriente ed Occidente”. All’Università di Firenze, impegnata nella costruzione di un tassello significativo e prezioso di questo ponte, rivolgo oggi il mio apprezzamento per l’elevato profilo dell’attività svolta e i migliori auguri per la prosecuzione dei lavori.

Nayef Al Fayez Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Because of its geographical location on the world map, Jordan has always served as a conduit for civilizations connecting different cultures together, acting as a bridge builder between the west and the east, south and north. The present volume underpins this fact as evidenced from the proceedings of the interational symposia on “Transjordan in the 12 and 13 Centuries and the Frontiers of the Medieval Mediterranean” that was held in Italy, and is now being produced into this valuable, insightful book. The fact 88 speakers, researchers and academics from 43 scientific institutions in 13 countries presented papers and archaeological findings show the stark similarities between the importance of the area then and now, bordering on the Mediterranean and looking towards the Middle East region and beyond. In the idea of the frontier developed complex relationships that saw the interplay of the empires, Islam and Christianity, economic development, urbanization and farming, architecture and traditions. These globe in a very important area of Jordan, Petra, Shoubak and Karak as they then were. Today of course, they are major centers of activity in modern Jordan. Ancient Petra, dubbed as the rose red city, is a world-famous archaeological hub and a global touristic resort, visited by hundreds of thousands from al lover the world yearly. They bring their culture to interact with ours in a positive, sustainable manner whilst travelling to other touristic areas like Aqaba, Madaba and Jarash. The frontier and border opened up further still, no longer confined by technologies of the past but underlined by a multifaceted process of globalization and openness that brought trade, commerce, and people together in an intricate way. We need to understand our past in order to understand our present. The researchers and academics that presented papers meticulously dwelled on an age that has become part of our human history. Through their excavation and discovery they unearthed the splendors of the archaeology of the area, its structures, and the fortress castles that continue to offer a valuable glimpse of the environs of society developed from that crucial period onward. I wish to thank the Archaeological Mission of the University of Florence, Institute of Human Science and the Municipality of Florence for organizing this international symposium in cooperation with our Department of Antiquities in Jordan.

Alberto Tesi Magnifico Rettore dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze Il presente volume raccoglie gli atti del convegno “La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le frontiere del Mediterraneo medievale”, svoltosi a Firenze nei giorni 6-8 novembre 2008. Si è trattato di un convegno scientifico di assoluta rilevanza internazionale, per il quale sono convenuti a Firenze studiosi provenienti da ogni parte del mondo, che ha visto la presenza di tutti i paesi dell’area mediterranea. Durante il convegno è stata anche presentata la mostra “Da Petra a Shawbak – Archeologia di una frontiera”, svoltasi successivamente nel periodo dal 13 luglio – 11 ottobre 2009, che ha visto un grande successo di critica e pubblico con una vasta eco sui mezzi di informazione. Il convegno si inserisce pienamente nella grande tradizione delle aree di ricerca archeologica e storica dell’Università di Firenze, dimostrando ancora una volta la grande capacità dei colleghi di tale aree, e più in generale dell’area umanistica, di promuovere iniziative scientifiche e culturali di assoluta eccellenza nel panorama internazionale. Il convegno ha anche dimostrato quanto sia fondamentale il dialogo continuo e la collaborazione concreta fra l’Università, il Comune e le altre istituzioni della nostra città per rendere ancora più visibile Firenze come centro di attrazione di iniziative scientifiche e culturali di grande risonanza internazionale. Desidero esprimere un sentito ringraziamento al Prof. Guido Vannini e ai suoi collaboratori per l’organizzazione del convegno, alle istituzioni per la loro collaborazione, ai relatori per i loro interventi e a tutti i partecipanti. Sono certo che il successo del convegno e la pubblicazione del presente volume serviranno a rafforzare sempre di più la vocazione internazionale della nostra Università ed a consolidare la collaborazione fra tutte le istituzioni che hanno a cuore la promozione di attività culturali di grande pregio nella nostra città.

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Guido Vannini Professore Ordinario di Archeologia Medievale, Università di Firenze Frontiera: dalla storia all’archeologia. ‘Frontiera’ è un termine che evoca confronti, conflitti, ma anche osmosi, condivisione; costituisce una di quelle catogorie antropologiche, prima che politiche (e amministrative, economiche, culturali), che da qualche decennio alcuni storici hanno assunto come chiave di lettura per definire identità, epoche, condizioni culturali in vario modo contigue; ma anche un tema al quale l’archeologia può contribuire in modo spesso determinante e peculiare, soprattutto quando considera ambienti articolati ed ‘estesi’ o eventi di lungo periodo. Un tema, tuttavia, ‘nelle corde’ della tradizione culturale della disciplina archeologica, che ha sempre ‘preteso’, nelle sue migliori e più incisive espressioni, di ‘spendersi’ nella propria contemporaneità: e cosa c’è di più attuale – sia nel senso già della storia (da Valmy a ieri), sia in quello ancora della cronaca recente – di temi quali appunto ruolo e funzioni delle frontiere (o la loro stessa esistenza o significato, come nell’Europa dopo l’89), ma anche altri temi ampiamente connessi, come il ruolo dell’urbanesimo nel più ampio quadro delle ‘gestioni’ dei territori storici; un argomento che ci porterebbe lontano. Il Convegno ha rappresentato l’occasione, per studiosi dell’area ‘delle archeologie’ (e, in contrappunto, delle ‘storie’), di fare il punto, in una prospettiva tendenzialmente innovativa, anche sul piano del metodo come dello stesso approccio culturale, sullo stato delle ricerche, soprattutto ma non solo archeologiche, appunto sul poliedrico – come i contributi presentati hanno potuto dimostrare – tema della frontiera come elemento di visibilità di radici identitarie di regioni e culture in un quadro mediterraneo assunto come paradigma, oltre cesure anche disciplinari classiche (storici, archeologi, orientalisti, architetti, antropologi…) e che rappresenta peraltro esso stesso una ‘frontiera’. ‘Fra Pirenne e Braudel’, si potrebbe dire, il ‘mare fra le terre’ costituisce uno scenario in cui, come in un crogiuolo, si ridefiniscono ruoli e funzioni, autonomie e identità territoriali, che spesso si manifestano connotandone fondativamente il ‘lungo’ medioevo. E tuttavia, se questo volume prende le mosse dall’esperienza, prima di progettazione poi di sviluppo, di questo Convegno, esso non ne rappresenta solamente gli ‘Atti’ ma costituisce una prima riflessione complessiva su di un tema che rappresenta un’autentica ’struttura’ storica del Mediterraneo nel lungo periodo (certo con una focalizzazione al ‘medioevo’), maturata e dipanatasi anche oltre i tre giorni fiorentini; ciò sia, in molti casi, con contributi che costituiscono riflessioni successive all’evento (utilizzando magari proprio le more dei tempi che una pubblicazione di tale complessità e dimensione si è preso), sia con apporti di colleghi, spesso giovani che, presenti al Convegno ed alla discussione che, nella sede del SUM, lo ha concluso, hanno potuto arricchire le esperienze non solo archeologiche presentate, con un’ulteriore articolazione di scenari storici ed ambientali, magari spesso ancora abbozzati. Questa è la ragione per la quale abbiamo pensato di mantenere memoria (il programma riportato a conclusione del volume) ed apporti (abstracts che fanno riferimento alla videoregistrazione presente sul website del Convegno) di quanti non hanno potuto inviare in tempo i loro scritti. Questa è anche la ragione per la quale questo volume apre una nuova collana, generosamente ospitata nelle Series dei BAR di Oxford e promossa da un gruppo di archeologi e storici di varia estrazione (molti dei quali protagonisti degli incontri in ‘Palazzo Vecchio’), appunto dedicata all’analisi, condotta eminentemente con gli strumenti dell’’archeologia storica’, delle strutture materiali e delle diverse ‘frontiere’ che connotano la ‘lunga’ storia ed il comune ambiente di un Mediterraneo colto fra tardo antico ed albori della modernità (‘Limina/Limites). Nello stesso senso va inteso, con approccio culturale e metodologico condiviso, il Convegno Archeologia dei castelli nell’Europa angioina (secoli XIII-XV) programmato dall’Un. di Salerno nei giorni a seguire (10-12 novembre). In altri termini, un autentico settore di attività non solo aperto a contributi, di merito e di metodo, peraltro già percepibili negli interventi raccolti sia nella prima parte del volume (dedicata al quadro giordano, scelto come campione) sia nelle prospettive mediterranee tratteggiate, su di una pluralità di registri, nella seconda parte; ma già ora una precisa area di ricerca in atto. Il caso transgiordano ha costituito occasione per comunicare il quadro dei risultati sul piano storico di 20 anni di ricerche del Progetto Petra ‘medievale’ dell’Un. di Firenze, proponendo così di assumere – con un preciso punto di vista culturale, un consapevole approccio metodologico medievista e come chiave di lettura storica - un concetto di frontiera estensivamente inteso; l’invito è a riflettere sui contributi soprattutto archeologici (e storico-territoriali), considerati in senso diacronico (dal tardoantico alle soglie dell’età moderna), in ambito mediterraneo e in diverso significato (geo-topografico, cronologico, culturale, antropologico, religioso etc). Le relazioni hanno riguardato la tematica del Convegno da molteplici punti di vista, dalle più recenti acquisizioni archeologiche relative all’evolvere storicamente definito del concetto di frontiera e delle sue evidenze materiali nell’area sud della Giordania, tra i periodi postbizantino e postcrociato, all’emergere delle diverse posizioni delle frontiere nel Mediterraneo medievale - dalla Spagna della Reconquista alla Grande Siria ed alle 13

terre dell’Impero bizantino - sino ad una casistica italiana e ad alcuni specifici casi-studio e di come il concetto di confine nel medioevo possa essere letto come struttura storica, alla luce delle fonti scritte e archeologiche. Ma un Convegno come questo, che ha coinvolto qui, a diverso titolo, energie e intelligenze di quasi 300 persone che, in 3 giorni, ha saputo catalizzare un impegno di oltre un anno e mezzo, in fondo possiamo considerare che rappresenti anche una sorta di comunità, le cui varie articolazioni hanno dato luogo ad un evento, culturale direi prima ancora che scientifico, che si è speso su diversi registri. Certo in primo luogo i relatori, che hanno portato un complesso di dati sul tema per la prima volta disponibili ed una serie di letture rese possibili dal fatto che si tratta di studiosi che, in varia misura ed in tempi anche diversi, hanno spesso variamente condiviso temi, approcci (a volte metodi) di ricerca ed avuto frequenti opportunità di confronto, anche sul campo. Non si tratta cioè di presenze accomunate soltanto dall’interesse di scambiarsi idee su di un tema astratto, ma di scuole di ricercatori che, alla naturale coesione ‘interna’, hanno saputo aggiungere una rete di rapporti anche personali (citerò volentieri il ruolo straordinario dell’ACOR di Amman, con le direzioni di Bert De Vries, Pierre Bikai, Barbara Porter o il costante appoggio, incoraggiamento e sostegno della Principessa Wijdan F. al-Hashemi, Ambasciatore del Regno di Giordania in Italia, che hanno appunto costituito l’humus condiviso dell’incontro in Firenze, così eccezionalmente partecipato (86 studiosi provenienti da 43 Istituzioni scientifiche di 13 Paesi, con una ‘selezione’ di tutte le principali missioni archeologiche operanti in Giordania). Adesioni a questo incontro scientifico che, vorrei rimarcarlo, testimoniano un interesse sempre più diffuso, anche dal punto di vista metodologico, per l’archeologia postclassica anche orientale (bizantina, islamica, “crociata”) e per i contributi che essa può dare allo studio del Mediterraneo medievale nel suo complesso, ad una parte importante delle radici delle sue attuali comunità rivierasche. Ma vorrei anche almeno accennare ad altre componenti, naturalmente oltre i preziosi sostegni istituzionali, che hanno contribuito ad uno dei maggiori eventi archeologici tenuti a Firenze negli ultimi lustri. Si è trattato di una collaborazione intensamente partecipata da parte di vere ‘squadre’, almeno come spirito, con lo scopo di condividere al meglio un obbiettivo comune e con risultati che hanno ottenuto ampi riconoscimenti. In primo luogo il personale per logistica e servizi del Comune di Firenze e della Regione Toscana che, con la Marchesi de’ Frescobaldi srl, ha organizzato la splendida cena di accoglienza presso il castello di Nipozzano, che ha contribuito ad instaurare un caldo clima di colleganza fra i convegnisti. Quindi vorrei dare atto allo staff di giovani colleghi e ricercatori attivi presso il Laboratorio di Archeologia Medievale del DSSG della qualità, oltre che dell’intensità, dell’impegno, dei singoli e del collettivo, che hanno profuso per l’organizzazione, sia scientifica che logistica del Convegno ed in particolare vorrei ricordare Michele Nucciotti, che negli ultimi anni ha condiretto la Missione archeologica in Giordania, curatore con me non solo di questo volume ma dello stesso progetto, scientifico e, prima ancora, culturale che ha ispirato questa iniziativa. Infine un pensiero ancora per Padre Michele, il caro prof. Piccirillo, docente di archeologia presso lo Studium Biblicum Franciscanum di Gerusalemme, amico di una vita, con la cui prima stesura e sua ultima, redatta appena dieci giorni prima del suo ritorno alla casa del Padre, si apre il Convegno che, come questo volume, gli dedicammo, con un commosso attimo di silenzio, in piedi nella solennità del Salone dei ‘500 in Palazzo Vecchio. Anni di generosi consigli ed anche burberi, affettuosi rilievi di Padre Michele. Mancheranno anche quelli, certo con la sua impareggiabile, calda scienza archeologica, alla nostra Missione come alla gente della sua amata terra di Giordania.

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LA TRANSGIORDANIA NEI SECOLI XII-XIII E LE ‘FRONTIERE’ DEL MEDITERRANEO MEDIEVALE

INDICE Presentazioni: S. E. Zaid Al Lozi, Ambasciatore del Regno Hashemita di Giordania presso la Repubblica italiana; Alberto Tesi, Magnifico Rettore dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze; Guido Vannini, Professore Ordinario di Archeologia Medievale, Università di Firenze p. 8

Saluti: Eugenio Giani (Assessore alla Cultura del Comune di Firenze), Sandro Rogari (Prorettore Università di Firenze), Adnan Alsawair (Vicepresidente della commissione parlamentare Esteri e per il Turismo del Regno di Giordania), Ugo Caffaz (Dir. Attività Culturali, Regione Toscana), Franca Pecchioli (Preside Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università di Firenze), Giovanni Cipriani (Dipartimento di Studi Storici e Geografici dell’Università di Firenze) p. 20

Il ‘test’ sud-giordano Una frontiera mediterranea *Michele Piccirillo Gli Arabi cristiani a difesa dei confini di Arabia e di Palestina

p. 29

Guido Vannini Archeologia di una frontiera mediterranea

p. 35

Ariel S. Lewin Le frontiere orientali dell’impero romano e le tribù arabe

p. 49

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean

Ignacio Arce Romans, Sarracens, Ghassanids and Umayyads. Transformation of the ‘Limes Arabicus’ from the 4th throughout the 8th C. AD. The case study of Qasr Hallabat in context

p. 55

Franco Cardini Frontiere e insediamenti vicino orientali fra documento e monumento

p. 75

Un’antica ‘terra di frontiera’ Stephan Schmid From the Nabataeans to the Crusaders. The Transformation of the Wadi Farasa East at Petra

p. 81

Patricia Bikai The Abandonment of Petra. Remains of the Invisible: Post-Byzantine Archaeology of Petra’s North Ridge

p. 95

Luigi Marino-Massimo Coli Il ‘Limes’. I condizionamenti delle risorse locali nella difesa dei confini

p. 100

Roberto Parenti-Piero Gilento Il ‘limes arabicus’ e le strutture materiali

p. 111

Hug Kennedy Patterns of Settlement in Transgiordania between the Muslim Conquest and the Crusades

p. 125

Contributi: Mario Frau Testimonianze preistoriche nel sito di Wu’ayra

p. 126

L’età ‘crociato-ayyubide’ e la nascita di una frontiera ‘medievale’ Guido Vannini-Michele Nucciotti Shawbak: strutture materiali di una frontiera

p. 135

Giuseppe Ligato (Soc. for the Study of the Crusades and Latin Est) Rinaldo di Châtillon, signore dell’Oltregiordano

p. 145

Robin Brown (Ind. Scholar) Karak in the Crusader Period: The Premiere Castle of Oultrejourdain

p. 159

Joseph Greene (Università di Harvard) From Jericho to Karak by Way of Zughar: Seafaring on the Dead Sea in the 12th-13th Centuries

p. 176

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Jerome Rose (University of Arkansas)-Ali Khwaleh (Yarmuk University) Biological Consequences of Migration as Evidenced by Skeletons from the Twelfth Century Frankish Castellum Vallis Moysis, Jordan (Al-Wu’ayra)

p. 177

Basema Hamarneh (Università ‘Kore’ di Enna) Rural Settlements in Southern Transjordan Prior and Throughout the Ayyubid-Mamluk Periods

p. 181

Contributi: Khaled Nashef (DoA) L’industria dello zucchero nel medioevo

p. 189

Zbigniew Fiema, Jaakko Frösén (Università di Helsinki) Jabal Haroun in the crusader, ayyubid and mamluk periods

p. 193

La prima età mamelucca e il consolidarsi di una tradizione Bethany Walker (Grand Valley State University) Transjordan as the Mamluk Frontier: Imperial Conceptions of Authority and Space

p. 201

Johnny De Meulemeester (Università di Ghent)-Reem Al-Shqour (Islamic Aqaba Project) The Castles of Aqaba p. 209 Hani Falahat (Dept of Antiquities of Jordan) The Cultural Role of Shoubak Castle during the Medieval Periods

p. 220

Francesca Dotti (Ecole Pratique Des Hautes Etudes, Paris) Qal’at al-Shawbak: studio dei dati epigrafici di epoca islamica

p. 225

Cedric Devais, Ludovic Decock, Sylvain Vondra, (IFPO) Trois campagnes de prospections dans l’hinterland de Shawbak de la mission archèologique de l’Institut Français de Proche Orient (IFPO)

p. 226

Mohamed Al-Marahleh (DoA of Jordan) Il memoriale di Abu Sulaiman Al Darani

p. 227

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Un Mediterraneo ‘Medievale’ Archeologia dei castelli nell’Oriente mediterraneo Adrian Boas (University of Haifa) Montfort Castle Project: Developments and Future Objectives

p. 231

Ronnie Ellenblum (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Borders, Frontiers and Medieval Defense

p. 234

Sauro Gelichi (Università ‘Ca’ Foscari di Venezia) Harim: un castello di frontiera tra Crociati e Musulmani

p. 235

Cristina Tonghini (Università ‘Ca’ Foscari di Venezia) Il caso di Shayzar, Siria: ‘castello’ o città fortificata

p. 252

Stella Patitucci Uggeri (Università di Cassino) I castelli di frontiera del Principato di Antiochia

p. 253

Contributi: Cecilia Luschi, Laura Aiello (Università di Firenze) Linee di ricerca per il sito di Montfort (Galilea Ovest – Israele)

p. 265

Castelli e frontiere mediterranee: archeologia, storia, architettura Juan José Larrea (Università del Paese Basco) Des barbares de Dar al-Islam : le rôle d’al-Andalus dans la structuration des sociétés chrétiennes périphériques (VIIIe-Xe siècles)

p. 277

Josè Enrique Ruiz Domenec (Università Autonoma di Barcellona) Considerazioni sulla frontiera nella Spagna medievale

p. 289

Marco Bini-Cecilia Luschi (Università di Firenze) Motta e chemise, due archetipi dei castelli crociati

p. 293

Pierre Drap-Julien Seinturier-Gilles Gaillard-Massimiliano Casenove (CNRS-LSIS, Marseille) Rilievo e documentazione archeologica: un GIS basato sulla fotogrammetria per l’analisi stratigrafica degli elevati

p. 307

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Pietro Ruschi (Università di Pisa) Il ‘castello’ di Shawbak, fra restauro e conservazione

p. 313

Oystein La Bianca (Andrews University) Great and Little Traditions of Transjordan: The View from Tall Hisban during Medieval Times

p. 317

Amer Bdour (Dept of Antiquities of Jordan)-Mansur Shquirat-Saad Twaissi (al-Hussein Bin Talal University) Some notes on the medieval Shawbak: historical and archaeological evidence in anthropological perspective p. 319 Contributi: Maria Elena Ronza-Oystein la Bianca The concept of local ownership as mean of conservation of archaeological sites p. 315 Ezio Burri (Università dell’Aquila) Alcune considerazioni sulla possibile valorizzazione culturale della galleria di adduzione alla sorgente “Ain al ragaye” nel castello di Shawbak (Giordania) p. 325 Ali Al-Khatib (DoA) Restauri a Umm el-Jimal p. 330

Insediamento e confini: una casistica archeologica dell’Italia medievale Francesca R. Stasolla (Università ‘La Sapienza’ di Roma) Attraverso le frontiere: gli itinerari di pellegrinaggio per la conoscenza del Mediterraneo medievale p. 339 Alessandra Molinari (Università ‘Tor Vergata’ di Roma) La Sicilia tra XII e XIII secolo: conflitti “interetnici” e frontiere interne p. 345 Marco Milanese-Franco G.R.Campus (Università di Sassari) Archeologia e storia delle frontiere del Giudicato di Torres nella Sardegna medievale

p. 361

Philippe Pergola-Daniel Istria (CNRS) La Corse du haut Moyen Age: une marche-frontière au coeur de la Tyrrhénienne

p. 365

Fabio Redi (Università dell’Aquila) L’Abruzzo come frontiera culturale dal VI al XIV secolo. Fra Goti e Bizantini, Spoleto e Benevento, Normanni e Papato

p. 366

Contributi: Rosangela De Acutis (Università dell’Aquila) Le frontiere italiane in età bizantina. Alcuni casi costieri p. 381 Gabriella Di Rocco (Università di Cassino) I castelli normanni di frontiera tra il Principatus Capuae e il Ducatus Apuliae nella Contea di Molise p. 391 19

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean

Sabrina Pietrobono (Università dell’Aquila) Quando il Liri non separa: passi, viabilità e strutture di difesa di una “frontiera” medievale nel Lazio

p. 395

Il confine medievale come struttura storica Francesco Salvestrini (Università di Firenze) La scrittura del confine. Alcuni esempi dall’Italia comunale

p. 405

Giovanna Bianchi (Università di Siena) Spazi ‘orientati’ e confinati tra signorie fondiarie e territoriali nella Toscana meridionale p. 408 Chiara Molducci (Università di Firenze) Uno spazio di confine: la Romania appenninica dalle radici bizantine alle origini della signoria comitale dei Guidi p. 419 Andrea Vanni Desideri-Nathalie Dufour-Patrizia Framarin (Régione Autonome Vallée d’Aoste) Nascita di una frontiera alpina. Il Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo Contributi: Michele Cornieti (Università di Firenze) Fortificazioni urbane di frontiera in Asia Minore: le difese di Iasos di Caria in età bizantina Filippo Ruschi (Università di Firenze) L’archeologia del limite: una riflessione filosofico-giuridica

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p. 432

p. 449 p. 458

Indice - Summary

Tavola rotonda - Round table

p. 471

Chairman: Mario Citroni (SUM) Guido Vannini (Università di Firenze), Khairieh Amr (Museo Nazionale della Giordania), Lech Lecejewicz (P.A.N, Breslavia), Dennys Pringle (Università di Cardiff), Jorge Lopez Quiroga (UAM), Elisa Pruno (Università di Firenze)

Presentazione della Mostra Internazionale

p. 475

‘Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una Frontiera’ Chiara Bonacchi (Università Di Firenze)

Programma del Convegno

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p. 483

Saluto i partecipanti al convegno e mi presento nella mia veste di Assessore alla cultura del Comune di Firenze in rappresentanza del Sindaco Leonardo Domenici, del quale porto i saluti. Ritengo questa una importantissima occasione per la città e sono particolarmente onorato di essere qui a rappresentare l’Amministrazione Comunale. Esprimo profonda soddisfazione per la scelta della città di Firenze come luogo di un così importante convegno e in modo particolare la scelta di Palazzo Vecchio come occasione e luogo di confronto, che ritengo essere una occasione a livello internazionale e mondiale dove studiosi si confrontano, persone che hanno lavorato sugli scavi e sull’ambiente, dal punto di vista archeologico, della Transgiordania, di Petra e di luoghi anche meno conosciuti ma ugualmente interessanti anche sul piano delle recenti scoperte. Ringrazio il Professor Guido Vannini, ordinario di archeologia medioevale presso la Facoltà di Lettere e interlocutore del Comune di Firenze per l’organizzazione del convegno, che sottolineo il Comune di Firenze ha fortemente voluto in Palazzo Vecchio, la cui prima pietra fu posata nel febbraio 1299 e riprende in qualche modo quell’ambiente della Firenze che stava, dal periodo medioevale, entrando nella fase rinascimentale della sua storia, la Firenze di Dante e di Giotto ma anche la Firenze che usciva dalle lotte tra Guelfi e Ghibellini, per diventare una realtà che trovava nella sua espansione motivi di crescita e sviluppo non solo territoriale ma della finanza e della mercatura; già dal 1252 quando fu coniato il fiorino d’oro, era la Firenze che si dava degli ordinamenti che erano più liberi e democratici. Intorno al 1293 Giano Della Bella riuscì a fare emanare gli Ordinamenti di Giustizia facendo ritrovare alla città quella vitalità che avrebbe posto le basi per la crescita del suo ruolo internazionale. Riconosco nel convegno sulla Transgiordania la Missione che ha visto impegnata l’Università di Firenze, qui rappresentata dal Professor Rogari, che ringrazio per la costante attenzione che pone nei rapporti tra l’Università e il Comune; affermo con orgoglio la stretta collaborazione tra l’Amministrazione e l’Università che ha messo in primo piano l’impegno della realtà fiorentina attiva e presente sul piano degli scavi e degli studi in un paese che è molto legato alla nostra città; cito il professor Franco Cardini, con il quale ho avuto modo tante volte, in diverse occasioni, di riflettere sull’approccio della città e dei fiorentini su quella che fu la realtà, incredibile, del periodo delle crociate, in questione nello studio oggi nella nostra epopea e che racconta di Pazzino dei Pazzi e dei fiorentini alla prima crociata, documentazioni storiche che il Professor Cardini ha portato in maggior evidenza e che rilevano le prime presenze storicamente importanti a partire dalla terza crociata. Anche all’interno nel sistema delle tradizioni storiche della città di Firenze, basti pensare allo “scoppio del carro”, festa popolare di grande richiamo nel periodo di Pasqua, il pensiero della città di Firenze ricorre a quella stagione, cita questo periodo per dire che fa parte della nostra storia e memoria collettiva, con la partecipazione dei fiorentini a tutto ciò che spinge verso l’Oriente, evocando il senso di partecipazione, del desiderio di viaggi, di contatti e rapporti; la storia ci consegna questo e l’archeologia da il senso di attualità a quello che è un percorso di memoria e di identità collettiva. Sono particolarmente compiaciuto che oggi Firenze si trovi al centro di questo confronto tra studiosi che sicuramente rivelerà delle opportunità nuove di conoscenza che arricchiranno ciascuno dei partecipanti. Il fatto che i tre giorni dedicati al convegno siano stati inseriti nella cornice della città di Firenze lo ritengo motivo di orgoglio e soddisfazione. Ringrazio tutti i partecipanti e rinnovo il saluto dell’Amministrazione Comunale di Firenze, con la speranza di una lieta permanenza per questi giorni in città che non vuole e deve essere solo approfondimento e studio ma incontro nel contesto della città stessa. Con questo spirito lascio la parola al Professor Cardini, conduttore dei lavori del convegno e auguro buon lavoro e buona permanenza a Firenze. Eugenio Giani Assessore alla Cultura del Comune di Firenze

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In qualità di prorettore alla didattica e di delegato del Rettore ho avuto l’onore, il 6 novembre 2008, di portare il saluto dell’Università degli studi di Firenze al congresso internazionale di studio del quale vengono raccolte le relazioni in questo volume. Fu un motivo di orgoglio, allora, per me aprire i lavori in un momento, che peraltro dura ormai da troppo tempo e perdura ancor oggi, di crisi dell’Università perché un convegno di questa portata con oltre ottanta relatori, più di quaranta istituzioni universitarie di tutto il mondo coinvolte, assumeva in quel contesto un significato particolare. Erano, due anni fa, il Congresso e la mostra che l’accompagnò, e sono, oggi, questi atti, testimonianza di una vitalità straordinaria oltre che della capacità dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze di posizionarsi come leader internazionale nell’ambito degli studi dell’archeologia medievale dell’area mediterranea. E’ una posizione guadagnata grazie ad una missione internazionale che la vede impegnata da vent’anni e che, come per tutte le grandi imprese, si avvale di due condizioni. La straordinaria competenza scientifica e la dedizione al lavoro organizzativo dei suoi migliori docenti - nel caso specifico il collega Guido Vannini, vera anima e motore di questo complesso di iniziative – e l’entusiasmo di tanti giovani ricercatori che nel lavoro di scavo e di ricerca dedicano passione ed un amore sconfinato per l’oggetto dei loro studi. E’ inutile che aggiunga che lo fanno nelle condizioni peggiori soprattutto per quanto riguarda le prospettive del loro futuro e quindi il loro merito è a maggior ragione da apprezzare. Ritengo anche che chi non ha potuto essere presente ai lavori del convegno e ammirare la splendida mostra sui resti di Petra avrà la possibilità, prendendo in mano questi atti, di apprezzare due aspetti che balzano subito agli occhi anche a chi, come me, è ben lungi d’essere uno specialista del settore. La prima riguarda il taglio interdisciplinare per il quale studi di stretta natura storiografica si affiancano a contributi di natura archeologica. L’approccio storicistico avvicina le due metodologie di ricerca che fanno emergere intersezioni utili e feconde ai fini della migliore conoscenza del tema. Mi pare che anche sotto questo profilo, l’avere oltrepassato i confini disciplinari abbia fatto compiere un decisivo salto di qualità agli studi archeologici e, di rimando, a quelli storici. Il secondo aspetto che vorrei sottolineare è tematico. La questione delle frontiere è un grande tema storiografico che sta avendo un enorme sviluppo negli studi contemporaneistici. L’età della globalizzazione che stiamo vivendo sta modificando alla radice la pregnanza semantica del termine di frontiera e di confine. Questo vale a maggior ragione in un’Europa nella quale la costruzione dello stato nazionale ha avuto uno dei suoi momenti chiave nella definizione dei confini. La crisi dello stato nazionale ha comportato una profonda revisione della questione. Il concetto di cittadinanza non passa più attraverso il richiamo all’identità nazionale e il principio del diritto assume una accezione universalistica che supera ogni barriera di confine, di pari passo con l’indebolimento dello stato nazionale come fonte giuridica. Certo, parlando di spazio mediterraneo e di frontiere nel XII e nel XIII siamo ben lontani da questa realtà. Ma, per certi aspetti, i contributi raccolti in questo volume offrono spunti di riflessione interessanti su cicli storici lontani, ma che tornano ad essere assai più vicini a noi di quanto non possa parere. Se compariamo il corrente approccio universalistico con quello dimensionato sullo spazio mediterraneo, che nel XII e XIII coincideva o quasi con la civiltà conosciuta, come emerge dagli studi qui raccolti, scopriamo gli inediti risvolti di una storia che ha tanto da insegnarci.

Sandro Rogari Prorettore dell’Università di Firenze

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Quando mi è giunta la richiesta del Prof. Vannini di rappresentare il mio Paese al Convegno sull’archeologia delle frontiere mediterranee ho accolto l’invito con soddisfazione e sono orgoglioso di far parte di un evento importante per tutti gli studiosi del settore ma soprattutto per noi giordani. Sono intervenuto a Firenze con grande piacere personale ma anche nella doppia veste istituzionale di membro della Commissione Turismo della Camera dei Deputati e in quanto presidente dell’associazione di amicizia parlamentare italo-giordana. Ho aperto il mio intervento con i saluti del Presidente della Camera giordana che ha ringraziato il governo italiano per il sostegno offerto nella ricerca, restauro e conservazione del patrimonio archelogico del nostro paese. Di fronte ad una illustre platea di colleghi del compianto Padre Piccirillo, è stato doveroso ricordare l’encomiabile dedizione al suo lavoro che ha portato lustro all’Italia offrendo l’intera esistenza ai mosaici del Medio Oriente. Ho rinnovato la storica amicizia tra i nostri due paesi sottolineando la crucialità della posizione geografica del regno Hashemita. Crocevia di popoli e terra di frontiera ai tempi delle Crociate. Oggi protagonista e intermediatore nel conflitto arabo-israeliano che ha segnato l’esistenza di intere generazioni di questi territori. Con la città di Firenze, l’Italia e parte dell’Europa, condividiamo periodi storici che, pur trovandoci su fronti diversi, hanno arricchito entrambe le nostre civiltà e hanno contribuito a far incontrare diversi popoli. Ringrazio infine lo staff della missione archeologica dell’Università di Firenze per la straordinaria opera di scavo e restauro del sito di Shobak. Il popolo giordano è grato agli italiani per aver contribuito a preservare una parte dell’immensa ricchezza archelogica del nostro paese per permettere alle generazioni future di conoscere le proprie radici.

Adnan Al-Sawair Vicepresidente della commissione parlamentare Esteri e per il Turismo del Regno di Giordania

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Grazie prof. Cardini, ma io non farò una introduzione così come ha fatto l’amico Eugenio Giani che è sempre brillante quindi mi favorisce e non ho bisogno di fare citazioni storiche che peraltro in questa veste non mi competono.   Ho seguito anch’io i lavori preparatori,diciamo così,in tanti colloqui con il professor Vannini. Ero presente anche all’incontro che preannunciava l’attività di questi giorni e sono particolarmente contento, come succede a volte, di rappresentare la regione e il presidente, perchè ciò mi consente, sia pure brevemente, di seguire i lavori de visu.   L’emozione è dovuta al fatto che io ho, come molti turisti, visitato qualche anno fa (in un momento particolarmente felice per quelle terre: il capodanno del 2000, quando sembrava che i venti di pace prevalessero definitivamente su quelli di guerra) Petra, che è un luogo magico. Uno può andare a visitare Petra 10, 100 volte, ma quando entra in quel wadi e gli si apre la città proverà ogni volta una emozione unica: credo sia davvero uno spettacolo divino, se così si può dire. Si potrebbe ragionare a lungo di quei luoghi, di quella parte del mondo a me particolarmente cari. Incontri come questo hanno ovviamente un valore culturale ma non dobbiamo trascurare l’importanza turistica ed economica. E’ però interesse nostro mostrare anche le nostre meraviglie come questo palazzo Comunale che non è Petra; penso che di luoghi come questo ‘Salone dei 500’ ce ne siano pochi al mondo e vi assicuro che ogni volta che ci passo (in questi anni qualche migliaio di volte nella veste di consigliere comunale) mi emoziono e mi soffermo a guardare particolari sempre diversi.   Accanto al valore turistico (reciproco) e culturale vedo anche un valore politico. Insomma donne e uomini di cultura quando si incontrano non pensano alle guerre, alle tragedie, pensano al loro interesse, alla loro passione, magari studiano le guerre di una volta, i luoghi dove sono avvenute cose magari orribili, ma che nel tempo acquistano invece un significato completamente diverso e quindi anche questi incontri aiutano, a mio modo di vedere, il dialogo fra i popoli. In questo caso le città della Giordania incontrano Firenze che è per antonomasia la città della pace. Possiamo ricordare, con Eugenio Giani ne abbiamo parlato proprio in questi giorni, i Colloqui Mediterranei di Giorgio La Pira che verranno rinnovati e questa per noi è una notizia importante. Firenze ricorderà quei giorni non per celebrare l’anniversario, ma per riproporre un metodo e un percorso di pace. In quella occasione i popoli di questo mare meraviglioso, il Mediterraneo appunto, si rincontreranno e spero che in quella occasione, rovesciando il problema, non si parli solo di politica, ma di cultura e di economia.   Ugo Caffaz Direttore generale per le politiche formative e beni culturali per la Regione Toscana

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Nel corso del convegno che si è tenuto a Firenze, a Palazzo Vecchio e a Palazzo Strozzi, nei giorni 6-8 novembre 2008, “La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le ‘frontiere’ del Mediterraneo medievale”, dal sottotitolo significativo “Fra archeologia e storia”, studiosi provenienti da tutto il mondo hanno discusso del concetto di frontiera come struttura archeologica; ne hanno discusso con particolare riferimento alle evidenze presenti nell’area del Mediterraneo orientale, dove grandi civiltà si sono succedute e sovrapposte nel corso del tempo, dal mondo cuneiforme, e ancora prima, dalle civiltà protostoriche fino all’età contemporanea, e dove anche la cultura latina dominante ha recepito le influenze locali lasciando delle testimonianze uniche nel suo genere. Questo convegno, a cui era connessa la mostra “Da Petra a Shawbak – Archeologia di una frontiera”, tenutasi a Palazzo Pitti, Limonaia del giardino di Boboli, 13 luglio - 11 ottobre 2009, che ha avuto un grandissimo successo di pubblico e di critica, è stato promosso da istituzioni fiorentine (Università degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Studi storici e geografici; Istituto italiano di Scienze Umane-SUM; Comune di Firenze) e si è avvalso della collaborazione di 42 istituzioni scientifiche appartenenti a 12 paesi diversi. Mi preme qui richiamare il significato per un paese come il nostro della presenza fra questi di tutti i paesi dell’area mediterranea. Come preside della Facoltà di Lettere ho portato un caloroso saluto ai convegnisti e ai colleghi impegnati nella realizzazione di questo incontro; un saluto particolare è andato all’amico Guido Vannini e ai suoi collaboratori, uno splendido gruppo di giovani entusiasti, che hanno lavorato e lavorano in modo veramente intenso. Guido Vannini e i suoi collaboratori, a mio avviso, meritano un saluto ed un sostegno particolare da parte delle istituzioni pubbliche e statali, perché hanno dato una risposta limpida ed efficace a chi, anche ai massimi livelli istituzionali, sostiene che l’Università in Italia non funziona, spreca risorse, non è competitiva a livello internazionale. Chi dice così, credo non dica la verità o per lo meno non dice tutta la verità e, quando parla di eccellenze e di graduatorie internazionali, non dice nemmeno in base a quali parametri vengono stilate dalle diverse agenzie le graduatorie delle università del mondo. Quando il nostro ministro dice che nessuna università italiana è fra le prime 150 università del mondo, si dimentica di dire che la ricerca dell’area umanistica non rientra fra quelle prese in considerazione; rientrano le ricerche di ambito tecnologico, di ambito medico, di ambito scientifico, quelle cioè che funzionano quando ci sono risorse a disposizione. E’ chiaro che se vuoi una università italiana fra le prime 150 devi dare risorse, altrimenti è difficile che si possano raggiungere posizioni di eccellenza. Credo che i nostri colleghi che hanno lavorato per la realizzazione di questo convegno siano un esempio molto chiaro di ciò che l’Università produce realmente in termini di ricerca scientifica, di collaborazione internazionale, di confronto e di dialogo fra sponde del Mediterraneo che sono opposte, io credo, solo in termini geografici. Franca Pecchioli Preside Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università di Firenze

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A nome del Dipartimento di Studi Storici e Geografici dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze, rivolgo un vivo saluto. La Storia è la testimonianza delle alleanze e dei conflitti che hanno caratterizzato il cammino umano nei secoli. E’ una fonte preziosa ed eloquente che dovrebbe guidarci nelle nostre decisioni e nei nostri passi facendoci comprendere gli errori, o la lungimiranza di quanti ci hanno preceduto. La Storia è però muta senza le testimonianze che l’hanno accompagnata e l’Archeologia è il miglior alleato per mettere in luce lo spessore degli eventi e la loro influenza politica, economica e culturale nel corso del tempo e nelle aree più disparate. Questo convegno e la costante attività del Prof. Guido Vannini rendono tutto questo di straordinaria evidenza e fanno comprendere come la reciproca conoscenza renda i popoli più vicini, più uniti, alla luce di una profonda verità: l’uomo è sempre stato animato da bisogni, esigenze, idealità che hanno assunto forme e aspetti diversi ma che restano sempre specchio di un comune modo di sentire, di una dimensione naturale che sempre riaffiora e che ci fa sentire fratelli. La riscoperta del passato, attraverso ricomposizioni e fratture, è la via maestra per giungere alla comprensione reciproca, nel rispetto di ogni diversità ed ogni piccolo passo in questa direzione è importante e significativo, nella prospettiva di una pace duratura.

Giovanni Cipriani Giunta del Dipartimento di Studi Storici e Geografici

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

IL ‘TEST’ SUD-GIORDANO THE SOUTHERN JORDAN ‘TEST’ UNA FRONTIERA MEDITERRANEA A MEDITERRANEAN FRONTIER

LE COMUNITA’ CRISTIANE NELLA TRANSGIORDANIA MERIDIONALE DEI SECOLI X-XIII Michele Piccirillo Studium Bibiblicum Franciscanum di Gerusalemme L’esploratore J.L. Burchardt, primo degli occidentali a raggiungere in epoca moderna le rovine di Petra, dopo aver descritto la sorgente di Ain Musa all’ingresso di Wadi Musa, ricorda di aver visto subito dopo le rovine delle case abbandonate del villaggio di Badabdeh. Aggiunge: “(Il villaggio) era abitato fino a qualche anno fa da circa venti famiglie di Cristiani Greci (ortodossi) che in seguito si spostarono a Kerak”(Burchardt 1822, 420). Una notizia che certamente aveva raccolto durante la sua sosta a Kerak ospite della comunità cristiana e che ricorda con molti dettagli interessanti (Burchardt 1822, 381s): “Kerak è abitata da circa 400 famiglie Turche e da 150 famiglie Cristiane...I Cristiani in gran parte sono discendenti di rifugiati provenienti da Gerusalemme, Betlemme e Bet Jala (che egli scrive Beit Djade). Sono esenti da qualsiasi tassa e hanno gli stessi diritti dei Turchi”. “I cristiani di Kerak sono famosi per il loro coraggio’ -scrive inoltre l’esploratore - raccontando il motivo di questa fama legato alla vittoria schiacciante di 27 di loro contro 400 Rawalla che avevano assalito e derubato il loro accampamento, di Domenica durante la loro assenza. Poi aggiunge: ‘Per giustificare il successo di questa eroica impresa, debbo ricordare che gli abitanti di Kerak sono eccellenti tiratori (marksmen); non c’è un ragazzo tra di loro che non conosce come usare una fionda (firelock) a 10 anni!...I Cristiani di Kerak hanno anche due individui che reputano (style) loro Shaikhs e che, insieme con il sacerdote, dirigono gli affari della comunità”. A conferma di quanto detto, racconta il tentativo fallito di Ibn Sa‘ud di imporre loro la tassazione o jizyah (testatico o tassa annuale): “Da quattro anni la polazione di Kerak è diventata Wahabita, ma essi non hanno mai pagato tutto il tributo a Ibn Saud; e sembra che questi conosca abbastanza di politica per non tentare di imporre con la forza ciò che è

seriamente dubbioso di ottenere con quei mezzi...Ha anche scritto ai Cristiani esortandoli a pagare la tassa pro capite (jizyah) ma finora senza risultato”. Un secolo dopo, il tenente colonnello F. G. Peake, noto come Peake Pasha, fondatore della Legione Araba, nella sua History of Jordan and Its Tribes, raccoglie l’informazione che gli al-Maqateesh e gli al-Oweisat del Jabal Ajlun residenti a Anjara e nei villaggi della montagna a nord di Jerash prendono il loro nome da due fratelli Miqtish e Oweis provenienti da Wadi Musa. Dopo una permanenza a Kethrabba nel distretto di Kerak, per motivi di una faida di sangue, fuggirono e si stabilirono sul Jabal Ajlun. Famiglie imparentate con gli Akasha e i Hijazin di Kerak con parenti a Khirbet al-Wahadneh e Dibbin sempre sulla montagna di Ajlun e a Jenin in Palestina (Figura 2). Inoltre, stando alla testimonianza raccolta da Peake Pasha, se gli al-Mheirat di Iraq al-Amir, un ramo del gruppo dei Fqaha di origine cristiana, si rifanno storicamente ai Tanukh che, secondo lo storico ibn Musab al-Wazir, si chiamavano anche al-Abbad (del gruppo dei Tayy), diverse famiglie delle altre comunità cristiane sparse nel territorio diventato Regno Hashemita di Giordania, tengono tradizionalmente a legare la loro origine con i Banu Ghassan, la potente confederazione araba cristiana che raggiunse la preminenza nel VI secolo al tempo dell’Imperatore Giustiniano. Una storia gloriosa degli Arabi Preislamici diventata mitica e idealizzata anche dagli scrittori musulmani di epoca posteriore (Peake 1958, 180). Gli Al-Imeishat, al tempo presenti a Suf sulla montagna a nord di Jerash, a Husn e nei villaggi intorno a Irbid nella regione detta al-Kura, non solo si dicevano discendenti dai Banu Ghassan provenienti dal Hawran, ma quelli di al 29

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Husn mostravano con orgoglio un vecchio sigillo sul quale era inciso: “Ibrahim Imeish al-Ghassani”. Una pretesa radicata tra i cristiani della Balqa nel territorio del villaggio di Fuhais, a ovest di Amman, e tra le tribù di Kerak dal 1880 traferitesi a Madaba, come i Ma‘aya‘, gli al-Haddadin della montagna di Ajlun, i Numura di alHusn, gli al-Qabaana, gli al-Qaawara e gli Azeizat. Questi ultimi raccontavano di provenire dal territorio di Kerak e precisamente da Muta, il luogo della prima battaglia tra le forze musulmane inviate dal Profeta Maometto e l’esercito bizantino, scontro che si risolse con la vittoria dell’esercito imperiale e la morte dei tre condottieri musulmani. A Peake Pasha raccontarono che al tempo della battaglia, due fratelli degli Azizat diedero assistenza all’esercito musulmano aprendo loro le ‘porte del villaggio’ e dando cibo e acqua. In seguito uno dei due fratelli divenne musulmano. Lo stesso Profeta dell’Islam, venuto a conoscenza del fatto, in ringraziamento diede ordine che essi e i loro discendenti fossero esenti dalle tasse. Una esenzione, che durò fino al 1811 anno della rivolta contro i Turchi, testimoniata da Burchkardt che la spiega con la loro combattività e con l’alleanza con i Majali musulmani di Kerak. Anche se Peake preferisce metterla in relazione con Saladino e l’assedio di Kerak e perciò non nel VII ma nel XII secolo. Gli Al-Nassar del gruppo degli Al Qabaana di es-Salt raccontavano di provenire da Qastal e di aver preso il nuovo nome di an-Nassar durante la loro pemanenza a Kufrinja sulla montagna di Ajlun. Una appartenenza ai Banu Ghassan con provenienza da Qastal raccontata anche dagli Al Qaawra le cui famiglie (Shukeirat, Oleimat, Sumeirat) si spostarono al-Dayr nel territorio di Fuhais e a Nablus in Palestina in particolare nel villaggio di Nusf Jbile. Verso il 1745 Mansur dei Sumeirat con i tre figli Mutanis, Mikhail e Elias andarono a Nazaret dove Mansur fu conosciuto come Qawar, nome che restò alla famiglia fino ai nostri giorni.

preciso di identità ad indicare la popolazione araba, la cui origine etnica aveva dato il nome alla Provincia Arabia. I componenti delle tribù per lo più sedentarizzate e parte integrante della comunità nelle città e nei villaggi della Provincia, da tempo dedite all’agricoltura, come all’artigianto e al commercio, conservavano, ciò nonostante, nomi, usi e costumi insieme con il tradizionale autogoverno tribale basato sulle famiglie rette dai loro shaikh, nell’ambito dell’amministrazione provinciale. Tribù che normalmente si riunivano in confederazioni, ciò che accresceva la loro forza e il loro prestigio con il controllo di un territorio che variava proprio in ragione del numero delle famiglie che ne facevano parte. La tradizione conservata dagli scrittori arabi (Hamza alIsfahani e al-Mas‘udi) afferma che, al tempo dell’imperatore Aureliano, furono le tribù arabe confederate dei Tanukh guidate dal re Gadhima, ad opporsi allo strapotere dell’esercito di Zenobia di Palmira dei Banu Odhana, ai quali l’imperatore Aureliano diede il colpo finale liberando Roma da uno dei grandi pericoli corsi dall’Impero d’Oriente dopo Antonio e Cleopatra. L’alleanza di Aureliano con le tribù dei Tanukh non fu un caso isolato, perché aveva avuto dei precedenti e ebbe un seguito importante nei secoli successivi. L’iscrizione di Ruwwafa nella penisola arabica con il ricordo di un tempio in onore degli imperatori romani Marco Aurelio e Lucio Vero fatto costruire nel terzo secolo dalla confederazione dei Thamud al tempo di Claudio Modesto governatore della provincia Arabia, costituisce una testimonianza preziosa delle relazioni amichevoli intrattenute dall’autorità romana con le tribù arabe per il controllo del territorio. Per il periodo costantiniano, il documento più importante è l’iscrizione in lingua araba ma in caratteri nabatei scoperta da R. Dussaud a Namara, a est del Jabal al-Druz, una località della Provincia Arabia e oggi conservata al Louvre a Parigi. E’ l’epitaffio di Mar’alqays o Imrualqays, re di tutti gli Arabi, sepolto nel 328. “Questa è la tomba di Mar’alqays, figlio di ‘Amr, il re di tutti gli Arabi che cinse il diadema, che ha assoggettato i due Asad, Nizar e i loro re, che ha vinto i Madhhig in battaglia aperta – davvero! e senza difficoltà passò l’ingresso di Zarban davanti a Najran, la città di Shammar, che ha assoggettato i Ma‘add, che suddivise i suoi figli alla testa delle tribù, e affidò questi ai Persiani e ai Romani. Nessun re ha ottenuto tanto potere quanto lui – davvero! E’ morto nell’anno 223 (della Provincia), il 7mo giorno del mese di Kesloul. Bene (discenda) sulla sua discendenza!” Tenendo presente che i due Asad fanno riferimento a tribù della regione di Al-Qatif e di Riyad, ricordati nel II secolo da Tolomeo, (Asatenoi e Thanouitai) come presenti nella penisola arabica, che i Nizar sono da mettere in relazione con i Tanukh, che i Ma‘add abitavano nell’Arabia centrale e i Madhhig e Najran si trovavano nell’Arabia meridionale, risulta che il territorio controllato da Mar’alqays re di tutti gli Arabi si estendeva dal golfo arabico fino a Namara nel Hauran, dallo Yemen fino a Hira in territorio persiano. Un potere suddiviso tra i figli posti a capo delle tribù confederate, al di qua e al di là dell’Eufrate, in territorio

I geografi Romani conoscevano tre territori ai quali davano il nome di Arabia, il territorio nel sud della Siria unificato dai re nabatei che divenne la nuova provincia romana di Arabia (Arabia Adquisita), l’Arabia in Egitto con capitale Facusa nel Delta orientale del Nilo, e l’Arabia in Mesopotamia il territorio a nord e a sud del fiume Khabur con le due città di Hatra e Edessa (Urhai). Tutte e tre le Arabie divennero province romane. La più nota fu la Provincia Arabia che sotto la protezione dei legionari della Legio III Cyrenaica e degli ausiliari arabi dell’esercito romano raggiunse nel II-III secolo uno sviluppo alla pari con le altre province dell’impero. Nella Passio dei Martiri della Balqa, al tempo della persecuzione di Diocleziano, il governatore della Provincia Arabia Massimo chiede ai martiri: ‘Di che lingua siete? Greci, Romani o Arabi?’ In un mondo dove la cultura greca e romana da secoli aveva provato a unificare e a livellare civilmente e culturalmente popolazioni diverse, la domanda acquista un significato 30

M. piccirillo: Le comunità cristiane nella Transgiordania meridionale dei secoli X-XIII divenne felice e ricca in uomini, e che essa fece paura ai Persiani e agli altri Saraceni” (Sozomeno, HE, VI, 38). Nell’episodio, oltre che all’intervento dei monaci nella conversione degli Arabi, che seguono il loro shaikh nel farsi battezzare in massa, un motivo che ritorna spesso nelle vite degli asceti dell’antichità cristiana, è accennato anche al fatto che Zokomos con la sua tribù passò al servizio dei Romani nella difesa del confine contro i Persiani e le altre tribù. Come se l’alleanza politica con Roma andasse di pari passo con la cristianizzazione della tribù leader del gruppo tribale.

persiano e in territorio romano, evidentemente con una propria indipendenza e libertà di azione all’interno delle tribù dell’immenso territorio. Per alcuni storici, Imrualqays e i suoi figli, sono forse da identificare con i soli tre re cristiani dei Tanukh ricordati dalle fonti arabe, cioè an-Nu‘man con i due figli ‘Amr e al-Harawi, ciò che spiegherebbe meglio la presenza della tomba di un re arabo nel territorio della provincia romana di Arabia. Lo scrittore ecclesiastico Rufino di Concordia e gli altri scrittori ecclesiastici che ne scrivono con un certo compiacimento, raccontano l’exploit della regina araba Mawiya (Moavia in greco) insorta contro Valente nel territorio meridionale della Provincia, finché l’imperatore romano non acconsentì a far consacrare come vescovo degli Arabi un santo eremita, Mosè che viveva in solitudine nelle vicinanze. Quando nel 378, dopo la morte di Valente e la disfatta di Valentiniano ad Adrianopoli, i Goti posero l’assedio a Costantinopoli, la regina inviò le sue truppe in aiuto della capitale dell’impero cristiano. Le relazioni si deteriorarono al tempo dell’imperatore Teodosio fino alla rivolta della confederazione domata con le armi. La sconfitta significò la fine della supremazia dei Tanukh. Stando alle fonti arabe, alcune tribù dei Tanukh restate nel territorio dell’impero, furono al fianco dell’imperatore Eraclio nella campagna senza esito da lui intrapresa per la riconquista dell’Oriente dopo la pesante sconfitta subita dall’esercito bizantino nella battaglia dello Yarmuk nel 636. Pur restando cristiani, famiglie Tanukh servirono tra le truppe ajnad al servizio dei califfi omayyadi. Nel 780 furono però costretti ad accettare l’Islam dal califfo abbaside al-Mahdi che decapitò il loro capo Layth ben Mahatta, in un incontro drammatico nel nord della Siria.

Il nome del capo Zokomos, che rimanda a Du’jum (il Potente), come soprannome di Hamata figlio di Sa’ad e nipote di ‘Amr-Salih delle genealogie arabe, è un dato importante riguardante la tribù dei Banu Salih che successe ai Tanukh del IV secolo nella supremazia tra gli Arabi federati di Bisanzio. Di questa dinastia le fonti arabe ricordano i due figli di Du’jum, ‘Amr e ‘Awf e alcuni loro successori. L’assassinio del nipote di ‘Amr, Sabit figlio di Mundhir, ucciso dal filarca Jabala (o Tha‘laba?) nel 502, significò l’inizio della supremazia dei Banu Ghassan al tempo dell’imperatore Anastasio. Della linea di ‘Awf, lo storico musulmano Hisham al-Kalbi si sofferma su Dawud, (figlio di Habula, figlio di ‘Amr, figlio di ‘Awf), che fu un pio re cristiano: “Era un re aduso a intraprendere spedizioni di razzia. Diventato cristiano, si pentì, aborrì il versamento di sangue e intrapprese una vita pia. Costruì un monastero e lo si vide portare sulle sue spalle l’acqua e la calcina dicendo: Non voglio che nessuno mi aiuti, così che i suoi vestiti si bagnarono e fu soprannominato al-Lathiq (l’inzaccherato). Quando aborrì il versamento di sangue e le uccisioni, la sua posizione si indebolì e divenne egli stesso bersaglio di razzie finché non fu ucciso da Tha’laba ibn ‘Amr al-Akbar (della tribù dei Kalb) e da Mu’awiya ibn Hujayr (della tribù di al-Namir ibn Wabara)”. La morte del re fu ricordata in poesia da un’elegia, di cui resta un verso solo, composta dalla figlia di Dawud, e da due versi di Tha’laba il regicida. Dalle stesse fonti arabe sappiamo che alla corte di re Dawud, visse anche un poeta, ‘Abd al-’As della tribù Iyad. Negli scritti di Teodoreto di Ciro, che ne fu testimone oculare, leggiamo il racconto del ruolo importante che ebbe San Simeone Stilita nella conversione di quelli che il vescovo teologo chiama Ismaeliti, utilizzando un termine biblico di onore che fu ripreso successivamente dal Corano e dalla tradizione musulmana che fa di Ismaele l’antenato abramitico degli Arabi. Al vescovo di Ciro dobbiamo anche un testo sulla natura degli Arabi non più barbari saraceni ma membri della Chiesa e ausiliari dell’impero cristiano: “Per quanto riguarda i nostri vicini, i nomadi (parlo degli Ismaeliti che vivono nel deserto e che non hanno la pur minima cognizione delle lettere greche), essi sono dotati di una intelligenza viva e penetrante e hanno un giudizio capace di discernere il vero e rifiutare il falso” (nella Graecarum Affectionum Curatio). Degli ultimi anni dell’impero di Leone (457-474), è l’episodio ricordato con disappunto e disapprovazione dallo storico Malco di Filadelfia. Amorkesos (Imrulqays/

L’episodio più notevole, all’inizio del V sec. al tempo dell’imperatore Arcadio (395-408), è il ricordo conservato dallo storico palestinese Sozomeno della conversione di un capo saraceno seguito dalla sua tribù dovuto all’intervento miracoloso di un monaco. “Poco prima del regno presente (di Valente, di cui ha parlato prima, o di Teodosio II, quando Sozomeno scriveva?) i Saraceni cominciarono a diventare cristiani. Condivisero la fede in Cristo grazie alla frequentazione dei preti e dei monaci delle vicinanze che meditavano nei deserti circostanti, menando una vita buona e compiendo dei miracoli. Si dice anche che a questa epoca, tutta una tribù si volse verso il cristianesimo perché il suo filarco, Zokomos, era stato battezzato. Trovandosi senza figli, attirato dalla fama di un monaco, venne ad incontrarlo e sfogò il suo dispiacere. Infatti è di grande importanza procreare un figlio tra i Saraceni e io so che è lo stesso tra tutti i Barbari. Questi dunque, avendogli raccomandato di avere fiducia, gli fece coraggio e lo rimandò a casa sua dopo avergli promesso che avrebbe avuto un figlio se avesse avuto fede in Cristo. Siccome Dio fece passare la promessa nei fatti e gli fu accordato un figlio, Zokomos fu iniziato e trascinò i suoi sulla stessa strada. Si dice che da quel giorno, questa tribù 31

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Mar’alqays), un intraprendente e deciso capo arabo, probabilmente del gruppo emergente dei Banu Ghassan, dal territorio persiano si mosse verso il sud della penisola arabica, facendo razzie in territorio romano. Riuscì anche ad impossessarsi con la forza dell’isola di Iotabe nel golfo di Aqaba, cacciandone i funzionari di dogana bizantini per il controllo delle vie commerciali e carovaniere che via mare e via terra portavano i beni dell’oriente in territorio romano. Da questa posizione di forza Amorkesos inviò nel 473 il vescovo della tribù Pietro presso l’imperatore con proposte di alleanza. La missione ebbe esito positivo, tanto che Amorkesos fu invitato dall’imperatore Leone a Costantinopoli dove ricevette il titolo di filarca e fu perfino fatto sedere con i senatori, con grande disappunto della nobiltà cittadina. Per il fisco imperiale fu certamente una perdita, in quanto le entrate per 25 anni andarono non all’erario ma a Amorkeseos e alla sua tribù. Per il cristianesimo bizantino fu una porta aperta sull’oriente. Dopo la missione di Theophilus Indus nell’Arabia del sud, sua terra di origine, al tempo dell’imperatore Costanzo, come raccontato dallo storico Filostorgio, al tempo dell’imperatore Zenone, gli storici ricordano la missione del mercante Sopatros presso il re di Ceylon, e, al tempo di Anastasio, la missione del vescovo Silvano in Himyar nello Yemen.

conosciuto della confederazione tribale dovunque i suoi membri abitassero, e nello stesso tempo, come filarca riconosciuto dall’autorità romana, era il comandante delle truppe ausiliarie che affiancavano il dux nel controllo militare della frontiera della provincia, con un’autorità limitata territorialmente. A Tha‘laba successe Jabala che era capo capo della confederazione nel 519 quando fu scritta la lettera di Simeone di Beth Arsham sui martiri hiemariti a Simeone abbate di Gabbula: “Noi abbiamo scritto questa lettera alla Vostra Carità – si legge nel desinit - dal campo di Jabala, re dei Ghassanidi, nel luogo detto Gbita (Jabiyah sul Golan) nel mese di Tammuz di questo anno 830 di Alessandro (secondo l’era seleucida, luglio 519)”. La lettera mette al corrente della persecuzione dichiarata contro i cristiani nel 523 dal re di Himyar Yusuf As’ar Yath’ar detto anche Dhu Nawwas di religione giudaica, iniziando dalla capitale Zafar. Dopo aver promesso un salvacondotto ai cristiani etiopi, 300 di loro con a capo l’arcipresbitero Ababut che si fidarono di lui furono messi a morte durante la notte. Un editto estese la persecuzione a tutto il regno, pena la morte e la confisca dei beni anche per chi avesse dato rifugio ad un cristiano. Le prime vittime illustri furono dei sacerdoti nell’Hadramut il prete Mar Elia con sua madre e suo fratello, Mar Toma che precedentemente aveva già subito il taglio della mano sinistra per aver confessato Cristo, Mar Wail e Mar Toma di Najran che si trovava nella regione. La strage si ripeté a Najran, come si legge nella lettera: “La strage fu seguita dall’incendio della chiesa e dei 200 fedeli che vi avevano cercato rifugio. I Giudei portarono tutte le loro ossa insieme nella chiesa e le accatastarono al centro della chiesa; e poi portarono i preti, i diaconi, i suddiaconi, i lettori, i figli dell’alleanza e le figlie dell’alleanza (monaci e monache), e i laici, uomini e donne; e riempirono tutta la chiesa da una parte all’altra, con circa 2000 cristiani... Poi portarono legna e circondarono la chiesa all’esterno e gettarono fuoco all’interno e la bruciarono insieme con tutto quello che vi stava dentro...”. Ultimo venne sacrificato il vecchio Shaikh al-Harith, di cui si racconta la passione. La strage per la sua efferatezza e per il messaggio forte di fede incrollabile fu ricordata anche nel Corano (85,4ss): “Furono massacrate le genti di Ukhdud, bruciate nel fuoco che si alimentava da solo mentre vi si trovavano seduti attorno in circolo testimoni di ciò che subivano i credenti. Non gli rimproveravano se non l’aver creduto nel Dio potente e degno di lode”.

Verso la fine del V secolo, si registra una insorgenza delle scorrerie delle tribù arabe all’interno del territorio romano che, dalle fonti arabe, sappiamo affidato alla confederazione federata dei Banu Salih. Gli storici, alla luce anche di quanto raccontato nelle fonti arabe posteriori, vi vedono una lotta tribale per il predominio territoriale, con i due gruppi emergenti dei Banu Ghassan e dei Kinda intenzionati a soppiantare i Banu Salih. Nel VI secolo, infatti, il gruppo tribale emergente, diventa la tribù dei Banu Ghassan del gruppo tribale Azd provenienti dal sud dell’Arabia, cristiani ma di confessione monofisita. Tra le condizioni di pace, dopo uno scontro vittorioso con i Banu Salih, i Banu Ghassan praticamente si imposero come interlocutori alleati di Roma. Lo storico arabo Hisham ibn Muhammad al-Kalbi precisa: “Questo avvenne durante un periodo di ostilità tra Roma e la Persia. Il re dei Romani temette che essi (i Ghassan) potessero allearsi con la Persia contro di lui. Perciò scrisse loro e cercò di tirarli dalla sua parte. Il loro capo allora era Tha‘laba ibn ‘Amr, il fratello di Jidh‘ ibn ‘Amr. E le due parti stipularono un accordo secondo il quale se un pericolo avesse minacciato i Ghassan da parte degli Arabi (Lakhmidi, alleati dei Persiani), il re dei Romani sarebbe intervenuto con quarantamila soldati romani; se invece un pericolo avesse minacciato l’impero, i Ghassan sarebbero intervenuti con ventimila soldati”. Probabilmente il foedus fu siglato nel 502/3 alla vigilia della guerra contro i Persiani che durò fino al 506. Tha‘laba è quasi sicuramente il padre di Jabala, ed è lui che sigla il patto che sancisce la supremazia dei Banu Ghassan. Sul piano pratico giurisdizionale, il filarca alleato dei Romani, da una parte, come shaikh tribale, era il capo ri-

I Banu Ghassan nella tradizione islamica e cristiana sono Yamaniyah, cioè originari dal sud della penisola arabica, legati perciò ai cristiani perseguitati nel luogo di origine che a loro si rivolsero per chiedere l’intervento dell’esercito bizantino. Nei successi imperiali delle campagne militari di Giustiniano contro Alamundaros il Kindita in Mesopotamia, un giusto merito andò alla partecipazione dei Banu Ghassan a fianco dell’esercito romano. Fu dopo queste vittorie che l’imperatore Giustiniano innalzò Areta lo shaikh dei Banu 32

M. piccirillo: Le comunità cristiane nella Transgiordania meridionale dei secoli X-XIII anche dagli edifici sacri costruiti in questo periodo con fondi pubblici e privati decorati con mosaici come segno del benessere raggiunto. Testimonianze monumentali ed epigrafiche con i nomi di Areta, di Alamundaros e del figlio Nu‘man, sono state finora riportate alla luce nel territorio siriano e giordano, come nel villaggio di Nitl alle porte di Madaba. Qui nel mosaico pavimentale della chiesa di San Sergio si possono ancora leggere i nomi di Areta figlio di Areta e del filarca Tha‘laba. La conversione al cristianesimo dei membri delle confederazioni tribali arabe, di antico o di nuovo arrivo nel territorio della Provincia con l’alleanza siglata con i Romani, costituì sul piano militare un fattore di stabilità all’origine del benessere delle popolazioni. Il venire meno del foedus verso la fine del secolo, creò un pericoloso varco attraverso il quale passò prima l’esercito di Cosroe II che occupò per due decenni il territorio della Siria-Palestina, seguito un decennio dopo dalle truppe del Profeta Maometto il nuovo unificatore delle popolazioni arabe della Penisola. Chiese mosaicate e datate al periodo omayyade primo periodo abbaside scoperte nel territorio giordano (a Rihab, Amman al-Quwaysmeh e Khilda, a Ma‘in, a Umm alRasas, a Madaba e sul Monte Nebo, testimoniano della continuità di vita della comunità cristiana sotto governo musulmano almeno fino al IX-X secolo (Figura 2). Quando nel 750 i califfi abbasidi spostarono la capitale dell’impero musulmano da Damasco a Baghdad, anche il commercio internazionale prese la strada del Golfo Persico. La regione siro-giordana perse progressivamente importanza. La strada, da cui era dipeso lungo i secoli la prosperità di questa regione, nota in arabo con il nome di Darb al-Hajj Strada del Pellegrinaggio), fu percorsa soltanto dalle carovane di pellegrini musulmani che annualmente si recavano al santuario della Mecca nel Hijaz. La regione spopolata e abbandonata, con l’eccezione di pochi centri urbani (al-Qura del nord e del sud tra cui Petra e Kerak), restò in mano alle tribù beduine fino alla seconda metà del XIX secolo. Alla rinascita di queste regioni parteciparono nel XX secolo diversi gruppi tribali cristiani presenti nel territorio che ancora oggi danno il loro contributo allo sviluppo delle nazioni di Siria e di Giordania eredi del territorio della Provincia Arabia di epoca romano-bizantina. Qualche raro cenno si trova nelle fonti di epoca medievale. Nel 1107 re Baldovino I, penetrato ancora una volta nella regione a est del fiume, si imbatte in certi “Syri Christiani” che lo aiutano come guide nella cacciata dei soldati damasceni giunti a fortificare l’area della ‘Valle di Mosé’. (Alberto di Aquisgrana, IV, 644-645) Maestro Thitmar che nel 1217 fa un lungo giro che dal nord lo porta fino a Baghdad, al Sinai e al Cairo, scrive che nelle vicinanze del castello di “Shaubak che in francese è detto Montreal” vi abitano i Saraceni e i Cristiani. Dove evidentemente questi ultimi dovrebbero essere i discendenti delle popolazioni crociate, come risulta anche dal fatto che fu ospitato da una vedova francese “che mi istruì sul viaggio e sul modo di viaggiare per il deserto fino al Monte Sinai”. Giunto a Petra, dopo aver attraversato il Siq, scrive di essere giunto al monte Or dove morì Aronne.

Ghassan al rango di Re degli Arabi, gratificandolo del titolo di Patricio, il primo degli Arabi a ricevere un simile onore che comportava di essere chiamato dall’imperatore ‘padre mio’. Teofane riporta la titolatura ufficiale: jArevtaı oJ patrivkioı kai; fuvlarcoı tw`n Sarakhnw`n. Il Patrizio riceveva il titolo di paneufemos, glorioso. Lo storico Procopio da alla decisione imperiale, certamente inusuale e forse inaspettata nei circoli della capitale, una motivazione di strategia politico-militare: “Alamundaros, detenendo la posizione di re, regnava da solo sui Saraceni in Persia, e in qualsiasi momento era in grado di portare un attacco con tutto il suo esercito dovunque desiderasse in territorio romano. E né i capi delle truppe romane che chiamavano duci, né alcun capo saraceno alleato dei Romani, che chiamavano filarchi, era così potente con le sue truppe per opporsi a Alamundaros; perché le truppe stazionate nei diversi distretti non c’erano avversari alla pari dei nemici. Per questa ragione, l’imperatore Giustiniano pose alla testa del più grande numero possibile di tribù Areta figlio di Jabala, che già regnava sui Saraceni di Arabia, e gli diede la dignità di re, cosa che non era mai stata fatta prima dai Romani”. Senza urtare le suscettibilità dei filarchi delle altre province ai quali restava l’autorità territoriale, e pur mantenendo la sua autorità di filarca di Arabia e di capo della confederazione dei Banu Ghassan, Areta verso il 530 ricevette dall’imperatore un’autorità che lo poneva a capo di tutti gli arabi federati dei Romani, in grado perciò, in caso di necessità, di fronteggiare adeguatamente la potenza dei Banu Lakhm guidati da Alamundaros al servizio dei Persiani. Per quasi tutto il secolo, i Banu Ghassan costituirono la migliore difesa del confine orientale dell’impero, dal Mar Rosso all’Eufrate. Una iscrizione sulla diga di Marib ricorda ambasciatori inviati da Areta e da suo fratello Abukarib nello Yemen tra il 539 e il 543. Una spedizione armata del re di Axoum Ella Atsbeha contro l’ebreo Dhou Nowas persecutore della comunità cristiana di Najran nel regno di Saba, aveva portato sul trono Sumayfa. Questi, a sua volta, era stato detronizzato da Abraha, l’estensore dell’iscrizione: “allora arrivarono l’ambasciata del re romano e una delegazione del re di Persia e un inviato di Mundhir, e un inviato di Harith ben Jabala, e un inviato di Abikarib ben Jabala”. Anche qui i due filarchi di Arabia e di Palestina sono presentati come alleati e sostenitori dell’impero romano in un intervento diplomatico in difesa della comunità cristiana minacciata. La confederazione svolse il suo ruolo a difesa del confine orientale dell’impero per tutto il VI secolo guidata dai suoi shaikh/re, prima Areta/al-Harith bin Jabala, seguito dal figlio Alamundaros/Al-Munthir bin al-Harith finito in disgrazia, imprigionato e inviato in esilio in Sicilia. Inutilmente Papa Gregorio nel 603 intervenne presso l’imperatore Maurizio per la sua liberazione. Nel VI secolo, la Provincia raggiunse, dopo un periodo di decadenza, un nuovo sviluppo economico e un livello di sedentarizzazione urbano mai eguagliato né prima né dopo, grazie ad un benessere generalizzato testimoniato 33

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean “Sulla sua sommità fu costruita una chiesa in cui abitano due monaci greci cristiani: quel luogo si chiama Musera”. La mancanza di fonti scritte impedisce di approfondire la storia di una presenza di arabi cristiani dalle origini antiche che riemergono alla storia all’arrivo degli esploratori moderni.

occidentaux, IV. Paris 1879 Burchkardt, J. L. 1822. Travels in Syria and the Holy Land. London. Graecarum Affectionum Curatio. Theoderet (Bishop of Cyrrhus) in B. G. Teubneri (ed), 1969. Peake, F. G. 1958. History of Jordan and Its Tribes. Miami. Sozomeno. Histoire Ecclésiastique, text grec J. Bides e B.Grillet, G . Sabbah e A. J. Festugière (eds). Paris 1983.

BIBLIOGRAFIA Alberto di Aquisgrana. Historia Hierosolymitana, in “Recueil des historiens des croisades”, Historiens

Figura 1 Kerak

Figura 2 Carta delle Province di Arabia, con alcuni dei luoghi citati dall’Autore

Fig. 3. Pannelli pavimentali a mosaico dalla basilica del Monte Nebo

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

ARCHEOLOGIA DI UNA FRONTIERA MEDITERRANEA Guido Vannini Università di Firenze Abstract (2008) Archaeology of a Mediterranean frontier Archaeological study and revise, with historical results of great consequence, of the “Medieval” situation of South Transjordan, seen from the stage of one of the most fascinating archaeological/monumental areas of East Mediterranean: the castle site of Shawbak, key-place of a real territorial ‘system’ of Crusader epoch that centred in the valley of Petra – as realised in the past years by the mission of the University of Florence – and protagonist of the ‘new’ role regained by that region: frontier as identity root and part of a common Mediterranean culture. The Crusader conquest of lands between the Dead and Read Sea, carried out by Baldwin I of Jerusalem between 1100 and 1115, resulted for that site and, in terms of re-establishing a real longperiod historical structure of the area, beyond the immediate intentions and necessities of the protagonists, the whole Transjordan, in a turning point, which outlived the short Crusader time. After nearly five centuries from the Persian invasions and the Arab-Islamic conquest of the region of Petra, a frontier arose again on the east of the Wadi Arabah, and Shawbak was its main strong point, with its strategic – as well as political, economic and territorial – function of linking the ‘extraordinary’ (but also ‘classical’) castle system of Petra to the great regional road network (‘Kings’ Way’ and even farther). Although, on the one hand, the Medieval frontier often seems to occupy the same positions of fortified settlement belonged to the ancient Roman and Byzantine Limes, mostly defending, actually, long-distance road network, springs and arable soils before the desert, on the other, its political, institutional, military and economic features were very different from the old border. The seigniory system brought in from Europe in the 12th century, in fact, entailed that the new fortified villages were at the same time defensive strong points, populated centres, and places where juridical acts were issued. The structural weakness of central powers within the Medieval ruling system let most of these castles become real ‘rural capitals’; moreover, real territorial systems originated (‘border zones’ established like ‘road areas’, as may emerge from recent European Medieval studies), which were mainly (or at least considerably) based on even material local frameworks, and resulted, in the long term, in autonomy of rules and, eventually subregional, identity process. Surprisingly, such settlement and administrative pattern of Latin Transjordan, although simplified and anyhow standardised, was not really maintained but deeply ‘re-interpreted’ in the Ayyubidid time and also during the Mamluk period, although more slightly from a political and administrative point of view. The region of Shawbak and Petra, which had from AD 630 become almost ‘no man’s land’ between Egypt and Syria, and apparently as such yet under the ‘fickle’ Omayyadid and (even more) Abbasidid and Fatimide administration, regained as ‘Medieval frontier’ role, identity and specific importance that will have never been lost from that moment onward. However – and here the understanding of the material situations of the site of Shawbak, a real archaeological archive, emerges as essential step as regards the comprehension of the historical scenery of the region – forms and planning that come out by these means appear as innovative to a large and conclusive extent, compared with the Crusader period, wherefrom a certain continuity can be in any case traced (well attested to stratigraphically, for instance by their relations with the Crusader palace buildings): the extraordinary planning (especially that after the ruinous earthquake of 1212) and the Ayyubidid ‘administrative’ edifice, the textile ‘industrial’ workshop, public buildings and military structures of the early Mamluk time, just to mention some examples, which emerge from stratigraphic ‘light’ surveying and conclusively confirmed by excavations carried out in the last three campaigns, bear evidence of a town, which was intended and framed as such, diversely conceived from the populated centre that really was well defined in the last Crusader period (a protected borough with a well nucleated surrounding built-up area): a settlement which, on the other hand, finds clear comparisons with the successful ‘castles’, featuring the feudal system of the European Mediterranean scenery). A strictly archaeology-based analysis that seems to match what comes from Arab literary sources about Shawbak; comparisons with the gardens of Damascus and the amount of several thousands of people between the late 13th and early 14th century now appear neither that incredible nor flattering, but, besides some ‘poetic licence’, may at the same time reflect the real situation of two different contexts of equal consequence: exactly an autonomous local ‘capital’, however, not a castle anymore (according to a continental European feudal culture), but a real town (following a local but, in the long term, Mediterranean heritage).

In tale quadro, il caso transgiordano – fra limes arabicus e frontiere ‘medievali’, fra Regno latino ed ‘impero’ islamico prima e fra Siria ed Egitto poi – rappresenta un paradigma archeologicamente ben leggibile, ampiamente parte di una condizione che appare costitutiva di una comune cultura mediterranea, anche dialettica, di cui può essere considerata una metafora. In sintesi, si tratta di proporre un approccio decisamente storicistico - oramai consolidato nella pratica dell’archeologia medievale europea - alle prassi della tradizione archeologica proprie delle missioni operanti nel Vicino Oriente, peraltro provenienti da alcune delle più prestigiose Istituzioni universitarie e di ricerca

Se l’archeologia può essere considerata una delle modalità di lettura dei processi storici, condotta attraverso le testimonianze materiali delle attività dell’uomo nell’ambiente, per un verso il territorio nel suo complesso, per un altro l’interazione con le altre ‘tracce’ (quindi scritte, iconografiche, etc.) costituiscono (particolarmente per i connotati delle ‘tracce’ – tutte – che il Medioevo ci ha restituito) altrettanti ‘strumenti’ che, tramite opportuni approcci metodologici, possono consentirci di attingere direttamente la categoria delle ‘strutture’ storiche, nel breve e, meglio, nel lungo periodo: in una parola la dimensione della storia. È in questo senso che, se si vuole, il caso specifico al centro della missione dell’Università di Firenze Petra ‘medievale’ – la Transgiordania fra crociati, ayyubidi e primi mamelucchi – può offrire uno spunto concreto per riflettere su di una struttura storica di lungo periodo che costituisce una delle radici identitarie di una molteplicità di altre aree regionali mediterranee e del Mediterraneo in quanto tale: la frontiera medievale.1 1

con DoA, e l’appoggio di MAE e MIUR) Petra ‘medievale’. Archeologia degli insediamenti di epoca crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania, opera da una ventina di anni nella Giordania meridionale, nel quadro del ‘Progetto strategico di Ateneo’ La società feudale mediterranea: profili archeologici. Apogeo e declino, alle origini dell’Europa moderna, condotto dalla Cattedra di Archeologia Medievale e dedicato allo studio archeologico della Signoria territoriale di matrice feudale, tramite l’analisi delle forme di insediamento e delle strutture materiali in ambiti culturali comparati, in area mediterranea.

La missione archeologica dell’Università di Firenze (in collaborazione

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean del mondo.2 Il senso di un possibile contributo della missione dell’Università di Firenze può consistere nell’offrire l’occasione per una tale riproposizione metodologica, a cui anche le ampie adesioni a questo Convegno sembrano dovute, rispondendo ad autentiche esigenze di messa a punto di un oramai esteso ed articolato interesse per un’archeologia postclassica orientale (bizantina, islamica, ‘crociata’)3 in un’ottica mediterranea ‘medievale’. In sintesi, obbiettivo ed attività della missione sono volte ad impostare una rilettura archeologica, con esiti storici sorprendenti, della vicenda ‘medievale’ della Transgiordania meridionale, vista dall’ ‘osservatorio’ di una delle più intriganti aree archeologico-monumentali del Mediterraneo orientale: il sito incastellato di Shawbak, interpretato come chiave di un vero ‘sistema’ territoriale crociato centrato sulla valle di Petra e protagonista del ‘nuovo’ ruolo recuperato dalla regione: la frontiera come radice identitaria e parte di una comune cultura mediterranea (Figura 1).4 Il programma di indagini stratigrafiche si è proposto, in prima battuta, di analizzare connotati e forme dell’incastellamento latino nei territori corrispondenti alla Signoria di Transgiordania nel secolo XII, nei suoi aspetti strutturali e come ‘osservatorio’ sulla frontiera crociato-musulmana di Terrasanta, in rapporto con il coevo modello insediativo ayyubide e della stessa ‘tradizione lunga’ di tale funzione di terra di limite. È qui infatti, meglio che altrove, che si può ancora cogliere, nei resti materiali delle infrastrutture di popolamento e nella stratificazione dei paesaggi storici, il punto di svolta di questo processo di lunga durata. Le condizioni stratigrafiche degli insediamenti crociati in Transgiordania (in modo particolare nella zona di Petra), peraltro, consentivano di indagare su quei caractères originaux che il successivo sviluppo - anche e, direi, soprattutto concernente aspetti materiali dell’insediamento e della difesa - nella Palestina del sec. XIII non permette invece più di cogliere con la precisione stratigraficamente ‘congelata’ d’Oltregiordano.5 Il ‘secolo crociato’, insomma, riattivò un’antica vocazione di questa terra, la sua funzione di frontiera; una vera struttura storica che, in termini di diacronia per così dire ‘intermittente’ rappresenta, non solo nelle fortune, un elemento costituivo della cultura profonda di questa regione,

particolarmente percepibile nella Trangiordania meridionale, fra Mar Morto e Mar Rosso. Un ruolo, quello di baricentro di un’intera regione che, nel sec. XII, la valle di Petra ed il suo ‘sistema’ territoriale transgiordano, attraverso la documentazione archeologica raccolta, è risultato con ogni evidenza avere riassunto dopo secoli e che è stato possibile delineare in termini sorprendenti - dopo un sostanziale abbandono risalente forse alle incursioni persiane del 628 d.C.6 e prima dell’inserimento della regione (630) in una compagine ‘imperiale’ che andava da Oceano (Atlantico) a Oceano (Indiano) raggiungendo, nell’arco dei primi tre lustri del secolo, una densità insediativa senza paragoni nella regione. (Figura 2) Un assetto che, da Ahamant ad Ayla, è emerso in specie dal riconoscimento di un incastellamento feudalmente ‘classico’ a Petra, di cui è stato possibile dimostrare il ruolo di punto di appoggio strategico, gravitante tatticamente intorno al castello di Li Vaux Moises/Wu’ayra, chiave di lettura, storica e archeologica, di tutto il sistema7 (Figura 3); un modello interpretativo che, attribuendo scopo e logica insediativa al controllo logistico della valle come punto di appoggio per il governo dell’intera regione, è recentemente stata puntualmente confermata da ritrovamenti di insediamenti riferibili al solo ‘secolo crociato’, il XII, sia interni (a Wadi Farasa (Schmid 2005; 2006) che esterni (a Beidha (Bikai et alii, 2005) a Petra. Si è qui anche potuto documentare come i crociati abbiano ricorrentemente rioccupato siti fortificati bizantini abbandonati da secoli (come attestato anche in Palestina: Ellenblum 1998), certo in un contesto demografico ed economico assai più fragile di quello tardoantico, ma ugualmente funzionali al controllo delle risorse agricole e della viabilità; una sorta di condizionamento ‘archeologico’ che si manifestò sia nella dimensione ‘tattica’, con la scelta di soluzioni funzionali, militari e strutturali, adattate alla natura fisica ed ambientale dei siti, sia ‘strategica’ sul piano dell’insediamento territoriale ed al riattivarsi di alcuni ‘meccanismi’ riferibili al riemergere della funzione di frontiera nella regione (Vannini 2005). Quando le indagini ‘leggere’ dal territorio sono giunte ad affrontare il sito chiave di Shawbak e le sue stratigrafie del secolo XIII, hanno potuto dimostrare con evidenza come la regione non fosse tornata alla collocazione periferica in cui si trovava all’arrivo degli europei, finendo per acquisire - come concreto esito storico - una precisa identità culturale, ben rappresentata dalla continuità di funzione autonoma, sia amministrativa che militare, mantenuta dagli ayyubidi e non più perduta, appunto ai due centri egemoni, fra i quali sembra essere proprio Shawbak ad emergere più della stessa antica città di Kerak, pur con il suo grande

2

L’opzione metodologica di fondo consiste nel ruolo strategico affidato all’ ‘archeologia leggera’, una lettura codificata sperimentale che integra a sistema le diverse archeologie non invasive (paesaggio, ambiente, elevati, archeoinformatica; saggi mirati), consentendo un uso – in termini economici, in rapporto ai fini - direttamente storico delle documentazioni e della stessa analisi archeologica delle ‘strutture’ culturali del passato. Sotto questo specifico aspetto il Progetto ha fornito un significativo contributo, particolarmente sul problema della fusione e gestione di dati anche tipologicamente eterogenei, sviluppando un efficace modello di rappresentazione e gestione dello ‘spazio-tempo archeologico’ basato su di un uso calibrato anche delle ‘nuove tecnologie’ (sul tema in generale Lucas 2005). 3 Per tutti, si possono ricordare Boas 1999; Curatola e Scarcia 2001; Zanini 1994. 4 Del tema si sono occupati storici di varia tendenza ed anche con interessi mediterranei (per tutti Abulafia and Berend (eds) 2002); tuttavia le categorie interpretative sono deducibili dagli studiosi del territorio medievale; spunti di grande interesse, in tale ottica, sono anche presenti nella letteratura giuridica (si veda infra il contributo di Filippo Ruschi). 5 Il programma e le sue prime verifiche furono date in diverse sedi (AA. VV., 1987,; Vannini 1990; Vannini et alii 1990).

6

Si veda, in questi stessi Atti, il contributo di P. Bikai, con la quale ho avuto piacevoli occasioni per discutere proprio questo che credo vada considerato un autentico problema storico: l’abbandono di Petra, modalità, cronologie, cause e condizioni. 7 Vannini e Vanni Desideri 1995; Vannini e Tonghini 1997. Una lettura storica di tale realtà archeologica, nella naturale ottica ‘orientalista’ degli studi fin qui condotti, non era emersa, dal classico Dechamps, alla pur eccellente sintesi di Kennedy 1994. Per una contestualizzazione della breve stagione di frequentazione del sito (ma dopo il suo completo decastellamento e per un breve periodo) nel nuovo quadro politico ayyubide cfr ora Milwright 2006.

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G. Vannini: Archeologia di una frontiera mediterranea castello ‘urbano’, il Crac de Moab. Il sito incastellato di Shawbak, parte integrante dello stesso sistema e ‘politicamente’ più longevo, in seno alle dominazioni ayyubidi e mamelucche ed ora un vero archivio archeologico, interpreta infatti con straordinaria fedeltà le fortune, come le eclissi, di un’intera regione che si delinea di rilevo ben maggiore di quanto fin qui ritenuto negli equilibri diacronici e di lungo periodo nel Vicino Oriente ‘medievale’ (Figura 4). (Ri)fondato da Baldovino I nel 1115 – sulle rovine di un sito fortificato romano-bizantino abbandonato, per la prima volta archeologicamente documentato (Vannini e Nucciotti 2003), posto sul limes arabicus e riferibile alla vicina Udruh/Augustopoli (Figura 5) - lungo il percorso della ‘strada dei Re’ nei pressi del diverticolo viario che, in antico come nel medioevo, controllava il raccordo fra sistema di Petra, direttrici Siria ed Egitto, piste carovaniere del deserto arabico e Mediterraneo, costituisce uno dei pochissimi insediamenti fortificati crociati conservato in età islamica; ma, lungi dal rappresentare una generica ‘eccezione alla regola’ nell’intera regione, ciò è accaduto per una precisa, sorprendente ragione che la ricerca ha recentemente potuto documentare con precisione.8 Certamente, infatti, il destino del nuovo castello appare subito legato a dirigere un territorio che, prima di tutto come tale (presto il successo farà evolvere la regione in Signoria feudalmente autonoma dalla stessa corona di Gerusalemme9), svolgerà la propria funzione di frontiera al limitare del deserto arabico: in altri termini il ruolo di una vera capitale. In questo senso depongono la stessa architettonicamente aggiornata monumentalità (Bini 2004, 57). della chiesa di S. Maria (Figura 6) ma, su altri piani, il denso quartiere che, aperto dalla seconda chiesa absidata, si espande nel ‘borgo’ meridionale fino alla cappella templare rinvenuta inserita in una torre limitanea (Figura 7) a copertura dell’accesso a quello che, coerentemente a quanto consueto in occidente, doveva essere un quartiere socialmente ed economicamente dinamico; ma soprattutto il palazzo comitale,10 centro del potere anche della Signoria di Transgiordania, le cui monumentali strutture sono state parzialmente identificate e che sono attualmente in corso di scavo. Ma è con la riconquista musulmana che, diversamente da quanto consueto e, ad esempio, accaduto con i castelli di Petra, Shawbak non viene demolito ma, al contrario, risulta mantenere una connotazione di fondo: il ruolo territoriale e la funzione di frontiera che, in tutt’altro contesto politico, aveva conseguito nella breve (tre quarti di secolo!) stagione crociata. E tuttavia, le forme architettoniche e la progettualità urbana della Shawbak ayyubide risultano assumere un senso

significativamente innovativo rispetto all’epoca crociata, verso la quale pure è evidente una continuità consapevolmente programmata dagli eredi del Saladino; e stratigraficamente ben documentabile, ad esempio proprio, significativamente, nei rapporti con le strutture palaziali crociate (Figura 8).11 Solo per esemplificare:12 - innanzi tutto il contesto che dà ragione della qualificazione (e dello stesso senso politico ed amministrativo) delle scelte costruttive di fondo degli edifici che progressivamente dovettero letteralmente trasformare il volto del maniero abbandonato dai suoi primi costruttori: la straordinaria pianificazione urbanistica impostata con ogni probabilità ai primi del ‘200, con datazione archeosismica precedente al 1212 (Nucciotti 2007,44) (Figura 9), allo stato attuale delle ricerche rappresentato da un autentico asse generatore urbanistico che collega la principale porta d’accesso alla seconda cinta (CF3) al rinnovato centro politico, confermato all’estremita’ nord dell’abitato (Figura 10) e da una ‘zonizzazione’ del nuovo tessuto ‘urbano’ della cittadella, articolato in aree residenziali, produttive, di servizio o di difesa, la cui esplorazione sistematica impegnerà la missione, prevedibilmente, per i prossimi anni (Figura 11); - il magnifico palazzo ‘governativo’ ayyubide, che costituisce certamente il maggiore monumento del genere costruito dalla dinastia in tutto il vicino oriente :13 una presenza che, lungi dal rappresentare un episodio provinciale (come comprensibilmente interpretato al momento del suo primo rinvenimento negli anni ‘80), una dettagliata analisi stratigrafica degli elevati (e specificamente in seguito alla sua contestualizzazione topostratigrafica per un verso e di analisi sistematica delle fasi e metodologie costruttive per un altro) ne ha confermato l’attribuzione (Brown 1988, 240242; Brown unpublished, 110) e precisato la datazione fra il secondo ed il terzo decennio del ‘200. Una presenza questa, che testimonia, da sola, il ruolo dell’intero insediamento in un territorio di riferimento e la dimensione politico-amministrativa della struttura (Figura 12); - uno straordinario impianto produttivo ‘industriale’ tessile������������������������������������������������������� (Molduci e Pruno 2007, 56-58; Dotti, Nucciotti e Walker 2009, 128-131), il maggiore (che io sappia) rinvenuto in scavo nel Mediterraneo medievale (Figura 13), che può rappresentare bene la notevole dimensione della struttura economica assunta dal sito e che, con gli edifici palaziali civili e le strutture militari dotati di epigrafi monumentali a carattere pubblico e di esplicito significato politico, testimonia il successo della rifondazione ayyubide con lo 11

Il rapporto fra la nuova progettualità ayyubide e le pur monumentali strutture del vecchio centro del potere comitale è ad esempio ben percepibile nel raccordo, di alto livello sia funzionale sia di rappresentazione formale, realizzato con la scala, recentemente rinvenuta (2007), dai caratteri di una raffinata monumerntalità, che ricollega il grande ambiente voltato di età crociata (CF35) con gli ambienti, probabilmente in esterno, del nuovo palazzo ‘sultanale’ di Al Mu’azzam ‘Isa (Cfr. Ligato e Vannini,; Hamarneh e Nucciotti, 2009, 90-91, 110-115, 120-121). 12 Si veda anche il contributo infra di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti. 13 Rugiadi 2009,120-121. Depone a favore della centralita’ di Shawbak (contrariamente a quanto pensa Milwright 2006), ad esempio, il confronto con il palazzo analogo di Kerak, analogo per redazione progettuale e funzione, ma inferiore per dimensioni, tecnico, qualita’ formale.

8

Sul Progetto Shawbak cfr Vannini (ed) 2007. Già dopo un lustro dalla fondazione vi sono i primi segni che condurranno all’inizio degli anni ‘40, alla fondazione della Signoria: Romano di Puy, tiene per un decennio il feudo della regione di Shawbak per concessione regia e può considerarsi il primo signore della terra di Oultre Jourdain ( Faucherre 2004, 46). 10 L’epigrafe incisa sulla perduta architrave che sormontava il portale della navata maggiore della chiesa superiore e trascritta nel 1818 (Pringle 1993, 308-309), recita ‘UGO VICE ... QUI ... MCXVIII’, ove ‘vice...’ potrebbe ragionevolmente integrarsi con ’comes’: un vicario di Baldovino per l’Oltregiordano? 9

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean sviluppo che continuò anche nella prima età mamelucca,14 sia pure in un complesso contesto politico-militare di cui anche i momenti contraddittori15 che dovette attraversare testimoniano in effetti la rilevanza territoriale oramai riassunta da Shawbak (Figura 14). Un quadro ben documentato dalle indagini stratigrafiche ‘leggere’ - e puntualmente confermato dalle campagne di scavo conseguentemente impostate - che, complessivamente, disegna il sorgere di una ‘città’ sentita, prima ancora che eretta, come tale, concettualmente diversa dal pur consistente centro demico dell’ultima stagione crociata (con un borgo difeso e un denso abitato circostante: con notevoli confronti con i ‘castelli’ di successo, negli assetti territoriali della feudalità mediterranea europea). Ma forse il senso storico più rilevante che ne consegue sta nella esplicita valenza ‘regionale’ dell’urbanizzazione di Shawbak che, da fortezza abbandonata prima della ‘fondazione’ del 1115, evolve ora, a partire alla dominazione ayyubide, in un insediamento/regione, centrale nelle politiche di governo e gestione dell’intero, nuovo ‘impero’ islamico, in un certo senso ponendosi come erede di fatto, dopo secoli, delle giurisdizioni romana e bizantina di Augustopoli e, se si vuole, della stessa Petra, almeno per un’ampia parte della regione compresa fra Kerak ed Aqaba. Una lettura, su stretta base archeologica, in grado di reinterpretare anche quanto su Shawbak ci raccontano le fonti scritte arabe; i riferimenti ai giardini di Damasco,16 le cifre riportate di migliaia di abitanti fra tardo XIII e primo XIV secolo,17 ci appaiono ora molto meno retoricamente iperboliche: non più un ‘castello’ (secondo la cultura feudale europea continentale) ma appunto una vera ‘città’ (riprendendo una cultura locale ma, nel lungo periodo, mediterranea).18 Specchio di una regione che risulta così interpretare innovativamente la funzione di frontiera – recuperata dalle profondità della sua storia, ma questa volta ‘interna’ al mondo musulmano, fra Il Cairo e Damasco – secondo canoni, come testimoniato per via archeologica, che coniugano il proprio ruolo nel contesto territoriale di appartenenza con una dimensione culturale più ampiamente mediterranea (Figura 15). Sarà solo con la conquista ottomana e con l’abolizione della frontiera politica tra Egitto e Siria che il ruolo economico di questo insediamento decade progressivamente e, sul modello dei siti incastellati mediterranei, si trasformerà in un villaggio di pastori e agricoltori (Lo Jacono 2003).

Ciononostante, il processo di coagulo di un’identità collettiva che si era manifestato nei secoli medievali con la fortuna politica, militare e commerciale del castello-città di Shawbak sarà tutt’altro che annullato e andrà anzi a costituire una delle radici storiche della Giordania contemporanea (Figura 16). A questo proposito vale forse la pena notare che il primo palazzo reale della Giordania Hashemita sarà quello di Ma’an, il centro carovaniero che aveva soppiantato il vicino Shawbak come stazione di pellegrinaggio e centro commerciale lungo l’asse siro-egizianomeccano (Figura 17). Uno dei punti emersi come focali da due decenni di indagini sulla Transgiordania ‘medievale’ sta quindi proprio nell’avere potuto proporre, nelle vicende e nei conseguenti nuovi assetti territoriali intervenuti nel secolo compreso fra i decenni centrali dei secc. XII-XIII, la definizione di una ‘età crociato-ayyubide’ che, al di là delle intenzioni contingenti dei protagonisti, orientali come occidentali, poté dare luogo, pure nel solco di un’antichissima tradizione - si potrebbero citare gli Egizi, gli Hittiti e la giornata di Qadesh19... (accanto a quella di Hattin)20 -, ad una vera nuova stagione storica dell’intera regione, nella quale può legittimamente essere riconosciuto uno specifico e rilevante contributo alla radice degli stessi assetti culturali attuali. La funzione di una frontiera interpretata non come barriera ‘tecnica’, militare, sostanzialmente lineare (nel senso dei limites imperiali) ma come forgiatrice di connotati identitari a carattere regionale, viene quindi a costituire un punto di visibilità per l’appartenenza anche di quest’area ad una comune cultura propria del Mediterraneo medievale tutto intero.21 Un’appartenenza che ci testimonia di quale rapporto speciale, certo anche dialettico o conflittuale, unisse l’Europa della societas christiana e questo Oriente islamico domestico: certamente un’altra faccia, ma della stessa medaglia, si potrebbe concludere.22 Il sistema signorile importato dall’Europa nel XII secolo implica, infatti, che i nuovi villaggi fortificati siano contemporaneamente presidi difensivi, centri di popolamento e luoghi di emanazione della giurisdizione.23 La strutturale debolezza dei poteri centrali nei sistemi di governo 19

Sul celebre episodio, ‘la prima battaglia della storia’, si veda ora il catalogo relativo alla bella mostra di Firenze: Pecchioli Daddi e Guidotti (eds) 2002. 20 Riley Smith 1997, 129-132; Hattin può essere ritenuto uno dei rari ‘avvenimenti’ (politici, militari, istituzionali), appartenenti alla braudeliana “crosta” della storia, che visibilmente hanno tuttavia contribuito in modo decisivo a determinare un mutamento radicale e rapido nelle sue strutture ‘profonde’, come sul carattere insediativo ed in alcune delle peculiari conseguenti connotazioni culturali, di una regione, di una comunità, di un’epoca: precondizioni per costituire la formazione di stratigrafie ‘sigillate’ e quindi ben leggibili con gli strumenti dell’archeologia; varrà notare che si tratta di una delle categorie (“villages desertes”) metodologicamente fondanti della stessa archeologia medievale ai suoi albori, negli anni ’50-‘60. 21 Si possono emblematicamente citare le Marche, regione che nel loro stesso nome, come noto, mantiene il ricordo della sua funzione di frontiera fra impero carolingio e Langobardia minor: per altri comparabili casi ‘classici’, la Romagna bizantina a fronte del regno longobardo e la Spagna della ‘reconquista’, si vedano infra i contributi di Chiara Molducci e Juan Llarrea. 22 Fra i molti possibili suoi scritti sul tema si veda Cardini 2003; 1999; 1972; 2005,39-46. 23 Per un’efficace, aggiornata, agile sintesi cfr Albertoni e Provero 2003.

14

Cfr anche Ligato e Vannini 2009, 94-95. Si veda infra il contributo di Bethany Walker. 16 Le espressioni di Ibn Shaddad (cit. da Faucherre 2004, 65: ‘Egli (alMu’azzam Sharf al-Din ‘Isa) la fortifica (Shawbak) e la abbellisce. Vi fa piantare alberi portati da tutte le contrade, finchè essa eguaglia Damasco per il suo carattere verdeggiante, per l’abbondanza delle sue acque e per la purezza della sua aria’), trovano riscontri archeologici anche di altra natura, come l’uso di analoghi strumenti e finiture negli edifici delle due “città”. 17 Il viaggiatore tedesco Ludolf di Sudheim segnala che Montreal ha 3 cinte murarie e che 7000 cristiani vivono ai suoi piedi (cit. in Dechamps 1939, 74). 18 L’episodio di Shawbak ayyubide potrebbe essere riferito ad un fenomeno più generale, presente in quel periodo nella regione (si veda il contributo in questi stessi Atti di Cristina Tonghini, con la quale abbiamo più volte avuto occasioni di parlare del tema). 15

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G. Vannini: Archeologia di una frontiera mediterranea Lucas, G. 2005. The Archaeology of Time. London. Molducci, C. e Pruno, E. 2007. Lo scavo dell’area 6000, in G.Vannini (ed), Archeologia dell’insediamento crociatoayyubide in Transgiordania: la valle di Petra ed il castello di Shawbak, Biblioteca di Archeologia Medievale, 56-69. Firenze. Nucciotti, M. 2007. Analisi stratigrafiche degli elevati. Primi risultati, in G.Vannini (ed), Archeologia dell’insediamento crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania: la valle di Petra ed il castello di Shawbak, Biblioteca di Archeologia Medievale, 27-55. Firenze. Pecchioli Daddi, F. e Guidotti, M.C. 2002. La battaglia di Qadesh: Ramesse II contro gli Ittiti per la conquista della Siria. Firenze. Riley Smith, J. 1997. Breve storia delle crociate. Milano. Rugiadi, M. 2009. Il palazzo ayyubide a Shawbak, in G.Vannini e M. Nucciotti (eds), Da Petra a Shawbak.. Archeologia di una frontiera. Catalogo della Mostra, (Firenze, Palazzo Pitti, Limonaia di Boboli, 13 luglio-11 ottobre 2009), 120-121. Firenze. Schmid, S.G. 2005. The international Wadi-Farasa project (IWFP) preliminary report on the 2004 season, “Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan”, 49/2005,71-80. Schmid, S.G. 2006. Kreuzritteralltag in Petra. Das Beispiel des Wadi Farasa, in AAVV, Die kreuzzüge. Petra-Eine spurensuche, 45-59. Herausgegeben von der Ritterhausgesellschaft Bubikon. Vannini, G. 1990. Insediamenti di età crociata in Transgiordania, “Liber Annuus”, XL, 476-478. Vannini et alii, G. 1990. Petra crociata, “Archeologia Viva”, IX, n. 11, 34-51. Vannini, G. Vanni Desideri, A. 1995. Archaeological ������������������ research on Medieval Petra: a prelimitary report, “Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan”, XXXIX/1995, 509-540. Vannini, G. e Tonghini, C. 1997. Mediaeval Petra. The stratigraphic evidence from recent archeological excavations at al-Wu’ayra, in Studies in the History and the Archaeology of Jordan VI, 371-384. Amman. Vannini, G. 2005. Il periodo crociato nel Levante, in Il mondo dell’archeologia (‘Enciclopedia Archeologica’ Treccani), Asia, vol. V, 327-336. Roma. Vannini, G. e Nucciotti, M. 2003. Fondazione e riuso dei luoghi forti nella Transgiordania crociata. La messa a punto di un sistema territoriale di controllo della valle di Petra, in R. Fiorillo e P. Peduto (eds) III Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Medievale, 2-5 ottobre 2003,Vol. 1, 520-525. Firenze, All’Insegna del Giglio. Vannini, G. (ed ) 2007. Archeologia dell’insediamento crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania: la valle di Petra ed il castello di Shawbak, Biblioteca di Archeologia Medievale. Firenze. Sergi, G. (ed) 1996. Luoghi di strada nel medioevo. Fra il Po, il mare e le Alpi Occidentali. Torino. Zanini, E. 1994. Introduzione all’archeologia bizantina.

medievali fà di molti di questi castelli delle vere e proprie ‘capitali rurali’; di più: si costituiscono anche veri e propri sistemi territoriali (definibili ‘aree di frontiera’, nel senso delle ‘aree di strada’ proposte da una recente medievistica europea (Sergi 1996) che si reggono sostanzialmente (o almeno significativamente) su basi, anche materiali, locali, ‘producendo’, nel lungo periodo, autonomia di ruoli e processi identitari, anche subregionali, appunto come accaduto nella regione di Shawbak. Più in generale, quanto la regione transgiordana ha rivelato agli archeologi, fornisce un esempio illuminante e fin qui, sotto tale profilo, poco osservato, della densità e complessità del rapporto storico tra Europa e Vicino Oriente da cui emerse, tra il XII e il XIII secolo, il rinnovamento di quel duplice ruolo di un Mediterraneo ‘frontiera/cerniera’, che tuttora ci appartiene; ma anche – tenendo presente quanto di peculiarmente ‘contemporaneo’ insistentemente propone la stessa storia dell’archeologia come disciplina a chi decida di praticarla - evidenziando la responsabilità intensa delle nostre scelte e delle nostre azioni, politiche come culturali, anche individuali ed oltre le intenzioni ‘razionali’ o fattuali, come il caso della – pure, in sé, quanto mai effimera - ‘Signoria di Transgiordania’, nei suoi stessi imprevedibili esiti successivi, sembra suggerirci. BIBLIOGRAFIA Dechamps, P. 1939. Les châteaux des croiseés en Terre Sainte. Paris. Ellenblum, R. 1998. Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 141-2. Cambridge. Faucherre, N. 2004. La forteresse de Shawbak (Crac de Montreal). Une des premieres forteresses franques sous son corset Mamelouk, in N. Faucherre, j. Mesqui, N. Prouteau (eds) , La fortification au temps des Croisades (Actes du colloque Parthenay 2002), 43 – 66. Rennes. Kennedy, H. 1994.Crusader Castles. Cambridge. Hamarneh, B. e Nucciotti, M. 2009. Shawbak e la Transgiordania meridionale in epoca Ayyubide, in G.Vannini e M. Nucciotti (eds), Da Petra a Shawbak.. Archeologia di una frontiera. Catalogo della Mostra, (Firenze, Palazzo Pitti, Limonaia di Boboli, 13 luglio-11 ottobre 2009), 110-115. Firenze. Milwright, M. 2006. Central and Southern Jordan in the Ayyubid Period: Historical and Archaeological Perspectives, «Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society», Series 3, 16, 1, 1-27. United Kingdom. Ligato, G. e Vannini, G. 2009. Fra Petra e Shawbak: la Transgiordania latina (1100-1189), in G.Vannini e M. Nucciotti (eds), Da Petra a Shawbak.. Archeologia di una frontiera. Catalogo della Mostra, (Firenze, Palazzo Pitti, Limonaia di Boboli, 13 luglio-11 ottobre 2009), 88-95.Firenze. Lo Jacono, C. 2003. Storia del mondo islamico (VII – XVI secolo). I. Il Vicino Oriente da Muhammad alla fine del sultanato mamelucco. Torino.

Roma, N.I.S.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean

Figura 1 La Transgiordania crociata: rinascita di una frontiera e il ruolo di Petra

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G. Vannini: Archeologia di una frontiera mediterranea

Figura 2 L’incastellamento di una valle: Petra, chiave della transgiordania crociata - Wu’ayra, la porta di Petra - Shawbak, fulcro del sistema territoriale

Figura 3 Il castello di Li Vaux Moises, Al-Wu’ayra: osservatorio stratigrafico di Petra (foto A. Marx)

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean

Figura 4 Il castello di Shawbak, il Crac de Montréal di Baldovino I re di Gerusalemme: una straordinaria collocazione strategica ed un’eccellente scelta tattica (foto M. Foli)

Figura 5 L’imponente area archeologica del campo legionario di Augustopoli (Udruh) sul limes arabicus a cui doveva fare riferimento l’impianto fortificato antico rinvenuto a Shawbak (Google Earth)

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G. Vannini: Archeologia di una frontiera mediterranea

Figura 6 La chiesa di S. Maria a Shawbak (foto A. Marx)

Figura 7 La cappella ‘templare’ rinvenuta in scavo, riutilizzata come prefurnio nel complesso produttivo mamelucco (foto M. Foli)

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Figura 8 Shawbak. Strutture del palazzo crociato in scavo (foto M. Foli)

Figura 9 Indagini archeosismiche: ricostruzione della porta fortificata CF3 della seconda cerchia di Shawbak ayyubide, dopo il terremoto del 1212 (rilievo fotogramm. P. Drap)

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G. Vannini: Archeologia di una frontiera mediterranea

Figura 10 Shawbak, la rifondazione urbana ayyubide: asse generatore urbanistico della nuova città (foto M. Foli)

Figura 11 Shawbak, da castello a ‘città’: la zonizzazione (borgo/opificio, asse urbanistico, area pubblica, area palaziale crociato-ayyubide)

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Figura 12 Shawbak, nuova capitale della Giordania del sud. Sala delle udienze del ‘Palazzo Ayyubide’ (1208 ca): continuità e innovazione di un potere territoriale (foto M. Foli)

Figura 13 Shawbak, l’impianto ‘industriale’ tessile di età mamelucca (fine sec. XIII-XIV) rinvenuto in scavo (foto M. Foli)

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Figura 14 Shawbak, strutture militari mamelucche: le epigrafi, rivolte verso il territorio amministrato

Figura 15 La Transgiordania in età crociato-ayyubide e le sue ‘frontiere’ (Google Earth)

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Figura 16 Shawbak: cittadella e resti del tessuto urbano esterno, le radici del presente (foto Jim Korpy)

Figura 17 Banconota da 5 dinari del 2002 che raffigura il primo re Hashemita di Giordania (Abdallah I) e il palazzo reale di Ma’an

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

LE FRONTIERE ORIENTALI DELL’IMPERO ROMANO E LE TRIBÙ ARABE Ariel S. Lewin

Abstract (2008) The eastern borders of the Roman Empire and the Arab tribes The meaning of the Roman province of Arabia met interesting changes during the period between the conquest of the Nabatean territory by the Emperor Trajan and its loss due to the Arab offensive in the 7th century. A number of documents shows how the empire ran the control of these lands that were part of the Fertil Crescent. There are reasons to believe that during the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd century the Arab populations living within the province, but also beyond the territories controlled by the Romans, constituted a threat of some weight on the provincial territories. A significant change is produced, instead, with the rise to power in Persia of the Sassanian dinasty that displayed an extremely threatening enemy on the stage of East. It was probably precisely because of the rise of this new power that the Arab population role in the peninsula changed considerably. This situation gave arise to a number of complex relationships, made by conflict, but also by forging alliances between Rome and Arab populations. All this puts the basis for the Christianization of various tribes following one after the other as allies of Rome and contributing to the creation of a fascinating civilization at the borders of the empire. The most important role was played by the Ghassanidis or Jafnidis.

Il significato dell’impegno romano nella provincia di Arabia andò incontro ad interessanti mutamenti nel periodo compreso fra la conquista del territorio dei Nabatei all’epoca dell’imperatore Traiano e la sua perdita dovuta alla offensiva araba nel VII secolo. Una serie di documenti rivela le modalità attraverso cui l’impero gestì il controllo di queste terre che facevano parte dell’arco della Mezzaluna fertile. Non vi sono motivi per ritenere che nel corso del II secolo e all’inizio del III le popolazioni arabe che vivevano all’interno della provincia, ma anche al di là dei territori controllati dai Romani, abbiano costituito una minaccia di qualche peso all’ordine provinciale. Un mutamento significativo si produsse, invece, con l’ascesa al potere in Persia della dinastia dei Sassanidi che presentò sulla scena dell’Oriente un nemico estremamente minaccioso. Fu verosimilmente proprio a causa dell’apparire di questo nuovo potere che anche il ruolo delle popolazioni arabe nella penisola mutò considerevolmente. Ne derivò il sorgere di una serie di rapporti complessi, formato da conflitti, ma anche dal forgiarsi di alleanze fra Roma e le popolazioni arabe. Ciò fondò i presupposti per la cristianizzazione di varie tribù che si susseguirono nel ruolo di alleati di Roma e che contribuirono alla creazione di un’affascinante civiltà ai bordi dell’impero. Il ruolo più importante fu rivestito dai Ghassanidi o Jafnidi. La provincia di Arabia venne formata in seguito all’annessione, avvenuta nel 106 d.C., del regno alleato dei Nabatei. I Romani vennero così a prendere il possesso diretto di un territorio assai ampio che comprendeva, oltre che il cuore del regno e cioè il settore vicino a Petra, anche il Negev, il nord della Giordania intorno all’altra polarità emergente, la città di Bostra, e la Giordania centrale. Vari motivi inducono a ritenere che la nuova provincia dovesse estendersi anche a sud fino alla città di Hegra – Meda in Salih (Negev 1977, 520-686; Sartre 1982, 17-75; Bowersock 1983, 76-109). Hegra aveva fatto parte del dominio nabateo ed era stata una città che nel corso del I secolo d.C. si era adornata di una serie di costruzioni monumentali che richiamano subito alla mente il prestigioso apparato architettonico di

Petra (Healey 1993). Pare impossibile ritenere che i Romani all’epoca di una politica improntata ad un potente slancio imperialista si fossero limitati ad assumere il controllo solo di una parte del regno escludendone la sezione meridionale. Inoltre occorre ricordare che il commercio via terra dell’incenso proveniente dalla Arabia Felix non era venuto meno in seguito al grande sviluppo del commercio marittimo promosso da Augusto. Di conseguenza i Romani sentirono l’esigenza di prendere possesso delle località più vicine alla fonte del prodotto. Plinio il vecchio ricordava come ai suoi tempi il prezzo dell’incenso dallo Yemen fino al porto di Gaza aumentasse enormemente a causa dei pedaggi che dovevano essere pagati in varie stazioni, controllate in ordine di marcia prima da varie popolazioni arabe e poi dagli stessi Nabatei (Plin. NH XII, 32,63). La temperie imperialista non si esaurì dopo l’età traianea: una interessantissima iscrizione latina è stata rinvenuta nelle remote isole Farasan, un arcipelago situato leggermente a nord del confine fra l’Arabia Saudita e lo Yemen. Si tratta di una dedica all’imperatore Antonino Pio, da datarsi al 144 d.C., che mostra come in quelle isole fosse stazionato in quel tempo un distaccamento della legio II Traiana, la cui base madre si trovava in Egitto, a cui era preposto un praefectus portus Ferresani. È lecito ritenere pertanto che questa occupazione dell’arcipelago fosse dettata dall’interesse per il controllo commerciale che doveva essere protetto dagli attacchi dei pirati del Mar Rosso. In effetti il retore Elio Aristide accenna in una sua celebre opera, l’eis Romen, composta proprio nei medesimi anni, a dei problemi causati dalla follia delle popolazioni che abitavano le rive del Mar Rosso, ma anche all’estensione del controllo dei commerci in queste terre da parte dei Romani. Pare, dunque, lecito concludere che l’iscrizione ed il testo di Elio Aristide si integrino bene in un contesto di una felice attività militare e di una più radicata occupazione del settore. Il praefectus del portus Ferresanus doveva essere anche preposto all’esazione delle tasse derivanti dal commercio (Villeneuve, Philipps, Facey 2004, 143-192; 229-232; Villeneuve 2007, 13-27). Per quanto riguarda il controllo dell’entroterra nell’Hedjaz, 49

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean particolarmente avvertito in quelle zone marginali ove la conformazione stessa del territorio e la presenza di popolazioni seminomadi creavano i presupposti per il nascere di frizioni. Il banditismo ed i seminomadi erano comunque elementi presenti sia all’interno della provincia che al di là di essa. Di conseguenza è del tutto erroneo ritenere che i Romani avessero approntato un sistema fortificato atto a respingere gli attacchi delle popolazioni del deserto (Isaac 1990, Graf 1989, 341-400). È lecito ritenere che le varie tribù avvertissero il peso della presenza romana e che gli episodi conflittuali si dovessero generalmente ricomporre nel quadro più generale di un controllo esercitato da parte dell’esercito imperiale. All’interno della provincia dall’età traianea in poi i quadri dirigenti locali e la popolazione nel suo insieme si vennero ad integrare con il sistema politico e culturale dell’impero, ferma restando la problematica riducibilità di alcuni elementi marginali. Nel complesso, tuttavia, si riuscì ad attrarre un numero importante di nomadi vuoi favorendone la sedentarizzazione grazie all’espansione degli insediamenti e allo sviluppo dell’agricoltura vuoi con l’arruolamento nelle unità militari, fossero esse quelle regolari o, come nel caso visto nell’iscrizione di Ruwwafa, di corpi speciali (Sartre 1982; Macadam 1986; Graf 1994, 265311). In generale va detto che può avere un senso la valutazione proposta da vari studiosi secondo cui la presenza militare romana non fosse dettata essenzialmente da preoccupazioni difensive. Almeno per quanto riguarda alcune aree specifiche dovremmo allora prendere in considerazione il fatto che il ruolo dei militari avesse a che fare con lo sfruttamento ed il controllo del territorio (Isaac 1990). La provincia di Arabia, dunque, era venuta a costituire un tassello di grandissima importanza nello scenario del vicino Oriente. Essa deteneva, infatti, una posizione privilegiata per il controllo dei commerci, con il porto di Aela (Aqaba) sul Mar Rosso, la pista carovaniera che raggiungendo Hegra si snodava attraverso Tabuk fino a Petra, l’asse del wadi Sirhan che raccordava la provincia con l’oasi di Jawf. Accanto alla variegata Giudea che non aveva uno sbocco ai confini dell’impero essa rappresentava il complemento alla grande provincia di Siria per il controllo delle zone in cui era possibile la pratica dell’agricoltura fino ai territori aridi della steppa dall’Eufrate al Mar Rosso. L’ulteriore tappa dell’imperialismo romano fu rappresentata dalla fine del II secolo dalla occupazione di ampi territori oltre il fiume Eufrate, con la creazione di due nuove provincie, la Osrhoene e la Mesopotamia. Questa euforia espansionista ebbe però vita breve dal momento che l’avvento al trono di Persia nei primi decenni del III secolo della bellicosa dinastia dei Sassanidi creò le condizioni per la nascita di un nemico potente che per secoli avrebbe tenuto in apprensione l’impero romano. Il III secolo fu un periodo di autentica crisi dell’impero romano in cui il governo centrale non fu in grado di organizzarsi in modo solido per custodire intatte le frontiere e le provincie dalle penetrazioni nemiche. Ne seguirono un’insicurezza più o meno generalizzata ed un marcato decadimento economico.

è di grande rilievo un celebre testo epigrafico bilingue, in greco ed in nabateo, rinvenuto a Ruwwafa, datato all’epoca di Marco Aurelio e di Lucio Vero. In questo testo insieme a dei Thamudeni, forse appartenenti ad una unità militare al servizio dell’impero, sono menzionati due governatori romani che ebbero parte nella costruzione di un tempio dedicato agli imperatori. Il carattere di tale attività e la presenza stessa dei governatori romani rendono chiaro che il sito in questione faceva parte della provincia di Arabia (Bowersock 1975, 513-522; Macdonald 1995, 93-101). Sono anche note varie iscrizioni rinvenute ad Hegra in cui viene menzionata la presenza in quel sito di unità militari romane, il che rappresenterebbe una conferma dell’ipotesi che i Romani avessero preso sotto il loro controllo e quindi provincializzato anche il settore più meridionale del regno nabateo (Bowsher 1986, 23-29). Una prova decisiva in tal senso giunge ora da una nuova iscrizione latina scoperta nella stessa Hegra che deve essere datata al regno di Marco Aurelio fra il 175 ed il 177. Nel testo viene ricordato che la civitas Hegrenorum ricostruì a proprie spese una struttura, verosimilmente il vallum della città, che col tempo era andato in rovina. Viene anche detto che la costruzione avvenne all’epoca del governatorato di Iulius Firmanus e che ebbero un ruolo nei lavori due centurioni della legio III Cyrenaica mentre la supervisione fu svolta da un notabile della città, Amrus (al-Takhi, al-Dire 2005, 205-217). Per un caso fortunato conosciamo con precisione quale fosse l’impegno militare che i Romani avevano deciso di assumere nella provincia di Arabia nel II secolo. Un documento ufficiale datato all’epoca di Antonino Pio, più precisamente al 145, ci fa sapere che nella provincia oltre alla legione III Cyrenaica erano stanziate due alae e sette cohortes. Avremmo così un totale di circa diecimila uomini, la metà dei quali o poco più legionari. Il 20 % degli uomini erano cavalieri (Weiss, Speidel 2004, 253-264; Lewin 2008, 12; 16). La legione III Cyrenaica fu stanziata a Bostra che ben presto assurse al ruolo di capitale della provincia soppiantando Petra. Il campo legionario è stato identificato e nuove ricerche condotte dagli studiosi francesi sono in corso. Dobbiamo comunque ritenere che solo una parte di questa unità rimase nel campo base; la presenza di vari distaccamenti della legio III Cyrenaica è attestata, oltre come abbiamo visto ad Hegra, a Humayma, ad Umm el-Quttain nella Giordania settentrionale e forse anche ad Azraq all’imbocco del wadi Sirhan (Kennedy 2000). La provincia era stata organizzata avendo come suo perno un asse stradale la via nova Traiana lungo la quale erano stati costruiti vari forti miliari. Tuttavia non dobbiamo assolutamente ritenere che questo fosse un limes fortificato: si trattava, infatti, solo di un’arteria che serviva al transito militare e alla circolazione commerciale. C’erano postazioni militari ed anche villaggi situati ben al di là di questa strada e d’altro canto non esistono nemmeno i più lontani presupposti per farci pensare che esistesse un nemico attivo oltre i confini provinciali capace di incutere un serio timore. È invece vero che i problemi per l’autorità romana derivavano dal controllo del banditismo, un elemento peraltro presente ovunque nell’impero romano, ma 50

A. S. Lewin: Le frontiere orientali dell’Impero Romano e le tribù arabe i Saraceni, un nome col quale ormai dal III secolo gli Arabi sono comunemente designati. In questa ottica la disposizione degli eserciti plasmata da Diocleziano e dai suoi colleghi acquisisce un senso: egli riorganizzò la strada, già valorizzata nel I secolo dagli imperatori flavi, che da Sura sull’Eufrate conduceva a Palmira. In quest’ultima città fu installata una legione, la I Illyricorum. Dove invece l’attività di Diocleziano risultò innovativa fu nella realizzazione a sud del Jebel Rawaq di un nuovo asse lungo il quale erano scaglionate una serie di strutture militari di numero e di dimensioni comunque modeste. Si trattava della cosiddetta “Strata Diocletiana”, un nome questo che compare in alcuni miliari che sono stati rinvenuti lungo il percorso (Lewin 1990, 141-165; Lewin 2002, 91-101; Lewin 2008). I soldati dovevano vivere qui in condizioni estremamente proibitive dal momento che, a differenza di quanto verificato dagli studiosi lungo il tratto fra Sura e Palmira, non sorsero dei vici popolati da civili accanto ai fortini. Non c’è traccia del fatto che l’agricoltura fu praticata in questo settore, né i fortini sono intervallati da strutture minori. Il tutto orienta, dunque, a ritenere che si sia trattato di un allestimento dal carattere straordinario, forse in qualche modo eccessivo (Bauzou 1989, 219; Bauzou 2000, 87-88). Nelle terre di Giordania possiamo apprezzare particolarmente bene i tratti dell’attività di Diocleziano. Nel nord est fu rivitalizzata la presenza militare allo sbocco del wadi Sirhan, con la rioccupazione del forte di Azraq e di Umm al-Quttain, oltre che di altre strutture minori. La documentazione epigrafica rivela la portata dell’intervento di questo imperatore. Sono state rinvenute iscrizioni monumentali che ricordano la costruzione di forti a Deir el Kahf nel nord est della Giordania, a Qasr Bshir nell’Arabia centrale e ora ad Udruh più a sud nella zona di Petra. A questi testi occorre con ogni probabilità aggiungerne almeno un altro da Umm al-Rasas. L’occupazione militare di questi siti che si trovano oltre la via nova Traiana in direzione del deserto avvenne verso la fine della Tetrarchia, intorno al 300 d.C. Un elemento interessante della riconfigurazione della presenza militare in Giordania è rappresentato, come penso di avere dimostrato in una pubblicazione di qualche anno fa, dall’attivazione di un asse militare che legava Umm al-Rasas con Qasr el-Thuraya fino alla discesa nel wadi Mujib, per proseguire più a sud a Qasr Bshir e all’accampamento legionario di Lejjun (Bethorus) (Lewin 2001, 293-304). Nel complesso guardando alla organizzazione amministrativa civile e militare messa in cantiere da Diocleziano notiamo una serie di distretti militari, quasi sempre coincidenti geograficamente con le province, che da nord a sud erano dotati ciascuno di due legioni, oltre che di numerose unità ausiliarie. È fondamentale notare che intorno al 300 il Negev e la parte meridionale della Giordania che precedentemente avevano fatto parte della provincia di Arabia furono trasferiti nella Palaestina (Tsafrir 1986, 77-86; Sipilä 2004, 317-348; Sipilä 2007, 209). Fu così che in Arabia si vennero a trovare due legioni, la III Cyrenaica a Bostra, e la IV Martia a Lejjun (Bethorus), mentre la

Anche la provincia di Arabia non fu risparmiata da questa vera e propria crisi. Abbiamo, infatti, prove piuttosto evidenti del fatto che la sua economia fu sconvolta: l’indagine archeologica ha rilevato che la cosiddetta via delle spezie fra Petra ed il Mediterraneo fu abbandonata e che nella stessa città venne meno la produzione di manufatti atti a contenere oli lavorati (Lewin 2007, 252-254). L’ambito della conflittualità romano persiana si allargò a dismisura coinvolgendo le tribù arabe che divennero pedine importanti nello scacchiere del vicino oriente. I Sassanidi, almeno dagli anni sessanta del III secolo, si valsero dell’appoggio della potente tribù dei Tanukh che entrò in rotta di collisione con il mondo romano, anche se pare probabile che questa tribù almeno in qualche tempo oscillò verso un accordo coi Romani. Una valutazione degli eventi è resa più complicata dal fatto che per un breve tempo la crisi dell’impero favorì l’emergere di un potere in qualche verso alternativo: si trattò dell’usurpazione della città di Palmira guidata dalla regina Zenobia. (270-272). Palmira era una città che apparteneva a pieno titolo all’impero romano e che si era arricchita enormemente con il controllo dei commerci e con l’organizzazione di carovane. Le ramificazioni di questa autentica potenza commerciale del medio Oriente giungevano fino all’Egitto ed al Golfo Persico. Con un potente esercito, dunque, i Palmireni sbaragliarono le forze militari romane e Zenobia prese il controllo del vicino Oriente fino a quando l’imperatore Aureliano la sconfisse ripristinando la piena autorità del governo legittimo. La tradizione rivendica un ruolo di rilievo ad un re dei Tanukh, Jadima, che sarebbe entrato in conflitto coi Palmireni e che sarebbe stato ucciso da Zenobia. Sarebbe toccato poi ad un altro capo arabo, Amru, vendicare Jadima che era suo zio. Amru, infatti, avrebbe in qualche modo contribuito alla rovina della regina di Palmira (Bowersock 1975, 132-136). Ora occorre mettere in luce che una serie di documenti svela che Amru era il sovrano dei Lakhmidi, una confederazione che come vedremo continuò per secoli a costituire l’alleato arabo fondamentale dei Sassanidi. Sappiamo poco di questo personaggio, ma è quasi certo che egli rimase in sella per almeno un quarto di secolo (Lewin 2007, 244-246). L’imperatore Diocleziano nel suo lungo regno (284-305) intraprese una formidabile opera di riorganizzazione dell’apparato militare romano dotando il vicino oriente di una serie di strade militari e di fortezze che ridonarono all’impero un senso di solidità. Gli archeologi hanno notato i tratti caratteristici delle tipologie di questi forti: essi erano molto robusti, con mura assai spesse ed erano dotati di torri in forte aggetto esterno atte ad essere proficuamente utilizzate dall’artiglieria (Lander 1984, 168-193; Parker 1986; Parker 2006; Reddé 1995, 91-124; Gregory 19951997; Kennedy 2000). L’epoca di Diocleziano vide un ripresentarsi di una situazione di grande conflitto con i Persiani che sfociò in due epocali battaglie nel 297. Le fonti ricordano anche delle preoccupazioni date al mondo romano dalle tribù arabe che sconvolgevano le frontiere dall’Eufrate al Mar Rosso. Diocleziano è accreditato di un successo importante contro 51

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Palaestina ebbe di stanza la VI Ferrata ad Udruh e la X Fretensis ad Aela sul Mar Rosso (Kennedy, Falahat 2008, 150-169). La storia dei rapporti fra i Romani e le popolazioni arabe che vivevano al di là dell’impero dovette essere improntata a guerra e diplomazia allo stesso tempo. Di interesse straordinario è la figura di un capo arabo, Imrul’qais la cui iscrizione funeraria datata al 328 è stata rinvenuta a Nemara ai bordi della steppa in Siria. Il testo in arabo, ma scritto in caratteri nabatei, rivela il raggio di attività e del potere acquisito da questo personaggio (Lewin 2007, 245). Per la prima volta sappiamo in modo esplicito che anche i Romani impiegarono le tribù arabe in funzione antipersiana da un panegirico indirizzato all’imperatore Costanzo II, elogiato per esser riuscito a trasformare nel 338 delle tribù arabe da ostili a Roma ad alleate contro il tradizionale nemico. Tuttavia, vi sono validi motivi per ritenere che questa non fosse stata la prima volta che i Romani forgiavano tali alleanze con le tribù arabe allo scopo anche di rivolgerle contro l’altra superpotenza dell’epoca (Lewin 2007, 245-246). Il grande storico Ammiano Marcellino che scrisse le sue res gestae al limite estremo del IV secolo in un suo excursus geografico dedicato alle provincie del vicino oriente ricorda una caratteristica del tutto particolare della provincia di Arabia: lo scrittore afferma, infatti, che questa era ricca per varietà di commerci, piena di salde fortezze e castelli costruiti dagli antichi su rilievi adatti e sicuri per respingere gli attacchi delle popolazioni vicine. La provincia aveva città grandi come Bostra, Gerasa e Filadelfia protette da mura assai robuste. Questa descrizione, a mio avviso, rispecchia bene il carattere aspro e militarizzato di queste terre ove sorgevano forti e torri di guardia situati in un’ambientazione suggestiva. Basti pensare a Qasr Aseikhin nel nord della Giordania, o alle strutture che vennero costruite oltre il Djebel Druz o ancora ai forti che presidiavano il desolato wadi Mujib. Ammiano Marcellino era un alto ufficiale dell’esercito e doveva avere ben chiara la peculiarità di questi paesaggi (Amm. XIV, 8, 13; Lewin 2008, 155-173). Nell’anno 377 un’importante rivolta di una potente tribù araba guidata a una donna, la regina Mavia, causò serissimi problemi ai Romani; un esercito imperiale fu, infatti, quasi sgominato in battaglia e significativamente le nostre fonti enfatizzano il carattere di estrema gravità dell’evento. La pace fu siglata nell’arco di pochi mesi e la figlia di Mavia andò in sposa al potentissimo generale Victor, un uomo secondo d’importanza al solo imperatore. Si trattò sicuramente di un matrimonio diplomatico e ne consegue che l’alleanza con questa grossa tribù era fondamentale per i Romani. La trama che la diplomazia romana cercava di tessere era dunque, similmente a ciò che accadeva con le popolazioni germaniche, quella di forgiare un sistema di alleanze privilegiando il rapporto con capitribù che avrebbero tratto giovamento da una ridefinizione del loro ruolo grazie appunto all’appoggio e ai doni dei Romani (Lewin 2007, 246-250). Nel corso del V secolo la presenza militare romana lungo l’arco fra l’Eufrate ed il Mar Rosso ebbe una visibile fles-

sione. In particolare per quanto riguarda i siti ai margine del deserto nella Giordania centrale è stata osservata l’assenza di ceramica del V secolo e possiamo ritenere dunque che vari forti furono abbandonati. Dietro questo fenomeno vi furono due motivi fondamentali: in primo luogo vi fu la quasi totale cessazione del conflitto romano persiano che attenuò di molto la possibilità che grosse coalizioni arabe potessero essere impiegate per attaccare le province romane; dobbiamo poi ritenere che gli imperatori abbiano privilegiato l’utilizzazione di arabi alleati per compiti di polizia alle frontiere in modo da poter anche risparmiare sulle alte spese necessarie per il mantenimento delle strutture militari e dei soldati stessi (Fisher 2004, 49-60). La rinascita del conflitto romano persiano all’epoca dell’imperatore Anastasio è troppo strettamente connessa con vari noti episodi di attacchi di confederazioni arabe contro il territorio romano per essere casuale. Nell’ambito di una situazione siffatta emerse alla fine la potente tribù dei Ghassanidi che eliminò altri concorrenti al ruolo di alleati privilegiati dei Romani. Essi ebbero un elemento di spicco nel re Arethas che nel 529 o 530 fu infine insignito da Giustiniano del titolo di filarco in capo di tutti gli Arabi alleati. Il motivo di questa decisione fu, secondo lo storico Procopio, quello di inalzare Arethas ad una posizione di particolare rilievo per poterlo così contrapporre al formidabile re dei Lakhmidi Al Mundhir che si era reso autore di ripetute devastazioni nelle provincie romane (Sartre 1982, cit., 153 segg.; Shahid 1995, 3-130; Robin 1996, 665-714; Whittow 1999, 207-224). Procopio esprime forti riserve sul fatto che Arethas avesse conseguito dei buoni risultati, ma probabilmente la sua visione negativa è eccessiva. È da notare invece che, contrariamente a quanto detto da molti studiosi, l’elevazione di Arethas al rango di filarco in capo non comportò che la difesa delle frontiere fosse ormai affidata nella quasi totalità agli alleati arabi. Al contrario, un esame attento della documentazione mostra che alla fine degli anni ’20 del VI secolo Giustiniano cercò parallelamente di rafforzare la presenza militare in vari settori di confine del vicino oriente promuovendo anche l’urbanizzazione di alcuni centri importanti. Viceversa la Strata Diocletiana che era stata abbandonata nel corso del V secolo non venne mai rioccupata dall’esercito romano e rimase quello che era per vocazione, una zona deserta attraversata solo dai greggi dei beduini (Lewin 2008, 109153). Una crepa nel disegno giustinianeo e in generale nella compagine imperiale si verificò con il devastante attacco di Cosroe nel 540 e con la successiva sconvolgente epidemia di peste. È quasi certo che l’esercito nel vicino Oriente risentì di questa situazione fortemente negativa. La flessione nella presenza militare ai bordi del deserto dovette essere netta e questa volta senza ritorno. Ciò non vuole dire però che siamo autorizzati ad accogliere in pieno l’affermazione di Procopio negli Anekdota secondo cui Giustiniano avrebbe sciolto il corpo dei limitanei, i soldati di frontiera. Vi sono infatti tracce del fatto che alcune località in Giordania fossero ancora occupate da soldati, come evidenziato dai papiri di Petra per quan52

A. S. Lewin: Le frontiere orientali dell’Impero Romano e le tribù arabe Bowersock, G.W. 1975. The Greek Nabataean Inscription at Ruwwafa, Saudi Arabia. Le monde grec: Hommages à Claire Preaux, 513-522. Brussels. Bowersock, G.W. 1983. Roman Arabia. Cambridge, Mass. Bowsher, J. 1986. The Frontier Post of Medain Saleh, in Ph. Freeman and D. Kennedy (eds.), The Defence of the Roman and Byzantine East, 23-29. Oxford. Fiema, Z.T. 2002. The Military Presence in the Countryside of Petra in the 6th Century. Limes XVIII. Proceedings the XVIIIth International Congress of Roman Studies, 131136. Oxford. Fiema, Z.T. 2007. The Byzantine Military in the Petra Papyri. A Summary, in A.S. Lewin and P. Pellegrini, (eds.), The Late Roman Army in the Near East from Diocletian tothe Arab Conquest, 313-319. Fisher, G. 2004. A New Perspective on Rome’s Desert Frontier. BASOR 336, 49-60. Genequand, D. 2006. Some Thoughts on Qasr-al-Hayr alGharbi, its Dam, its Monastery and the Ghassanids. Levant 38, 78-79. Graf, D.F. 1989. Rome and the Saracens: Reassessing the Nomadic Menace. In Th. Fahd Leiden (ed.), L’Arabie préislamique et son environnement historique et culturelle, 341-400. Gregory, Sh. 1995-1997. Roman Military Architecture on the Eastern Frontier. Amsterdam. Hamarneh, B. 2003. Topografia cristiana ed insediamenti rurali nel territorio dell’odierna Giordania nelle epoche bizantina ed islamica V-IX secolo. Città del Vaticano. Healey, J.F. 1993. The Nabataean Tomb Inscriptions of Mada’ in Salih. Isaac, B. 1990. The Limits of the Empire. The Roman Army in the East. Oxford. Lander, J. 1984. Roman Stone Fortifications. Variations and Change from the First Century A.D. to the Fourth, 168-193. Oxford. Lander, J. 2006. The Roman Frontier in Central Jordan. Final Report on the Limes Arabicus Project1980-1989. Washington. Lewin, A.S. 1990. Dall’Eufrate al Mar Rosso: Diocleziano, l’esercito e i confini tardo-antichi, Athenaeum 78, 141-165. Lewin, A. S. 2001. Kastron Mefaa, the equites promoti indigenae and the Creation of a Late Roman Frontier. LA 51, 293-304. Lewin, A.S. 2002. Diocletian: Politics and limites in the Near East. Limes XVIII. Proceedings the XVIIIth International Congress of Roman Studies, 91-101. Oxford. Lewin, A.S. 2007. ‘Amr Ibn Adi, Mavia, the Phylarchs and the Late Roman Army: Peace and War in the Near East, in A.S. Lewin and P. Pellegrini (eds.), The Late Roman Army in the Near East from Diocletian to the Arab Conquest, 244-246. Lewin, A.S. 2007. Da Mada in Salih alle isole Farasan, ovvero Roma nell’Hijaz e nel Mar Rosso. Appunti di storia polico-economica, in P. Desideri, M. Moggi e M. Pani (eds.), Antidoron. Studi in onore di Barbara Scardigli Forster, 252-254. Pisa. Lewin, A.S. 2007. The Impact of the Late Roman Army, in L. de Blois and E. Lo Cascio, (eds.), Palaestina and Arabia.

to riguarda siti come Zadacathon ed Admatha. Allo stesso tempo bisogna ricordare che le fonti segnalano la presenza di un esercito a Bostra ancora verso la fine del secolo ed ugualmente la ricerca archeologica ha notato tracce di continuità nell’occupazione dei forti fra Sura e Palmira (Fiema 2009, 131-136; Fiema 2007, 313-319; Konrad 2000, Ioh. Eph. Hist. Ecclesiastica, 177). A dispetto del pessimismo di Procopio, Arethas riuscì ad ottenere una prestigiosa vittoria contro i Lakhmidi nel 554. Egli vinse, infatti, in battaglia Al Mundhir e lo uccise. Tuttavia anche uno dei figli di Arethas morì in seguito alle ferite e fu sepolto in un martyrion (Michael Syr. Chron. II, 269). Ciò ci introduce necessariamente ad un altro grande tema, quello della cristianizzazione dei Ghassanidi, che, tuttavia come è noto, aderirono al monofisitismo, causando così le apprensioni degli imperatori custodi dell’ortodossia (Shahid 1995). A Resafa in una bella iscrizione nell’abside di un palazzo o chiesa situato fuori dalle mura cittadina è posta un’iscrizione in cui viene acclamato il figlio di Arethas, Al Mundhir – da non confondersi con l’omonimo re lakhmide. Questo Al Mundhir, era succeduto al padre nel 569. L’iscrizione attesta la comune devozione verso San Sergio, il santo che aveva a Resafa il principale luogo di culto, da parte della popolazione locale e dei Ghassanidi (Key Fowden 1999; Genequand 2006, 78-79). La presenza dei Ghassanidi è testimoniata con estrema chiarezza anche nella Giordania centrale, a Nitl, un luogo che probabilmente era stato occupato da un forte romano all’epoca di Diocleziano, ma che forse era stato abbandonato anch’esso nel V secolo. La chiesa di San Sergio fu dotata all’epoca della sua costruzione alla metà del VI secolo di un mosaico in cui erano incorporati dei medaglioni con iscrizioni. Due di queste menzionano personaggi della casata ghassanide, uno dei quali fu sepolto nella cripta della stessa chiesa. Furono i Ghassanidi dunque e non l’esercito romano a rivitalizzare Nitl e verosimilmente anche la vicinissima Umm al-Rasas ove all’interno del forte dioclezianeo abbandonato nel V secolo sorse ora un villaggio adorno di chiese che si espanse poi al di là delle mura (Piccirillo 2001, 267-284; Shahid 2001, 285-292; Hamarneh 2003; Lewin 2007, 474480). Le contingenze storiche avevano così creato i presupposti per un focolare di civiltà e di consistenza pacifica che si sviluppò ai bordi del deserto, a riprova del fatto che le frontiere non testimoniano solo di conflitti, ma anche di processi di arricchimento culturale ed umano. BIBLIOGRAFIA Bauzou, Th. 1989. Les routes romaines de Syrie, in J.M. Dentzer and W. Orthmann (eds.), Archéologie et histoire de la Syrie II, 219. Saarbrücken. Bauzou, Th. 2000. La “Strata Diocletiana”, in L. Nordiguian and J.F Salles (eds.), Aux origines de l’archéologie aérienne. A. Poidebard (1875-1955), 87-88. Beyrouth. 53

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Shahid, I. 1995. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, I, 2. Washington. Shahid, I. 2001. The Sixth century Complex at Nitl, Jordan. The Ghassanid Dimension. Liber Annus 51, 285-292. Sipilä, J. 2004. Roman Arabia and the Provincial Reorganisations of the Fourth century. Mediterraneo Antico 7,317-348. Sipilä, J. 2007. Fluctuating Provincial Boundaries in Mid4th Century Arabia and Palestine, in A.S Lewin and P. Pellegrini (eds.), The Late Roman Army in the Near East from Diocletian to the Arab Conquest 209 L’-Takhi, D. and al-Dire, M. 2005. Roman Presence in the Desert: A New Inscription from Hegra. Chiron 35, 205217. Tsafrir, Y. 1986. The Transfer of Negev, Sinai and Souther Transjordan from Arabia to Palaestina. Israel Exploration Journal 36, 77-86. Villeneuve, F. 2007. L’armée romaine en Mer Rouge et autour de la Mer Rouge aux IIème siècles apr. J.-C.: à propos de deux inscriptions latines découvertes sur l’archipel Farasan. The Late Roman Army in the Near East from Diocletian to the Arab Conquest, 13-27. Oxford. Villeneuve, F. , Philipps, C., Facey, W. 2004. Une inscription latine de l’archipel Farasân (sud de la mer Rouge) et son conteste archéologique et historique. Arabia 2. Weiss, P., Speidel, M.P. 2004. Das erste Militädiplome fur Arabie. ZPE 150, 253-264. Whittow, M. 1999. Rome and the Jafnids: Writing the History of a Sixth Century Tribal Dinasty. In Humphrey, J.H. (ed.), The Roman and Byzantine East II, R.I., 207224. Portsmouth.

The Impact of the Roman Army, 474-480 .Amsterdam. Lewin, A.S. 2008. Popoli terre frontiere dell’impero romano. Il vicino Oriente nella tarda antichità I: il problema militare. Catania Kennedy, D. 2000. The Roman Army in Jordan. Amman. Kennedy, D.L., Falahat, H. 2008. Castra legionis VI Ferratae: a Building Inscription from the Legionary Fortress at Udruh near Petra. Journal of Roman Archaeology 21, 150-169. Key Fowden, E. 1999. The Barbarian Plain. St. Sergius between Rome and Iran. Princeton M. Konrad, M. 2000. Der spätrömische Limes in Syrien. Archaeologische Untersuchungen an der Grenzkastellen von Sura, Tetrapyrgium, Cholle und Resafa. Mainz. Macadam, H.I. 1986. Studies in the History of the Roman Province of Arabia. Oxford. Macdonald, M.C.A. 1995. Les Saracènes, l’inscription de Ruwwafa et l’armée romaine. In Présence arabe dans le Croissant fertile avant l’Hégire. Paris. Negev, A. 1977. The Nabataeans and the provincia Arabia. ANRW II.8 (1977), 520-686. Parker, S.T. 1986. Roman and Saracens. Winona Lake Parker S.T., 2006. The Roman Frontier in Central Jordan. Final Report on the Limes Arabicus Project 1980-1989. Washington D.C. Piccirillo, M. 2001. The Church of Saint Sergius at Nitl. A Centre of the Christian Arabs in the Steppe at the Gates of Madab. LA 51, 267-284. Reddé, M. 1995. Diocletien et les fortifications militaries de l’antiquité tardive, quelques considerations de method. AnTard 3, 91-124. Robin, Ch. 1996. Le royaume Hujride, dit “Royaume de Kinda” entre Himyar et Byzance. CRAI, 665-714. Sartre, M. 1982. Trois études sur l’Arabie romaine et byzantine. Bruxelles.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

ROMANS, GHASSANIDS AND UMAYYADS AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE LIMES ARABICUS: FROM COERCIVE AND DETERRENT DIPLOMACY TOWARDS RELIGIOUS PROSELYTISM AND POLITICAL CLIENTELARISM Ignacio Arce. Director, Spanish Archaeological Mission to Jordan. Heritage for Development Programme (AECID), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation; Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute (IPCE), Ministry of Culture. Abstract (2008) Romans, Ghassanids and Umayyads and the transformation of the Limes Arabicus: from coerciveand deterrent diplomacy towards religious proselytism and political clientelarism. The lands of Trans-Jordan have been throughout History a border area, a frontier in different political, social and cultural aspects, between mighty empires, and different cultures. Furthermore, in the case of the final phases of the existence of the Limes Arabicus (the border between Rome and Persia spanning from the Eufrates to Aqaba), we are dealing not only with a frontier in geographical and political terms, but also in academic terms. As a result of this, the study of such an essential transitional period in this key region has been neglected in the preceding archaeological and historical studies (with some outstanding exceptions, like the work of fr. Michele Piccirillo, Prof. Svend Helms and Prof. Irfan Shahid to whom this article is dedicated, and whosework has illuminated our interpretation of the material evidence analyzed): Thus classical archaeologist have not taken sufficiently into account the Ghassanid period because considered as part of a barbarian take over of the control of the Empire, even if carried out by Christianised Arabs; similarly, Islamic archaeologists have considered this period as the final decadence decades of Late Antique in Oriens before the advent of Islam, and consequently it has been also neglected, considered as an “spurious” period. This negative consideration and the consequent neglecting attitude derived from it, has deprived historical analysis from one of the key elements to understand the transition from Late Antiquity to Islamic period. Our research in the area and especially on Qasr Hallabat has provided an ideal opportunity to save the gap of this “academic frontier” by studying the physical transformation and the changes of use of a Roman fort from the 2nd-3rd Century, enlarged in Tetrarchic period, and latter transformed into a monastery and palatine structure by the Ghassanids, before being refurbished in Umayyad period. The comprehensive analysis of the material evidences has led us to the conclusion that the Limes was not only the political border between two mighty empires, but also a social and cultural “internal border” between the deeply Hellenised settled populations living in towns and villages and the semi-nomadic pastoralists inhabiting the semi-deserted steppe known as the Badiya, a border area into which new groups of Arab tribes migrated from Yemen and the Hijaz during Late Antique period. The interaction of these Arab groups with the divided society that they found in Oriens, and the patterns of social relationship they developed, are essential to understand the socio-political context and the period. Besides, they represent a clear antecedent of those developed later in Umayyad period, and as a whole they are essential to understand the changes that occurred in the Region from this period onwards, especially those related to its character as “frontier”. The aim of this paper is to present a broad picture of this context, unfolding the diachronic evolution from the 3rd throughout the 8th century, using as material evidence those provided by our case study, presenting the clues to understand many of the changes that will take place in the following centuries.

1. INTRODUCTION The lands of Trans-Jordan have been throughout History a border area, a ‘frontier’ in different political, social and cultural aspects, between mighty empires, and different cultures. This confrontation gained momentum with the conflict between Rome and Persia (first with the Parthian and afterwards the Sassanian empires) that gave birth to the Limes Arabicus, the border that stretched from the Euphrates to Aqaba,1 which would cease to exist with the advent of Islam. But this region has also been the theatre of complex patterns of relationship between different groups of population that inhabited the region, defining its own “border” which determined the evolution itself of these different geopolitical frontiers, and in particular the mentioned Limes Arabicus and the related conflict between Rome and Persia.

torical studies, a situation that recent studies have started to reverse2. Our research3 on Qasr Hallabat (beside the comparative 2 Classical archaeologists and historians had not taken in the past sufficiently into account this period because considered as part of a barbarian takeover of the control of the Empire (even if carried out by Christianised Arabs like the Ghassanids -or Jafnids). Similarly, Islamic archaeologists have considered this period as the final decadence decades of Late Antique in Oriens before the arrival of Islam, and consequently it has been considered alien to their area of interest and also neglected. This negative consideration and the consequent lack of attention derived from it, has deprived historical analysis from key elements to understand the transition from Late Antiquity to Islamic period. 3 The results presented are part of the research conducted within the

framework of the excavation and restoration project of Qasr Hallabat complex (funded by the Spanish Agency for International Co-operationAECID / Heritage for Development Programme) ongoing since 2002, and the research project entitled “Analysis and Documentation Project on Building Techniques and Architectural Typologies in the Transitional Period from Late-Antique to Early Islamic Period in Jordan”, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture through the grants for archaeological research abroad (ongoing since 2004), both directed by the Author. This latter project is offering further scientific support to the former, allowing the study of similar cases in the region, enriching thus the knowledge gained and giving answer to questions raised during the restoration of several Umayyad monuments carried out by the Author during the last 14 years within the frame of the AECID’s Heritage for Development Programme. These issues were related, firstly, to the origins of Umayyad architecture and its visual culture and to the evolution of the material culture (especially to the building processes) that gave birth to it. Nevertheless, the fact that some of these structures had in many cases a

Furthermore, in the case of the final phases of the existence of the Limes Arabicus (in the turn from Late Antiquity towards Medieval Islamic period), we are dealing not only with a frontier in geographical and political terms, but also in academic terms. As a result of this, the diachronic study of certain issues of this transitional period for the region have been partly neglected in the archaeological and his1 It was actually the southern section of the Limes Orientalis that stretched

between the Black and the Red seas. The northern stretch was the Limes Armenicus, see below).

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean analysis that we are carrying out on many other related structures like Deyr el Kahf, Bshir, Deyr el Qinn, Qasr el Baij, Umm el Surab, Khirbet Khaw etc.) has provided an ideal opportunity to save the gap of this “academic frontier” studying diachronically the physical transformation and the changes of use of these structures. The study of the building techniques, the stratigraphic sequences and the typological transformations and changes of use of some of the quadriburgia (Qasr Hallabat, Qasr Bshir & Deyr el Kahf, as starting point) of the Limes Arabicus within the broad context of the socio-political changes operated in the region in Late Antiquity, has helped to clarify not only the changes of use they underwent and the technology involved, but also has shed light on their historical context itself during this transitional period from Late Antiquity to Early Islam.4 These structures bear witness of these historical periods, offering an ideal and diversified catalogue of building techniques, architectural typologies, and what is more important, a recurrent pattern of physical transformations and changes of use from the 3rd throughout the 8th century AD, that involves the transformation and re-use of these military structures into religious (monasteries), civil and palatine ones.5 According to it, some Severan period square forts without towers were transformed into quadriburgia in Tetrarchic period. These would be eventually abandoned with the dismissal of the limitanei troops by Justinian and the change of defence strategy of the Limes, when the Ghassanids were entrusted with that task. These Arab Christian foederati would transform most of those abandoned forts into monasteries and palatial venues according to their new role as Phylarch and kings of the federate Arabs and to their political agenda and their defensive strategies: the Ghassanids’ aim of creating a new

order in religious and political terms, closer to their Arab tradition and culture (and away from the deeply ‘Hellenized’ culture and tradition of the urban centers loyal to the Chalcedonian or Diophysite church) stood behind those policies. We can trace in them the attempt to create a new political and religious establishment of their own, in the tradition of their Byzantine masters, yet with its own idiosyncratic character. This ��������������������������������������� political and religious agenda implied an ambitious building program of which we had up to now more written records than actual material remains. The intense building activity of the Ghassanids, (according to which they deserved being called “philoktistai” i.e. building-lovers), was a clear symbol of their new political status, but would might imply that this building activity would have been devoted to the construction of palatial and religious structures, more than military ones. These phases would correspond to three main phases of the Limes Arabicus and its final collapse: the first one would correspond to the incorporation of Oriens to the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. This phase witnessed the construction of the Via Nova Trajana, the Via Diocletiana, and the first related military structures (square forts, watchtowers, etc) of the limes Arabicus to protect them from the threat posed by the Persian army and the raids of the nomads pastoralists. The second phase corresponds to the overhaul of this eastern limes and its defensive system by Diocletian, with the construction of quadriburgia, intended mainly to host auxiliary cavalry units, and the refurbishment and enlargement of other structures already existing from the first phase. The third one would correspond to period between the overhaul of the defences by Justinian till the demise of the limes under Heraclius. In this third phase, the Ghassanids were entrusted with the task of the defence of the limes Arabicus (to which corresponds this area and these forts), being bestowed on their leaders the titles of “Archiphylarch” and “Basileus”, of all the federate Arabs. During this phase these forts changed drastically their use losing their previous military value, being transformed into monasteries and watch-posts to take care of strategic points nearby like crossroads and water sources, or even as palatine reception halls: they acted as meeting points for the local pastoral population and travelers, merchants and pilgrims, where they could be eventually sheltered and fed, becoming thus an ideal place for performing both policies of political persuasion, and religious proselytism.6

Roman origin, made necessary to better understand the transformation and re-use they underwent during the transitional period from Late Antiquity to Early Islamic period. It is a major aim of the project to understand which were the precise elements and merging processes that gave origin to these “Umayyad buildings”, and their historical and cultural context. As a result, the study of the material evidences started to offer new insights of this evolution of the architecture and the construction techniques from Late Antiquity to Umayyad period. But simultaneously, it is providing a more coherent and complete view of its historical and cultural context (based in those material evidences) for an historical gap of more than 100 years, poorly documented from archaeological sources. In this case, the information provided by the material culture has been of paramount importance, opening new lines of research related to the historic events that took place in the Near East from the 3rd to the 8th Centuries and especially during the 6th AD. The information retrieved (technical and historical) offers a new insight to some key issues of the historical periods involved: these two sources of information clarify the technical improvements and transformations operated in the buildings, as well as the historical significance that can be elicited from these changes. 4 For a more detailed approach on the analysis of the material culture

Finally after the political take-over by the Muslim forces, the Umayyads would adopt the same strategy used by the

of these structures that drive the present conclusions, see Arce 2008 (in press). 5 The case of Hallabat is certainly the most relevant (and the better studied

6 The Ghassanids did not required big kastra, but towers protecting strategic points (like crossroads of water sources) and other means of logistic support like permanent buildings for their seasonal camps according to that mobile character of their army and their peripatetic courts: Hamza al-Isfahani uses the terms “Sayyarat” and “Jawwab” (itinerary king who wanders from one palace to another), something that as Shahid points (Shahid 2002) does not mean they were nomads, but that they had an itinerant court. The Chronography or Annals of Hamza al-Isfahani (Tarik sini muluk al-ard wa al-anbiya) is a chronology of pre-Islamic and Islamic Arab dynasties, and one of the most important sources for the study of the Ghassanids (see Shahid 2002, 306-341)

one): a 2nd-3rd century AD Roman fort, that was enlarged in Tetrarchic period, and latter transformed into a monastery and palatine structure in the 6th century AD, before being finally refurbished by the Umayyads in the 7th-8th century AD also as a palatine venue. The changes carried out in the 6th century AD, were carried out most probably by the Ghassanids (or Jafnids), the Christian Arab foederati tribe entrusted with the task of the defence of the Limes Arabicus as a result of the change of the defensive strategy operated by Justinian (see Arce 2006, 2007, 2008).

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I. Arce: Romans, Ghassanids and umayads and the transformationof the limes arabicus ture), and on the other hand, the transformations occurred in the patterns of social relationship and diplomacy between these social groups, that took place in parallel to the political changes,7 firstly, as a result of the changes in the defensive strategies of the “Limes Arabicus” in the 5-6th century AD (when Arab Tribal groups were entrusted with the task of its defense); and secondly, as a result of the ultimate disappearance of that “external frontier” with the political and military takeover by the Umayyads in the 7th century AD. In both situations, the Ghassanids and the Umayyads as “Tribal newcomers” played a similar game to reinforce their power using for their benefit the existing social division marked by that “internal border”, seeking the support of the Arab Tribal groups inhabiting the steppic areas (against the settled, Romanized and Dyophysite Christian population) attracting them by means of policies of political clientelarism (through alliances and pecuniary subsidies) and religious proselytism (spreading Christian Monophysitism and Islam respectively). A radical change from the coercive policy carried out by ‘Roman Diplomacy’ in the first centuries, towards a clientelar policy, which nonetheless would continue to take place in the same places and venues. The main difference is that the “state” that up to that moment had been beside the settled population (which were citizens [‘cives’] of that state), and confronted to the Semi-nomad tribes (seen as foreigners -Araboi Barbaroi), is about to change hands and will soon be hold by a new power closer culturally to these Tribal groups: The attempt of the Ghassanids to play a political and religious role, which went further that the merely military one assigned by the Empire (seeking political support among the Tribal nomads and spreading their Monophysite faith) could be seen as a first attempt of this shift (it was certainly seen by Rome as an attempt of Tribal Arab takeover, similar to that attempted by Palmyra centuries earlier, aimed to the creation of an Arab and Monophysite ‘state within the state’). At the end this ‘takeover’ wich took place with the raise of a new Arab and Islamic power, will mean the establishment of a new state based on a new creed and an egalitarian ethos, the sources of which can be found in these Tribal traditions.

Ghassanids (and even the same venues) to achieve the effective political and military control seeking support in the same Tribal groups. The comprehensive and diachronic analysis of the material evidences linked to the written sources has led us to the conclusion that the stretch of land where the Limes Arabicus stood, was not only the political border between two mighty empires, but also the area where a socio-political and cultural “internal border” had existed for centuries between settled populations living in towns and villages and the semi-nomadic pastoralists inhabiting the semi-deserted steppe known as the ‘Badiya’ (term related to ‘bdw’, bedu, Bedouin): a border area in which these groups would have interacted since prehistoric period, and towards where new groups of Arab tribes migrated regularly from Yemen and the Hijaz, joining those that from the 6th millennium BC onwards would have inhabited these steppic areas. The interaction of these new waves of Arab tribes (specially the migrations occurred from the 4th century AD onwards) with the ‘dual’ society that they found in the Levant (already ‘split’ between sedentarized and semi-nomad peoples), and the patterns of social relationship they developed, are essential to understand the socio-political context of the last stages of the Late Antiquity in the region. Some of these patterns represent a clear antecedent of those developed later in Umayyad period, and as a whole, they are essential to understand the changes that occurred in the region from this period onwards. We have to consider, that this area has been a theatre of interaction in between those groups of settled and nomadic peoples, and consequently of processes of sedentarization (and reversion to nomadic practices whenever the conditions determined it), since the 6th millennium till almost one century ago. Recent archaeo-ethnographic studies have allowed a better understanding of this socio-cultural component, concluding that the interaction process in between these groups of population has been actually a continuum. Consequently, the analysis of still surviving practices has also shed light on patterns of relationship in the past, allowing to better interpret the material culture remains from Late Antiquity. The continuity of several determinant cultural, social and geopolitical factors during this important span of time, together with the particular changes operated in key transitional periods, offer the main reference framework that helps to unfold and interpret the results of our research in historical and cultural terms: these conclusions constitute one of the major outcomes of our analysis of the material culture, associated to the evolution of these built structures.

As a consequence, in these latter cases the diplomacy would not be played between the social groups divided by the “internal border” (with the “State” seeking military support to defend the “external border” and to keep peace in the “internal” one) but between akin Tribal groups. In this case the new Tribal ‘Establishment’ will look for political support among the Tribes already living the region in detriment of the majority of the Christian urbanite population, reluctant firstly to the increasing power of the Tribal federation leaded by the Ghassanids, and openly hostile later, to the new Muslim power (seen by them as an invader).

The aim of this paper is to present a broad and general picture of this context, unfolding the diachronic evolution from the 3rd throughout the 8th century AD, using as material evidence those provided by our case study, presenting some clues to understand the changes that took place in the preceding and following centuries. Among them the most relevant ones would be, on the one hand, the existence of this ‘double and superimposed frontier’ (in many occasions difficult to distinguish in terms of material cul-

7 Better identifiable in the transformation and change of use of the related structures and meeting places.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean The 3rd century AD meant for Oriens major political changes and great instability: the new Sassanian dynasty in Persia posed a major and renewed menace to a weakened Roman Empire. It also witnessed the humiliating defeat and capture of Valerian by Shapur and the subsequent initiative of Palmyra under Odenathus to revenge this defeat, overtaking the defence of the region on behalf of Rome. This initiative soon degenerated into Zenobia’s attempt to create a Palmyrean Empire of her own, ambition that Aurelian brought to an end.

2. THE LIMES ARABICUS AND ITS HISTORICAL CONTEXT8 The Levant entered the area of influence of Rome in 63 BC when Pompei annexed Syria as a Roman province and transformed the other regional states into Roman clients. In AD 106 the Nabatean kingdom was annexed by Rome, and as a result, major reorganization of the Roman territories in Levant took place with the creation of the Provincia Arabia, that incorporated the entire former Nabatean kingdom. The defence and logistic infrastructure of the territory were the first to be tackled with the construction of the Via Nova Traiana (between AD 111 and 114), running from Bosra to Ayla (Aqaba), and a series of military structures that defined the so-called Limes Arabicus, that were built to the East of it. The defence strategy (certainly inherited from pre-existing cultures) relied not on a continuous vallum nor a wall, but on forts and legionary camps, visually interrelated (in many occasions with the help of small intermediate watchtowers, and usually connected by roads), and strategically located beside water sources or important crossroads, which hosted from small garrisons to complete legions that were mobilised according to the scale of the menace. These structures lie at the eastern edge of the region suitable for farming. They were suited to protect the agricultural zone to the west, as well as to project force into the desert to the east (Parker 2006, 114). They were intended to serve the defence of the settled territories to the West of the Limes, both from the Persians’ attacks and the raids of the pastoralists that periodically ravaged the villages and towns under direct Roman control. The reuse of pre-existing roads (like King’s Highway that became the Via Nova Trajana) and of many forts and structures from Iron Age and Nabatean period that were incorporated9 in this chain of military structures, stand as proof of the existence of a border (or borders) in this region for centuries before the arrival of Rome, that as we will see, responded not only to political reasons but mainly to the peculiar socio-economic and environmental context of the region.

Diocletian’s Tetrarchy offered, by the end of the century and especially to the Levant, a very much needed stability and security. Important military and administrative changes took place in the region under Diocletian reign: the lands south of Wadi el-Hasa were detached from Provincia Arabia and transferred to Provincia Palestina, while the acknowledgment of the increasing threat of the Persian armies led to the built up of the defences of the Limes Arabicus during the whole Tetrarchic period (even after the victory of Co-emperor Gaius Galerius over the Sassanians in 297 AD). It meant the urgent construction of several new military structures (mainly quadriburgia devoted to cavalry units and big legionary camps) and the refurbishment of several other forts built in the precedent centuries to tackle this menace. The rough building techniques employed (especially in the numerous new quadriburgia built in this period) bear witness to this pressing need, and the speed of construction involved (Arce 2008 in press). The 4th and 5th centuries AD meant the incorporation of Arab tribes to the armies of both rival Empires,10 and the shift towards a new strategy and warfare, in which the heavy armoured cavalry would give way to light cavalry units with greater mobility: the increasing use by the Persians of mobile Arab troops from the Lakhmid tribes based at Hira (near present-day Kufa) posed a new risk to the Roman provinces of the diocese of Oriens from the 4th century AD onwards. The existing strategy of defense was transformed to cope with this new threat.11 The deep changes operated in the defensive strategies of the Limes Orientalis in the 6th century AD under Justinian (with the dismissal of the limitanei and the appointment of Christian Arab tribes –mainly the Ghassanids - as foederati who were entrusted with the defense of the Limes), meant the abandonment and transformation of several of these forts into monasteries and palatial compounds. The mobile character of this army did not rely on garrisons and forts, but on seasonal encampments (hira or hirta), located in

This building activity was continued vigorously under Septimius Severus, regaining strength when a road was built in AD 208/10 up to Azraq and several military structures were added to the Limes Arabicus. Most of the identified structures from the 2nd-3rd century AD were carefully built using opus quadratum masonry (in limestone or basalt), with precise jointing and middle size ashlars (see Arce 2008 in press). In most cases, the forts were smallmedium size square structures without towers (see the cases of Hallabat and Deyr el-Kahf: Figures.1-5).

10 The enrolment by the Sassanians of the Arab tribe of the Lakhmids as

a spearhead of their offensives against Roman Levant proved to be very effective, being Rome forced to react and adopt a similar strategy with the enrolment of Christian Arab tribes (the Tanukh and the Salihids) as foederati. Maurice’s military manual, the Strategikon, was aware of the need to beat enemies by understanding, and if necessary by mastering, their style of warfare (Maurice Strategikon. Ed. and trans. Dennis and Gamillscheg -1981- quoted in Lavan 2006, xxiii). This would be evident not only with the adoption of Persian lance-bearing heavy cavalry in an early moment, but also with the use later, of these mobile Arab armies of “foederati” that would imply a complete change of defensive strategy. 11 See Arce 2007 in press

8 To better clarify these transformations in general and the changes in detail that took place in the region during the periods we are dealing with, it is advisable to review the socio-political and military context. We summarize here those aspects that are of major interest for our discussion using as main sources, Parker 2006, Kennedy 2004 and Shahid 2002. 9 In many cases they were kept as they were, in other cases they were rebuilt a fundamentis in the same strategic places.

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I. Arce: Romans, Ghassanids and umayads and the transformationof the limes arabicus The limitanei, garrisoned in their forts, had been performing static guard duties, distinct from the duties of a mobile field army.16 This might have become monotonous and affected their combat preparedness, leading to inefficiency. This, together with the increasing risks posed by the raids of the ‘Sarracens’ (nomad pastoralist Tribes) and the threat of the Sassanian army (and specially that posed by their respective Arab allies, the Lakhmids) led to such a radical change in the defence strategy. This involved the final dismissal of the limitanei by Justinian, who was dissatisfied with their performance, and the total reorganization of the limes orientalis.

strategic places, in some cases the same ones where Romans had built their structures, now transformed in many cases into monasteries (that played thus a complex role as focus of religious proselytism and political propaganda, and stations of logistic support for their defensive policy). Consequences of the new frontier defence strategy under Justinian. The military reorganization of the frontiers of the Byzantine Empire carried out by Justinian had a direct effect on the limes Orientalis that stretched from the Black Sea to the Red Sea. It involved the diocese of Oriens, and the Armenian provinces of the diocese of Pontus. The limes Orientalis was divided into two major segments, Armenian and Arab: the first, running from the Black Sea to the Euphrates, was put under the control of Sittas as magister militum per Armeniam; similarly, in the southern segment (the limes Arabicus), Justinian placed as many tribes as possible under the command of Arethas ibn Jabala, who ruled over the Arabs, bestowing on him the dignity of king (see Shahid 2002, 21). In both cases the intention was to unify the �������������������������������������������������� command under a single officer of all the territories and military forces of the respective circumscriptions, in order to optimize resources and guarantee maximum efficiency against the increasing military threats.

Only a unified army of all the Arab foederati, under a single command and using similar strategies and tactics to those of the attackers (nomadic pastoralists who used to raid the region), could shield the region against those threats. This was the role played by the Ghassanids as phylarchs of all the Arabs in the Roman provinces since 502 AD (a role that had been played before them by the Tanukh and the Salih tribes in the 4th and the 5th century AD respectively). The conclusion of a new foedus with the banu Ghassan after the death of Jabala, marked a new era: The basileia (kingship) and the archiphylarchia17 conferred on Arethas in 529 AD, meant a major change, in the political and military role assumed by the Ghassanid kings. This change would determine the historical events to come, which would illuminate those that occurred at our sites.18

In the Armenian section, the enrolment of indigenous forces12 was decided on because of their better knowledge of the territory. In the Arabian sector, the change was more radical as the limitanei of the regular army were withdrawn from their garrisons on the external frontier (the Limitrophe),13 as this area was assigned directly to the Arab Tribes under Ghassanid command. A major distinction is that the magister militum of the Armenian sector was commander-in-chief of all the Roman forces at his disposal (both stratiotai – regular Roman troops – who were Roman citizens, as were their commanders, and also indigenous troops – scrinarii), while the Ghassanid phylarcs were in command of only the foederati (indigenous allies) of Oriens14. In Arabia and Palestina, the regular Roman soldiers (the stratiotai), under the command of a Roman/Byzantine dux, kept control of major cities and their hinterland. Meanwhile, the Arab foederati took over military duties in the area (limitrophe) occupied up to that moment by the limitanei (frontier guard forces), becoming de facto limitanei themselves.15

The gradual dismissal and replacement of the limitanei by the Ghassanid foederati for the defence of the limes, meant thus a radical change in the Diocletianic defence system which consisted of comitatenses in the interior and limitanei in the external lines of defence (Shahid 2002, xxxii) and thus a completely new strategy that changed dramatically the political, military (and even religious) face of the region. Gradually, the forts that had hosted the garrisons of the regular Roman Army for centuries were emptied and reused in different ways, in many cases as monasteries. In other cases they became extensions intramuros of the vicus that had previously grown extramuros in the shadow of the military forts. of troops are mentioned in the Provincia Palestina in the 6th century: foederati, limitanei and stratiotai. 16 According to the accounts of Sozomen, the limitanei had the task of

watching over the movements of the Arab tribes. When a major attack occurred they were to ask for assistance from the regular army, the comitatensis, but they were supposed to take part in the battles as well (Lewin 2007, 247). 17 Phylarchos originally meant the commander or chief of a phyle, a

12 See Malalas, Chronographia, quoted by Shahid 2002, 23.

13 Limitrophe literally means the lands set apart for the support of the troops on the frontier, and thus describes the zone, the borderland occupied by the Ghassanids (Shahid 2002, xxxiii). In fact, it corresponds to the so-called Badiya, the steppe area inhabited by the bedw, bordering the actual desert (sahra) between it and the cultivated lands were cities were set. 14 Unlike the Nabateans and the Palmirenes, whose territories were

tribe, later it meant also foreign chief or lord in treaty relationship to Byzantium (Shahid 2002, 10). He was also nominated patricius and stratelates, which is the Greek equivalent of magister militum (Shahid 2002, 26). 18 The previous foedus of 502 AD established with Jabala (Arethas’

annexed, and who became assimilated as citizens and Rhomaioi Arabs, the Ghassanids were allies (foederati), not Roman citizens (cives), something that according to Shahid helped to keep their strong Arab identity and established according to Shahid the basis for the Arabization of the region (Shahid 2006, 116). 15 Apparently due to the slow pace of replacement, the three categories

father), did not contemplate such a broad scope in political terms, as the consecration of Arethas as “king” did in the one of 529 AD. This would have a clear reflection also in the sort of architecture demanded by these new monarchs that certainly would require a theatre for the performance of their new role as kings of all the federate Arabs, and to receive allegiance from their subjects and clients.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean The detailed description by Procopius of the fortifications built under Justinian as part of this reorganization of the limes presents a gap between Palmyra and Ayla, the area the defence of which was entrusted to the Ghassanids.19 In my opinion this silence of Procopius on the construction of new fortifications under Justinian in this region, might relate to the fact that those fortifications would have been useless for a mobile field army, like that of the Ghassanid foederati (not garrisoned in forts but set temporarily or seasonally in camps – hira/hirta in Syriac). Consequently, no new substantial and proper fortification would have been built ex-novo in that period in this southern stretch of the Limes (at least in the limitrophe under their control), as there was no need for them. Besides we must take into account that the Ghassanid Army was partly a frontier force and partly a mobile field army. Therefore, it depended much on the control of sources of water as bases of their logistics (something that would explain the location and use of some of the fortifications – towers – built or refurbished by them). As a frontier force, they had participated long before in the Persian wars with its mobile army, but now with the new foedus they added to that the duty of watchmen of the frontier. For that reason, their strategy and tactics (especially under Mundir) responded to a new style in frontier wardenship, not static and defensive but mobile and aggressive (Shahid 2002, 49-50). Some towers (in cases associated with a monastery, as at Burqu) would have been built to protect strategic points like crossroads or water sources (wherever there was not a previous Roman structure fulfilling that function that could be re-used). Logically, the structures abandoned by the dismissed limitanei would have been refurbished, changing function, becoming in some cases monasteries (like Hallabat, Deyr el Kahf, Fudayn, probably Deyr el Qinn, etc.). These could have protected perennial water sources and exert a role of control posts on behalf of the foederati (that could have been camped nearby occasionally), or even play a more complex role like at Hallabat. Otherwise they would be directly abandoned if not of strategic value (like the kastra of Lejjun and Udruh, huge and difficult to manage), or transformed into true cities (like Kastron Mefa’a).

function and not merely (or primarily) military, could be those of Usays, and Dumeyr (that although with a fort-like appearance, would have been more likely palatial (Lenoir 1999) – and perhaps monastic – compounds. As we can see, from this “building enterprise” emerges a complex image of buildings fulfilling more than one function, but all of them serving to a common aim: that of the political and religious agenda of the Ghassanids (which, as we will see, on some occasions responded to the Byzantine interests, but on others resulted in open conflict). Monasteries as defensive elements According to this scheme, monasteries played a key role by themselves as a defensive element of the limitrophe, once the limitanei of the regular Roman Army were replaced in this duty by the Ghassanid foederati. These fortified monasteries (and their towers) would act as vanguard watch posts that could alert nearby military stations and confront an eventual attack (thanks to their fortifications), acting as a vigilarium of the Roman Army would have done in the past.20 Some of these monasteries (whether or not built on former Roman forts) were associated with temporary or permanent camps (hira), and accordingly, we could consider them as part of their supporting “logistic network”. Failure of the Roman diplomacy and collapse of the Limes The effectiveness of this scheme was obscured by the mistrust that led to several episodes of confrontation, mutual accusations of betrayal (the Ghassanids were for instance, blamed for the defeat at Callinicum in AD 531), revolt and cancellation of the foedus. Ghassanids withdrew several times from their alliance with Rome, firstly under Jabala (who had signed the first foedus with Emperor Anastasius) from AD 519 to 527 (due to the edict prescribing the compulsory adhesion to Diophysitism); and again under Mundhir, first from AD 572 to 575 (due to the prosecution ordained by Emperor Justin II against the Monophysites when Justin II ordered him murdered); and secondly, when he was betrayed, captured and send to Constantinople under Tiberius21 and later exiled to Sicily (by the new Emperor Mauricius an even fiercer enemy of the Ghassanids). In revenge, his son, Nu’man, withdrew from the alliance and declare war to Rome ravaging the region. These withdrawals had disastrous consequences for Rome: the first one led to the Lakhmid-Sassanian attack of AD 573 which met no resistance, while with the revolt of the Ghassanids in AD 584 following the imprisonment and the exile of Mundir, Palestine was plundered and sacked.

Other new constructions (or refurbishments) would have had this mixed character, half religious, half palatial that denote the complex political and religious agenda of the Ghassanids (like at Hallabat). They range from audience halls with religious use (or vice versa) like Mundhir’s Praetorium in Resafa; monasteries with towers, for the defence of the monastery, but also used as watch towers to protect roads and/or strategic water sources (small scale like Burqu, or larger ones like Haliorama/Qasr al-Hayr al Gharbi), or hostels (xenodocheion) that could offer help and rest to travellers, and comfort to their bodies and souls, thus combining religious, military and “philanthropic” functions. Other more complex options, always with a multilayered

Emperor Maurice destroyed the Phylarcate and suppressed the role of the Ghassanids, but he was obliged to restore it 20 Lassus 1847, 269 and note 2 (quoted in Shahid 2002, 205). 21 After conquering the Lakhmid capital Hira, Tiberius invited him to the capital in AD 580 covering him with honours and bestowing on him the royal crown, but the mistrust grew: The failed campaign that same year against Ctesiphon, for which he was blamed, plus the suspicion of a hidden agenda to establish a Arab state, led to his capture and deportation.

19 This gap would be, according to Shahid, a further expression of the animadversion of Procopius towards the Arabs (a “vested and premeditate silence would have deprived historians from an accurate and neat picture of the military and political situation of the region”, Shahid 2002, 27-37)

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I. Arce: Romans, Ghassanids and umayads and the transformationof the limes arabicus because he could not do without the shield that had protected Oriens for fifty years. Nonetheless it was restored downgraded and diminished. The weakness due to this ‘diminished’ restoration of the Ghassanids that meant less power and less subsidies and resources would be one of the reasons for the success of the Persian invasion of AD 610.

to seek political and social support they established links with the pastoralist population of the Badiya by means of this clientele policy and an intense campaign of religious proselytism (Arce 2007a&b in press; Arce 2008 in press). The importance of the alliances with the Tribal was essential for the Umayyads and their army. For this reason the privileges and economic subsidies provided by the latter to the former were crucial and very relevant (this was essential also to operate the monetarised Umayyad economy). Accordingly, the fall of the Umayyad power meant the collapse of the Economy in the Levant as these subsidies ceased (see Kennedy in this volume). The subsidies had fed the markets of Levant from the first agreements with Tribal groups during Roman period being notably increased during the Umayyad Caliphate. The Abbasids would use also subsidies, but to pay the new Turkish troops (which substitute the Tribal ones), camped in the new settlements in Iraq, shifing thus not only the center of political power but also the economic one towards East.

The 7th century that had started with the death of Maurice, the great opponent of the Monophysites and the Ghassanids in AD 602 (assassinated by Phocas who liberated Mundir), evolved into a disastrous sequence of events, firstly with the plague that ravaged Syria (and especially the Hawran), that was followed by the Monophysite insurrection of Antioch in 608 (brutally suppressed by Phocas), and few years later by the Sassanian invasion (610-629) and the ultimate Muslim invasion in AD 636 (just seven after Heraclius had regained Syria from the Sassanians). It is noteworthy that almost simultaneously, the Lakhmids had fallen from grace and abandoned by their Sassanian patrons in AD 600 (being his last king, Nu’man, murdered by Chosroes). This meant also that the role of the Ghassanids was confined to containing Arab tribes on the border of Roman territory, being diminished their military activity that was accompanied by an unprecedented splendour which gave impetus to arts, music poetry and architecture with the continuous construction and refurbishment of palaces, churches and monasteries.

This sequence of events briefly listed above, can be seen reflected in the physical transformations of the structures analyzed. Together, historical records and material culture evidences, allow to understand that the socio-political and cultural contexts of the region is much complex than the mere confrontation of two main military superpowers. The presence of different socio-cultural groups interacting in parallel to the “geostrategic confrontation” of the two superpowers deserve more detailed attention: The material evidences points to the continuity of certain pattern of relationship between two main groups of population interacting in an area that marks the limit between areas suitable for agricultural exploitation and those steppic areas devoted mainly to pastoralist activities, and between the ‘pastoralist’ groups of population and the “established power” controlling the settled areas.������������������������ The fact that the traces of nomadic occupation of a certain territory are usually as subtle and deleterious as scarce are the written record devoted to them, makes that the analysis of these traces particularly difficult. Nonetheless the survival of many of their cultural practices and ways of interaction with the “established power” till nowadays, has offered a reliable source of information and key elements for comparative analysis that permit to elicit this continuity, basic for these new interpretative approaches.22 The ethnological and economic continuity as an interpretative framework for understanding the role of these tribal elements proposed is consequently an essential element for our analysis.

The desertion of the Christian Arab tribes under the command of the Ghassanids in the battle of Yarmouk (that sealed the Muslim victory in Levant in AD 636), and the ultimate change of ranks of the last Ghassanid phylarch himself, Jabla ibn al-Ayham, had a great repercussion among other Christian Tribesmen due to his rank and charisma. The victory of the Umayyads over the Sassanian and Byzantine Empires, meant the disappearance of the frontier between these two long-lasting rival empires (it was kept in the N of Syria against the Byzantines), but the social context of the region and the internal conflicts between the different social groups remained almost the same. In this moment, many of the former Roman structures (previously turned into monasteries and palatine venues) were further reused and refurbished by the Umayyads as part of their political strategy of clientele relationship with the Tribes that inhabited the semi-desertic steppe (Badiya) in their quest for political and military support. Both, the Ghassanids and especially the Umayyads were seen by the deeply Hellenized/Romanized settled population living in the verdant areas as foreigners (Araboi Barbaroi), an alien and undesired presence, closer culturally to the inhabitants of the Badiya and, accordingly, they were never gladly accepted. This led the Ghassanids phylarchs and Umayyad caliphs to look for political and military support among these pastoralists for their own agendas, with similar strategies (that explains the use of the same venues). In order

3. THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXTS: THE CONCEPT OF THE TWO SUPERIMPOSED FRONTIERS The natural environment, the social and cultural context of the different groups of inhabitants of the region, and the exact character of this “frontier” and the related social and political interactions that took place in it, are key issues 22 In this sense the studies carried out by Helms in the Jordanian Badiya two decades ago, are essential (see Helms 1990).

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean to analyse and interpret correctly the material culture we are dealing with. As stated, this area has been for centuries not only a political border (more properly a “buffer zone”) between major empires in Antiquity (what could be call the geopolitical or “external” border), but also between two different groups of population inhabiting two different natural environments (what could be defined as the “internal” or socio-economic border). These two different ‘cultural landscapes’ correspond on the one hand to settled population living in villages and cities the economy of which rely primarily on agriculture (Ahl al-madar, the inhabitants of houses of adobe or masonry), and on the other hand to the nomad or semi-nomad pastoralists that live in tent encampments (Ahl al-wabar).23 The geographical distribution of these two cultural landscapes is defined mainly by rainfall rate and consequently by the feasibility of agricultural exploitation (the 200mm/year rainfall rate define the difference between the semi-desertic steppe, the so-called Badiya24 to the East, and the fertile plains westwards). The almost exact correspondence25 of the limit between these two different worlds with the so-called “external” or geopolitical border between the major political superpowers (defined by the military structures of the Limes Arabicus) is not a mere coincidence, being essential to understand and properly analyse such a complex context, preventing misleading interpretations. These superimposed borders and the different groups that they divide/ relate have interacted for ages determining their respective history, being impossible to understand each of them without this interaction.

of which would be traced in southern Arabia. Those who arrived earlier to the fertile areas of the Levant settled and evolved (or reverted) into a sedentarized culture,26 interacting and receiving an increasingly stronger influence from other neighbouring cultures. In this way two main groups would start to be defined: those settled in the cultivated areas, and those nomad pastoralists inhabiting the steppic periphery.27 Perhaps one of the major socio-cultural differences that could be pointed out between both ways of life would be the egalitarian ethos of Tribal nomadic society (still surviving nowadays) contrasting with the social stratification associated with villages and sedentary societies, a difference which could be at the base of the ideological and physical confrontation between both social groups. Successive newcomers (in some cases sedentarized people from southern Arabia that had become temporarily wanderers due to necessity) moved into the region throughout the following centuries. In some cases they re-sedentarized again in the Levant or Mesopotamia due to the adequate conditions to do so, meanwhile other remained as nomads or semi-nomads. Little by little, the settled populations would be influenced and later assimilated by the successive dominant powers (being in our case first Hellenized and later Romanized).28 Many of them would become even Roman citizens after the Edict of Caracalla (Araboi Rhomaioi) as is the case of the Nabateans and the Palmyrenes meanwhile those newcomers not assimilated were considered “foreigners” (Araboi Barbaroi), towards which a policy that combined diplomacy and coercion was addressed (like in previous centuries other ‘states’ had done). This relationship, ruled by diplomacy and clientelar ties can be identified in the region for centuries (with different patterns of interaction) even until recent times.29 Nowadays when modern borders have become truly impassable, and the lifestyle of the pastoralists unsustainable, this relationship that would seem apparently to be disappearing, might offer nonetheless new expressions, transformed and adapted to the new social and natural contexts. Social symbiosis

In our case, both groups divided by this “internal border” are actually composed by Semitic populations, the origins 23 Nonetheless, we have to take into account that the difference in between pastoralists and sedentarized farming populations in many cases do not correspond necessarily to intrinsic cultural differences, but to extrinsic circumstances, among them, the changes operated in the physical context where they are living in a certain moment. Thus, sedentarized people living in villages can, due to the changes of that environmental context (or due to political circumstances), become “nomad” or vice-versa, being possible to revert the change operated if the context changes again. Something similar can be said regarding their respective economies that are more complex that the terms employed in the discussion would indicate. 24‘Badiya’ is the steppe land where human beings can live, as opposed

The intercourse in between these two groups must not be seen just in terms of conflict: on the contrary, we have to take into account the obvious social interdependence (a true so26 Actually this has been a major theatre of the sedentarisation (or resedentarisation) process throughout history. 27 Helms (Helms 1990, 35) suggests, although cannot be proven, that

to ‘Sahra’, the uninhabitable desert. Etymologically Badiya is related to badw (Arabic for nomad pastoralist, i.e.: bedouin). In a clear case of metonymy, the term Badiya was used to describe some of the compounds and qusur used or built by the Umayyads in this steppic area (and still is used by many authors in this sense). This latter meaning derives from second-hand sources of the Abbasid period describing the Umayyad court (see Lammens 1910, Herzfeld 1921, Gaube 1974a, 100 and Helms 1990, 27-9). Gaube comments on Burqu, indicate that this concept would include political (diplomatic) and ideological (cultural identity) aspects, being both but especially the first one (diplomacy) essential for our discussion. These sites and the diplomatic practices associated to them (that reached a complex architectural configuration in Umayyad period), that are key for our analysis, would be part of the continuum of idiosyncratic social practices that Helms suggests. For this reason Helms uses the, otherwise obscure, term of “Badiya concept”, to describe these diplomatic practices associated to different sites and buildings located in this environment. 25 Some of the semi-nomad Tribal groups (many Christianized) were

pastoralism may have been adopted by steppic populations, who then adopted it successfully to their environment in the 6th millennium BC. In this moment is when this duality between settled and nomad groups of population in the societies of the region (the “internal border”) would have started its existence, and consequently when the interaction and the incipient ‘State’-Bedouin relations started. It is interesting to point out that it would be also in this moment when the first divisions at larger scale, between the different agricultural zones within the “Green Crescent” would start (that would evolve throughout centuries into major empires, giving birth to the basis of what we have called the “external” borders). 28 Similarly the influence of Persian culture on the Lakhmids is remarked by historical sources. 29 The close alliance of the Hashemites with the Bedouins would be its latest expression, in which however we can identify the invariants of this social intercourse that we have defined “the internal border”.

living within the frontiers, or in the neighboring area (limitrophe).

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I. Arce: Romans, Ghassanids and umayads and the transformationof the limes arabicus The fact of being Levant, because of its geographical location, the hub of the main trade routes that connect and relate those confronting superpowers and empires,33 was the reason of the prosperity and wealth of the people in control of these “buffer zones” and periphery territories, being the Nabateans and the Palmyreans probably the most outstanding examples of it; but it was simultaneously, the unfortunate reason of their decline and ruin, caused by the avidity for control of that commerce (source of the riches but also ultimate reason for conflict and invasion) by any of the big empires separated by this same buffer zone.

cial symbiosis) that exists between “sedentarised” people and “semi-nomads pastoralists” due to their economic and social inter-relationship: Lattimore30 states that the pure nomadism is impoverishing, while the agricultural settlements are a source of wealth also for the nomad, and its destruction harms and impoverish the nomad as well as the sedentary population. This symbiosis is more evident when dealing with long distance commerce: the control of commerce and the security in the routes depended on the pastoralists tribes. These tribes, trying to find an ideal balance between a policy of protection and pillage, get benefit from that sedentary world of peasants and artisans, which feeds commerce as well as offers booty for pillage. Simultaneously, sedentarised villagers cannot trade their surplus production without the support and collaboration of the pastoralist nomads. Accordingly, movement of trading caravans through the steppe and the dessert required more formalized and secure routes, which various governments have tried to control through history (always with the co-operation of the Bedouin, as a guarantee of success). Among many examples, can be mentioned the reference of Herodotus (III 5, 91 and 88) on the Achaemenid government relations with the Arabs, and their special status: Arabs were localized in an ‘Arab district’ and not a Satrapy, they were exempt from normal taxation, they were called ‘friends’ of the king of Persia, and had only to contribute ‘gifts’ (Helms 1990, 18). This is an indication of how diplomacy ran always in parallel with coactive and repressive policies, as alternative or simultaneous ways of persuasion, whenever a proper ‘state’ was in control of the settled areas of territory neighboring the steppe controlled by the pastoralists. The tribe-state relationship (and consequently between settled and pastoralist groups) oscillated thus historically between diplomacy and confrontation/repression trying to reach a balance that was always shifting and rarely stable. It has been debated if the pastoralists represented a true risk before the engagement of the Lakhmid tribe as spearhead of the Sassanian attacks against the Roman territories in the Levant. The existence of systems of defence with sophisticated built structures in these areas (certainly against a threat coming from the desert, that would have been posed more logically by the raids of the pastoralists), already from the Iron Age, would give an answer to this question,31 reinforcing this idea of continuum in the relation of “conflict/symbiosis” between both groups of population (no matters who was the nominal power in charge of the settled areas). The fact that many of these structures were re-used by the Romans, as part of their own line of defence of the Limes would reinforce this hypothesis.32 Trade and Cities

Long-distance trade would give birth also to cities in the main commercial hubs where markets were set (at the end of these long-distance routes or in strategic intermediate places or crossroads). In many cases these were established by these same Arab tribes responsible for the caravan trade34, demonstrating once more the compatible and shifting nature of the concepts “sedentarized” and “nomad”. This apparently contradiction does not exist because cities cannot survive without trading, and in the desert landscape of Arabia and Syria, trade cannot exist without caravans. Trade and cities would become thus inseparably linked, and would define the regional economy and social landscape. Nabatean and Palmyrene architecture and cities are a clear proof of how Arab people, theoretically belonging to a culture of “wanderers and desert navigators”, were able to create the most splendid cities of the Middle East: based on their deep South-Arabic cultural roots, assimilated Persian, Mesopotamian, Hellenistic and Roman influences, giving as a result a unique mingled culture of their own; Arab and Classical at the same time, and firmly urbanite (in spite of that “nomadic” image, that Westerners still have of them). The control of that trade was probably the ultimate reason of the Roman expansion in the region. Some authors state that Roman military units deployed along desert roads provided road security, something that confirms that the roads (and consequently the trade) predated the forts and were, together with the fertile lands westwards, the strategic element to be protected (as the case of the Via Nova Trajana following the steps of the Kings’ Highway proves).35 33 We have to keep in mind that’ political’ borders are usually areas of intense commercial interchange in between these confronted worlds. 34 Like Medina, Mecca, Petra, Bosra or Palmira, among others. 35

Nevertheless, according to the opinion of Ben Isaac, there would be no system organized to defend against an external enemy, and the threat posed by the Bedouins would be on the scale of normal banditry, something that is more debatable, as the rest of the evidences show, and he himself admits, but just for the Late Antique period: he acknowledge for this period the importance of the threat posed by the Tribal confederations, as well as the existence of military systems in which the roads were a secondary element, developed to serve the military structure, as they were built to connect these bases (See Isaac 1998 and Lewin 2007, 243). Ammianus explicitly affirms in the Res Gestae that Arabia was “optima varietate commerciorum, castrisque oppleta validis et castellis, quae ad repelendos gentium vicinarum excursus sollicitudo pervigil veterum per opportunos saltus erexit et cautos. Haec quoque civitates habet inter oppida quedam ingentes, Bostram et Gerasam atque Philadelphiam, murorum firmitate cautissimas”. This text reveals on the one hand the prosperity of the Provincia Arabia in Late Antiquity

30

This approach is defined in Lattimore’s Theory on the Reciprocation between Civilization and the Environment: In An Inner Asian Approach to the Historical Geography of China (1947), Lattimore explored the system through which humanity affects the environment and is changed by it, and concluded that civilization is molded by its own impact on the environment. 31 Mavia’s revolt demonstrate how the ‘Sarracens’ were a more dangerous force along the Limes Arabicus than often supposed by scholars. See Lewin 2007 and Lewin in this same volume) 32 The Iron Age forts of Qasr Kharaqa and Qasr el-Al, placed between the Roman Quadriburgium of Qasr Bshir (Castra Moebeni Praetorii) reused and incorporated as part of the same stretch of the Limes, are a good sample of this (see Arce 2008 in press).

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean The link between long distance trade and cities (and the territorial control gained by means of them), would explain, later, the deeply urban dimension of Islam as religion and the almost compulsory demand to settle population in new cities36 (something that can be seen as a blatant proof of the influence of this Tribal/Bedouin culture on the new Islamic societies). Some of the Islamic religious prescriptions are a clear translation into specific commandments of this social need: firstly the enhancement of the sense of community and the need of social aggregation (with the refusal of individualism, both in social and religious life37) which was primarily cast in the concept of “Umma”, the community of the faithful; furthermore, the obligation for the periodical (weekly) congregation of all the male population of an area surrounding a city or urban settlement for the communal Friday pray in the congregational mosque, represents an unique and magisterial example of “social engineering” by which all the population is gathered not only for religious purposes, but with social, political and commercial aims: in the Friday pray are read, together with the religious khutba or preach, the political and administrative decrees and announcements, that are made public to the community in this occasion (as a reflection also of the intimate link between politics and religion in Islam). The gathering of all this population become also the best opportunity to set the market, usually located physically beside the congregational mosque.38 In this way the economic and social sustainability of the city as entity is guaranteed through a mixed religious and political commandment.

are located the markets and production centers linked by those routes. This concept of territorial control is key to understand the maintenance of the urban culture in Islamic period till medieval ages, as the instrument to guarantee not only the economic wealth (Kennedy 1985), but also the military and political control of the land. Meanwhile in Europe cities had almost disappeared and the feudal model for controlling the territory made that hundreds of castles and forts were built, trying to control the land “till the place where the sword of the lord would arrive”. The survival of this “urban and trade model” of territorial control in the Levant till medieval period cannot be understood without this economic approach, and is essential when trying to understand the “re-discovery” of this “urban culture” by the crusaders. It would be interesting to know how much the influence of what the crusaders found (in terms of territorial control) when they arrived to the Levant in the 11th century AD, affected they own policies when back in Europe; and vice versa, how much their ‘feudal model’ had an impact in the increasingly fragmented political scenario of the Medieval Islamic Levant, when the unified power of the Caliphate was already a mirage that would be vanished completely with the Mongol invasions at the beginning of the 13th century. The models of sedentarization (and those for the setting of new cities) dictated by Islam might be, accordingly, deeply influenced by Tribal traditions (being the khatta or partition of the land one of the most relevant).40 In his study on ar-Risha, Helms points how the plausible early date (c. 650 AD) for its establishment would place the ‘bedouin station’ of ar- Risha alongside the establishment of the amsar (‘camp cities’: sing. misr) which began under the Orthodox Caliphate and formed the structural and symbolic foundations of many great Islamic cities. Some underlying principles of the amsar would be thus probably Bedouin in origin since pre-Islamic examples may be recognized in the Lakhmid establishment of al-Hira in Iraq (Rothstein 1899; TalbotRice 1934 quoted in Helms 1990). But perhaps most significantly, ar-Risha would shed light on a much discussed but rarely confirmed aspect of the early Islamic period. This concerns the steppic or nomadic-pastoralist/Bedouin component in the formation of the early Islamic state and the architectural expression of a new socio-economic and philosophical consciousness in both the religious and secular ambit. On its own then, humble steppic settlements like ar-Risha would represent an important insight not only into aspects of the architecture of the early Islamic period but also into one of its most significant facets: State-Bedouin (or state-tribe) politics and respective polities. Particular attention would deserve the relation between these encampment-like settlements and the cities created ex-novo: it would illustrate some aspects of the origin of the cities founded by Arabs. Actually, the evolution of the concept behind these encampments was at the base of several pre-Islamic Arab cities, and certainly was a recognizable concept in the establishment of the new cities in

These policies are aimed and related not only to economic issues, but also to the effective control of these vast territories. Tribal Arab traders had become acquainted long time ago before the arrival of Islam39 with the idea that the control of these immense and deserted territories cannot be achieved manu militari through the direct control of each single corner of this territory, but through the control of the (trade) caravan routes that cross it and of the cities where as a result of a thriving commerce, and on the other hand the existence of a system of military forts to defend and guarantee that prosperity from ravaging incursions. It makes explicit reference to walled cities as Bosra, Gerasa and Amman (Philadelphia), but also to castra & castella that reveal the importance of this defensive system to guarantee that economic prosperity. 36 Prophet Muhammad himself was member of a relevant family of merchants from Mecca. 37 For this reason monasticism was refused by Islam. This is still recognizable in the ideals of an egalitarian social ethos among modernday Bedouin that were famous also in the early Islamic period as symbols of identity of the new state. Actually the adoption by the Umayyads of royal ostentation and pomp was seen as treason to those egalitarian values of Islam of clear Bedouin origin. Similarly the Ghassanid phylarchs had become a sort of kings of the Tribal Arab foederati (Justinian nominated Arethas “Archiphylarch” and “Basileus”), something that would put them, also in socio-political terms, as forerunners of the Umayyads 38 For this reason (but also due to the fact that the maintenance of the mosque will be done with the benefits of renting the market booths, in a regime of waqf, that would become standard in later period in all the Islamic world) that the market’s shops are of public domain and not the property of private traders (once more a reflection of that sense of social and religious community of Islam). 39 Sabeans, Qatabanis, Hymiarites, Nabateans and Palmyreans among others

The resulting plots of land were the ‘khittat’ or districts which originally divided the various Arab tribes which made up the Muslim army. See Akbar 1990. 40

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I. Arce: Romans, Ghassanids and umayads and the transformationof the limes arabicus Early Islamic period (misr / pl: amsar). Sizable Arab tribal cantonments were by no means unknown in the Region at that time. Al-Hira was a seasonal nomad settlement that had evolved into a poly-nuclear urban center serving as the capital of the Lakhmid dynasty and a permanent base for tribes of the Tanukh federation. Another city that had grown from similar origins was Bosra, which eventually became the Northern capital of the Nabatean kingdom and from AD 106 administrative seat of the Roman province of Arabia. (Wheatley 2001, 269). In early settlements the influence of this “Tribal” model is more clear, especially in the urban settlements created from the 4th-5th century AD onwards in the Badiya (like at Umm al-Jimal, for instance). Later in Umayyad period we can detect the shifts towards other models (although basic “tribal” elements would remain unchanged). Certainly the increasing number of individuals to be settled forced the new Muslim rulers to seek efficient and tested models (like the Roman camps) that would gave birth to cities like Ayla or Aanjar.

doned while other ones, like Kastron Mefaa, evolved into small urban settlements in the coming centuries43. Something similar occurred with many small and intermediate forts and quadriburgia: those at Khirbet Samra, Khirbet Khaw, Umm al Jimal, evolved into villages or small towns, others like Hallabat, Kahf, Fudain, would be reused also as monastic settlements, especially during the 6th century AD, and afterwards reused by the Umayyads (but even in these cases can be found traces of proto-urban settlements surrounding the forts). In many cases these camps might have been the development of a vicus already existing in Roman times. In other cases these camps would be created after the abandonment by the limitanei of the Roman forts and their subsequent occupation by Arab federate tribes (foederati like the Tanukh, the Salih and the Ghassanids, respectively in the 4th, 5th and 6th century AD). The cases of Kastron Mefaa (Umm ar-Rassas [Figure 7]), Khirbet es-Samra, Umm el Quttein and even Umm al-Jimal shows the Roman fort as nucleus of the Urban development, even if in many cases traces of an older settlement pre-existing the fort is evident, like at Umm al-Jimal. In the case of Hallabat the complex of houses near the fort would be another interesting case.

But it is even more relevant to explain the use of the “parallactic” model of settlements carried out systematically by Arab settlers whenever arrived to an already existing city: instead of building atop (or within) the existing one according to the usual “palimpsest” model, they settled usually beside the existing city creating in many cases a separate neighborhoods or even a separate city, that once merged with the existing one would give birth in some cases to the so-called double-cities (“al-madain”). This is a recurrent case in Islamic urbanism: the cases can be found throughout History and in all the areas conquered: Fustat with Babylon (and even later Al-Askar, Al-Qatai, and finally Al-Qahira); al-Basra with Khuraiba; Kufa with al-Hira; Resafa-Hisham with Resafa-Sergiopolis; Bagdad with Ctesifonte (also known as “Al-Madain”) ;“Raqqattan” (‘the two Raqqas’, created as the result of the fusion of the old Raqqa and the new Rafica); and even later like in the case of Fez, with the fusion of the old Maghrebi quarter and the new Andalusi one, etc.

The economic factor would be determinant in the cases where these camps were established nearby existing cities (as their economic role as part of the net of caravan routes would be more determinant and clear than in the precedent cases). Actually, in many ‘classical’ cities like Aleppo or Damascus there were ‘Arab’ camps outside the city walls. Such camps are frequently described as transient assembly points for the great commercial caravans, and their inhabitants described as Bedouin organized as caravaneers. Irfan Shahid suggests that these camps soon became established settlements with permanent architecture, called parembolais in Greek and hadir in Arabic. The hadir was in this case an ethnic suburb inhabited by Arab tribesmen. The relationship between these suburbs and their adjoining cities seems similar to the association of Islamic urban foundations with an older pre-Islamic city, that we have mentioned and would be thus a clear influence of this Tribal traditions A working hypothesis for the success of this “parallactic” model of establishing new urban settlements

This leads us to study with more detail the creation of camps outside Roman forts as a specific case of our interest. By the end of the 5th century or mid 6th century AD, and as a result of changes in warfare and military strategies41, apparently most of the forts and legionary camps had been abandoned or transformed into monasteries or small villages42. ������������������������������������� Some of them, like Lejjun, were aban-

in many cases it could be also associated to commercial activities, and specifically to that of the caravans and the camps (hira-hirta/ parembolai) of the Arab Tribes established in these areas. Alternatively they could have been originated as military camps around monasteries that would have offered them logistical support (se the chapter on the monasteries as part of the strategic defence in Ghassanid period). 43 Furthermore, the transformations operated by many of these abandoned

41 This situation recalls the shift that took place from 1st WW to 2ndWW,

when the static warfare based on trenches gave way to a new and mobile strategies (like the “blitzkrieg”), that overrun and made obsolete all the infrastructures built for that sort of confrontation (like the “Maginot line” built in the immediate previous years with an outdated strategy in mind). 42 De munitionibus castorum 21; De Vries 1987a, 313; Parker 2006, 16;

forts (in functional and material terms), would eventually give birth to new architectural types on their own, that can explain the relationship and physical similarity between some Roman Military structures and later architectural types as those from the Umayyad qusur. This would be the case of the type derived from the construction of churches in the middle of the courts of abandoned Roman forts. The cases of Kahf and that of Khirbet al Kerak (identified by Whitcomb with Sinnabra -see Whitcomb 2002) are very representative. The result of this casual combination would give birth to a clear and new architectural type represented by the “civilian fort” from Andarin, or the so-called “barracks” of Qasr Ibn Wardan.

Hamarneh 2006, 91-95. The fate of these structures is also related to the issue of whether the legions of the limitanei evolved at a certain point into a sort of peasant militia before their dismissal from their duties in the Limes. These settlements can be found inside or outside the former forts (apparently the pattern of evolution would be, firstly the occupation extramuros, and later the occupation inside the walls upon the final abandonment). They could have been originated as a vicus for the families of the limitanei (once the ban to marry for Roman soldiers was lifted), but

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean therefore, “to adjust our perception of ‘Bedouin’ and ‘Bedouinity’ by proposing a generalized definition which fits recent and modern paradigms. In the course of analysis, we are able to add two aspects to the study of unsettled folk of the Near East; one is that the reliance on a multiresource economy compels ‘Bedouin’ to maintain the kind of symbiotic relationship (that Lattimore already explained decades ago –note of the author) with the populations of the verdant zones and, therefore, the state. A second aspect concerns the antiquity of ‘Bedouin’, and here we have been able to present a hypothesis of continuum which begins even before the adoption and adaptation of pastoralism in the steppic zones of the Near East. It begins in hunter-gatherer societies before the 6th millennium BC and is still recognizable in the ideals of an egalitarian social ethos among modern-day Bedouin. Bedouin, or tribally organized pastoralists, be they nomadic, semi-nomadic, sedentarized, or whatever, can be said to appear in the 6th millennium BC, and can be found in the relatively sparse textual references to ‘tribes’ from the 3rd millennium BC onwards (if not earlier: i.e. close to the beginning of writing in the fourth millennium), up to the appearance of the word ‘Aribi (‘rab)” (Helms 1990, 169-70).

beside the existing ones (that would become a standard in Islamic urbanism contrary to the “palimpsest” stratified model) is that the Tribal Arabs first and the Muslim conquerors later, avoided the alien, classical cities and settled in these hadir among fellow Arabs.44 The resulting settlements developed into cities of a distinctly Arabian type; the incipient Islamic city may be recognized in this urban form. The hadir became a madina (the traditional term for city) in a land where there had been little Byzantine building and an overall stagnation of urban life (see also Whitcomb 1989). An alternative hypothesis (or even a similar case that might have been used also as a model reinforcing the success of this pattern), would be that of the CentroAsian cities where the same “parallactic” model can be detected in pre-Islamic and Islamic period (the case of Merv would be a clear sample of this, see Arce 2007a in press). The importance and social entity of these Arab settlements (paremboleis, hadir/hirta), whether established extramuros of big cities or forts from the Limes, can be elicited from the 4th and 5th century AD onwards with the references to the Arab population converted to Christianism living in them: Sozomen mentions in his Historia Ecclesiastica the conversion of these Arab population and the participation of the ‘bishop of the Arabs’ in the Counsels of Seleucia (AD 359) and Antioch (AD 363). Is also very illuminating how Euthymius, the founder of Palestinian monasticism, would later become ‘Bishop of the paremboleis’ (named ‘castra sarracenorum’). Furthermore, the use of this term denotes the defensive, almost military character of some of these settlements, according to the role played by these Arab foederati in the strategic defence of the Limes.

The acknowledge of this continuum is very relevant for our analysis of the material culture of the period between the 3rd and the 8th century AD, that would confirm this continuity at the same time helps to unfold the complex picture of the social, political, military, cultural (and religious) relationship between these groups of population during Late Antiquity. It helps also to further understand the influence of ‘urban’ cultures from the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia on the one hand, and on the other hand, the cultural practices of Arab tribal populations from the Arabian Peninsula, and what Helms would call ‘Bedouin consciousness’. All these are key issues to analyze the basis of idiosyncratic ‘Arab’ culture with independence of the religious creeds adopted from the 4th millennium BC till the advent of Islam.

Continuity of Social patterns of relationship: the need of spaces and architectures for diplomacy Based on recent archaeo-anthropological data which allow us to see tribe-state relationships in a new perspective, Helms put forward two decades ago the hypothesis of ethnological and economic continuity as an interpretative framework for tribal elements in the Near East from the development of steppic pastoralism or pastoral nomadism in the 6th millennium BC up to the present.45 We have,

This “Bedouin consciousness” would permeate increasingly the social, political and architectural (and even aesthetic in our opinion) thinking of the times, through the decisive role in political and military role that the tribes will play from the 4th century AD onwards. A process that will witness acceleration during the Ghassanid period and that will gain momentum with under the Umayyads. The constant need for diplomacy at all levels is the best indicator of this process and the transformation and evolution of architecture, cities and territory itself the best material evidence to support this hypothesis. Helms supposes that the venues for diplomacy shifts from the traditional places near or within the limit of in the limitrophe,46 just outside by the border, towards apparently

44 This segregation from alien and aggregation with the akin (common among any human group), would in the case of the Umayyad rulers, respond as well to security issues derived from the concern of possible upheaval of the predominant and hostile Christian population. This would explain the urban settings within important cities like Amman formalised in also segregated Citadels (see Arce 2006b in press) 45 “The basic premise is that if we can prove the presence of a ‘pre-

camel’ pastoral population in the steppe (which now we can), then we should regard (successful) management of their environment as eliciting similar responses. Conversely, we should be able to use appropriately more recent data and relations across the steppic-verdant interface. And, if we can match several characteristics across time, we can reasonably suggest a continuum, rather than a revolutionary change from nonBedouin to full-Bedouin. Similarly, if we can demonstrate that social and economic systems in the verdant regions are more similar through time and space than dissimilar, we may argue that relations between our Bedouin and the settled sectors also represent a continuum. And, finally, we might cite hypothesis regarding the origins of Semitic languages in connection with Afro-Semitic and the migration of the language and

presumable also people at least as early as the Neolithic period, if not the Natufian. Should this be so then we can confirm our hypothesis in yet another most basic way which particularly parallels the social and ethnic situation in the Umayyad era: that of a common language in both state and the badiyah” (Helms 1990, 36-7). 46 Limitrophe literally means the lands set apart for the support of

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I. Arce: Romans, Ghassanids and umayads and the transformationof the limes arabicus unmarked places in the steppe (like it would be the site at ar-Risha)

ralist tribes remained always a major threat to the peace and the commerce, as periods of crisis would break this delicate balance: pressure of newcomers tribes, periods of draught and famine or internal struggles would shake the existing status quo, leading to periods of sacking and accordingly, to shifts in the balance and the existing agreements between Rome and the phylarchs of the “foreign Arab” (Araboi barbaroi) tribes.

According to Helms, there would be four basic locations in which these Bedouin stations or camps ( parembolai or hadir-hirta) would be established and diplomacy could be practiced: on or near the frontiers of states (i.e. next to military installations of the state); near important cities or towns near the verdeant zone (i.e. within the state’s boundaries); near oases or nodes in trans-steppic communications networks; or away from all of these, out in the ‘anonymous’ steppe (of these the last has been the least understood and documented, and yet it may contain the purest expression of the ‘badiya’ concept and thus furnish a key to the Bedouin content of early Islamic architecture, see Helms1990, 39). We must focus in a particular case, like the monasteries and pilgrimage sites (like ResafaSergiopolis),47 as they represent a further step in the evolution of this patterns of relationship by linking politics and religion creeds, something that will determine strongly socio political and religious characteristics of the new Islamic state.

This was in many cases a policy that oscillated periodically between the contentment and the open repression: these foederati Arabs not being Roman citizens, were seen as unwanted “foreigners” (barbaroi) by the settled urban population (but necessary for their defence). Aware of this rejection and of their increasing political role in the region (Arethas was nominated “Basileus” and “Archyphylarchs” of the Arab foederati by Justinian) and of their military strength, the Ghassanids started to unfold their own political agenda of religious proselytism and political clientelarism towards the inhabitants of the Badiya (a policy in which monasteries and palatine venues played an essential role48). This led them to a intense building activity (according to which they deserved being called “philoktistai” –“building-lovers”) becoming a clear symbol of their new political status. The Ghassanids realised (exactly as the Umayyads would do one century later) that they needed to seek support among the “outsiders” (the pastoralists) of that urbanite society to gain a sound social support for their aspirations. The “internal” border became thus apparent once more, firstly, in the open confrontation between two opposed conceptions of Christianity (the Monophysite creed of the Ghassanids preached to the pastoralists through their monasteries,49 and the Diophysite one of the “Hellenised” urban population), and secondly, in the differences between the strong cultural identity of the Ghassanids (an Arab culture of Yemenite origin, closer to that of the Arab pastoralists) in conflict with that of the Hellenised Roman urban world. Through the implementation of this political clientelarism and religious proselytism based on their deep Arab identity, they paved the way for the “Arabization” and the shift towards Islamic “pure monotheism” of the region that would be carried out by the Umayyads (that in so many aspects followed the footprints traced by the Ghassanids). What we will further demonstrate, is that the theatres for all these policies remained almost the same for centuries, despite the changes in those policies, due to

The formation of Early Islamic Architecture (and that built by the Christian Arab tribes like the Ghassanids/Jafnids) would be thus deeply determined by this context. As we have already seen, the development of certain architectural and urban concepts (aiming an effective and symbolic territorial control) would be the result of this influence. According to that character of continuum in the essential pattern of social relationship in the region, the discussion must be carried out diachronically to properly understand and identify the elements of continuity (determined mainly by that cultural continuum defined by the ‘internal border’ between sedentarized and pastoralist populations, between ‘State’ and ‘Bedouin tribes’) and those of change determined mainly by the conditions of the ‘external border’ between the major superpowers and the relative relationship of the corresponding confronted ‘States’ and their clientele tribes. These changes will gain momentum once more with the advent of Islam, in which both states (Persia and Rome) would disappear as actors in the region and with them would disappear also the “external border”, becoming the Tribal Arab groups part of the ‘State’ itself. In this moment the traditional diplomacy will change drastically, becoming even more relevant for the political and military issues at stake.

48 This political and religious agenda was seen with deep mistrust by the

Political clientelarism and religious proselytism

Romans, concerned with the idea of the establishment of another ‘Arab’ Empire (like the “Palmyrene adventure” centuries earlier). 49 The social and political importance of monasticism for the

During Late Antiquity, the occasional raids of the pasto-

Monophysites can be traced in the attempt by Jacob Baradeus to create a separate parallel Monophysite hierarchy, with new rival sees based on monasteries, in opposition to those from the Diophysite Church that had their sees named after the main cities. This dichotomy between urbansettled population with their city-based religious hierarchy, loyal to the Diophysite or Chalcedonian “orthodox” church, in contrast with the nomad and pastoralist “parishes”, related to Monophysite monasteries, that can be elucidated from this episode, is of great importance to understand the dynamics of the fierce internal struggles of the Christian Church in pre-Islamic times, and the disruptive effect in the sociopolitical lives of these territories.

the troops on the frontier, and thus describes the zone, the borderland occupied by the Ghassanids (Shahid 2002, xxxiii). In fact, it corresponds to the so-called Badiya, the steppe area inhabited by the bedw, bordering the actual desert (sahra) between it and the cultivated lands were cities were set. 47 Justinian extended the power of the Ghassanids till Sergiopolis, that was also raised to a bishopric see because the shrine of S. Sergius. On occasion of the religious festivity and the related peregrination and to hold audiences with the tribes that had been seasonally dispersed.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean their original strategic location: Thus, Roman military forts (set on previous Nabatean or earlier settlements) would be transformed, once abandoned by the Roman Army, into monasteries and palaces by the Ghassanids and afterwards into Umayyad “qusur”, as part of this shift of policies and political actors operated in Late Antiquity.

The strategic location of these places at crossroads, near often travelled routes51 or perennial water sources, that had made of them compulsory meeting points firstly for the local pastoral populations and for travellers, merchants or pilgrims (that could be occasionally sheltered and fed in the monasteries) would explain this pattern of reuse. In many cases monks took advantage of the abandoned Roman forts (like at Hallabat) because they had the same strategic location they needed (combining ascetic isolation and contact with the pastoralists). Actually, the Romans had carried out a policy, between contentment and repression of the local nomadic tribes, but similar in territorial strategic terms, establishing their forts in areas of gathering, access or transit used by them. But as we will see, this transformation into monasteries does not mean as we have seen, that they did not play any further role in the defensive strategy of the Ghassanids for the limitrophe, but that the means and the approach were radically different. This location of some monasteries in important crossroads or difficult stations of harsh routes would explain for instance the use of these buildings and their towers as watch posts and simultaneously as reference landmarks that would help travellers to orient themselves52; towers that during the night would become lighthouses (phanarion in Greek, or manara in Arabic), a fact that is frequently mentioned in pre-Islamic poetry.

During Late Antiquity the role played by monasteries in the Christianization of the Arab tribes, would be very relevant. In this case, diplomacy would be linked to an increasing pro-active policy of conversion. This is crystalclear especially when we realize the strong support given by the Ghassanids to monasticism as a way of spreading Christian Monophysitism among the Bedouin population of the steppe (intended as a further step to reinforce that support to their political agenda with religious motivations). In this way, the alliance would be not only in political but also in religious terms, confronted with the Byzantine central power and that of the Diophysite creed of the ‘State’. Once more, this would be the model that would follow the Umayyads, seeking political support and the subsequent conversion of these Tribal groups. In many cases the religious conversion did not come automatically alongside with the political support provided (actually this was not an obstacle for Christian tribes like the Kinda to join the Muslim army to fight Byzantium, gaining in many cases higher ranks than other converted-to-Islam tribes). This, together with the change of ranks of many of the federate troops under Ghassanid command during the conquest of the Levant prove that the socio-cultural affinity was more determinant than a religious difference in political and military terms.

Religion and Politics After the defeat of the Salihids (the Arab federate tribe that had hold up to that moment the phylarchy), the Ghassanids received from the Byzantines the responsibility for the defence of the limes, but also the role of regional political leaders as phylarcs of the federate tribes53. They demonstrated their religious zeal in promoting the monastic institution (that had determined so much their own conversion), not only as an expression of their Monophysite faith, but also as part of their political strategy for the effective control of the region that we have detailed (including the Hellenized cities and not only the fringes of the desert). After ten years of the foedus of 529, that made Arethas king, he succeeded in his efforts to resuscitate the Mo-

Monasteries as instruments of propaganda fide & territorial control A deeply-rooted and diverse monastic culture was developed in the region during the 5th to the 7th century AD: there are innumerable references to monasteries, hermits, stylites, and different congregations of monks in the region, especially in the fringes of the desert. Many of these monasteries (as it is the case for Hallabat) were established on former Roman forts from the Limes Arabicus. A pattern of re-use, that implies more than just the mere re-occupation of abandoned buildings by religious communities, can be elicited. Monasteries were essential for the conversion policy, due to territorial and living conditions of the region. As a matter of fact, Arabs became acquainted with Christianity through their contact with monks living a contemplative life in the desert: Syriac missionaries played an essential role in conversion, while the construction of monasteries played a pivotal role in their missionary activity. The contemporary accounts of their activities show the close ties between pastoral communities and monasteries, a relationship very relevant to understand its social role and influence among nomadic or recently settled population, essential to interpret the evolution underwent by these sites in general and by Hallabat in particular.50

Fowden & Fowden 2004. 51 In our case, besides the abundant sources of water in the vicinity, can be mentioned the nearby Via Nova Traiana connecting Bosra and Amman, and the routes towards Azraq and wadi Sirhan. 52 This stands again (as in the case of the hydraulic and agricultural infrastructures, or the logistic and medical support offered by monasteries) as a sample of that philantropia (intended to the benefit of the people living in the desert) that helped to the spread of the Christian faith among the pastoralist nomads of the region. Wayfarers and caravaneers would thus rely in these monastic structures that were created in traditional stations or in difficult places, which would offer them improved and well kept traditional resources beside new ones, together with spiritual relief and guidance. 53 Under Emperor Anastasius the Byzantine world shifted towards Monophysitism. The first foedus with the Ghassanids was signed under his reign (in 502 AD) something that has been indicated to explain their attachment to Monophysite creed, while Tanukh and Salihids (the previous federate tribes that were bestowed with the phylarchate in the 4th and 5th century AD respectively) were Diophysites.

50 For a more in depth review of these issues see Arce 2006a in press, and

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I. Arce: Romans, Ghassanids and umayads and the transformationof the limes arabicus nophysite Church54. It was further empowered with the nomination of Theodore as presiding Bishop of the entire Arab federate Church in Oriens, who besides Jacobus Baradeus reinforced and promoted the Monophysite faith. The close relationship between phylarch and Bishop was the base for a political and religious strategy of reciprocal support, with the common aim of expanding the Monophysite Christianism among the pagan inhabitants of the Badiya/limitrophe, and by doing this, gaining political and military support for the Ghassanids. This policy was accelerated under Harith ibn Jabala: Actually the Monophysite creed almost took over the East by 535 AD, with the exception of the Diophysite strongholds, namely Jerusalem and Antioch.

the phylarchs from camp to camp. Bosra was chosen as its see and the venue for the cathedral consecrated some years earlier (513 AD). His jurisdiction extended to the countries south of Edessa and west of the Tigris and all the Arabian Desert until Jerusalem. Both bishops were ordained by the Monophysite patriarch of Alexandria, Theodisius, in exile in the capital under the protection of Empress Theodora, who supported the event. Jacob Baradeus could not regain his seat in Edessa (as it was the seat of the Orthodox bishop). He remained in the rural area and attempted to establish a new organization, based not on the urban parishes but on the monasteries in the steppe and the rural areas where the support of the Ghassanids was guaranteed against the prosecution of the state. This rebellious attitude towards the Orthodox Diophysite Church and the central power worsened with the support to “Black Paul” who was nominated bishop of Antioch (also in the hands of the Diophysites), and later tried to take over the seat of the defunct patriarch of Alexandria. By 535 AD Monophysite creed had almost taken over the Levant except the Orthodox strongholds of Antioch and Jerusalem.

The social and political importance of monasticism, especially among the Monophysites can be traced in the already mentioned attempt by Jacob Baradeus to create a separate parallel Monophysite hierarchy, with new rival sees based on monasteries, in opposition to those from the Diophysite Church that had their sees named after the main cities. This dichotomy between urban-settled population with their city-based religious hierarchy, loyal to the Diophysite or Chalcedonian “orthodox” church, in contrast with the nomad and pastoralist “parishes”, related to Monophysite monasteries, that can be elucidated from this episode, is of great importance to understand the dynamics of the fierce internal struggles of the Christian Church in pre-Islamic times, and the disruptive effect in the socio-political lives of these territories.55 This patronage was thus an essential element of their policies as new rulers of Bilad as-Sham (although still on behalf of the Byzantine emperor). The discovery of a complex like Hallabat, that gathers in the same premises a Ghassanid palatine establishment and a monastic one, is especially illuminating of their strategy based on their religious zeal and their political agenda, expressed in this support to the construction of churches and monasteries.

Epilogue. Ghassanids & Umayyads. The pursue of power of the Arab elites Under this perspective, is easy to see the Ghasanids as forerunners of the Umayyad strategies for political and territorial control: these ‘Bedouin politics’ and the related clientelar policy of subsidies and alliances were actually of capital importance for the Umayyads: firstly, the Marwanid Caliphate was supported by the Kalbi chief, Ibn Bahdal (who was related by marriage) and others, when Marwan was acknowledged as the candidate of the Umayyad party (at a meeting which, significantly, was not held in Damascus but at Jabiya, the former Ghassanid stronghold). This would demonstrate how without Bedouin support - in this case both Yamani and Qaysi factions - the succession could probably not have been took place. Similarly, ‘Abd al-Malik’s succession in AD 685 was ‘smoothly managed by the Yamanis’. Secondly, it fell to the caliphate to maintain ‘peace’ in the steppe, specifically between the two main factions in Syria: the Yamanis (Kalb, Tanoukh, Judham, and Taghlib); and the Qaysi (Sulaym, Kilab, and ‘Uqayl), who continued their tribal rivalry (‘asabiyya) throughout the Umayyad period. In order to achieve this pacification, ‘Abd al-Malik tied himself by marriage to the Qaysi side, while other members of the Marwanid family were more closely related to the Yamanis. During the second Fitna (AD 680-692), therefore, must have been a period of intense diplomacy and the development of a specific clientelar policy with regard to the Bedouin of the Syrian steppe, which was basic for guarantee the control of power by the Umayyads (Helms 1990, 50-51). In this context we can conclude that the Ghassanids set the paths that would be followed by the Umayyads one century later in terms of political and territorial control strategies (adapted of course, to the new political and religious context).

The making of an Christian Arab kingdom The breakaway church that Harith ibn Jabala helped to establish and of which he became the head, was a sort of “national” Arab church (the Monophysite Aramaic and Arabic churches were set apart with separate bishops and hierarchy, but both under the Ghassanid control), a basic pillar for a “Syrian kingdom”. Jacob Baradeus was nominated Bishop of the Aramaic Church, while Theodore was nominated Bishop for both the Rhomaic Arabs (living in cities and towns) and for the Tribal Arabs (living in the camps hirta/hadir [castra sarracenorum]), thus following 54 After his visit to Constantinople c. 540 AD. 55

The suspicion of the Byzantines about the Ghassanids’ aims, using they influence over the federate tribes and their support and links with the Monophysite cause to create an Arab empire not subjected to Rome (as Oedenatus and Zenobia had attempted long time ago) was not a groundless one. The dichotomy the Byzantines faced was between their dependence on the Ghassanids for the defence of the Limes Arabicus, and their increasing lack of trust in them, as Byzantine Emperors were not ready to allow them to go further in their political ambitions.

We can conclude that from the 6th through the 8th century 69

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean AD many military structures from the Limes Arabicus underwent a process of transformation and re-use that took advantage of their strategic location, and that in many cases follow a recurrent and similar pattern. The final aim in all the cases, despite the different approaches, was that of achieving an effective control of the territory and the population that inhabited it, on the basis of the exploitation of these strategic locations and their peculiar conditions. The setting where the Ghassanids deployed their palatine protocol and their patronage of the monastic institution, happened to be in many cases the same where the clientele policy carried out by the Umayyads with the Bedouin population of the Badiya (from which they obtained also political and military support, as the Ghassanids had done before) would take place years later, but also the same where the Romans had carried their own coactive strategy to control the same region and population centuries earlier. Eventually, the reoccupation by Umayyad qusur of these venues demonstrates the socio-economic and political role that they played, and the continuity of certain strategies of control of these territories from Roman to Islamic period with a shifting from coercive policies towards more persuasive and clientelar ways of relationship between the successive lords of the territory and the population that inhabited it. These new ways of relationship respond to a new political approach to the management of the “internal border” between the urban world of the settled population and that of the pastoralist inhabitants of the Badiya, carried out firstly by the Ghassanids and afterwards by the Umayyads, that contrarily to the policy of the Roman rulers, sought support among those who were culturally akin to them.

Archaeology of Jordan IX (Proceedings of the 9th International Conference ICHAJ hold at Petra in May 2004). Department of Antiquities, Amman. Arce, I. 2009a. Hallabat: Castellum, Coenobium, Praetoriun, Qasr. The Construction of a Palatine Architecture under the Umayyads (I). In Residences, Castles, SettlementsTransformation Processes from Late Antiquity to Early Islamic Times, (Proceedings of the Colloquium on Late Antiquity and Early Islamic Archaeology in Bilad alSham Damascus, November 2006). Orient Archäologie. Band 17. DAI. German Archaeological Institute, 153-182. Damascus. Arce, I. 2009b. “The Palatine City at Amman Citadel”. The Construction of a Palatine Architecture under the Umayyads (II)” In Residences, Castles, SettlementsTransformation Processes from Late Antiquity to Early Islamic Times, (Proceedings of the Colloquium on Late Antiquity and Early Islamic Archaeology in Bilad alSham Damascus, November 2006). Orient Archäologie, Band 17. DAI. German Archaeological Institute, 179-212. Damascus. Arce, I. 2009c. Coenobium, Palatium & Hira: The Ghassanid Complex at Hallabat. In F.Al-Khraysheh (ed.), Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan X (Proceedings of the 10th International Conference ICHAJ –Washington, May 2007). Department of Antiquities, 937966. Amman. Brands, G. 1988. Der sogenannte Audienzsaal des alMundir in Resafa. Damaszener Mitteilungen 10, 211235. DAI. Damascus. Bujard, J. 1995. La fortification de Kastron Mayfa’a/ Umm ar-Rasas. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 5, 241–249. Fowden, G., Key Fowden, E. 2004. Studies on Hellenism, Christianity and the Umayyads. Athens. Gaube, H. 1974. An Examination of the Ruins at Qasr Burqu. ADAJ, 1993-100. Hamarneh, B. 2006. Settlement Patterns in Provincia Arabia from Diocletian to the Arab Conquest. Archaological Evidence, in A. Lewin and P. Pelegrini, (eds.), Settlements and Demography in the Near East in Late Antiquity. Istituti Editoriali e Poligrafici Internazionali. Pisa Roma. Helms, S., Betts, A., Lancaster, F., Lenzen, C. J. 1990. Early Islamic Architecture of the Desert: A Bedouin Station in Eastern Jordan. Edinburgh, University Press. Herzfeld, E. 1921. Mshatta, Hira und Badiya. Die Mittelander des Islams und ihre Baukunst. Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 42, 104-46. Isaac, B. 1998. The Eastern Frontier, in. Cameron, A and Garnsey, P. (eds.) The Cambrigge Ancient History Vol. XIII, 437-460. Cambridge. Kennedy, D. 2004. The Roman Army in Jordan. CBRL. London. Kennedy, H. 1985. From Polis to Madina: Urban Change in Late Antique and Early Islamic Syria, Past & Present 106 (Feb 1985), 3-27. Krautheimer, R. 1981. Arquitectura Paleocristiana y Bizantina. Madrid. Lattimore, R. 1947. An Inner Asian Approach to the His-

BIBLIOGRAPHY Akbar, J. 1990. Khatta and the Territorial Structure of Early Muslim Towns. Muqarnas, 6, 22-32. Arce, I. 2008 (in press). Qasr Hallabat, Qasr Bshir & Deyr el Kahf. Building Techniques, Architectural Typology and Change of Use of three Quadriburgia from the Limes Arabicus. Interpretation and Significance. In Proceedings of the workshop ‘Archeologia della Costruzione II: I cantieri edili dell’Italia e delle provincie Romane orientali’. Siena Certosa di Pontignano 13-15 November 2008. Archivo Español de Arqueología. Madrid. Arce, I. 2006a. Qasr Hallabat (Jordan) Revisited: Reassessment of the Material Evidence. In H. Kennedy (ed.), Muslim Military Architecture in Greater Syria, 26– 44. Leiden. Arce, I. 2006 b. Umayyad Building Techniques and the Merging of Roman-Byzantine and Partho-Sasanian Traditions: Continuity and Change, in I. Jacobs, A. Sarantis and E. Zanini (eds.), Technology in Transition: AD 300–650, Late Antique Archaeology 4.1, 491-537. Leiden. Arce, I. 2007. Qasr al-Hallabat: Continuity and Change from the Roman-Byzantine to the Umayyad Period. In F. Al-Khraysheh (ed.), Studies in the History and 70

I. Arce: Romans, Ghassanids and umayads and the transformationof the limes arabicus torical Geography of China. London. Lavan, L. 2007. Explaining Technological Change: Innovation, Stagnation, Recession and Replacement, in I. Jacobs, A. Sarantis and E. Zanin (eds.), Technology in Transition: AD 300–650, Late Antique Archaeology 4.1. xv-xl .Leiden. Lassus, J. 1947. Sanctuaries Chrétiens de Syrie. Paris. Lewin, A.S. 2007. Amr Ibn ‘Adi, Mavia, The Phylarchs and the Late Roman Army, in A.S. Lewin and P. Pellegrini (eds), The Late Roman Army in the Near East from Diocletian to the Arab Conquest. BAR International Series 1717. Oxford. Lenoir, M. 1999. Dumayr, faux camp romain, vraie residence palatiale. Syria 76, 227–236. Monferrer Sala J.P. 1999. Documento fundacional en Árabe del Monasterio de Santa Catalina en el Monte Sinaí. Anaquel de Estudios Árabes X, 79-95. Madrid.

Parker, S.T. 2006. The Roman Frontier in Central Jordan. Final Report on the Limes Arabicus Project, 1980-1989. Dumbarton Oaks Washington D.C. Shahid, I. 2001. The sixth-century church complex at Nitl, Jordan. The Ghassanid dimension. Liber Annus 51, 285– 292. Shahid I. 2002. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. 2, Part 1: Toponymy, Monuments, Historical Geography and Frontier Studies. Washington D.C. Wheatley, P.2001. The Places Where Men Pray Together. Chicago. Whitcomb, D. 2002. Khirbet al-Karak Identified with Sinnabra. Al-‘Usur al-Wusta. The Bulletin of the Middle East Medievalists 14.1, 1-6. Whitcomb, D. 1998. Discovering a new city in Syria: Hadir Qinnasrin. Chicago.

Figure1. Qasr Hallabat. Reconstruction of the complex in the second half of the 6th century AD. After being abandoned and destroyed by an earthquake in AD 551, the Roman fort was refurbished into a monastery and a palatine structure by the Ghassanid phylarchs.

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Figure 2. Qasr Hallabat. Phasing Plans.

Figure 3. Hallabat. View of the complex from the North. Notice, to the right, the traces of the first Severan fort (transformed into a monastery in the 6th century AD) embraced by later structures (the 6th century AD palatine complex that replicate, in plan, the lay-out of the Tetrarchic quadriburgium, most of it destroyed in AD 551 by an earthquake- of which survive the southern wall, seen in the background, and the entrance hallway to the left of the image). The different building techniques can be identified in the next figure.

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Figure 4. Qasr Hallabat. Building Techniques’ Sequence. (a): Severan Fort (Phase.I), NE wall. Note the well squared and finely jointed ashlar masonry of the original lower courses (the upper ones are refurbishments of later period –mainly Tetrarchic); (b): Tetrarchic quadriburgium (Phase.II). Surviving SE wall. Internal elevation. Note the roughly hewn blocks and traces of the thick mortar jointing; (c): Ghassanid palace and monastery (Phase.III). NW wall & N tower. External elevation. Notice at the base of the walls the remains of the crude Tetrarchic quadriburgium masonry reused as foundation. Notice also the courses of basalt headers combined with limestone and basalt stretchers; (d): Ghassanid palace and monastery (Phase. III). Main court. Palace partition walls. Notice the same building technique used in (c) with headers’ courses placed each five courses of stretchers (all of them built with basalt in this case). Orthorectification by Ignacio Moscoso & Andrea Sbardellati.

Figure 5. Deyr el Kahf. General Plan. Note the similarities with Qasr Hallabat, in its physical transformation and pattern of change of use: A first Severan fort without towers, is embraced by a Tetrarchic Quadriburgium, and later transformed into a monastery with the construction of a chapel in the courtyard (the latest use of the building is preserved in the present Arab name, literally “the monastery of the cave”)

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Figure 6. Deyr el Kahf. Aerial view showing the layout of the first Severan fort embraced by the Tetrarchic Quadriburgium.

.Figure 7. Umm ar-Rassas (Kastron Mefaa ): Note the extramural neighbourhood (probably born as a vicus during the military use of the fort, or alternatively as a hirta/hadir once the fort had lost its original military use), and the transformation of the interior of the Roman fort into a urban complex. Similar samples can be seen at Khirbet Samra, Umm al-Jimal, Khirbet Khaw, etc. (see Hamarneh 2006).

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

FRONTIERE GEOSTORICHE, FRONTIERE CULTURALI Franco Cardini Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane

Abstract (2008) Middle Eastern frontiers and settlements between document and monument Frontier is a question to deal with under two aspects: geo-historically, as transit, boundary, meeting/clash place; and anthropologically, as exchange, confrontation,’tradition/traslation’ place. The Middle Eastern area between the River Jordan, Oronte, Euphrates and Sinai was a land crossed as early as the Antiquity by merchant roads (‘Kings’, ‘Spices’, ‘Silk’) and holy routes (Hebrew ‘aliah’, Muslim ‘haj’, Christian ‘peregrinatio’). Within such a diachronic context, the Crusading experience defied and tackled problems and necessities of the territory by means of integrating the new Latin components on the one hand (feudal princedoms, strong points managed by the Military Orders, trade requirements of merchants, especially from the coastal centres), with the inconstant scenery of Muslim potentates, characterised by strong internal dynamics, on the other. As a consequence, the unity of the two frontier line on the east and west of the River Jordan, but also their flexibility and changeability, and the experimental nature that emerge throughout the time from the ways of territory control and management. Within such context and problems, the real “turning point” is actually represented by the conquests of Saladin at the end of the 12th century and the resettling of the coastal area of the Crusader Kingdom during the Acco period.

Chiunque abbia visitato la vasta area vicino-orientale compresa tra Turchia meridionale, Siria, Libano, Palestina e Giordania nonché l’altra, situata tra Aragona, Castiglia, Estremadura e Andalusia, non può non essere rimasto colpito da una strana, anzi impressionante e quasi inquietante serie di somiglianze e di analogie, che sembrano quasi partire addirittura dal clima e dal suolo: l’aridità del deserto di pietra dai toni cangianti dal bruno all’ocra al nero, i pochi e avari corsi d’acqua, il cielo che sembra quasi sempre d’un profondo azzurro smalto. O meglio: che sembrava tale, dal momento che la politica di regolamentazione idrica portata avanti con coraggio, ostinazione e successo dal governo spagnolo tra Anni Cinquanta e Anni Settanta, con i numerosi bacini artificiali sparsi nel centro della penisola iberica, ha provocato un profondo mutamento nel paesaggio e nel microclima spagnolo realizzando perfino l’impossibile o quale che fino a ieri sembrava tale, cioè che i contadini della Mancha hanno visto vagare sempre più spesso nel loro cielo ardente grosso nubi bianche, e talvolta perfino nere di pioggia. Ma, accanto alla analogie climatiche, geofisiche e idrologiche, un’altra risulta impressionante: quella dei numerosi castelli. Ai margini nord-ovest e sud-est del Mediterraneo, due terre lontane sembrano aver sviluppato scenari profondamente simili. Né tutto ciò stupirà più di tanto, quando si consideri che i protagonisti di quell’antica costruzione di paesaggi lontani erano in una qualche misura provenienti dallo stesso nido. Templari e Ospitalieri di San Giovanni, ad esempio. Le reliquie archeologico-monumentali sembrano a prima vista parlare un linguaggio compatto e omogeneo: quello di due ampie fasce irregolari disseminate di fortezze, tanto nelle penisola iberica quanto nell’area l’asse latitudinario della quale è costituito dalla catena del Libano, dal Giordano e dal Mar Rosso. Ma le esperienze stratigrafiche di tipo archeologico-filologico fanno parlare a quei nobili resti un ben diverso linguaggio: quello degli insediamenti militari più volte contesi, distrutti, restaurati, passati di mano in mano. E la fascia statica di castelli si trasforma sotto i nostri occhi nel ‘film’ d’una sequenza variabile di

luoghi che la documentazione storica aiuta a coordinare tra loro in linee e in fasce confinarie, in un contesto limitaneo cangiante, permeabile, persistente senza dubbio ma all’interno d’una mobilità continua, che lo rende tutto sommato perfino ambiguo. La vera protagonista del nostro discorso è una ‘frontiera’ cangiante, un no man’s land drammatico e reciprocamente permeabile fatto di scontri e di colpi di mano, di raids inattesi e crudeli (le algarades spagnole), di tregue e di scambi di prigionieri. Sino dai primi del XIX secolo si affacciò in alcuni studiosi la tesi che il concettoguida e il primo nucleo originario di quelle istituzioni che noi siamo abituati a definire come ‘gli Ordini religiosomilitari nascesse in qualche modo dal modello del ribat, la ridotta militare e al tempo stesso religiosa che s’insediava alla frontiera con lo ard al-Harb, la ‘terra della guerra’ (cioè quella abitata dai non-musulmani) per farne un caposaldo del jihad e nel quale per un certo tempo dimoravano dei volontari che venivano a vivervi dei periodi contemporaneamente di ritiro spirituale e di addestramento alla guerra: i murabitun, appunto. Nonostante tale tesi non sia mai stata del tutto corroborata da prove certe, e non manchino anzi le contraddizioni, essa ha nella sostanza retto soprattutto dal punto di vista storico-antropologico, vale a dire da quello della circolazione d’influenze reciproche (Demurger 2002, 300-5). Tutto il secolo XI ci fa assistere al risveglio delle genti euro-occidentali e al loro riversarsi sul Mediterraneo e sulle aree limitrofe per conquistarlo, contendendone il possesso a Bisanzio e all’Islam. Tra VII e X secolo, l’avanzata musulmana aveva determinato una quantità di nuove frontiere mobili dalla Siria alla Mesopotamia all’Eritrea al Maghreb ai Pirenei. Nella seconda metà del X secolo, le incursioni ungare, normanne e arabo-africane che avevano tormentato l’Europa e i suoi litorali mediterranei sembrarono acquietarsi, mentre dal Settentrione francese dov’erano insediati i normanni d’origine svedese e dalle città marinare italiche del Tirreno partiva un dapprima incerto, poi sempre più forte e sicuro movimento che parve – e qualcuno l’ha interpretato così – la ‘risposta’ occidentale 75

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean (diciamolo in termini cari ad Arnold Toynbee) alla ‘sfida’ asiatica. Mentre Genova e Pisa si liberavano dell’ipoetca costituita dall’emirato balearico di al-Mujahid che le minacciava all’inizio del secolo e intraprendevano una serie di campagne navali contro le basi saracene in Corsica, in Sardegna, in Sicilia, nel Nordafrica, che avrebbero condotto alle epiche tappe della conquista del porto di Palermo nel 1063, di al-Mahdiyya nel 1087 e delle stesse Baleari nel 1113-5, si andava configurando un movimento di riconquista del territorio iberico promosso dal regno asturiano, ma sostenuto da cavalieri provenienti dalle terre poste a nord dei Pirenei. Come terminus a quo del movimento di riconquista sia sul mare, sia nella penisola iberica, si potrebbe forse prendere l’episodio della cattura di Maiolo abate di Cluny, nel 972, da parte dei saraceni del covo corsaro di Fraxinetum - situato presso l’odierna Saint-Tropez -; egli, liberato solo dietro versa­mento di un gravoso riscatto, era il consigliere ascoltato dei più grandi principi della Cristianità. Fu soprattutto Guglielmo conte di Provenza che lo vendicò, infliggendo ai saraceni una crudele lezione; e furono, con lui, i signori della valle del Rodano a ripulire dai corsari la zona di Fraxinetum e a spartirsi i proventi di quell’impresa.

la morte santa ed esemplare. Solo negli ultimi istanti della sua vita, sui campi di Roncisvalle - e non diversamente in fondo da quei cavalieri che si facevano monaci in punto di morte -, Rolando abbraccia la conversio: non è la sua vita, ma la sua morte a giustifi­carlo dinanzi a Dio. Non meno del pellegrinaggio intrapreso dai pubblici peccatori, la spedizione militare intrapresa contro i musul­mani è un iter poenitentiale: ed è per questo che la morte in battaglia contro i nemici di Dio è un martirio. Non meno che sulla Spagna contesa fra Cristianità ed Islam, un nugolo di cavalieri di modesto rango e d’incerta fortuna si rovesciò sull’Italia meridionale lacerata dalle contese fra bizantini, principati longobardi, città marinare desi­derose di autonomia. Non tutti erano normanni: se gli Altavilla provenivano in effetti da un modesto lignaggio dei dintorni di Coutances, tra i cavalieri che a partire dal 1030 si riversarono nel sud della penisola in cerca di fortuna o almeno di un ingaggio come mercenari ve n’erano di provenienti dal Maine, dall’Anjou, dalla Bretagna, dalla Fiandra. Era evidente che tutte queste varie situazioni avrebbero trovato uno sbocco obiettivo nel movimento crociato. Dal discorso di Urbano II a Clermont il carattere penitenziale che si vuol attribuire da parte ecclesiastica all’impresa appare chiaro; d’altronde, il papa si riferisce con precisione anche alle necessità dei bellatores, che potranno legittimamente ricavare dalla lotta contro gli infedeli quel che erano abituati ad estorcere ai cristiani. E la crociata fu dal canto suo anche il sintomo di un diffuso malessere che si presentava sotto le spoglie stesse del brigantaggio. In qualche caso -che veniva subito divulgato a scopo paradigmaticoanche nel brigantaggio si trovavano del resto occasioni di conversio. Come quei sei cavaIieri-briganti che, appostati presso la strada maestra, rapinavano tutti i viandanti, mercanti o pellegrini che fossero; e che poi si sarebbero convertiti e presso quello che era stato il teatro delle loro gesta criminose avrebbero fondato il monastero di Affligem nel Brabante. All’appello di Urbano II l’aristocrazia europea rispose dunque, fra 1095 e 1096, in modo inatteso. Oltre e al di sopra dei dérecinés in cerca di fortuna o dei milites che i meccanismi feudosignoriali connessi col mantenimento della coesione dei lignaggi avevano spogliato d’eredità e costretti a correre le vie dell’aventure v’erano i ‘grandi’ che organizzarono la partenza, e ai quali si accodò un imprecisato, certo alto mumero di pauperes desiderosi di proseguire il pellegrinaggio per Gerusalemme. Si trattava di principi come il marchese di Provenza signore di gran parte del sud della Francia, il duca di Normandia fratello del re d’Inghilterra, il fratello del re di Francia, il duca della Bassa Lorena e il conte di Fiandra che controllavano gran parte della popolosa area del basso corso dei grandi fiumi che tra Francia e Germania si gettano nel Mare del Nord, il figlio primogenito di Roberto il Guiscardo. Vero è che si trattava d’un’alta aristocrazia in crisi: o perché avversata da parenti o da scomodi potenti vicini, o perché aveva scelto negli anni precedenti di appoggiare la ‘parte sbagliata’ (cioè quella perdente) nel conflitto tra papato e impero romano-germanico. Un’alta aristocrazia vogliosa

L’episodio di Fraxinetum segnò l’inizio di una lunga serie d’imprese della cavalleria cristiana sotto l’egida di Cluny: imprese nelle quali la volontà di riscossa contro l’infedele e il desiderio di personale riscatto spirituale (sancito dallo stesso carattere penitenzia­le dell’impegno guerriero) si fondevano col desiderio di conquistare terre e ricchezze. Un’aristocrazia posta in crisi economica dall’espan­sione agricola e commerciale di quegli anni cercava così nuovi sbocchi che le consentissero di arricchirsi e al tempo stesso di conservare e anzi di accrescere il proprio prestigio sociale. La Reconquista spagnola, appoggiata da Cluny e dai papi rifor­matori come Alessandro II - il vecchio capo della pataria milanese Anselmo da Baggio -,1 vide in prima linea, accanto ai cavalieri aragonesi e castigliani, quelli provenzali e borgognoni. In quel clima di entusiasmo religioso e guerriero la memoria tornava a Carlomagno che la leggenda voleva anche pellegrino a Costantinopoli e a Gerusalemme, ai ricordi gloriosi della battaglia di Poitiers del 732 (o 733) e della campagna spagnola del 778; e ne scaturiva così la Chanson de Roland. Essa nasceva però - qualunque sia stato sulla sua ispirazione il peso della tradizione - soprattutto dal presente, sulle vie di pellegrinaggio di Santiago (il celebre camino), e traeva vigore dalle lotte per la Reconquista. Rolando, l’eroe cristiano al quale con il tempo si sareb­be dedicato una sorta di culto agiolatrico, era di fatto il modello del miles Christi scaturito dalle ‘leghe di pace’ e dalla riforma gregoria­na: un cavaliere ancora violento e vanaglorioso, la cui vita intera, non irreprensibile, si giustifica e si redime tuttavia attraverso la causa servita e

1

È di Alessandro II la bolla Eos qui in Hispaniam del 1063, promulgata in relazione a un’impresa diretta contro la città di Barbastro in Aragona e modello delle successive Bullae cruciatae (cfr. E. Bernadet, Croisade, bulle de la, in Dictìonnaìre de droit canonique, IV, coll. 77399).

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F. Cardini: frontiere geostoriche, frontiere culturali e bisognosa di cambiar aria per qualche anno o magari per sempre, desiderosa quindi di trovar davvero - secondo l’Apocalisse – “un cielo nuovo e una terra nuova”, di ricostruirsi potere e ricchezza altrove. In tal modo l’esodo della crociata favorì, tra l’altro, il nascere dell’Europa delle grandi monarchie feudali. La folla di guerrieri armati e di pellegrini originariamente seminermi detti cruce signati dal simbolo di pellegrinaggio e di penitenza che Urbano II aveva loro assegnato a Clermont (e ch’era anche il segno visibile dell’indulgenza spirituale e delle prerogative temporali accordate loro dal papa) attraversò Anatolia e Siria in due lunghi anni di marcia, tra peripezie e sofferenze inaudite. Alla fine, si abbatté su Gerusalemme tra primavera e principio del’estate 1099 e conquistò d’assalto la città il 15 luglio di quell’anno. Dopo la vittoria occorreva però consolidarne le strutture istituzional e militari. E’ su questo sfondo che si giunge alla fondazione degli Ordini religioso-militari, nei quali non a caso molti ex-cavalieri briganti recitavano con la loro conversio la palinodia dei crimini consumati nella precedente vita, cioè quelli di spogliare i viandanti: infatti, scopo principale dei Cavalieri di San Giovanni era accogliere i pellegrini, e dei Templari scortarli e proteggerli durante la visita in Terrasanta. D’altro canto, a parte il radicalismo della soluzione religioso-militare, la cavalleria restava prospettiva etica da viversi nel secolo: ma secondo parametri che la subordinavano ai programmi ecclesiastici di pace e di mantenimento dell’ordine.

il problema che alcuni grandi principi (Goffredo duca della Bassa Lorena, Raimondo marchese di Provenza, Boemondo d’Altavilla) e un numero forse notevole di cavalieri e di gente di minor conto si erano bruciati, per così dire, i ponti dietro le spalle: e l’Oltremare doveva ormai essere la loro nuova patria, la terra della loro nuova vita e la base per nuove conquiste o comunque per una vita nuova. In questo variegato insieme di personaggi e di condizioni, un gruppo di particolare interesse doveva essere costituito da gente d’arme di varia posizione, ma accomunata da un forte disagio socioeconomico oppure (e magari, al tempo stesso) da una vocazione al servizio dei pellegrini che si era rivelata in viaggio. Le fonti chiamano questi guerrieri dotati di pochi mezzi - o che, affascinati dall’ideale della conversio al servizio alla Chiesa e ai deboli, si erano disfatti volontariamente dei loro beni - con l’espressione paradossale, quasi ossimorica, di pauperes milites. Ora che la Terrasanta era conquistata, bisognava difenderla: i pellegrini erano minacciati dalla guerriglia musulmana che arrivava alle porte di Gerusalemme, il nuovo regno fondato unilateralmente per volontà di alcuni capi crociati nel 1100, dopo un anno d’incerto governo di Goffredo di Lorena come Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri, ‘procuratore laico’ della Chiesa latina della Città Santa - era insicuro, molti arrivati di fresco dall’Europa si ammalavano e bisognava ospitarli e curarli. Nacquero così sodalizi, fraternitates, di cavalieri che si votavano per un certo periodo o per sempre a una vita comune - sul modello dei canonici regolari o addirittura dei monaci - e all’assistenza dei poveri, dei pellegrini, degli ammalati. La Chiesa guardò a questo fenomeno, in un primo tempo, con una certa inquietudine e non poche riserve: ma di lì a poco si lasciò persuadere a legittimare e ad accogliere come vere e proprie Religiones dotate di relativa Regula questi sodalizi: nacquero così Ordini religiosi nuovi, nei quali il gruppo qualificante era costituito da laici che per il fatto di avere abbracciato una regola non deponevano le armi, ma facevano del loro esercizio in difesa dei cristiani parte integrante della loro esperienza di conversio. Nel centro della Gerusalemme dell’XI secolo, immediatamente a sud della chiesa del santo Sepolcro, un gruppo di questi ‘convertiti’ prese dimora stabile attorno alla chiesa di San Giovanni, adiacente alla chiesa ‘di Santa Maria Latina’. Apparteneva alle strutture protette dai primi del IX secolo da Carlomagno, grazie ai suoi rapporti con il califfo di Baghdad Harun ar-Rashid? Può darsi: ma, al solito, nulla di certo. La croce a coda di rondine che campeggia sia sulle insegne araldiche di Bari sia su quelle dell’Ordine non è casuale, ma non prova nulla: si tratta anche in quale caso di tradizioni radicate più tardi. Dall’ospizio nel quale si erano insediati, a quel che pare originariamente fondato dai mercanti amalfitani, essi assunsero il nome: lo conosciamo infatti come Ordine ospitaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, divenuto poi ‘di Rodi’ e infine ‘di Malta’. Suo còmpito era ospitare i pellegrini, guidarne e proteggerne il circuito attraverso i Luoghi santi di Palestina, curare quelli di loro che si ammalavano. Le notizie sicure datano dai primi del XII secolo. Fosse

Insistiamo su questo punto. Uno dei primi e dei più gravi problemi che i ‘crociati’ si trovarono a dover affrontare, fu quello del consolidamento delle loro posizioni e della difesa delle loro conquiste. A uno stabile insediamento dei pellegrini-guerrieri in Terrasanta, i componenti della bizzarra spedizione che siamo ormai abituati a chiamere ‘prima crociata’ non avevano in realtà pensato: e non si capisce nemmeno bene quando cominciarono a pensarci. All’indomani della presa della Città Santa, quindi, molti dei pellegrini (armati o no che fossero) ritennero sciolto il loro voto e, dopo aver pregato sulla pietra del Santo Sepolcro, si accinsero a tornare a casa. Ma c’era chi voleva restare e chi riteneva di non poter fare ormai altrimenti. Il circostante mondo islamico, riavutosi dalla sorpresa, si andava riorganizzando: e le notizie relative alla sanguinosa ferocia che aveva accompagnato la conquista di quella che per i musulmani era (ed è) al-Quds, ‘la Santa’, facevano prevedere una controffensiva molto dura. D’altro canto, i principi che avevano guidato la spedizione europea non avevano alcuna intenzione di cedere le loro conquiste all’imperatore bizantino, il solo che dal punto di vista cristiano avrebbe avuto legittimità di governarle; avevano provato a offirne la sovranità eminente al papa, magari per farsele poi ritrasferire a titolo vassallatico (così era accaduto ad esempio nell’Italia meridionale coi normanni). Ma il pontefice non aveva alcuna intenzione di usurpare un palese diritto del sovrano di Costantinopoli, cosa che avrebbe aggravato e reso irreversibile lo scisma allora in corso (e mai, fino ad oggi, sanato). Infine, c’era 77

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean basi del loro futuro strapotere politico ed economico nel regno. Peraltro, essi rispondevano a precise necessità: non solo perché il secondo decennio del secolo era stato particolarmente duro per i principati franchi, ma perché la loro situazione militare era angustiata dalla mancanza di combattenti e dall’insicurezza delle comunicazioni tra città e città. I pellegrini, che arrivavano soprattutto verso la Pasqua, fornivano un esercito stagionale; ma alla fine dell’estate il regno restava nuovamente sguarnito. C’era bisogno di un esercito stabile, che a sua volta trasformasse la lotta agli infedeli in un impegno fisso. Potremmo dire che la ‘crociata permanente’ sia stata lo scopo della fondazione degli Ordini religioso-militari e la ragione del loro successo. Ma, appunto, queste cose potremmo dirle solo con una buona dose di volontà semplificatoria, e non senza prendere atto e tener conto della precisazioni degli specialisti al riguardo. Intanto, il nuovo regno di Gerusalemme si qualificava, paradossalmente, come la prima monarchia feudale ‘laica’ della Cristianità, la prima forzosamente superiorem non recognoscens, poiché per varie ragioni non aveva voluto o potuto diventare vassalla di nessuno. A loro volta, i capi crociati divennero principi di differenti signorie, da antiochia a Tripoli a Giaffa alla Galilea, all’Oltregiordano, fino a Gaza e ad Ascalona. Nelle mani dei crociati non c’era in realtà alcun territorio dotato di una sua organica continuità, bensì una ragnatela di città e di castelli collegati da piste carovaniere. La frontiera, quella limitanea esterna e quella interna, è una delle grandi protagoniste di tutta la bicentenalria storia del regno crociato di gerusalemme. Ma, in crisi di sviluppo, tutta la società occidentale tendeva a proiettarsi aldilà dei suoi confini. La crociata ne è una prova; intanto, per tutta la prima metà del nuovo secolo la lotta contro i Mori procedeva in Spagna specie per merito di Alfonso VII di Castiglia che nel 1147 portò fin sotto le mura di Cordoba la serrata offensiva che aveva iniziato quindici anni prima. Ciò mentre, nel 1137, il matrimonio di Petronilla d’Aragona con Raimondo Berengario IV di Catalogna permetteva la fusione dei due principati in un solo stato, forte soprattutto per la sua marina. La tempesta almohade si andava dal Marocco addensando nel cielo di Spagna, ma non era ancora scoppiata. E siccome lo stesso Ruggero II, re di Sicilia dal 1130, conduceva una politica espansionistica nel Nordafrica a danno dei re-corsari della zona attorno al golfo di Gabes e nel 1146 occupava Tripoli, un osservatore sprovveduto - e quasi tutti gli Europei lo erano per quanto riguardava le vicende che eccedevano dai confini del loro continente - avrebbe potuto ricevere l’illusione ottica d’un attacco serrato di tutta la Cristianità a tutto l’Islam, d’un grande fronte unico dalla Castiglia alla Siria. Naturalmente, così non era: né l’Islam era un blocco monolitico, né gli attacchi cristiani erano collegati l’uno con l’altro. Ma l’illusione era forte, e le illusioni sono spesso promotrici feconde di valori storici. Ciò che accadeva a sud contro i saraceni, sembrava accadere a nord contro i pagani. Naturalmente, anche in quel caso la realtà era molto più complessa delle apparenze. Nobili e contadini in cerca di terre da dissodare avevano portato ad est dell’Elba, verso i primi del secolo, il Drang

o no amalfitano il primo ‘Maestro’, Gerardo, alla storia documentata appartengono tanto l’approvazione da parte di Pasquale II, nel 1113, di un Ordine religioso disciplinato dalla regola agostiiniana e dedito alla cura dei pellegrini e degli ammalati, sia l’immissione in esso per ragioni d’ordine contingente, nel 1121, di alcuni armati, da parte del Maestro Raymond du Puy. In un primo tempo, quindi, si ebbe il volontario riunirsi in fraternitas, attorno a un edificio sacro e a un annesso ospizio, di alcuni laici che fecero voto di assistere pellegrini e ammalati; le condizioni d’insicurezza della Terrasanta, all’indomani della prima crociata, consigliarono d’immettervi anche dei ‘cavalieri’ che fungessero da scorta e protezione; la contemporanea fondazione d’un Ordine a prevalente carattere guerriero, quello del Tempio, indusse anche gli Ospitalieri - che avevano assunto il nome di ‘san Giovanni di Gerusalemme’ - a sviluppare a loro volta sempre di più un carattere militare che li condusse a gestire fortezze a controllare strade e confini, in collaborazione e in concorrenza con i Templari. Anche le notizie sull’origine di questi ultimi non sono certe. Nel 1118 un oscuro cavaliere originario della Champagne, Ugo di Payens, riuscì a farsi cedere da re Baldovino I un’ala dell’ex-moschea di al-Aqsa (situata, come quella della Roccia, sulla spianata del Tempio di Salomone) per alloggiarvi i membri di un‘altra di queste fraternitates, che si era autoaggiudicata il còmpito di mantenere, pattugliandola, sgombra dai briganti la strada che dalla costa conduceva a Gerusalemme. Questo fu il primo nucleo del futuro Ordine religioso che - dalla sua residenza - sarebbe stato detto ‘templare’: e molto probabilmente questo fu l’esempio che indusse gli Ospedalieri di san Giovanni a modificare la loro primitiva struttura assumendo esplicitamente anche l’uso delle armi che forse avevano messo in un primo tempo da parte, com’era ovvio e consueto quando attraverso la conversio si mutava vita. Ma, in quel caso, la necessitas del momento prescriveva che si agisse altrimenti. Non deve stupire che re Baldovino cedesse con tanta facilità la bella moschea meridionale della Spianata del Tempio - che era stata adattata alla meglio a residenza regia - a questi nuovi venuti, presumibilmente abbastanza scarsi di numero e non troppo ben in arnese. Il fatto è che aveva bisogno di armati validi; e poi, si era ormai procurato una nuova reggia più consona alla sua dignità di sovrano e alle necessità militari nella fortezza di Erode, vale a dire nella ‘Torre di David’ all’estremo occidente della città. Né stupirà il nome di ‘templari’ attribuito al nuovo sodalizio, ove si consideri che esso veniva così ad occupare un edificio comunemente noto ai latini come il ‘Tempio di Salomone’ (la vicina Cupola della Roccia veniva chiamata, con curioso sdoppiamento, ‘il Tempio del Signore’): era abituale che Ordini e congregazioni assumessero il nome della località nella quale erano stati primitivamente fondati: si pensi ai cassinesi, ai cluniacensi, ai vallombrosani, ai camaldolesi, ai certosini, ai cistercensi e via dicendo. Gli Ordini religioso-militari (chiamiamoli, non senza qualche approssimazione, così) furono largamente apprezzati e favoriti da Baldovino I e poi da Baldovino II, che fecero loro conferire terre e decime in denaro gettando così le 78

F. Cardini: frontiere geostoriche, frontiere culturali nach Osten germanico. Si facevano grandi reclutamenti di contadini e si bonificava, si disboscava, si arava mentre si convertivano i popoli pagani stanziati tra l’Elba e l’Oder. I nuovi Ordini religiosi, i Premonstratensi e soprattutto i Cistercensi che avevano riportato in auge il primitivo dettame benedettino del lavoro manuale, erano il lievito di quest’offensiva che conquistava nuove terre coltivabili alla Cristianità e nuove anime al Cristo. Le grandi fattorie cistercensi costituitesi in quelle zone erano esemplari, perché vi si praticavano l’agricoltura e l’allevamento mirando non ai limiti curtensi del fabbisogno interno ma alle esigenze dei mercati. Il debole imperatore Lotario di Supplimburgo ebbe, se non altro, il merito di comprendere il valore di questa campagna colonizzatrice. Come in Spagna e come nel nordest europeo, il controllo del territorio e dei suoi confini si organizzò attraverso un sistema d’incastellamento al quale collaborarono signori laici e Ordini religioso-militari. Quello che più da vicino qui ci riguarda, l’incastellamento dell’Oltregiordano, iniziò con la fondazione di Shawbak (Montréal) nel 1115, su un luogo già precedentemente insediato e fortificato, all’incrocio delle carovaniere dirette verso l’Arabia e quindi usate dai pellgrini nel loro haj, l’Egitto e la Siria. A nord di Shawbak, sorgevano Kerak e Tafila; a sud i due enigmatici castelli di Wu’haira e di al-Habis, nell’area della città caropvaniera nabatea di Petra; e la linea difensiva, ch’era anche una linea di vedetta e di sorveglianzxa, continuava verso sud, fino al porto di Aila-Aqaba, fino al castello dell’Isola dei Faraoni su un’isoletta addossata alla costa nordorientale del Sinai. Gli avamposti crociati bagnavano

le loro fondamenta nel Mar Rosso: una considerazione che ci fanno apparire certo non meno feroci, però molto meno leggendari o utopistici i sogni di Rinaldo di Châtillon, che tentò di terrorizzare e di razziare con la sua flotta gli opulenti centri musulmani di quel mare e giunse nel suo ardire al disegno di saccheggiare la Mecca. Un’audacia ai confini con la follia, che la lama del Saladino avrebbe punito all’indomani della tragedia di Hattin. BIBLIOGRAFIA Barbero, A. 2009. Benedette guerre. Crociate e jihad. Roma-Bari, Laterza. Demurger, A. 2002. Chevaliers du Christ. Les Ordres religieux-militaires au Moyen Âge, XI.e-XVI.e siècle. Paris, Seuil. Ligato, G. 2005. La croce in catene. prigionieri e ostaggi cristiani nelle guerre di Saladino (1169-1193). Spoleto, Fondazione Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo. Marino, L. 1997. La fabbrica dei castelli crociati in Terra Santa. Firenze, Cantini. Menocal, M. R. 2002. Principi, poeti e visir. Un esempio di convivenza pacifica tra musulmani, ebrei e cristiani. Milano, Il Saggiatore. Ruiz-Domènec, J.E. 2007. Mi Cid. Noticia de Rodrigo Díaz. Barcelona, Península. Vanoli, A. 2003. Alle origini della Reconquista. Torino, Aragno. Vanoli, A. 2006. La Spagna delle tre culture. Ebrei, cristianie musulmani tra storia e mito. Roma, Viella.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean

La valle di Petra vista dal castello crociato di Al Habis

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

UN’ANTICA ‘TERRA DI FRONTIERA’ AN ANCIENT ‘FRONTIER LAND’

THE CRUSADERS IN PETRA – THE EXAMPLE OF THE WADI FARASA EAST Stephan Schmid Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Abstract (2008) The Wadi Farasa within the city of Petra The modern visitor to Petra passes through the Wadi Farasa East either on his way to the so-called High Place on Jabal Madbah, one of the most remarkable elevations within the site, or coming from there (figure 1). When visiting the Wadi Farasa East nowadays, almost nothing indicates a presence of the Crusaders, most of the visible ruins and ancient remains going back to an intense use of the area during the Nabataean period, mostly in the 1st century AD. Consequently, it were structures of the Nabataean period that attracted the first western visitors of the 19th century and also the first archaeological scholars in the early 20th century to the Wadi Farasa East . The Wadi Farasa is located at the south-eastern periphery of the ancient city centre and it is subdivided in a western and a eastern valley, both ending in steep rocks after a few hundred meters. During the Nabataean period, most of these side valleys were densely covered by water installations, such as retaining walls, basins, channels etc. in relation with the water management of the entire city, and some of the valleys were home to more eye-catching monuments related to funerary, religious and profane uses.

THE WADI FARASA WITHIN THE CITY OF PETRA

nagement of the entire city, and some of the valleys were home to more eye-catching monuments related to funerary, religious and profane uses.

The modern visitor to Petra passes through the Wadi Farasa East either on his way to the so-called High Place on Jabal Madbah, one of the most remarkable elevations within the site, or coming from there (fig. 1). When visiting the Wadi Farasa East nowadays, almost nothing indicates a presence of the Crusaders, most of the visible ruins and ancient remains going back to an intense use of the area during the Nabataean period, mostly in the 1st c. AD. Consequently, it were structures of the Nabataean period that attracted the first western visitors of the 19th century and also the first archaeological scholars in the early 20th century to the Wadi Farasa East1. The Wadi Farasa is located at the south-eastern periphery of the ancient city centre and it is subdivided in a western and a eastern valley, both ending in steep rocks after a few hundred meters. During the Nabataean period, most of these side valleys were densely covered by water installations, such as retaining walls, basins, channels etc. in relation with the water ma-

THE COMPLEX OF THE SOLDIER TOMB DURING THE NABATAEAN PERIOD The Wadi Farasa East can be understood as a pars pro toto for the masterly use of the Nabataean efficiency creating multifunctional structures in relation with the installation and functioning of the city of Petra. This is why in the Wadi Farasa East different elements of Nabataean buildings and structures had different purposes. Besides the already mentioned function as access to the High Place on Jabal Madbah and the water installations2, the Wadi Farasa East features structures related to housing, cultic and funerary practices. Consequently, it is a funerary monument that constitutes the most impressive (visible) structure of the Nabataean period in the area, the complex of the Soldier Tomb. In 1916 a first serious attempt to understand

1

For a compilation of early visitors and scholars in Petra see Brünnow – Domaszewski 1904: 481-510 and especially for the Wadi Farasa ibid. 271-282.

2

On water installations in the Wadi Farasa East see Bellwald 2008; Schmid 2008A; 2008B.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean this multifunctional complex was made by the “DeutschTürkische Denkmalschutzkommando”3 and since 1999 the “International Wadi Farasa Project” (IWFP) is focussing on the excavation and documentation of the complex4. The structures related to the complex are built on two natural terraces of the Wadi Farasa East and, since they form the background for the Crusader presence, we shall briefly present them. On the lower terrace, closer to the city centre, the natural valley that hosted some water installations since the 1st c. BC, was considerably enlarged during the second half of the 1st c. AD in order to offer space for the planned structures (figs. 2. 3). The blocks of sandstone that were quarried away were probably used for the construction of the free built structures. Some particularly important structures, however, were constructed using high quality limestone that can be found in quarries further away. This is the case, for example, of the massive wall that is a kind of barrage for the whole valley (fig. 4). However, during the Nabataean period, this wall was not constructed in a straight line across the valley, but in a kind of zigzag in order to raise its stability (fig. 5). This construction technique helped to minimize the pressure on the wall at the point where it had the strongest impact, which is in the middle of the valley. Behind the wall, the natural valley was filled up with boulders of stone in order to create a huge rectangle, measuring approximately 22m x 30m (figs. 2. 3). This surface forms the nucleus of the Soldier Tomb complex, a peristyle courtyard, surrounded on three sides by columns. Other structures were opening towards the courtyard, as is the case with the rock-cut tomb with its richly decorated façade. In the attica-zone of the façade three statues in high relief are inserted in niches, maybe representing the owner of the complex with his two sons (fig. 6). The person in the centre wears a military cuirass and this is the element responsible for naming the structures as complex of the Soldier Tomb. On the opposite side of the courtyard another rock-cut structure is located, richly decorated with architectural elements and clearly identifiable as triclinium (banqueting hall), according to the elevated zones on threes sides of the walls where the banqueters were reclining (fig. 7)5. Rather disappointing for the modern visitors, but corresponding to a widespread graeco-roman tradition is the fact, that most of these rock-cut rooms were originally covered with stucco and eventually painted, as can be seen in the triclinium on a few tiny fragments still preserved. The peristyle courtyard between the two major rock-cut structures was surrounded by columns on three sides; only in front of the façade of the tomb were no columns. Access to the whole complex was granted by a huge building that

was constructed in between the two sides of the valley. As is indicated by the partially rock-cut and partially built staircase-tower as well as by rock-cuttings for fixing the upper roof, this building had two storeys. In short, the complex of the Soldier Tomb on the lower terrace of Wadi Farasa East is clearly modelled on Hellenistic and Roman luxury architecture in its plan and outlet, such as villae and palaces (fig. 8)6. Small fragments of stucco and wall paintings, opus sectile floors, heating systems for floor and walls, point to a very rich decoration and luxurious features such as heated rooms, indicating a more than just temporary and irregular use of the complex. On the upper terrace the Nabataean builders showed again their skilful talents in combining free built structures with rock-cut architecture. The optically dominant structure in this area, that is often compared to a garden since it is well supplied with water and therefore quite green compared to the rest of the city, is the huge retaining wall of a water basin that was collecting rain water from the rocks above (fig. 9 right)7. Part of these were already canalised by smaller basins, barrages and the like, and were finally collected in the big, non covered basin of the upper terrace. Cleaned and de-pressurized by a series of smaller and covered basins, the water was led to a rock-cut cistern measuring 4m x 4m in front of a kind of façade (fig. 9 left). This cistern was, in contrast to the huge basin, completely covered by three arches, so that remaining bacteria in the water were killed by absence of light and the water, therefore, obtained drinking quality. Just adjacent to the cistern and related to it by two connections on the upper and lower part, is a second basin, of equal depth but smaller surface, and it was from this structure that the water was scooped out for daily use. Contrary to its modern visual aspect, in Antiquity these structures were part of more complex installations. The discovery of column bases fallen into the cistern and regular horizontal cuttings around the two sides of the rock at a place that corresponds to the level of a second floor, clearly indicate that the space of the cistern originally was conceived as a small courtyard surrounded by columns that supported the roof (fig. 10). Therefore, the structure not only is constructed according the same principles as the complex of the Soldier Tomb on the lower terrace, it also becomes a close parallel to Hellenistic and early Roman peristyle houses, as they are on display, for example, on the island of Delos in Greece. Further, the “Garden House”, as we may call this structure, is oriented towards South, with the most prominent rooms, the ones carved into the rock, in the North. This means on the one hand, that the heat of the summer months does not directly penetrate into these rooms and on the other hand, that during the winter months the sun is directly shining into these rooms. This perfectly corresponds to the definition of the Greek Hellenistic house as given by the Roman author Vitruvius

3

See Bachmann – Watzinger – Wiegand 1921 for the scientific aspects; for the background of the “Denkmalschutzkommando” see Watzinger 1944: 279-312 especially 294-297; Wiegand 1985: 210-224; Trümpler 2008. 4 For this project and its results see www.auac.ch/iwfp and Schmid 2000B; 2001A; 2001B; 2002; 2004; 2005; 2006; 2007; 2008A Schmid – Studer 2003; Schmid – Barmasse 2004; 2006. 5 On the so-called Soldier tomb see Brünnow – Domaszewski 1904: 273 no. 239; McKenzie 1990: 147-148; fort he opposite banquetting hall see Brünnow – Domaszewski 1904: 272-273 no. 235; McKenzie 1990: 148149; cf. also Wenning 1987: 249-252.

6

Some comparisons can be found in Schmid 2007; 2006A. For the monuments from the upper terrace see Bachmann – Watzinger – Wiegand 1921: 85-88; Brünnow – Domaszewski 1904: 275 no. 244; McKenzie 1990: 171; Wenning 1987: 252; Bellwald 2008: 56-58. 93-94; Schmid 2008A. 7

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S: Schmid: The Crusaders In Petra - The Example Of The Wadi Farasa East (1st c. BC) in his treaty on architecture. The “Garden House” not only had a small peristyle courtyard but undeniably also an upper floor as is indicated by steps and a door, both cut into the rock, leading to nowhere in the actual state, but being perfect matches for access to the upper floor of the courtyard. This upper floor was densely connected to the abovementioned retaining basins and it cannot be excluded that the people living here were in charge of the maintenance of the water management of the area.

A similar situation was observed on the upper terrace of the Wadi Farasa East. The free built structures of the “Garden House” collapsed during the earthquake of AD 363 and were not rebuilt in their initial form. The stone blocks were used to fill in the space between the columns of the rock-cut rooms as can still be seen on sketches and early photographs of the area (fig. 13)9. Access to the rock-cut rooms was now given by a lengthy corridor with a door and a separate room built in front of it, maybe a kind of a guard’s local (fig. 14). The walls constructed for these purposes partially stand in the middle of the former cistern that was filled up and, therefore, not anymore in use. The defensive character of these building activities is obvious and the overall aspect of the upper terrace may have looked close to the drawing on figure 15. Related to these late structures important quantities of Medieval pottery were found. The simple handmade pots are characterised by extremely coarse clay with big inclusions and a bad firing (fig. 16). Further, there is a category of painted pottery made of the same low quality clay (fig. 17). Usually, this pottery is called ayyoubid-mameluk and dated to the 12th to 13th centuries AD10. So far, all of the motives of the handmade painted pottery seem to fit the known repertoire previously attested for Jordan11. Since some fragments of these pottery types were found as filling material within the walls described above, this indicates a corresponding chronology as for the re-occupation of the Wadi Farasa East. This chronology is supported by finds of coins with Arabic legends (fig. 18). Therefore, we know that our structures belong to the period of the crusades, but we still ignore who built and used them. Basically, three possibilities occur for identifying the dweller: Substrates of a permanently present local population (though some may think these people would have moved to more comfortable places in and around Wadi Mousa), Crusaders properly, whose fortifications inside (el-Habis) and outside (el-Wu’eyra) the ancient city of Petra are quite well known, Or the Arabian counterparts of the Crusaders that must have had their positions within the ruins of Petra as well. The enormous efforts for defensive architecture in relation to the overall building activities indicate that we can probably restrict our quest to the last two possibilities. Further, the historical context would rather point in favour of a small Crusader installation. A Medieval occupation of that part of Petra was supposed since Brünnow and von Domaszewski found what they believed to be a Crusader

THE CRUSADERS IN THE WADI FARASA The Nabataean structures of the Wadi Farasa East described above were built in the second half (third quarter) of the 1st c. AD. After smaller modifications during the early 2nd c. AD, they were mostly destroyed by the violent earthquake of AD 363. Contrary to other parts of the ancient city, there was almost no Byzantine occupation observed in the Wadi Farasa. Human presence in the area must have been, therefore, rather scanty. This situation changes remarkably during the Medieval period8. Although during several hundred years sand alluvia had already covered a part of the Nabataean structures, the conditions for a re-occupation apparently were considered sufficiently favourable, mainly due to strategic reflexions as we shall see. A main effort of the new dwellers was focussing on the huge retaining wall of the lower terrace that was restored and underwent a substantial change. As exposed above, the Nabataean wall was constructed in a zigzag-line in order to better handle the static pressure. Now, the wall was extended in a direct line across the valley (fig. 5). The extension was carried out with the local sandstone that erodes faster than the limestone used for the original parts. Also, the connection between the two parts of the wall were carried out in a hastily way without real interconnection between the older and the newer part. This led two considerable problems caused by the pressure that hit exactly this weak point and made several reparations and corrections necessary (figs. 4. 5). All of the Medieval building activities show a strong defensive character. The former staircase was reused as a tower and it seems as if access to the complex was possible only through a drawbridge. The rooms of the former entrance complex behind the huge retaining wall that collapsed during the earthquake of AD 363, were apparently not anymore covered, or only using light constructions (wooden roofs). Therefore, the complex of the lower terrace may have looked similar as proposed on figure 11. Consequently reused were the rock-cut rooms, the former tomb in the first place. But here too, it seems as if the Medieval dwellers were driven by fear for their security. This explains why they used the rock-cut platform in front of the tomb as a bastion that was strengthened using column drums and other architectural elements of the Nabataean buildings. The originally already small entrance to the tomb was further narrowed using similar ad hoc means (fig. 12).

9

This is confirmed by a 19th century sketch of Linant de Bellefonds that shows the „Garden Triclinium“ still with some remains of walls between the columns: Laborde – Bellefonds 1828/1994: pl. 30. And even on photographs published by Brünnow and von Domaszewski as well as by Dalman, remains of these walls still are clearly visible: Brünnow – Domaszewski 1904: 276 fig. 308; Dalman 1908: 195 fig. 116. 10 For similar pottery see Walmsley and Grey 2001: 153-159; Tonghini – Vanni Desideri 2001; Pringle 1984; 1985; Johns 1998; on local aspects of Late Islamic pottery in central and southern Jordan see Brown 1987; 1988, 1991: 232-241; in general terms on that period in Jordan see Walmsley 2008; 2001. 11 Homès-Fredericq – Franken 1986: 242f.; a selection of the Medieval pottery from Wadi Farasa East was the subject of a MA-thesis at the Università di Firenze: Neri 2008.

8

Beside the preliminary reports referred to above note 4 see Schmid 2006B.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean tomb stone inside the „Garden Triclinium“12. This hypothesis can be strengthened by a series of gravestones made out of former ashlars and showing crosses and symbols such as trees of life (figs. 19-21)13. The question remains, however, whether we can connect them to a Crusader occupation or to a substrate of a local Christian community. The type of cross represented on the tomb stone on figure 19 does also occur on crusader coins (Boas 1999: 183f.)14, but for the rest, unfortunately, the funerary iconography of the crusaders has been analysed only very summarily so far15. These stones must belong to a small graveyard that could not be localised so far, since they were found dumped in between the ruins of the upper terrace. It is, therefore, the combination between the Christian iconography and the strong defensive aspect of the excavated constructions that would point in favour of Crusaders as dwellers in the Medieval Wadi Farasa East. The hypothesis of a military aspect of the Medieval occupation of the area could be supported by a rather important number of round stones in different sizes that could be interpreted as being ballistae, i.e. ammunition for slingshots and small catapults (fig. 22)16. Since we know now who the Medieval dwellers in the Wadi Farasa East were, we may add a few further thoughts as to the functioning of the structures but also as for the Crusader network in and around Petra17. The topographical situation briefly described above makes clear that it was impossible to defend the Wadi Farasa East towards the south-eastern directions. In other words, these structures were useful only against an enemy approaching from below, i.e. the ancient city centre. This in turn means that whoever was installed on the lower and upper terrace of the former complex of the Soldier Tomb, must also have been in control of the High Place on Jabal Madbah and the path leading there. Therefore, we definitely have to reckon another Crusader fortress on top of Jabal Madbah18. This fortress probably was installed reusing ruins of the Nabataean period as was the case with other such structures (fig. 23)19. It seems as if the Crusaders tried to control in a

systematic way the highest elevations of the area and the paths leading to them. The rather careless and low quality architecture – with exception of the huge wall locking up the valley on the lower terrace – that has nothing in common with the representative Crusader fortresses of alKarak and ash-Shobak20, shows how difficult and instable the situation in the Petra area must have been. As was pointed out on several occasions, the Crusaders did not intend to totally control a huge territory but rather specific strategically important spots. Against this background some aspects of the daily life within the structures of the Wadi Farasa may seem rather surprising. According to the primarily military aspects of these installations one could suppose that the single Crusaders’ strongholds did function in an autonomous way of life. This may indeed have been the case in extreme situations such as sieges; for standard situations, however, the picture is a different one. As exposed above, the big cistern on the upper terrace was completely filled in and constructed over while the smaller overflow basin had a secondary function as rubbish pit. The whole fill measuring 2.40m in height contained Medieval pottery such as shown on figure 24. This pottery surely was bought or exchanged by the local population in Wadi Mousa or elsewhere, suggesting regular contacts21. Even more surprising was the analysis of bones and other eating remains from the same pit22. On the one hand, bones of small cattle or poultry were extremely rare, although these could have been elevated and hold on site. On the other hand, there were important quantities of specific fish remains, belonging to parrot fish certainly imported from the Red Sea (fig. 25). In other words, the Crusaders must have access to products being brought from Aqaba, either by directly controlling the caravan routes themselves, or by buying the fish (and other goods) from the local population23. In any case, one is surprised by the large dependence from exterior products in a large sense of the word, especially in the rather probable strategic context of long term sieges resulting in shortness of supply. For how long the small Crusader community within Wadi Farasa East existed is not yet known. In any case, the abovementioned gravestones show that the occupation lasted for a certain time, long enough to make seem reasonable the construction of a small graveyard. With the background of living conditions as described above, it would be especially interesting to be able to identify the graveyard, in order to examine the human remains as for specific diseases and deficiency symptoms, provoked by unbalanced diet.

12

Brünnow – Domaskewski 1904: 275 fig. 307; Dalman 1908: 196 fig. 117; Brünnow 1909: 249f.; Lindner 1997: 104 with n. 10. 13 On these elements within early Christian iconography see Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie 1, 2. Paris: Letouzey et Ané 1907: 2691-2709 s.v. arbres (H. Leclerq) and Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie 3, 2. Paris: Letouzey et Ané 1914: 3045-3131 s.v. croix et crucifix (H. Leclerq) especially 3054 no. 3362 for a stylised tree as symbol on a tomb stone 14 Boas 1999: 183f. 15 In general cf. f. ex. Boas 1999: 226-236. 16 Similar ballistae were found on different sites in Petra, f. ex. within the propylaeum-area of the South-Temple: Joukowsky 2005: 154; Bellwald 2008: 74f. 17 On Petra in the Crusader period see for example different contributions in Ritterhausgesellschaft 2006; Vannini – Tonghini 1997; Vannini – Vanni Desideri 1995. 18 As proposed by Vannini – Vanni Desideri 1995: 512. 19 U. Bellwald argued against such a hypothesis pointing out that there are no traces of walls using mortar – as would the Crusaders do – visible on Jabal Madbah (Bellwald 2006: 72f. 78f.). Although this may be true for substantial constructions such as the fortresses of al-Wu`eyra and Shobak, smaller installations may well be exempted from that rule. For instance, so far no wall of the Crusader period in the Wadi Farasa shows traces of mortar; all were constructed in dry technique (cf. above). Therefore, we shall be cautious about whatsoever interpretation of the

ruins on top of Jabal Madbah before excavations are carried out. 20 On al-Karak see Milwright 2008; for ash-Shobak see Vannini 2007 and in a wider context Mayer 1990. 21 ‘Amr 2006. 22 Studer 2008; Schmid – Studer 2007. 23 This second possibility can be strengthened by comparable finds from Khirbet Nawafle: ‘Amr 2006: 21-26.

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S: Schmid: The Crusaders In Petra - The Example Of The Wadi Farasa East a Petra. Un contributo archeologico sui problemi della ceramica crociata. MA- Unpublished thesis, Università di Firenze. Pringle, D. 1985. Medieval Pottery from Caesarea. The Crusader Period. Levant 17, 171-202. Pringle, D. 1984. Thirteenth-Century Pottery from the Monastery of St. Mary of Carmel. Levant 16, 91-111. Ritterhausgesellschaft Bubikon. Pringle, D. 2006. Die Kreuzzüge. Petra – Eine Spurensuche. Bubikon. Schmid, S. G. 2000B The International Wadi Farasa Project (IWFP). Exploration Season 1999. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 44, 335-354. Schmid, S. G. 2001B. The International Wadi Farasa Project (IWFP). Between Microcosm and Macroplanning - A First Synthesis. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 133. 159-197. Schmid, S. G. 2001A. The International Wadi Farasa Project (IWFP). 2000 Season. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 45, 343-357. Schmid, S. G. 2002. The International Wadi Farasa Project (IWFP). 2001 Season. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 46, 257-277. Schmid, S. G. 2004. The International Wadi Farasa Project (IWFP). Progress on the Work in the Wadi Farasa East, Petra. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 136, 163-186. Schmid, S. G. 2005 The International Wadi Farasa Project (IWFP). Preliminary Report on the 2004 Season, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 49, 71-79. Schmid, S. G. 2006A. Hellenistische und römische Luxusarchitektur im Spiegel nabatäischer Grabkomplexe. Numismatica e antichità classiche. Quaderni ticinesi 35,:253-281. Schmid, S. G. 2006B. Kreuzritteralltag in Petra – Das Beispiel des Wadi Farasa. Ritterhausgesellschaft 2006, 45–59. Schmid, S. G. 2007. Nabataean Funerary Complexes. Their Relationship with the Luxury Architecture of the Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean. In F. al-Khraysheh (ed.), Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 9, 205-219. Amman. Schmid, S. G. 2008A. Die Wasserversorgung des Wadi Farasa Ost in Petra. In Ch. Ohlig (ed.), Cura Aquarum in Jordanien, 95-117. Siegburg. Schmid, S. G. 2008B. L’eau à Pétra: l’exemple du Wadi Farasa Est. Syria 85. 19-32. Schmid, S. G. and Barmasse, A. 2004. The International Wadi Farasa Project (IWFP).Preliminary Report on the 2003 Season. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 48, 333-346. Schmid, S. G. and Barmasse, A. 2006. The International Wadi Farasa Project (IWFP). Preliminary Report on the 2005 Season. Annual of the De partment of Antiquities of Jordan 50, 217-227. Schmid, S. G. and Studer, J. 2007. Products from the Red Sea at Petra in the Medieval Period, in J. Starkey, P Starkey and T. Wilkinson (eds.), Natural Resources and Cultural Connections of the Red Sea, BAR Int. Ser. 1661, 45-56. Oxford.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ‘Amr, K. 2006. Die Kreuzritter und die Oliven von les Vaux Moïses. Ritterhausgesellschaft Bubikon 2006: 6-26. Bachmann, W., Watzinger, C. and Wiegand, Th. 1921. Petra. Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen des deutschtürkischen Denkmalschutz-Kommandos, Heft 3. Berlin/ Leipzig. Bellwald, U. 2008 The Hydraulic Infrastructure of Petra – A Model for Water Strategies in Arid Land. In Ch. Ohlig (Hrsg.), Cura Aquarum in Jordanie, 47-94. Siegburg. 2006 Die Kreuzritter in Petra: warum waren sie dort? Ihr Verhältnis zur lokalen Bevölkerung: Ein Miteinanderoder ein Gegeneinander?. Ritterhausgesellschaft Bubikon 2006. 60-80. Boas, A. J. 1999. Crusader Archaeology. The Material Culture of the Latin East. London/New York. Brown, R. M 1987. A 12th Century A.D. Sequence from Southern Transjordan. Crusader and Ayyubid Occupation at el Wu`eira. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 31, 267-288. Brown, R. M. 1988. Summary Report of the 1986 Excavations: Late Islamic Shobak. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 32, 225-245. Brown, R. M. 1991. Ceramics from the Kerak Plateau. In Miller, J. M.(ed.), Archaeological Survey of the Kerak Plateau, 168-279. Atlanta. Brünnow, R. E. 1909. Review of G. Dalman, Petra und seine Felsheiligtümer. Zeitschrift des Deutschen PalästinaVereins 32, 247-251. Brünnow, R. E., Domaszewski, A. v. 1904. Die Provincia Arabia I .Strassburg. Dalman, G. 1908. Petra und seine Felsheiligtümer. Leipzig. Homès-Fredericq, D., Franken, H. J. (eds.) 1986 Pottery and Potters – Past and Present. 7000 Years of Ceramic Art in Jordan (Tübingen). Johns, J. 1998 The Rise of Middle Islamic Hand-Made Geometrically Painted Ware in Bilad al-Sham (11th13th Centuries A.D.). In: R. P. Gayraud (ed.), Colloque international sur l’archéologie islamique. IFAO, Le Caire, 3-7 février 1993, 65-93.Cairo. Joukowsky, M. S. 2005 Brown University Archaeological Research at the Petra Great Temple, 2004. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 49, 147-165. Laborde, L. de,Bellefonds, L.M. and Linant, A. de 1828/1994. Pétra retrouvée. Voyage de l’Arabie Pétrée, in Ch. Augé, P.Linant, and de Bellefonds, (eds). Paris. Lindner, M. 1997. Beschreibung der antiken Stadt. In M. Lindner (ed.), Petra und das Königreich der Nabatäer. Lebensraum, Geschichte und Kultur eines arabischen Volkes der Antike, 6th edition, 17-36. München/Bad Windsheim. Mayer, H. E. 1990. Die Kreuzfahrerherrschaft Montréal (Sobak). Jordanien im 12. Jahrhundert.Wiesbaden. McKenzie, J. S. 1990. The Architecture of Petra. Oxford. Milwright, M. 2008. The Fortress of the Raven. Karak in the Middle Islamic Period (1100-1650).Leiden. Neri, A. 2008. Le ceramiche medievali di Wadi Farasa 85

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Schmid, S. G. and Studer, J. 2003. The International Wadi Farasa Project (IWFP). Preliminary Report on the 2002 Season. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 47, 473-488. Studer, J. 2008. Like a Fish out of Water: Fish in the Diet of Classical and Medieaval Populations in the Petra Region (Jordan), in Ph. Béarez et al. (eds.), Archéologie du poisson: 30 ans d’archéo-ichtyologie au CNRS. hommage aux travaux de Jean Desse et Nathalie DesseBerset. XXVIIIe rencontres internationales d’archéologie et d’histoire d’Antibes, 281-293. Antibes. Tonghini, Ch. And Vanni Desideri, A. 2001. The Material Evidence from al-Wu`ayra: A Sample of Pottery. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 7, 707-719. Amman) Trümpler, Ch. 2008 Das Deutsch-Türkische Denkmalschutzkommando und die Luftbildarchäologie. In Trümpler, Ch. (ed.), Das grosse Spiel. Archäologie und Politik zur Zeit des Kolonialismus (1860 – 1940), 474-483. Cologne. Vannini, G. 2007 Archeologia dell’insediamento crociatoayy- ubide in Transgiordania: il progetto Shawbak. Florence. Vannini, G. and Tonghini, C. 1997. Mediaeval Petra.

The Stratigraphic Evidence from Recent Archaeological Excavations at al-Wu`ayra, in G. Bisheh et al. (eds.), Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 6, 371384.Amman. Vannini, G. and Vanni Desideri, A. 1995. Archaeological Research on Medieval Petra. A Preliminary Report. Annual of the Department of Antiquities.of Jordan 39, 509-540. Walmsley, A. 2001. Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Jordan and the Crusader Interlude, in B. MacDonald, R . Adams and P. Bienkowski, (eds.), The Archaeology of Jordan, 515-559. Sheffield. Walmsley, A. 2008. The Middle Islamic and Crusader Periods. In R. B. Adams (ed.), Jordan. An Archaeological Reader, 495-537. London, Oakville. Walmsley, A. G. and Grey, A. D. 2001. An Interim Report on the Pottery from Gharandal (Arindela), Jordan. Levant 33, 139-164. Watzinger, C. 1944. Theodor Wiegand. Ein deutscher Archäologe. Munich. Wenning, R. 1987. Die Nabatäer – Denkmäler und Geschichte. Eine Bestandesaufnahme des archäologischen Befundes. Freiburg/Göttingen. Wiegand, Th. 1985. Halbmond im letzten Viertel. Archäologische Reiseberichte. 2nd edition. Mayence..

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Figure 1. Map of Petra (after S. G. Schmid, The Nabataeans. Travellers between Lifestyles, in B. MacDonald, R. Adams and P. Bienkowski [eds], The Archaeology of Jordan, Sheffield 2001, 375, Figure 11.4)

Figure 2. Wadi Farasa East. General plan of structures on lower and upper terrace (André Barmasse)

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Figure 3. Wadi Farasa East. General view of the lower terrace (Schmid)

Figure 4. Wadi Farasa East. Retaining wall of the lower terrace. Broken out parts in the centre show the join betwenn the Nabataean and Medieval parts (Schmid)

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Figure 5. Wadi Farasa East. Construction phases of the retaining wall of the lower terrace. Top: Nabataean 1st century AD; centre: extension 2./3. centuries AD; bottom: Medieval extension (Schmid)

Figure 6. Wadi Farasa East. Façade of the Soldier Tomb on lower terrace (Schmid)

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Figure 7. Wadi Farasa East. Banqueting hall (triclinium) on lower terrace (Schmid)

Figure 8. Wadi Farasa East. Tentative reconstruction of lower terrace in Nabataean period (Wirth & Wirth architects, Basel)

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Figure 9. Wadi Farasa East. General view of structures on upper terrace (Schmid)

Figure 10. Wadi Farasa East. Tentative reconstruction of structures on upper terrace as a peristyle house (Schmid)

Figure11. Wadi Farasa East. Tentative reconstruction of lower terrace in the Medieval period (Schmid)

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Figure 13. Wadi Farasa East. Upper terrace as seen by early European travellers (after Brünnow and Domaszewski 1904, 276 fig. 244)

Figure 12. Wadi Farasa East. Doorway to the Soldier Tomb, narrowed with reused architectural elements (Schmid)

Figure 14. Wadi Farasa East. Upper terrace with Medieval walls built over the Nabataean cistern (Schmid)

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Figure 15. Wadi Farasa East. Tentative reconstruction of the upper terrace in Medieval times (Schmid)

S: Schmid: The Crusaders In Petra - The Example Of The Wadi Farasa East

Figure 16. Wadi Farasa East. Plain handmade Medieval pottery (Schmid)

Figure 17. Wadi Farasa East. Painted handmade Medieval pottery (Schmid)

Figure 18. Wadi Farasa East. Coin of the Crusader period with Arabian legend (Schmid)

Figure 19. Wadi Farasa East. Medieval tombstone with cross from the upper terrace (Schmid)

Figure 20. Wadi Farasa East. Medieval tombstone with cross from the upper terrace (Schmid)

Figure 21. Wadi Farasa East. Medieval tombstone with representation of a tree of life from the upper terrace (Schmid)

Figure 22. Wadi Farasa East. Stone missiles (ballistae) from Medieval structures on lower terrace (Schmid)

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Figure 23. Petra, Jabal Madbah. Remains of a Medieval fortress (?) on top of Nabataean ruins (Schmid)

Figure 24. Wadi Farasa East. Painted handmade Medieval pottery from the small cistern on the upper terrace (Schmid)

Figure 25. Wadi Farasa East. Remains of parrot fish, found in big quantities in the small cistern on the upper terrace (Jacqueline Studer)

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THE ABANDONMENT OF PETRA REMAINS OF THE INVISIBLE: POST-BYZANTINE ARCHAEOLOGY OF PETRA’S NORTH RIDGE Patricia M. Bikai Independent scholar Megan A. Perry East Carolina University

Abtract (2008) The Abandonment of Petra. Remains of the Invisible: Post-Byzantine Archaeology of Petra’s North Ridge The complex, rich Nabatean and Roman ruins of Petra have captured the interest of archaeologists and explorers for almost 200 years. Many researchers assumed that occupation after the destructive A.D. 363 earthquake was minimal, but excavations of ecclesiastical structures on Petra’s North Ridge and the on-going translation of a group of papyri indicate that Petra contained a sizeable, active Byzantine period community. Scholars are now turning attention to the fate of Petra and its inhabitants after the city’s late 6th – early 7th century A.D. decline. At the beginning of the 7th century, the region experienced a substantial political, religious, and cultural shift from Byzantine to Islamic rule. Scholars have suggested that because Petra was not mentioned at all in the conquest literature, it was of no importance at this time. This suggestion appears to be correct, although Petra still contained a limited number of residents during the 7th – 8th century A.D. based on our excavations in the North Ridge area of the Petra basin. During that period, Petra’s remaining population utilized the abandoned ecclesiastical structures for domestic activities such as cooking, food preparation, and storage. The residents also sought out raw materials such as marble, glass, and metals from the public buildings and the nearby Nabataean tombs, and, in the case of glass, processed the materials for trade. Intensive occupation of these structures ended with a large earthquake in A.D. 748/9, which brought down at least some of the columns in the Blue Chapel and Petra Church, as well as walls in many of the structures. This earthquake was followed by a second event that brought down more of the structures on the North Ridge. An ephemeral human presence in the area after the mid-8th century AD is indicated by modifications to the atriums of the Blue Chapel Complex and Petra Church and some agricultural activity at the top of the ridge’s southern slope. The sequence of these activities is not clear. Another series of small retaining/terrace walls postdates the above evidence, indicating an almost constant, but transient, human presence on the North Ridge from the 8th century on. Who were the individuals left in Petra? The late 6th-8th century residents may have been descendants of Petra’s Byzantine period inhabitants, who decided to stay for political or economic reasons after the city’s infrastructure collapsed; alternately, they may have moved in from outside of the Petra city center. Eventually, after the 8th century earthquake, these individuals moved on to other areas of Petra or out of the site altogether. The North Ridge was then utilized for very limited activities. This minor presence continued to the 19th century, when historical evidence indicates that the Bedul Bedouin were living within Petra. Interestingly, if one had to rely on the evidence from Petra’s city center, one would be hard pressed to know that the Crusaders were well established in the area. Conversely, the city center that the Crusaders saw was not very different from the Petra that Burkhardt re-discovered for the west in 1812. It was a city of collapsed buildings filled with sand and rubble interspersed with a few small structures used by an apparently transient population.

The complex, rich Nabataean and Roman ruins of Petra have captured the interest of archaeologists and explorers for almost 200 years. Most researchers have assumed that occupation after the destructive AD 363 earthquake was minimal. Excavations of ecclesiastical structures on Petra’s North Ridge (Fiema et al., 2001; Perry and Bikai, 2007) and the ongoing translation of the Petra papyri (Frösén et al., 2002; Arjava et al., 2007) indicate that Petra contained a sizeable, active Byzantine period community. Scholars are now turning attention to the fate of Petra and its inhabitants after the city’s late 6th – early 7th century AD decline, a decline that was partly based on lack of maintenance of Petra’s elaborate water system. At the beginning of the 7th century, the region also experienced a substantial political, religious, and cultural shift from Byzantine to Islamic rule. The change theoretically left the region of modern Jordan in a political vacuum, and scholars suggest that because Petra was not mentioned at all in the conquest literature, it was of no importance at this time. Petra still contained residents during the 7th – 8th century AD based on our excavations in the North Ridge area of the Petra basin, in contrast to suppositions of a post-Byzantine abandonment.

EVIDENCE FROM PETRA’S NORTH RIDGE The North Ridge of Petra runs approximately SW to NE ca. 300 m to the north of the city center. Numerous structures on the top and the upper sector of the southern slope of the ridge were explored systematically by the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) from 1992 until 2002. Excavations focused on three Byzantine-period ecclesiastical structures, the Petra Church, the Blue Chapel Complex, and the Ridge Church (figure 1; see Fiema et al. 2001; Perry and Bikai 2007) and two Nabataean period rock-cut tombs discovered near the Ridge Church (Bikai and Perry 2001). During the Nabataean period, the North Ridge was used as a cemetery with a “military area” at the ridge’s western end, chosen for its view of the city center and of the back entrance to Petra. The construction of the so-called Ridge Church atop the North Ridge during the mid-to-late 4th century marked a change from primarily mortuary, domestic, and military functions to sacred space; however, the church itself likely served the military population. By the middle of the 5th century, the growth of Petra’s Christian population necessitated the construction of a large church and baptismal complex (the Petra Church); subsequently, a large complex that included a chapel with 95

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean blue granite columns (the Blue Chapel) was built. The Petra Church was destroyed by fire during renovations in the late 6th century and was never rebuilt (Fiema 2001, 94). Sometime during the 7th century, the other ecclesiastical structures on the North Ridge apparently went out of use. Church officials or other individuals cleared the Blue Chapel Complex of objects shortly before abandonment, although in one room of the Blue Chapel Complex a supply of glass chandelier fittings were left behind. After a short period of abandonment, the ecclesiastical structures began to be used for domestic purposes. Many areas of the Blue Chapel Complex, Ridge Church, and Petra Church were used for cooking and food preparation from approximately the end of the 6th into the 8th century AD, as indicated by the ceramics discovered in these layers. A large number of ceramic sherds are from large water storage jars, necessary because the extensive water system that had supported Petra’s urban center had collapsed and water had to be stored. Based on the limited number of natural water sources in the city center, Petra likely only supported a very small population during this period. Many modifications were made to the ecclesiastical structures to support their new purpose. For example, a small kitchen installation was constructed just outside of the Ridge Church (see figure 2). Nearby was a room with a small table and bench installation. The new occupants of the Petra Church also made some modifications to the structure to enable its new function. Fallen column drums, for instance, were placed in front of an existing bench, probably so that it could be used as a table, and a small cooking area and bench were constructed in a room at the western end and within the atrium (Fiema 2001, 95, 98). Furthermore, the atrium and western rooms of the Petra Church were converted for industrial and domestic uses, such as storing and processing raw materials collected from the church and for food preparation (Fiema 2001, 95). The residents of the Blue Chapel Complex on the other hand found little in the way of built-in furnishings in the abandoned structure, and there was no evidence that they constructed any new ones. Some rooms in upper building of the Blue Chapel Complex and the in Petra Church were modified slightly through the construction of small sub-walls. One of these reconfigured rooms in Blue Chapel’s upper building contained a small mortar and pestle in situ next to a sub-wall, similar to the industrial-sized mortar and pestle installation found in a modified room of the Petra Church (Fiema 2001, 100). Many sections of the structures contained the remnants of fires, animal bones, and broken storage jars. Late 6th to 8th century residents of the North Ridge also seemed to have spent a good part of their time looting the 1st century AD tombs underlying the existing structures. Tomb 2, directly to the south of the Ridge Church was opened and rifled during this period, and then was used as a dump for occupational debris by residents on the top of the ridge. In the Blue Chapel Complex, numerous sandstone floor pavers situated near exposed bedrock were lifted, presumably in the search for more Nabataean tombs (figure 3). The prizes that these tombs contained were materials

that could be reused or modified, such as gold, marble, or glass. Additionally, architectural elements, both of the churches and of other structures in abandoned Petra, elements such as marble and shale paving stones as well as glass and lead also were mined, presumably for their market value (see Fiema 2001, 94-95, 101). One area of the Petra Church in fact contained evidence of glass collecting and of processing; window glass, glass chandeliers, and wall-mosaic tesserae were converted into cakes of glass slag (Fiema 2001, 96-98). A number of earthquakes ended the continuous occupation of the North Ridge’s structures. At least some of, and perhaps all of the granite columns in the Blue Chapel, the column drums in the Petra Church, and other architecture in the Petra Church atrium and surrounding rooms (see Fiema 2001, 105) fell in one seismic event, dating between AD 658 and 782 CAL, based on 14C date of an animal bone found underneath one of the Blue Chapel column drums. Fiema originally supposed that a AD 748/9 earthquake occurred too late to explain the first destruction in the Petra Church, which he therefore attributed to the AD 672 event (Fiema 2001, 118). It is likely, however, that the collapse of the Blue Chapel’s columns occurred during the AD 748/9 earthquake and related tremors, for not only do we have evidence that the earthquake affected the region of Petra, but the strength of this particular earthquake would be sufficient to topple the granite columns and to effectively damage the other structures to an extent that prevented post-earthquake occupation (see Guidoboni 1994; Russell 1985). Furthermore, lamps from the Blue Chapel Complex date to no later than the 8th century AD (Barrett 2005), confirming that there was little to no occupation in these structures as they continued to collapse after AD 748/9. The continuous seismic events after the 8th century caused additional damage to the abandoned, partially collapsed Petra Church, and to the Blue Chapel Complex. One earthquake in particular, attributed by Fiema to the AD 748/9 event, but likely occurring later, caused extensive damage to the Petra Church (Fiema 2001, 115-118), including toppling columns in the baptistery. In the Blue Chapel, a cornice along the western and northern walls of the Blue Chapel’s entry hall, and part of the upper story collapsed in this later event; it is also possible that some of the blue granite columns did not fall until this time. Post-8th century human activity on the North Ridge is rather ephemeral and not easily datable. There is nothing indicating a permanent population. The evidence for post8th century occupation consists mainly of agricultural terracing and caching behaviors, and possibly the construction of retaining walls within the Blue Chapel Complex and Petra Church. A small series of terraces also was constructed on a small slope leading between the north wall of the Blue Chapel Complex and the Ridge Church. The terracing system consisted of what appear to be small rooms filled with rubble and soil perhaps to create separate small garden plots on the slope. Post-8th century AD human occupation of the Petra Church atrium consisted of three simply-constructed walls, possi96

P. M. Bikai, M. A. Perry : The Abandonment Of Petra Remains Of The Invisible bly used for terracing or to contain wall tumble (Fiema 2001, 117-118). A coin found in strata from this subphase dates to the Mamluk period, specifically to the late 13th or 14th century (Fiema 2001, 117). Similar activities were occurring at the same time in the atrium of the Blue Chapel Complex; building debris was cleared from the center of the atrium, and crude walls were constructed to hold back the debris. The purpose of these walls is unclear, and similar to the walls in the Petra Church, no evidence of human occupation was uncovered within the area. The soil within these areas did not display any organic qualities or artifacts. The post-8th century North Ridge residents also continued to gather materials such as marble (Fiema 2001, 117). Further evidence for post-Byzantine, yet pre-19th century activities comes from the American Expedition in Petra Household Excavations (figure 1.4) directed by Kenneth Russell from 1974-1977. According his unpublished field notes (held by the American Center of Oriental Research, Amman), approximately 27 burials placed within the postoccupation rubble were excavated. These burials appear to be Islamic, but local Bedul Bedouin informants state that the graves do not contain their ancestors, who are documented in 19th century Petra. In an as-yet undefined period, a number of small stone enclosures, windbreaks, and retaining walls were constructed on top of and partially incorporating the remnants of the North Ridge structures, including the walls constructed in the Blue Chapel Complex and Petra Church atriums described above. These simple structures resemble those constructed by the Bedul Bedouin when they resided in the ancient rock-cut monuments inside Petra (see Suleiman 1986) and used these areas for agriculture. Almost no artifacts are associated with this phase. Most notably lacking are Ottoman period artifacts, in particular, clay pipes, in any of the upper North Ridge strata. Clay pipes are ubiquitous in the Near East after the importation of tobacco (see, for example, Ward and Baram 2006 and references there). The Bedul were in Petra when 19th century explorers arrived at the site (Russell 1993). Local informants report that the North Ridge, as in other areas in Petra, provided terraces for placement of tents and agricultural production. To prepare some of these plateaus, such as the area of the Ridge Church and the upper building of the Blue Chapel Complex, residents pushed aside architectural debris and collapse downslope. Collapse and rubble also was cleared from the Petra Church for agricultural purposes (Fiema 2001, 119).

terials for trade. Intensive occupation of these structures ended with a large earthquake in AD 748/9, which brought down at least some of the columns in the Blue Chapel and Petra Church, as well as walls in many of the structures. This earthquake was followed by a second event that brought down more of the structures on the North Ridge. An ephemeral human presence on the North Ridge after the mid-8th century AD is indicated by modifications to the atriums of the Blue Chapel Complex and Petra Church and some agricultural activity at the top of the ridge’s southern slope. The sequence of these activities is not clear, but the lack of Ottoman clay pipes that were widely distributed in the area or other datable artifacts may suggest that they occurred before the Late Islamic era. Another series of small retaining/terrace walls postdates the above evidence, indicating an almost constant, but transient, human presence on the North Ridge from the 8th century until the modern era. Who were the individuals left in Petra? The late 6th-8th century residents may have been descendants of Petra’s Byzantine period inhabitants, who decided to stay for political or economic reasons after the city’s infrastructure collapsed; alternately, they may have moved in from outside of the Petra city center. A Kufic Arabic inscription reading “Bismillah” (in the name of God) suggests that some of that population spoke (or wrote) in Arabic (the phrase itself was used by both Christian and Islamic populations – see Khairy and ‘Amr 1986, 152). Eventually, after the 8th century earthquake, these individuals moved on to other areas of Petra or out of the site altogether. The North Ridge was then utilized by humans for as-of-yet unidentified activities. This minor presence continued to the 19th century, when historical evidence indicates that the Bedul were living within Petra. Interestingly, if one had to rely on the evidence from Petra’s city center, one would be hard pressed to know that the Crusaders were well established in the area. Conversely, the city center that the Crusaders saw was not very different from the Petra that Ludwig Burkhardt re-discovered for the west in 1812. It was a city of collapsed buildings filled with sand and rubble interspersed with a few small structures used by an apparently transient population. BIBLIOGRAPHY Arjava, A., Buchholz, M. and Gagos, T. (eds.) 2007. Petra Papyri III. Amman, American Center of Oriental Research. Barrett, D. 2005. The Ceramic Oil Lamp as an Indicator of Cultural Change within Nabataean Society in Petra and its Environs circa CE 106. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Brown University. Bikai, P.M. and Perry, M.A. 2001. Petra North Ridge Project Tombs 1 and 2: Preliminary report. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 104, 59-78. Fiema, Z.T. 2001. Reconstructing the History of the Petra Church: Data and Phasing, in Z.T. Fiema, C. Kanellopoulos, T. Waliszewski and R. Schick (eds.), The Petra Church. Amman, American Center of Oriental Research, 7-137. Fiema, Z.T., Kanellopoulos, C., Waliszewski, T. and

CONCLUSION Occupation of Petra’s North Ridge after the Late Byzantine period was most intense during the late 6th through mid- 8th centuries. Petra’s remaining population utilized the abandoned (and in the case of the Petra Church, partially burned) ecclesiastical structures for domestic activities such as cooking, food preparation, and storage. The residents also sought out raw materials such as marble, glass, and metals from the public buildings and the nearby Nabataean tombs, and, in the case of glass, processed the ma97

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Schick, R. 2001. The Petra Church, Amman: American Center of Oriental Research. Frosen, J., Arjava, A. and Lehtinen, M. (eds.) 2002. Petra Papyri I. Amman, American Center of Oriental Research. Guidoboni, E. 1994. Catalogue of Ancient Earthquakes in the Mediterranean Area up to the 10th Century. Rome, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica. Khairy, N.I. and ‘Amr, A-J. A. 1986. Early Islamic Inscribed Pottery Lamps from Jordan. Levant, 28, 142153. Perry, M.A. and Bikai, P.M. 2007. Petra’s Churches: The Byzantines and Beyond, in T. E. Levy, P. M. M. Daviau, R. Younker and M. Shaer (eds.), Crossing Jordan: North American Contributions to the Archaeology of Jordan, 435-443. London, Equinox,

Russell, K.W. 1983. The Ethnohistory of the Bedul Bedouin of Petra. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 37, 15-31. Russell, K.W. 1985. The Earthquake Chronology of Palestine and Northwest Arabia from the 2nd through the Mid-8th Century A.D. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 260, 37-59. Suleiman, E. 1986. Habitations of the Bdul Bedouins in the Petra Area (Arabic). Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 30, 29-33. Ward, C. and Baram, U. 2006. Global Markets, Local Practice: Ottoman-period Clay Pipes and Smoking Paraphernalia from the Red Sea Shipwreck at Sadana Island, Egypt. International Journal of Historical Archaeology,10.2, 135-58.

Figure 1. Aerial view of the Petra Church; photo by J. Wilson Myers and Eleanor E. Myers. 1. unexcavated Ridge Church; 2. unexcavated Blue Chapel Complex; 3. partially excavated Petra Church; 4. Household Excavations. Note the terracing and enclosure walls.

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Figure 2. Drawing (by Chrysanthos Kanellopoulos) of possible activities in the Blue Chapel after it was abandoned as a church.

Figure 3. Drawing (by Chrysanthos Kanellopoulos) of possible activities at the Ridge Church after it was abandoned as a church.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

LA DIFESA DEL LIMES ARABICUS IN EPOCA ROMANA, BIZANTINA E CROCIATA. OSSERVAZIONI SULL’USO DEI MATERIALI LAPIDEI E ALCUNE TECNICHE COSTRUTTIVE Luigi Marino Massimo Coli Università di Firenze Abstract (2008) The Limes. Dependence on local resources of boundary defence Results of a research on the eastern military settlements of Crusader epoch will be presented here. They concern remains of an imposing system featured by strong points, connected with each others by a vast road network and a valid logistic organization, which derive from patterns that were adopted in Roman and Byzantine times, in particular, upon the limes arabicus and limes africanus. The elements of such “linear fortification” had the double function of fixed look-out and seasonal halting place, located along the caravan routes and markets, or near to areas with material resources (water, caves, woodlands…). They are the result of an evolution throughout the time, mix Roman with other local experiences, which certainly show Greek or even more ancient influence, achieving a soundness, in terms of construction and settlement, that will be one of the bases of development for following building techniques in both Near East and Europe. The great deal of archaeological evidence can be clustered in some main groups of artefacts, which concern temporary encampments, siege machines/works and defensive fortified works. The most usual pattern is that imitating the castrum and quadriburgium. With respect to building, they summarize ways of effective exploitation of landscape (adaptation of models to particular conditions) and local resources (especially stone, included large phenomenons of reusing spoilt materials, spolia). Traces of working bear witness to handed-down know-how and acquired knowledge, that are of great interest as regards that epoch and the ensuing aftermaths they originated: let us think of construction of vaulted structures and wall-arches, namely all-stone structures that will have largely featured building activity until relatively recent times.

L’architettura militare presenta certamente alcune singolarità che la rendono peculiare rispetto ad altre: la perfetta aderenza al singolo territorio1 in cui si trova a vivere, la massima resa possibile in termini di funzionalità e affidabilità, l’obbligo a una progressiva “aggiornabilità” in conseguenza delle diverse sollecitazioni esterne che nel tempo possono presentarsi, talvolta con caratteristiche molto diverse. Nell’analisi dell’architettura fortificata vanno evidenziati, soprattutto, quelli che possono essere considerati “periodi di transizione”; periodi, cioè, nei quali gli edifici, siano essi veri castelli o le più semplici barriere, sono obbligati a modificarsi per adattarsi, nella maniera più efficace possibile (in relazione alla singolarità delle condizioni), alle rinnovate capacità operative delle forze nemiche. Le opere fortificate cambiano nel tempo assumendo nuove caratteristiche che spesso si integrano con quelle precedenti senza distruggerle con trasformazioni lente e progressivi adattamenti localizzati ma, non di rado, con trasformazioni radicali che possono modificare i modelli preesistenti. L’architettura militare presenta la particolarità di essere fatta con materiali da costruzione e con l’adozione di procedure di apparecchio la cui durabilità deve essere sufficientemente elevata per adeguarsi, senza apparente difficoltà, alle nuove condizioni assicurando la necessaria solidità e affidabilità nel tempo. Un tema di grande interesse è offerto dalle fortificazioni di confine. Non si tratta soltanto di opere in linea (Napoli 1997), caratteristiche del II secolo d.C. (p.e. il vallo di Adriano) ma certo più antiche e che, in periodi e situazioni particolari (anche molto recenti), sono stati riscoperti e adottati, con risultati più o meno efficaci.2

Gli insediamenti di epoca crociata, e non esclusivamente quelli di carattere specificatamente militare, presentano caratteri difensivi ben evidenti nelle chiese e negli impianti produttivi e, allo stesso tempo, una rete di relazioni territoriali di grande interesse, segnati prevalentemente da opere fortificate o, quantomeno, da aree di riparo. Queste, in particolare, sembrano essere costituite prevalentemente da fortini e campi trincerati di epoca romana e bizantina ma, talvolta, molto più antichi. Le difese del limes, con tutti i significati che questo termine contiene,3 sembrano essere una delle esigenze principali degli interventi di epoca crociata. Inizialmente lo sviluppo di opere fortificate franche può essere articolato in tre fasi, distinte ma legate tra loro. La prima è segnata dalle difficoltà di insediamento che i primi crociati hanno avuto a causa della quasi totale mancanza di informazioni sul territorio nonostante le relazioni commerciali tra i latini e i musulmani (Tolan, Josserand 2000, Balard 2001) e i sempre più frequenti pellegrinaggi in Terra Santa. Le difficoltà maggiori sembrano essere state quelle legate alla scarsa esperienza del costruire dei primi crociati e la scarsità del legname, materiale da costruzione che maggiormente i franchi conoscevano. Dopo la relativa facilità con cui si sono insediati sulla costa del Mediterraneo i Crociati sono stati costretti, anche a causa della riorganizzazione delle forze armate locali, a una maggiore attenzione verso il territorio, verso le risorse naturali; comprese quelle necessarie ad essere usate come materiale primario da costruzione.4 Nel secondo periodo dell’occu(su questo: Lein e Weizman 2007). 3 Il termine limes aveva all’inizio il significato di strada di penetrazione in uso all’esercito e solo successivamente quello di confine e di area di competenza, indipendentemente dal fatto che fosse fortificato o meno. In seguito tenderà ad assumere il significato di sistema di difesa formato da una struttura complessa della quale facevano parte, in maniera più o meno preponderante, anche strutture militari. 4 È noto il ruolo che hanno avuto i carpentieri navali genovesi e inglesi nella costruzione di apparati di assedio (“lignea castra, machinae et

1

Un efficace quadro sul rapporto tra strategie militari antiche e moderne e l’importanza della conoscenza del territorio è in Herzog, Gichon 2003. 2 Basti ricordare la muraglia cinese, il muro di Berlino, la barriera di sabbia di Hassan II, la linea Maginot (la prova evidente del fallimento della guerra di trincea) e il muro che ha diviso i territori della Cisgiordania

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L. Marino, M. Coli : La difesa del limes arabicus in epoca romana, bizantina e crociata pazione (dalla presa di Gerusalemme alla disfatta di Hattin) i Crociati si sono trovati costretti a elaborare e gestire un sistema militare che comprendeva specificatamente un alto numero di opere fortificate fisse ma anche un sistema di mobilità nel territorio che per molti versi era loro estraneo, in un territorio naturalmente ostile caratterizzato non da una frontiera da proteggere ma una serie di limites spesso variabili a distanza di poco tempo, non presidiati da forze nemiche stabili ma da gruppi addestrati a combattere con grande mobilità.5 In quella regione tradizionalmente l’arte della guerra era caratterizzata più che in battaglie campali, da scaramucce e piccoli contatti con le truppe nemiche, con una particolare predilezione per le imboscate.6 Anche nel caso di difese di città fortificate e castelli i Crociati si sono trovati a gestire dinamiche di controllo di avvicinamento alle mura per molti versi anomali che non permetteva loro, se non in maniera molto limitata, la funzione di arresto automatico (come si direbbe in termini di artiglieria moderna) di reparti di nemici quando fossero arrivati a distanza di gittata ottimale con frecce dal baluardo da difendere. In questa fase molte delle opere fortificate crociate sono basate sui modelli di elementi fortificati di epoca romana e bizantina (limes arabicus), dapprima riutilizzati e poi trasformati fino a produrre modelli di insediamento e fortificati di una certa autonomia e originalità. Questo soprattutto nella terza fase di occupazione, fino alla definitiva perdita dei possedimenti d’Oltremare quando riusciranno a produrre una macchina da guerra imponente, articolata intorno a poche fortezze (fortificazioni di pianura ma soprattutto di sperone) che, per molti aspetti, quando saranno reimportati in Occidente rappresenteranno un reale rinnovamento dell’arte difensiva. Modelli che, validi per una guerra di posizione usuale in Occidente, saranno però destinati a rivelarsi inefficaci nelle regioni orientali nelle quali le operazioni belliche continueranno ad essere caratterizzate da una grande mobilità di piccoli gruppi di armati a partire da rifugi per lo più provvisori. Le diversità di risultati cui sono giunti i diversi studiosi se, da una parte, sono la conseguenza delle differenze di approccio iniziale e dei diversi sviluppi delle indagini, dall’altra sono la dimostrazione del potenziale di indagini che è ancora possibile avviare in questo particolare settore di ricerca. I materiali lapidei, in particolare (marginalmente il legno e la terra cruda), sono la tangibile traccia di catene operatorie edilizie (coltivazione, cicli di produzione, trasporto, impiego e riutilizzo in situ e in altro luogo) che presentano proficue prospettive future. I resti di insediamenti militari costituiscono un luogo privilegiato per la ricerca di quelli che si definiscono archivi del suolo; i luoghi nei quali sono conservate, quasi sempre in collocazione primaria, le tracce materiali e le documentazioni originali dell’attività edificatoria dell’uomo.

no un settore di ricerca di grande interesse che si può basare su importanti fonti d’archivio7 e una ricca bibliografia8 che però non sembrano prestare una giusta attenzione ai materiali9 e alle tecniche di costruzione. Ma soprattutto si può contare su un alto (e significativo, sotto diversi punti di vista) numero di esempi di manufatti sopravvissuti, talvolta allo stato di rudere (e perciò meglio analizzabili) ma più spesso allo stato quasi integro. Le opere fortificate (Marino 1997), infatti, sono caratterizzate da una ricorrente permanenza di importanti tracce non (o limitatamente) manomesse, ma che rischiano di essere distrutte da interventi frettolosi e non rispettosi. Lo stato di allerta diventa sempre più pressante a causa della spinta di un turismo scarsamente interessato e immaturo che “suggerisce” frettolosi interventi di ricostruzione piuttosto che interventi conservativi e di consapevole manutenzione/valorizzazione. Tra le più interessanti testimonianze antiche del costruire di epoca crociata su cui si può fare affidamento vanno ricordate le relazioni Olivier de Cologne per Chastel-Pélerin10, quella, forse di Benoît d’Alignan, per Safed (Huygens, 1965, 357-387). Da queste fonti è possibile trarre utili informazioni sugli impianti generali, sulle caratteristiche dimensionali e le destinazioni d’uso delle singole parti architettoniche ma scarse sono le notizie più pertinenti sulle risorse materiali (lapidei nella quasi totalità) locali impiegabili nella costruzione, sulle procedure di lavorazione della pietra dalla cava11 all’apparecchio murario, nel riutilizzo di siti e materiali provenienti da opere fortificate più antiche abbandonate,12 sulle procedure di manuten“…aedificant presidium cum turribus quatuor, veteribus aedificiis, quorum multa adhuc supererant vestigia, lapidum ministrantibus copiam…”. Le annotazioni di Guglielmo di Tiro sintetizzano in maniera efficace alcuni aspetti costruttivi della storia degli insediamenti militari in Terra Santa all’epoca dei Crociati. 8 Abbiamo ritenuto di omettere i riferimenti bibliografici sui castelli crociati perché ben conosciuti. Va osservato, però, come, a fronte di una ricca e qualificata bibliografia di carattere storico, i contributi specifici sull’uso di materiali da costruzione e di tecniche edili appaiono fortemente ridotti. 9 Di recente sono stati pubblicati almeno due studi sui castelli di epoca crociata senza che sia fatto alcun cenno ai materiali di cui sono fatti se non la generica indicazione “di pietra”, in una regione che presenta una ricca varietà di materiali lapidei. 10 Oltre ad alcune annotazioni sulle tecniche costruttive (p.e. “lapidum etiam et cementi copiam dominus ministravit”) si trovano minuziose osservazioni sulle dimensioni delle opere fortificate (“…in muris, qui habent in altitudine XX cannas et in latitudine in summo cannam et dimidiam; que in antemuralibus (apparati a sporgere) que in sub terra profunde inter antemuralia et fossata cum crotis (grotte) in circuitu totius castri per CCCLXXV cannas…; ubi sunt VII turres, quarum quelibet in altitudine XXII cannas, in latitudine X, in spissitudine II in summo” (ediz. Hoogeweg 1894) 11 Il ruolo delle cave di pietra risulta essere importante nella scelta del sito su cui alloggiare l’opera fortificata per ridurre il disagio di trasportare blocchi in salita, per utilizzare in maniera efficace i volumi di scavo come piani interrati dei castelli (al castello di Beaufort, per esempio, una parte “consiste en cavernes creussées dans le roc, et une autre partie est construite sur le roc”) e per potenziare le difese passive del castello, sfruttando efficacemente gli stessi fronti di cava (basterebbe ricordare Sahyun dove, nello scavo del fossato, è stato risparmiato un pilone monolitico -di circa 30 m- con funzione di battiponte o il secondo fossato di Safita “in profundo rupis VII cannas” -15,40m). A Kerak, ancora oggi la cava da cui i costruttori franchi si sono approvvigionati per il castello è segnalata con il toponimo el frangj. 12 L’opportunità di riutilizzare materiali di spoglio e di strutture murarie 7

Le tracce della presenza crociata in Terrasanta costituiscomachinamenta”) a Gerusalemme. 5 La mobilità del nemico rendeva di fatto inutili gli elementi di difesa mobile (graticci e gabbioni). 6 Interessanti sono le osservazioni di Guglielmo di Tiro a proposito delle cause dei successi del Saladino facilitate anche da una progressiva perdita di abitudine e pratica alle armi durante i periodi di pace.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean zione e di adattamento a nuove esigenze difensive, prima immediata conseguenza dopo ogni “rioccupazione” di un castello in precedenza perduto,13 e sulle trasformazioni che avverranno nel tempo, quando saranno venute meno le esigenze militari. Quelle che a suo tempo erano state innovative e potenti macchine da guerra, verranno abbandonate senza dover subire altro danno che quello derivato dal parziale riutilizzo di materiali per la costruzione di villaggi stanziali. Al contrario degli edifici sacri che, più frequentemente, saranno trasformati ed adattati.14 A giustificazione dell’alto livello tecnico raggiunto nei castelli di ultima generazione, sia per quanto riguarda l’impianto e l’aderenza alle caratteristiche morfologiche dei territori, sia per quanto riguarda l’efficacia delle procedure costruttive, concorrono molti e diversi fattori. Determinanti sono la presenza di impianti difensivi e consuetudini costruttive locali con i quali i costruttori franchi si sono trovati costretti a confrontarsi soprattutto dopo la constatazione della inefficienza delle procedure costruttive e delle esperienze difensive che si erano portate dai paesi d’origine. Dopo alcuni clamorosi errori di valutazione a causa della riproposizione di modelli difensivi passivi basati essenzialmente su impianti caratterizzati da movimenti di terra e palizzate di legno15 (da utilizzarsi come punti forti per lenti movimenti di truppe), i costruttori crociati16 tra-

sformeranno in maniera fondamentale le abituali procedure costruttive adottando, di volta in volta, soluzioni scelte tra un vasto repertorio di soluzioni conosciute ma sempre più condizionate dalle tradizioni edili locali.17 LE FORTIFICAZIONI PRECEDENTI Tutta l’area del Vicino Oriente ha visto uno sviluppo pressoché ininterrotto da almeno tre millenni prima dell’arrivo dei Crociati.18 Nella regione siro-palestinese, verso il secondo millennio a.C., si trovano fortificazioni, soprattutto nelle are urbane, che inglobano il tell e i nuclei residenziali; i muraglioni sono a cassone e allestiti su terrazzamenti. È usuale una doppia cinta muraria con torri di fiancheggiamento quadrilatere o semicircolari e difese avanzate, protette da un fossato. Soluzioni efficaci a contrasto dell’uso di macchine d’assedio19 il cui uso sarà sufficientemente diffuso a partire dal IV secolo a.C. fino a tutto il medioevo e, in alcuni casi, fino all’adozione dell’arma da fuoco. L’architettura militare greca (Winter 1971; Leriche, Treziny 1986) ha condizionato certamente le opere fortificate di epoca crociata nelle quali saranno presenti murature di grande apparecchio legate da barre lapidee alloggiate con più o meno regolarità a tutto spessore di muro, adozione di porte a baionetta, torri circolari, apparati a sporgere in muratura per la difesa piombante con gattoni di pietra o legno posti lungo le cortine murarie oppure sulle porte (bertesche),20 murature a bozze21 a bugnato sporgente, a tavoletta con anatirosi oppure a campo graffiato; ma anche soluzioni idrauliche (captazione e gestione delle risorse idriche)… ma soprattutto del recupero dell’uso di materiali e tecniche costruttive di antica tradizione e ancora vive in quelle regioni. L’influenza dell’architettura militare romana, nelle varianti urbana e di frontiera, è testimoniata da numerose e

preesistenti è ben testimoniata dal traduttore di Guglielmo di Tiro quando annotava come, a proposito della costruzione del castello di Hibelin (1141) “pierres trovèrent en cel leu des fortresses qui jadis y avaient aesté car, si comme l’en dist: chastel abatuz est demi refez” ricordando, in pratica, le disposizioni di un trattato del VI secolo sull’arte di fortificare che suggeriva di sfruttare al meglio le caratteristiche morfologiche del territorio e le esperienze di chi aveva già costruito in quella regione. A Darum era stata proprio l’occasione “vetustorum aedificiorum” a condizionare la scelta del sito. L’impiego di materiali provenienti da altre fabbriche inserite nelle nuove costruzioni facilitavano una sorta di prefabbricazione poiché gli elementi lapidei, spesso senza necessità di opere di rilavorazione, potevano essere impiegati in maniera veloce e adeguata alle nuove necessità funzionali e decorative richieste. La stessa cura con cui si cercava di riutilizzare spolia architettonici veniva posta per evitare che una opera fortificata potesse essere riutilizzata dal nemico. Quando Togtekin si impadronì del Qasr Berdaouil (1105) lo fece demolire e gettare le pietre nella valle. Nel 1875 V. Guérin annoterà come le mura di Safed fossero diventate “une véritable carrère, d’où les habitants de la ville extraient continuellement des matériaux tout taillés pour bâtir de nouvelles maisons“. 13 Il fenomeno di riadattamento sembra frequente soprattutto nelle aree di confine dove si dovevano risolvere, con una certa efficacia e velocità, non solo esigenze direttamente legate alle esigenze di difesa militare ma anche di presidio di un territorio che tendeva ad assumere caratteri di maggiore complessità a causa dei nuovi insediati nell’area e dalla maggiore articolazione di funzioni che si aprivano intorno alle opere fortificate (quelle commerciali soprattutto). 14 Si pensi, tra le altre, alla cattedrale di Beiruth. 15 I donjon, collocati su motte artificiali (o in parte artificiali) sembrano rappresentare la sola reale novità nell’architettura militare occidentale nel momento in cui il declino del potere centrale crea le condizioni per la proliferazione di opere fortificate private che si trovano a costituire punti forti isolati e fortemente aderenti alle realtà locali, sia per quanto riguarda gli impianti sia (soprattutto) la scelta dei materiali da costruzione reperiti nelle aree più vicine. Il castello di terra a Sidone sembra sia stato costruito sopra una precedente motta così come quella di Damietta. Marino 2001, 5-14. 16 Il termine “costruttori” sembra essere non del tutto adatto se riferito alle prime spedizioni visto che al seguito dei combattenti non abbondava di certo il personale abile nelle costruzioni. Per i lavori a Bélinas, dopo le sistematiche demolizioni musulmane, Baldovino III farà arrivare un gran numero di operai “convocatis enim ex urbibus finitimis et de regno universo caemetariis, et quicumque architecturae aliquam habere

videbantur experientiam” (Guglielmo di Tiro). 17 Le occasioni principali per il rinnovamento delle procedure costruttive, in particolare quelle da applicare a elementi fortificati, sono offerte dalla osservazione delle locali opere difensive e di gestione territoriale e la presenza nei cantieri crociati di operai indigeni già ben addestrati. A Saphet, nel 1240, lavorerà circa un migliaio di prigionieri di guerra. 18 Basterebbe ricordare il sito di Habouba Kabira o quello di Jerico le cui strutture fortificate sono caratterizzate dal forte spessore delle mura merlate, dall’impiego di torri a saliente con cortine a leggera scarpa e cuciture (lapidee e lignee) di rinforzo. Le stesse regole saranno presenti in Vegezio (Epitoma rei militari) quando raccomanderà di chiudere “le città con sinuosi anfratti e con torri alquanto vicine l’una all’altra, proprio negli angoli…”. In generale Kempinsky, Reich 1992. La soluzione a scarpa, ottima soluzione per ridurre l’impatto di macchine d’assedio, verrà recuperata con grande efficacia dai costruttori crociati di seconda generazione (Belvoir-Coquet e soprattutto Cesarea dove le murature verticali più antiche verranno rinfiancate da scarpe a forte pendenza). 19 Savage 1991, 56-62. I Romani utilizzeranno le stesse soluzioni nelle loro opere fortificate stabili insieme ad avancorpi e difese frazionate, percorsi obbligati e allo scoperto. Nelle azioni di assedio, invece, impiegheranno monumentali rampe di avvicinamento (come contro le fortezze erodiane di Masada e Macheronte). 20 I crociati le trasformeranno le corte bertesche in lunghe caditoie, rette da mensole di pietra, che formeranno vere gallerie come al Krac des Chevaliers. 21 L’impiego di elementi a bozze, ricorrente nell’architettura greca e in quella dell’impero romano, sarà adottato dai crociati e dai musulmani. Le varianti peculiari che contraddistingueranno le diverse fasi di occupazione e riconquista possono essere considerate, in molti casi, come indicatori sufficientemente affidabili.

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L. Marino, M. Coli : La difesa del limes arabicus in epoca romana, bizantina e crociata ni26, sono le installazioni militari. I modelli27 che si sviluppano tra il secondo e il quarto secolo comprendono (Kennedy, Riley 1990; al-Khouri 2003; Gregory 1995-1997; Le Bohec 2008): castra a carattere provvisorio (castra aestiva) oppure stabile (hiberna, stativa),28 campi d’assedio,29 vasti recinti che diventano vere città murate30 (nelle quali grande attenzione è posta nella costruzione delle porte, ritenute gli elementi potenzialmente più vulnerabili)31, fortini32 e caserme (Davison 1989), e una vasta casistica di torri.33 Questi ultimi soprattutto presentano interesse dal punto di vista costruttivo perché più condizionati dalla morfologia dei territori, dalla possibilità di utilizzare facilmente materiali lapidei (non di rado costituito da materiale di spoglio) e assicurarsi i necessari rifornimenti costanti per la manutenzione. Un elemento importante del sistema fortificato di epoca romana e bizantina è rappresentato dal quadriburgium34 fortino quadrangolare con torri angolari (talvolta con torri rompitratta) aggettanti dalle cortine. In molti casi una delle torri supera le altre in dimensioni in maniera da costituire una torre maestra e che diventerà con il tempo un vero ridotto di difesa, un elemento questo che costituirà uno degli elementi caratterizzanti delle fortificazioni di epoca crociata.35 Elementi comuni a queste opere fortificate è l’utilizzo del materiale locale, lapideo soprattutto, con diversificate modalità di lavorazione e apparecchio; le soluzioni costrutti-

significative tracce, soprattutto quelle divenute usuali nel terzo secolo quando la necessità di impianti stabili e l’uso generalizzato della pietra22 suggeriranno nuovi modelli difensivi e permetteranno interessanti sperimentazioni costruttive. Il territorio del Vicino Oriente,23 e quello della Transgiordania in particolare, è ancora oggi ricco di tracce delle opere fortificate romane relative alla protezione del limes arabicus, una frontiera non sempre ben definita e, anzi, piuttosto variabile nel tempo soprattutto quando, in epoca di pace, si animava in maniera ancora più sensibile diventando luogo di scambi commerciali e immigrazioni approfittando delle provvisorie ma non rare stabilizzazioni politiche. Le opere fortificate sono collocate soprattutto intorno agli assi portanti del sistema stradale (Freeman, Kennedy 1986) (la via nova traiana, innanzitutto che andava da Bosra ad Aqaba, dalla strata diocletiana che collegava Damasco a Sura sull’Eufrate e, a ovest del Giordano, una ricca rete viaria nel Negev) (Gichon 1967, 175-93; Gichon 1991, 318-325), ben integrato da piste secondarie (e un sistema protetto di guadi e ponti) (Marino 1982, 43-52, 122-23) che assicuravano una difesa arretrata stabile e permettevano, all’occorrenza, una difesa avanzata appoggiata a opere fortificate di presidio che si trovavano a svolgere il ruolo di “valvole” di una difesa con caratteristiche elastiche. Il sistema stradale romano teneva certamente in conto le antiche vie carovaniere che assicuravano lo scambio di merci tra Oriente e costa mediterranea con particolare attenzione per le aree e le città che tradizionalmente svolgevano un ruolo di centri di mercato. Studi recenti hanno messo in luce l’effettivo ruolo svolto dall’esercito romano in quelle regioni, un ruolo difensivo da possibili minacce esterne certamente (in un quadro che sembrava escludere uno scontro definitivo, in una prospettiva, piuttosto, di uno stato permanente di guerra controllata), ma soprattutto un ruolo di controllo locale dei flussi stagionali dei nomadi verso le aree fertili e di controllo delle risorse, di regimazione degli interessi economici delle popolazioni locali.24 Le ipotesi di una grande strategia romana (Luttwak 1981), salvo forse che per alcuni periodi, è poco sostenibile per un esercito che sembra fare affidamento piuttosto su soluzioni prese di volta in volta (Isaac 1990; Lewin 1999) in conseguenza delle situazioni che si venivano a creare e delle risorse disponibili. Elementi fondamentali per il controllo del territorio da parte degli eserciti romani,25 e poi bizanti-

26

I Crociati avranno occasione di verificare l’affidabilità delle difese del quinto-sesto secolo a Costantinopoli, Antiochia, Edessa durante le marce di avvicinamento alla Terrasanta. Non di rado saranno proprio elementi fortificati bizantini a costituire il nucleo intorno al quale si svilupperanno i castelli crociati. 27 Richardson 2004; Ipotesi ricostruttive di strutture fortificate romane sono in Obley 1982, 223-273 28 Le torri angolari sporgenti dalla cortina sembrano databili al primo secolo d.C. ma l’adozione in estensione diventerà usuale soltanto nel terzo secolo. La presenza dell’intervallum all’interno e a ridosso del muro di cortina, dapprima una costante, verrà abbandonata un po’ alla volta per arrivare a costruzioni addossate al muro. Il castrum, un tipo di fortificazione adatto a una strategia di movimento, sembra databile soprattutto a un periodo di espansione. 29 Masada, Macheronte. 30 Dora Europos, Resafa, Umm er-Rasas. Intorno alle opere fortificate avanzate, quasi sempre a protezione di risorse naturali, si sono sviluppati insediamenti che, dapprima provvisori, diventeranno stabili. Helms 1990. 31 Spesso organizzate con controporte, corridoi fiancheggiati e a baionetta (titula e clavicula). Bidwell, Miket, Ford 1988. Grandi attenzioni verranno riservate agli ingressi dei castelli anche in epoca crociata. Deschamps 1932, 369-387. Porte con torri sporgenti all’interno della città (ma spesso con barbacane esterno) saranno usuali nella cinta di Damasco quando, dopo il 1218, ci sarà un vasto processo di ammodernamento delle opere difensive. 32 Le diverse classificazioni proposte sembrano risolvere i problemi tipologici ma soltanto in via di massima poiché le varianti locali sono numerose e tali da richiedere costanti correttivi. 33 Le torri possono essere a base quadrilatera (prevalenza delle planimetrie rettangolari su quelle quadrate) e circolare mentre non sono rare, nelle torri di cortina e delle porte, planimetrie in Gichon 1974, 513-44. 34 Si tratta di un modello di fortificazione che sembra avere le sue origini proprio in area vicinorientale e che sarà in uso almeno fino all’epoca omayyade per essere ancora recuperati, con le necessarie modifiche, in molte opere fortificate di epoca crociata (Gregory 1996). Un riferimento fondamentale per lo studio dei quadriburgia è Gichon 1993. 35 A Darum la fortificazione era di “formae quadrae, quattuor turres habens angulares, quarum una grossior et munitior erat aliis”. Lo stesso modello verrà utilizzato anche dagli eserciti musulmani come al Qal’at er-Rabadh (Ajlun), costruito in opposizione al castello crociato di Crac de Montreal (Kerak).

22

Lander 1984. Numerosi sono le documentazioni relative a opere fortificate allestite proprio a protezione di distretti minerari e cave di pietra e delle strade che da queste partivano. 23 Di grande interesse potrebbero essere alcuni riferimenti con i sistemi difensivi romani e bizantini del Nord Africa. Si pensi agli esempi, basati sul modello castrum e quadriburgium, della Tunisia dove sopravvivono significative tracce delle clausurae che costituivano un sistema fortificato a difesa della frontiera agricola. 24 Condizioni territoriali difficili avevano convinto i Romani dell’impossibilità di un presidio continuo ed esteso lungo confini destinati a variare e fare affidamento, piuttosto, sulle popolazioni locali (clientes) che, a fronte di benefici e assicurazioni di protezione interna, si rendevano garanti di quegli officia consistenti soprattutto nella difesa contro infiltrazioni e movimenti locali. Durante il regno di Erode, nessuna legione era presente in Giudea mentre alla sua morte due-tre legioni opereranno a contrastare la rivolta giudaica e quella di Bar-Kokba. 25 Con alcune sensibili differenziazioni in epoca traianea, dioclezianea e costantinea (quando le truppe verranno ritirate a protezione delle città). Simkins, Embleton 1984; Redde 1993. 

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean ve hanno raggiunto in molti casi rilevanti risultati, talvolta usuali ma non di rado di grande originalità e tali di influenzare le generazioni successive di costruttori. In linea di massima, per quanto riguarda la tipologia e l’uso dei materiali lapidei, bisogna fare una distinzione (localmente talvolta molto netta vista la diversità di morfologia dei territori, anche a breve distanza) tra le regioni a partire dall’altopiano dello Hauran fino ai confini settentrionali (oggi Siria, Libano e parte della Giordania) e la regione meridionale corrispondente alla fascia trasgiordanica e al Regno di Gerusalemme. Nelle aree settentrionali dei principali insediamenti del Limes Arabicus affiorano prevalentemente colate basaltiche pleistoceniche ampiamente diffuse sul territorio e potenti fino alla decina di metri e oltre; le lave basaltiche costituivano, pertanto, gli esclusivi materiali impiegabili per le costruzioni. Si trattava di elementi lapidei di grande affidabilità che, in molti casi, saranno oggetto di una sistematica spoliazione per essere reimpiegati anche in aree limitrofe.36 Non va dimenticato che nelle legioni romane erano presenti nuclei di geo-ingegneri specializzati e addestrati (grazie anche alla presenza di indigeni) all’uso dei materiali locali e alle tecniche costruttive più strategicamente efficaci, capaci di adattare alla singolarità delle situazioni locali i modelli di opere militari e stradali tendenzialmente standardizzati in tutto l’impero, basati su una modularità sistematica e l’assemblaggio di elementi preconfezionati. I basalti utilizzati possono essere raggruppati in tre tipologie lito-tessiturali con caratteristiche morfologiche e proprietà tecnologiche diverse: basalto massivo compatto di colore scuro (Y=3 t/m3; Co=180 MPa), basalto massivo con vacuoli di degassazione di colore scuro (Y=2,9 t/m3; Co=160 MPa) e scorie laviche spugnose di colore rossiccio (Y=1,2 t/m3; Co=20 MPa). I materiali in opera sembrano potersi riferire a diverse situazioni estrattive e di lavorazione che appaiono ben differenziate in alcune zone (e soprattutto nelle condizioni di primo uso), ma più frequentemente risultano impiegate contemporaneamente, specialmente nel caso di riutilizzi. Una prima classe è formata da blocchi residuali sub-sferici ben arrotondati, presenti sulla superficie topografica naturale, regolarizzati tramite spacco sul lato di costruzione derivano da una coltivazione di “cava atipica” e da blocchi provenienti dai primi livelli di roccia basaltica in posto fortemente alterata in forme sferoidali lungo le fratture naturali per progressiva argillificazione. Elementi tronco-piramidali sono messi in opera con la superficie esterna regolarizzata e spesso lavorata a faccia vista; derivano da una coltivazione a profondità di qualche metro delle colate basaltiche ancora sane (quasi sempre trasformate, poi, in cisterne), sfruttando comunque anche le superfici di frattura esistenti. L’impiego più frequente è costituito da elementi a barre e lastre usati come elemento di apparecchio delle murature, come orditura dei solai, architravi ed elementi modulari. In questi casi possono essere lavorati con accortezza sulle sole facce in vista oppure, sia pure meno frequentemente, su tutti lati.37

Nelle regioni del dell’altopiano del Moab ed attorno al Mar Morto affiorano, con ampia continuità laterale in assetto sub orizzontale,38 sequenze sedimentarie39 che hanno fornito diverse classi di materiali utilizzati per le costruzioni. I materiali litoidi40 rappresentano, infatti, la principale fonte di blocchi da costruzione smassati secondo le loro naturali discontinuità (stratificazione e joint); le marne sono state utilizzate per fare calce mentre le ceneri vulcaniche, presenti in alcune aree, sono state utilizzate come additivi negli intonaci degli impianti idraulici e delle fornaci. È possibile riconoscere, tra le litologie presenti, i calcari come il materiale più usato (Schick 1887; Blake 1935; Dalman 1942): il mizzi41, il meleki42 il kalkule43 e il nari44. LE OPERE FORTIFICATE CROCIATE Le maestranze crociate hanno potuto formarsi esperienze costruttive, collaudandone i risultati direttamente sul campo; hanno dato dimostrazioni eloquenti di conoscenze del costruire che ha raggiunto, in alcuni casi, livelli pregevoli.45 Basterebbe ricordare le strutture voltate (volte in usati come aggregati nel calcestruzzo 38 Nei livelli calcareo-silicei più competenti sono presenti pieghe disarmoniche metriche e decametriche, a piano assiale sub-verticale e assi sub-orizzontali orientati ne-sw. 39 Riferibili al Cretaceo Superiore (Turoniano e Senoniano) di ambiente da neritico a inter-sopratidale e paralico con livelli ferruginosi e brecce di rielaborazione per trasgressione. Nella zona è presente una successione rappresentate da calcari silicei, marne, calcareniti e brecce calcaree con crostoni ferruginosi, indici nel complesso di un ambiente de posizionale a pelo d’acqua in clima caldo arido, con apporti di materiale siliceo fine di presumibile origine eolica che, mescolato alla normale sedimentazione di fanghi carbonatici, ha dato luogo a precoce silicizzazione dei livelli calcarei. Questi, periodicamente soggetti a emersione, hanno dato sviluppo a depositi calcarenitici, brecciole biocalcarenitiche e brecce calcareo-silicee di rielaborazione. 40 Calcari organogeni conchigliari bruno chiari, a packstone, in livelli centimetrici, compattati e ben nitrificati; calcari breccioidi bruno chiari, con clasti centimetrici a spigoli vivi e matrice arenitica carbonatici in livelli centimetrici, compatti e ben litificati; calcareniti fini avana chiaro, con laminazioni piano-parallele, compatte; calcilutiti grigio-verdastro, compatte; basalti massivi scuri; marmi saccaroidi bianchi a grani millimetrici, con bande centimetriche di venature grigie, compatti. 41 Questa pietra è classificata in: mizzi jehudi, pietra molto dura scarsamente sensibile all’azione dell’acqua con colori che vanno dal bianco al giallo, dal rosso al grigio; mizzi helu, biancastro con venature gialle, lasciato sovente come “tetto” di una grotta dopo che ne sono stati scavati i sottostanti strati di meleki, e mizzi ahmar (rosso). 42 Il meleki (“regina”) è un calcare modestamente duro e cristallino di colore dorato; è stato tradizionalmente il più utilizzato per blocchi squadrati da costruzione (impiegato, per esempio, nei conci bugnati del muro del Pianto e nel muro della piattaforma del tempio di Erode a Gerusalemme). 43 Calcare marnoso di facile lavorabilità. 44 Incrostazione tufacea leggera e porosa che presenta la caratteristica di resistere al fuoco. Oggi viene utilizzato soprattutto per fare calce, ma in antico è stato impiegato come materiale per la preparazione di conci squadrati. 45 Alla fine del 1239, quando saranno fatte demolire le mura della torre di Davide a Gerusalemme la straordinarietà delle murature sarà ben testimoniata dal manoscritto di Rotelin: “les pierres estoient si granz que tuit s’en merveilloient. Elle estoit si fort maconné a chaux et ciment et a arainne, et les pierrs soudeez a plonc et a grosses bandes de fer acroschiez d’une part et d’autre que a trop grand painne e a trop grand force la porent ruer jus“. La stessa soluzione basata su tenoni di ferro sigillati a piombo (  “…cum quarum juncturis lapides magni ferreis vinculis et duris amplexibus internectuntur“ è adottata a Beiruth e al

36

Basti ricordare l’uso che è stato fatto di barre di basalto come elementi di cucitura tra cortine in calcare e di lastre come elementi di apparecchio per pareti “prefabbricate” al castello di Hallabat. 37 Nell’area di Umm el-Jemal si trovano spezzoni di scorie spugnose

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L. Marino, M. Coli : La difesa del limes arabicus in epoca romana, bizantina e crociata linea a due-quattro centri e a freccia variabile oppure cupole di rotazione nelle quali le malte si trovano a giocare un ruolo determinante) e quegli apparecchi murari per i quali si richiedevano raffinate e ben collaudate conoscenze di stereotomia per la progettazione la realizzazione di sezioni ellissoidali (scale ed elementi angolari ma soprattutto i torrioni circolari aggettanti sulle cortine a scarpa a Marqab e al Crac des Chevaliers) o più semplicemente archi a dente di sega da utilizzarsi come generatice di strutture voltate a sviluppo rettilineo.46 L’abilità costruttiva dei Crociati sarà testimoniata da alcune scelte tecnologiche di grande interesse come, per esempio, quelle applicate per lo sfruttamento dei siti attraverso l’attento intaglio della roccia per offrire alle murature un ottimale alloggiamento47, (non di rado ricorrendo, ove necessario, a getti cementizi di allettamento e opportuni sistemi di drenaggio a monte) quando non si è trattato di opere fortificate interamente scavate nella roccia48 tanto che si potrebbe utilizzare per loro la definizione castelli di roccia. Importanti sono i lavori di foderatura effettuati a completamento di scarpate naturali49 e quelle, appositamente allestite come efficace procedura antimina e buona soluzione contro le macchine d’assedio e di scalata. I materiali lapidei usati risultano in genere legati alla tipologia di litofacies calcarea presente nella zona, salvo riuso di materiali esotici presenti in edifici precedenti; solo raramente sono state trovate tracce organizzate di attività estrattiva storica significativa (anche se non mancano eccezioni particolarmente significative di cave). Questo fa ritenere che la maggior parte del materiale derivasse da raccolta e sbozzatura di regoliti presenti sul suolo e da opere di smassamento, secondo le naturali discontinuità presenti, di affioramenti lapidei  locali, con successiva sbozzatura e regolarizzazione. In caso di scavi per cisterne o fossati difensivi il materiale lapideo veniva cavato e riusato subito in loco nel costruito in maniera da potenziare, con l’aumento delle quote, le difese murarie Una prova non marginale della qualità raggiunta dall’architettura militare di epoca crociata è costituita dalla evidenza dello stato di conservazione: la presenza di forme patologiche (quadri fessurativi innanzi tutto) sembra riferibile, più che a errori costruttivi dell’epoca, a sollecitazioni e a fenomeni di degrado dei materiali e dissesto delle strutture soprattutto nelle parti non originali quando,

addirittura, non relativamente recenti. Nell’architettura fortificata di epoca crociata è di particolare interesse l’apparecchio di strutture che si basa sull’impiego di colonne monolitiche50 di espoliazione (provenienti da edifici romani ed erodiani, di cui tutta la regione abbondava e talvolta già reimpiegate in edifici di epoca bizantina) affogate trasversalmente, o a strati incrociati sovrapposti a più livelli, allo scopo di collegare i due paramenti dello stesso muro oppure per collegare strutture murarie diverse. Talvolta si tratta di un solo troncone di colonna collocato strategicamente a collegare due murature diverse (Betlemme) o una muratura al terrapieno (Kerak). Gli esempi più significativi sono a Cesarea (Lindley Vann, 1992), al castello a mare di Sidone,51 al castello e alle strutture portuali di Byblos,52 Beirut,53 Paphos a Cipro54 e ad Ascalon.55 Quasi sempre le colonne sono state tagliate in due o tre tronconi e, forse, proprio la lunghezza di questi potrebbe aver determinato lo spessore dei muri da costruire. La stessa soluzione è adottata in alcune opere fortificate dopo la riconquista musulmana (Gerusalemme, a Bosra56, Damasco e Aleppo …) ma anche in castelli nei quali non sembra esserci traccia di presenza crociata.57 L’efficacia della soluzione costruttiva basata sull’impiego di colonne è testimoniata dal cronista Maqrizi quando a proposito della presa di Cesarea da parte di Baybars (1265), annotava che Luigi IX aveva fortificato talmente bene la cittadella usando colonne di granito da rendere praticamente inutile ogni lavoro di mina.58 L’impiego di tronconi di colonne (isolati o in serie) all’interno della compagine muraria, di apparecchio continuo in tutto lo spessore o più frequente50

La tecnica è stata segnalata da Deschamps 1939, 31-32; Marino 2007, 209-237. L’origine della provenienza dell’apparecchio murario con colonne, se per alcuni aspetti può essere riferito all’opus gallicum, per altri potrebbe trovare la sua giustificazione in una procedura costruttiva indigena, in parte derivata dalle opere fortificate romane del limes e quelle che provengono dall’architettura militare greca. Un apparecchio murario confrontabile è costituito dall’impiego di elementi lapidei (barre di calcare o basalto lunghe talvolta oltre 150cm) come è ben evidente nella cortina muraria sovrastante il fossato di Kerak. 51 Il castello a mare della crociata Sagitta è un’isoletta fortificata le cui murature sono rinforzate con tronconi di colonne di granito alloggiate su più file. 52 A Byblos l’apparecchio murario presenta blocchi lapidei di grandi dimensioni (le più grandi presenti in quella regione dopo Baalbek) provenienti da edifici più antichi. Il riutilizzo di tronconi di colonne, è generalizzato in tutte le cortine delle strutture portuali, banchine e torrione che controlla il bacino; localmente diventa talmente fitta da costituire la parte preponderante. 53 In piazza dei Martiri è stato riscoperto un tratto di banchina rinforzata con tronconi di colonne. 54 Al castello della Quaranta Colonne. 55 Ad Ascalon i fusti di colonne della fortificazione di Riccardo I (1192) sono sopravvissuti al crollo (forse a causa anche della scarsa qualità delle malte) della cortina esterna verso mare. In uno spezzone di muro ortogonale alla cortina sopravvivono tronconi di colonna, accuratamente sezionate e murati sovrapposti e incrociati. 56 Il teatro romano è stato trasformato in fortezza in epoca selgiuchide (dopo il 1089) e soprattutto ayyubide completando le opere fortificate che già avevano avviato gli Omayyadi utilizzando spezzoni di colonne affogate nelle murature. 57 Colonne con funzione strutturale poste nelle murature sono presenti anche nelle mura di epoca fatimita al Cairo, al castello di Shayzar in Siria. 58 “la citadelle… rendue extrêmement forte en introduisant dans la maçonnerie des murs d’énormes colonnes de granit placées dans le sens de leur longueur, de sorte qu’on ne pouvait compter sur le succès d’un travail de mine” (Röhricht 378).

castello di Sidone.  46 Al Crac des Chevaliers la sala è lunga 120 metri 47 Una parte del castello di Beaufort “consiste en cavernes creusées dans le roc, et une autre parti est costruite sur le roc”. I resti di due castelli crociati di Petra (al Habis al centro nell’area monumentale nabateoromana e Wu’eira a un paio di km sulla strada per Shobac Shawbak) offrono significativi esempi. Sono entrambi alloggiati su costoni rocciosi emergenti, già occupati in epoche più antiche; i costruttori crociati hanno eseguito accorte opere di intaglio nella roccia per alloggiare murature in elevato. Marino, Dinelli, Guerra, Labanca, Nenci, Orlando, Sabelli 1990, 3-12; Bini, Bertocci 2004. 48 Nell’assedio della grotta fortificata di Habis (1182) i crociati hanno impiegato squadre di tagliapietre (con i “leur pix et leur martiaux”) per aprire una breccia per poter entrare. 49 Si pensi alle scarpate dei castelli come Kerak e Shawbak o Marqab. Il castello di Salkhad, costruito insieme a Bosra per la difesa di Damasco sul lato meridionale contro i Crociati che occupavano Gerusalemme (12141247), è stato costruito in un cratere vulcanico mentre le scarpate naturali sono state interamente rivestite con conci di pietra quasi a simulare che si tratti di un castello costruito.

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mente a sacco, pone molti problemi sull’effettivo contributo statico59 che può fornire alle strutture murarie e sulla consapevolezza che i costruttori crociati avrebbero potuto avere dell’affidabilità nel tempo delle loro realizzazioni soprattutto nelle angolate e nei tratti di murature più soggetti all’erosione naturale o all’eventuale lavoro di mina da parte degli assedianti.

BIBLIOGRAFIA AL-Khouri, M. 2004. Il Limes arabicus. Roma 2003. Balard, M. 2001. Croisades et Orient latin, Paris. Bidwell, P., Miket, R., Ford, B. (eds.) 1988. Portae comturribus. Studies of Roman fort gates. British Archaeological Reports Engl. Ser. 206. Bini, M. e Bertocci, S. 2004. Castelli di pietra. Firenze. Blake, G.S. 1935. The Stratigraphy of Palestine and its Building Stone. Jerusalem. Butler, R.W.H., Spencer, S. and Griffiths, H.M. 1997. Transcurrent fault activity on the Dead Sea Transform in Lebanon and its implications for plate tectonics and seismic hazard. Journal of the Geological Society of London, 153, 757-760. Connolly, P. 1975. The Roman Army. London. Dalman G. 1942. Arbeit und Sitte in Palästina. Davison, P. 1989. The Barracks of the Roman Army from the 1st to 3rd Centuries A.D. British Archaeological Reports intern. Ser. 472. Deschamps, P. 1932. Les entrées des châteaux des Croisés en Syrie et leurs défenses, Syria, 1932, 369-387. Deschamps, P. 1939. La défense du Royaume de Jérusalem, 31-32. Paris. Freeman, Ph. and Kennedy D. (eds), 1986. The Defence of the Roman and Byzantine East. British Archaeological Reports Intern. Ser. 297. Gichon, M. 1967. The Origin of the Limes Palaestinae and the Major Phases in Its Developments. Limes VI, 175-93, 1967 Gichon, M. 1974. Towers on the Limes Palaestinae. Limes IX, 513-44. Gichon, M. 1991. When and Why Did the Romans Commence the Defence of Southern Palestine?. Limes, XV, 318-325 Gichon, M. 1993. En Boqeq, Ausgrabungen in einer Oase am Toten Meer. Mainz. Gregory, S. 1995-97. Roman Military Architecture on the Eastern Frontier 200-600, Amsterdam. Gregory, S. 1996. Was There an Eastern Origin for the Design of Late Roman Fortifications? In D.L. Kennedy (ed.), The Roman Army in the East, Journal of Roman Archaeology, Su Ser., 18. Ann Arbor. Hatzor, Y., Reches, Z. 1990. Structures and paleostress in the Gilboa’region, western margins of the central Dead

Nel complesso si rileva un uso razionale dei materiali lapidei presenti in zona, raccolti, scavati e usati sfruttandone al meglio le prestazioni, in perfetta sintonia con le caratteristiche del territorio e singolarità delle risorse lapidee.60 Le differenze di materiale e le relative modalità di impiego possono essere riferite, ovviamente, a fasi cronologiche diverse delle costruzioni. In alcune aree, in maniera particolare, però, è indispensabile utilizzare le necessarie cautele poiché, come in tutti i siti rimasti per vari motivi e per lungo periodo al margine di rilevanti processi evolutivi, si possono riscontrare spesso la presenza di abitudini costruttive, uso di materiali e risorse locali, rimaste sostanzialmente inalterate da tempi molto antichi arrivando talvolta fin quasi ai tempi nostri. LO STATO DI CONSERVAZIONE Tutta l’area del Vicino Oriente, dal punto di vista dello stato di conservazione, presenta una ricchissima campionatura di edifici antichi ridotti allo stato di rudere. Lasciati in abbandono per molto tempo e distrutti da uno stato di belligeranza costante sono oggi esposti a un nuovo rischio provocato da uno “sviluppo turistico” incontrollato. Lo stato generale della maggior parte dei manufatti e dei siti è sufficiente ma localmente si presentano aggravamenti delle condizioni particolari che, dal punto di vista conservativo, destano preoccupazione. Le cause principali del progressivo affievolimento delle capacità di resistenza dei manufatti edilizi vanno riferiti a vari fattori che agiscono solitamente indipendentemente gli uni dagli altri ma talvolta in concomitanza tra loro. Riteniamo si possa affermare che se in quelle regioni l’archeologia e la storia hanno avuto uno sviluppo di grande importanza non di pari passo sembrano essersi sviluppate le locali politiche corrette e consapevoli di tutela. Nelle vaste bibliografie disponibili i riferimenti ai problemi di tutela e di valorizzazione sembrano essere quasi inesistenti e non consentono ancora di poter disporre di un affidabile mezzo di conoscenza della situazione attuale61 e uno strumento per interventi futuri: la preven59

Una funzione importante avevano le staffe a coda di rondine (“des queues d’aronde probablement en bois”) segnalate dal Rey nel torrione circolare del castello a mare di Sidone. Burchard de Mont-Sion annota: munitionem ex lapidibus quadris ex cemento et plumbo indissolubiter compaginatam”. L’uso di tenoni metallici sigillati con piombo è presente alla Torre di Davide a Gerusalemme, al castello di Beiruth e al fortino di Maraclea. 60 “E’ cosa troppo naturale agli uomini di far entrare nella costruttura delle loro case quelle pietre che possono servire all’uopo, e che d’altronde per la loro vicinità sono comodissime. Quindi nulla accade più di frequente a chi viaggia che il vedere le fabbriche sia private che pubbliche (…) formate in tutto, o in buona parte, di quei materiali lapidei che somministrano i monti o i torrenti vicini.” (Spallanzani 1932-1936). 61 Pur nei limiti che la complessità dei siti impone si possono definire alcuni dei principali fattori di deterioramento: configurazione dei siti;

condizioni meteo-climatiche cicliche e cause naturali a carattere stagionale che si possono presentare in forma esasperata; caratteristiche dei locali materiali da costruzione e procedure costruttive (materiali solitamente affidabili ma fortemente deperibili in stato di invecchiamento); cause connesse con le operazioni di scavo archeologico (sensibili variazioni delle condizioni ambientali e microclimatiche); interventi di restauro solo parzialmente efficaci; interventi turistici improvvisati e disattenti alle esigenze di conservare gli originali. 62 Soltanto osservazioni ripetute nel tempo possono contribuire a determinare le caratteristiche della progressiva perdita di capacità di resistenza. Non si può dimenticare che spesso il cedimento di un manufatto edilizio segue un andamento subdolo rendendosi evidente soltanto in fasi terminali del processo di dissesto.

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L. Marino, M. Coli : La difesa del limes arabicus in epoca romana, bizantina e crociata Sea rift. Tectonophysics, 180, 87-100. Helms S. (ed.) 1990. Early Islamic Architecture of theDesert. A beduin station in eastern Jordan. Edimburgh. Herzog, C., Gichon, M.2003. Le grandi battaglie della Bibbia. Roma (orig. London 1978). Huygens, C. 1965. Un nouveau texte du traité “de constructione castri Saphet”, in Studi medievali, VII, 1965, 357-387. Kempinsky, A., Reich, R .1992. The architecture of ancient Israel. Jerusalem. Kennedy, D.L. and Riley, D. 1990. Rome’s desert frontier from the air. London. Kennedy, D.L. 1982. Archaeological Explorations on the Roman Frontier in North-East Jordan. British Archaeological Reports Intern. Ser. Kennedy, D.L., 1997. Roman Roads and Routes in North East Jordan, Levant 29. Lander, J.L. 1984. Roman stone fortification: variation and change from the first century A.D. to the fourth. University of California. Laws, E.D. and Wilson, M. 1997. Tectonics and magmatism associated with Mesozoic passive continental margin development in the Middle East. Journal of the Geological Society 154, 459-464.London. Le Bohec, Y. 2008. Armi e guerrieri di Roma antica, (cap. 7 L’architettura militare).Roma (orig. Paris 2006). Lein Y. and Weizman, E. 2007. La terra rubata. La politica israeliana di insediamento in Cisgiordania. Rimini. Leriche, P., Treziny H. (eds.) 1986. La fortification dans l’histoire du mond grec. In Actes du Colloque International La fortification et sa place dans l’histoire politique, culturelle et sociale du monde grec (Valbonne, déc. 1982). Paris. Lindley Vann, R. (ed.) 1992. Caesarea Papers, Straton’s Tower, Herod’s Harbour, and Roman and Bizantine Cesarea. Journal of Roman Archaeology, Suppl. Series. Lunina, O.V., Mart, Y. and Gladkov, A.S. (2005). Fracturing patterns, stress fields and earthquakes in the Southern Dead Sea rift. Journal of Geodynamics, 40, 216234. Marino, L. 1982. The Bridge over the River Harod, in B. Isaac and I. Roll (eds.), Roman Roads in Judaea.

The Legio- Scythopolis Road, in British Archaeological Reports Intern. Ser. 141, 43-52, 122-23. Marino, L.1997. La fabbrica dei castelli crociati in Terra Santa. Firenze. Marino, L. 2001. La motta e il donjon all’epoca delle crociate. Castellum, 43. Marino, L. 2007. Le risorse lapidee per la costruzione dei castelli di epoca crociata. L’opus gallicum: il singolare reimpiego di una tecnica costruttiva più antica. In A. Pellettieri (ed.), All’origine dell’Europa Mediterranea, 209-237.Firenze. Marino, L., Dinelli, O., Guerra, M., Labanca, G., Nenci, C., Orlando, F. and Sabelli, R. 1990. The Crusaders Settlement in Petra. Fortress 7, 3-12 . Napoli, J. 1997. Recherches sur les fortifications linéaires romaines. Paris-Roma. Obley, B. 1982. Roman Military Structures at the Lunt Roman Fort: Experimental Simulations 1966-1977. In P.J.Drury (ed.), Structural Reconstruction, in British Archaeological Reports Engl. Ser., 223-273. Richardson, A. 2004. Theoretical Aspects of Roman Camp and Fort Design. British Archaeological Reports Intern. Ser. 1321. Redde, M. 1993. Dioclétien et les fortifications militaries de l’Antiquité tardive. Quelques considérations de method. London. Ron, H., Nur, A., Eyal, Y. Multiple strike-slip fault sets: A case study from the Dead Sea Transform. Tectonics 9, 1421-1432. Savage, M. mai 1991. Le siège des villes fortifies. Les Dossiers d’Archéologie, 10, 56-62. Schick, C. 1887. The stones of Jerusalem. PEFQ, genn., 50-51 Simkins, M., Embleton, R. 1984. The Roman Army from Caesar to Trajan. London. Spallanzani, L. 1932-1936. Le Opere. Milano. Tolan, J., Josserand, PH. 2000. Les relations entre le monde arabo-musulman et le monde latin (milieu du Xemilieu du XIIIe siècle). Bréal. Winter, F.E. 1971. Greek Fortifications. Toronto

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Figura1. Il disegno dei ruderi del castello di Saffuriya-la crociata le Saforie (in Guèrin, 1882) ben rappresenta alcuni degli elementi tecnologici caratteristici dei castelli di epoca crociata e della riconquista musulmana: aderenza alla morfologia del terreno e ai fronti di cava, grande apparecchio con elementi lapidei ben lavorati allettati su piani orizzontali e regolarizzati, elementi finiti a bugnato, volte apparecchiate con elementi radiali e/o scaglie di pietre, murature a due paramenti con elementi a chiodo, utilizzo di spolia, sacco in calcestruzzo e grossi caementa…

Figura 2. Nel castello di Wu’ eira (Petra, Giordania) le murature di epoca crociata sono state alloggiate nei gradoni (in parte più antichi) intagliati nella roccia.

Figura 3. Apparecchio murario nella soluzione d’angolo al castello di Kerak (Giordania) che impiega lunghe barre lapidee murate a formare un sistema di grande affidabilità strutturale.

Figura 4. A Salkad (Siria) il cono basaltico è stato foderato con elementi lapidei di cortina.

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Figura 5. Il Qasr Bshir (Giordania) è un quadriburgium del limes mano-bizantino costruito con elementi di cava (diventata una vasta cisterna aperta) ben lavorati e materiale lapideo da spacco raccolto nell’area circostante.

Figura 6. Lastre in basalto di spoglio sono state impiegate a qasr Hallabat (Giordania) per la costruzione di murature di tramezzo.

Figura 7. Lavorazione di elementi lapidei a bozze nella cittadella di Damasco.

Figura 8. Soluzione d’angolo in una delle torri “a cavaliere” al Crac des Chevaliers (Homs, Siria). La progettazione e la lavorazione degli elementi di contatto tra le murature a scarpa e le torri cilindriche esigevano buone conoscenze di stereotomia e abilità nel taglio della pietra.

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Figura 9. Una soluzione simile è stata adottata in alcune torri di cortina alla cittadella del Cairo.

Figura 10. Singolare apparecchio che impiega fusti di colonne nelle murature del castello “a mare” di Sidone (Libano).

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LIMES ARABICUS AND STILL-STANDING BUILDINGS Roberto Parenti Piero Gilento Università di Siena Abstract (2008) Limes Arabicus and material structures Traianus annexed the Nabataen Kingdom to the Roman Empire in 106 AD. This territory became part of the new Provincia Arabia. The construction of the via nova traiana by Claudius Severus, between AD 111 and AD 114, sealed the conquest of the territory, traditionally held to have fallen along with together with the fortalices, lookout towers and quadriburgia. The road and these structures represented the so-called limes arabicus. It is well known, that Romans reused pre-existing structures both from the Iron Age and the Nabataen Age. The network of sites remained in use after the fall of the Roman Empire. There is evidence of frequentation of the quadriburgia during the Byzantine period, with alternating periods of abandonment and new construction during the successive three centuries. The situation on the limes changed again after AD 750, when the Abbasides came to power and moved the capital from Damascus to Baghdad. The complex of buildings of the limes arabicus, in what is now Jordan, is a unique site where different building techniques developed over a relatively short time span and are still well-preserved: ideal conditions for testing out methods of Building Archaeology. New classification and registration technologies, fast and available on-line thanks to an advanced technology database, allow us to process a considerable amount of data (stratigraphical readings on ortophotoplan and 3D models with photographic renderings of surfaces, characterization of building techniques, chronotypology) and to georeference the site through GoogleMaps and Google Earth.

INTRODUCTION

comparisons and stratigraphic analysis). Unfortunately, the traditional literature on architectural complexes in Jordan in general, and in particular the buildings of the crucial transitional period from the Roman-Byzantine world to the Proto-Islamic world (despite some recent acquisitions), is still far from meeting an acceptable standard of recording of building characteristics and, even more so, of publication of data that might aid in comprehension (through analytical comparisons) of the surrounding areas. In particular, given that studying the evolution of the building techniques is above all a question of chronology, what instrument could better provide reliable information on the relative chronology of various parts and help to specify the features of the building techniques used than stratigraphic analysis of architectural complexes that underwent multiple phases of construction over the course of their inhabited existences? The determination of homogeneous parts will allow us to more accurately document the characteristics of masonry and of more complex construction systems, in order to compile a valid chrono-typological sequence, first for the entire architectural complex and later for geologically similar areas. The Building Archaeology, after nearly thirty years of experiences in highly diversified European contexts, appears in this case to be the most appropriate discipline for obtaining useful and often previously-unknown information from these buildings. In fact, stratigraphic analysis of elevated structures, along with a work strategy aimed at creating chrono-typologies, in the specific Jordanian case, can provide important results about structures which, due to their stratigraphic complexity, conditions of conservation and degree of decipherability, are surely an unicum. Another advantage is that initial analysis can be made without excavations, thus enormously increasing the quantity of observations that can be made with an equal amount of effort. Therefore, the creation of a chrono-typology of building techniques (walls, openings, roofing systems and ceilings and buil-

This article aims to summarize and re-organize the historical-archaeological data of a part of the limes arabicus and above all to present a new methodological approach based on the study of buildings, to determine the evolution of building techniques and the transmission of knowledge and skills. The analysed buildings are situated in the area that corresponds to the south-easternmost boundary match of the Roman Empire, modern-day Jordan1_. The tradition of scholarship that has dealt with the limes arabicus, its evolution and above all the structures within it is now firmly established. Significant research projects, particularly those developed in the 1970s and ‘80s, attained important results. The area, part of which is today within the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, has always been an object of study, where early aerial surveys and, later, wide-scale field surveys were carried out. Numerous excavations also served to flesh out field survey data. However, recent studies focusing specifically on the architecture have been relegated to a secondary role, with the exception of a few cases involving large towns, perhaps due to the difficulty of comparison with the results achieved by Creswell regarding the early Islamic architecture (Creswell 1969, Creswell and Allan 1989). This fact seems incongruous with the outstanding conditions of conservation of many of the buildings which formed the limes arabicus. Nonetheless, we will here present the initial results of a new methodological approach based on direct observations (necessarily sporadic and brief, due to the newness of the discipline and the limited duration of missions) of architecture, which has much in common with the working instruments of archaeological field research (typological 1 _The

following article is part of the research project ‘Building Archaeology in Jordan’ of the Architectural Archaeology Laboratory of the University of Siena, directed by Prof. Roberto Parenti and with the collaboration of Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean sized that a limes would always have had a dual structure consisting of two boundaries, one internal and the other external. Although this definition looked at the concept of limes in a broad sense and did not refer to any specific locations in the Roman Empire, many scholars have used Mommsen’s definition, creating a working model and projecting it onto particular cases as starting point for field surveys of the borders of some Roman provinces.

ding materials), at least for geologically homogeneous areas, could become a key to interpretation and a very useful instrument for a period (3rd-9th century AD) of transformation and changes (continuity of or divergence from Roman building techniques) of primary importance for the history of the entire Mediterranean area. THE LIMES The term limes is closely linked to the history of the expansion of the Roman Empire. Ancient sources help us to understand what a limes was in antiquity (Isaac 1988). The main meanings associated with this word are “road” or “street”; the word limes identified the main infrastructure built by the Roman army as a means for penetrating and connecting conquered territories2. A great many sources3 identify the term limes as “border line”, a physically determined limit that protected conquered territories, and later, especially in the 3rd and 4th century AD epigraphic sources, the word limes can be recognized as referring to a border district administered by a dux4.

LOCATION AND STRUCTURE OF THE LIMES ARABICUS: CURRENT STATE OF STUDY At the beginning of the 20th century, a series of important surveys were carried out in the Near East. The Princeton Archaeological Expedition to Syria, led by the American H.C. Butler (Butler et alii 1930), the German expedition by R.E. Brünnow and A. von Domaszewski and the French Mission Archéologique en Arabie by the religiouses Jaussen and Savignac (Jaussen and Savignac 1922), and even earlier the expedition led by Alois Musil who, between 1896 and 1901, collected important archaeological and anthropological evidence (Musil 1907-1908), are indicators of Western powers’ interest in the territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. The survey of the Roman Province of Arabia by R.E. Brünnow and A. von Domaszewski (Brünnow and Von Domaszewski 1904-1906), who investigated the area between Bosra (in modern-day Syria) and Ma ân (mid-southern area of modern-day Jordan) without reaching the extreme south of the region, identified two limites running more or less parallel to a north-south direction: the region’s most important road, the via nova ab mare rubro usque ad confiniis Syriae, (which followed the King’s Highway, a road that was also used by Nabataen people and connected Madaba, Rabba, Shawbak and Petra) was established to be the internal boundary. The external boundary was set east of the via nova traiana, along a line of desert which ran from Amman - passing through al-Qastal (despite its name, the current structure is a large 8th century Umayyad palace) and the legionary camp of Udruh - to Ma ân, and was identified by the two explorers due to the presence of lookout towers, legionary camps and forts such as Qasr Bshîr, el-Lejjun, Jurf al-Darawish and Da’janiya which were part of the so-called “central sector” of the limes (Parker 1986). The internal line of limes also presented fortified areas and lookout points, and both were linked by a system of minor roads.

In border areas, the Roman army was organised in limites, i.e. systems of fortifications connected by roads along a established border delimited by rivers or natural ridges, or by artificial obstacles (ditches and fences). After the rapid expansion of Rome in the 1st century AD, which gave it control over most of Western Europe and part of the Near East, Roman borders on both sides of the Empire were subject to significant pressure from the outside due to the invasions of the 3rd century. One of first important acts to stabilize the borders was carried out by Emperors at the beginning of the 2nd century AD, in particular Trajan (98-117) and by Hadrian (117-138) who regularized the control of the vast territory inhabited by heterogeneous populations. The borderlines (roads, fences or walls), protected by permanent forts and guarded by full-time troops, represented the farthest edge of the Empire’s control over provincial territories. A second important reorganization of the boundaries took place at the end of the III century by Emperor Diocletian, who also enacted a comprehensive reorganization of government administrative systems. It is not easy to define and give a concise meaning to the word limes, especially because it is a word that can be used in different contexts. One of the first researchers who tried to precisely define the concept of limes was Theodor Mommsen (Mommsen 1908). On the basis of an etymological study of the word, the German philologist hypothe-

This survey served as the basis for later archaeological research in the region. Archaeological surveys of nearby Syrian and Palestinian borderlines had confirmed the hypothesis of the existence of a “double limes” in this area as well. In fact, aerial surveys of Syria by A. Poidebard (Poidebard 1925-1932) during the 1930s had highlighted a widespread and welldeveloped system of fortifications extending from the Euphrates to Hauran. Based on the results of this survey, the French scientist hypothesized a similar situation to that previously found by Brünnow and von Domaszewski in

For example in Velleio II, 120 we read.’…arma infert quae arcuisse pater et patria contenti erant; penetrat interius, aperit limites, vastat agros, urit domos, fundit obvios…’ 3 ‘…in plurimis locis, in quibus barbari non fluminibus sed limiti bus dividuntur, stipitibus magnis in modum muralis saepis funditus iactis atque conexis barbaros separavit…’ from SHA vita Hadr. 12. In this case the word limites clearly has the meaning of fortified border. 4 ‘Partho quippe ultra Tigrim redacto, Dacia restituta, porresti usque ad Danubii caput Germaniae Raetiaeque limitibus…’, Pan. Lat. (V) 3,3. According to B. Isaac, the use of the passive of ‘porrigo’ can suggest in this case the idea of an ‘area’ rather than a ‘line’. 2

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R. Parenti, P. Gilento : “Limes Arabicus” And Still-Standing Buildings Jordan; in fact, he individuated a limes intérieur made up of caravan roads protected by forts, and a limes extérieur established by military roads and checkpoints external to commercial roads. A third scholar, M. Gichon (Gichon 1967, 35-64), during archaeological survey expeditions in the Negev desert, proved that the limes Palestinae, which developed from the era of Flavius until the Diocletian period, was made up of military installations that included old fortified caravan roads from the Nabataen period. Earlier, Glueck (Glueck 1934-1951) had shown how the Romans, at the time of the annexation of the Province, had reused sites already occupied by Nabataen people; in a region such as modern Jordan, the presence of water automatically determines the location and thus the continuity of utilization of a site. The guideline provided by this type of study was therefore - up until the end of the 1960s - to consider the limes arabicus as a defensive system physically constituted by a double fortified line, for the purpose of controlling and blocking incursions by desert tribes. The “nomadic threat” was, according to many archaeologists (Parker 1992) and Near East scholars, a frequent and persistent problem along the Province boundary, from the time of the annexation of the Provincia Arabia in AD 1065, until the end of the 6th century. Thus, the raison d’être of the limes arabicus, and of the entire extensive system of towers, forts and legionary camps, was to monitor and regulate the flow of nomadic peoples passing through Arabia towards Sinai and the Mediterranean Basin.

two different areas divided by a fossatum: the stable settlement zone was protected by a line of fortifications, while the more external zone was protected by nomadic Saharan tribes (Baradez 1949, 130-149). The most interesting conclusion arising from proposed data is that the concept of limes in the Roman world, and in particular the concept of limes arabicus, regards not only archaeological evidence (roads, forts, towers, etc.) which may yet offer further cues for research if utilized properly, but also the various political strategies employed by Rome in its conquests: an ongoing process of alliances, pacts and clearly-defined spheres of influence. Several authors have contributed to the study of the meaning of limes arabicus. We have already mentioned Bowersock (Bowersock 1976).6 His interpretation of the concept of limes refers in particular to considerations of the limes arabicus as “…a whole region originated in the east and precisely as a result of the special conditions of the frontier there”, a result, then, of adaptation to the specific environmental, historic and social conditions of that region. Another archaeologist who contributed greatly to the study of the limes arabicus is Samuel Thomas Parker (Parker 1986).7 His interpretation again picks up the general theory of a limes with a primary function of monitoring and controlling nomadic desert tribes, but the military function is closely linked to diplomatic/political and, above all, economic one, serving to control crucial natural resources: water and seasonal pasture land. Another interpretation of limes arabicus comes from Isaac (Isaac 1988)8. After a very clear and well-developed review of the written sources from antiquity, the scholar attempts to define and understand the meaning from a philological point of view and concludes that he considers the limes as an elaborate structure, a “system” linking architectural structures to road infrastructures; without which limes could not exist. Another author who has provided a rather original voice in the debate is David F. Graf (Graf 1997).9 In his opinion, the limes arabicus could not have been conceptually conceived as a protective fortified structure because it would have had too many unguarded areas open to transit by nomadic tribes. He suggests that the main role of these structures was first and foremost economic and social, considering the structures of the limes as “imperial tentacles” geared towards extending economic power into

G.W. Bowersock (Bowersock 1976, 219-229) made a significant contribution to a new reading of limes in Arabia in the mid-1970s. He focused on field surveys of Roman and Byzantine archaeological sites in modern-day Jordan. His initial objection to studies on limes in Arabia was aimed at scholars who wanted to recycle the general model of the double limes, in a context such as the Near East which was very specific in terms of both history and geographical conformation. He drew a clear distinction between the limites located in desert areas, such as Arabia and Africa, and those of imperial border zones in Europe. Some particular contexts have demonstrated that in African border areas it is possible to speak of interrelation among Romans and local populations. These peoples sometimes formed alliances with the Romans and actively assisted in controlling border areas. A comparison with data emerging from the study of the North African limes indicates that some crudely-built forts surrounded by autochthonous settlements found near Ghemines in S/W Cyrenaica (Goodchild 1951, 131-144), have been interpreted as checkpoints that served to protect the main road leading to the coastal cities of Pentapolis. In Tripolitania a vast zone in which limitanei and native fortified settlements made up much of the defensive boundary was investigated (Goodchild, Ward-Perkins 1949, 81-95). The defensive system south of Algeria, on the other hand, has been highlighted in

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Since the Roman concept of limes was certainly in origin that of a fortified line, it is legitimate to assume that this new sense of limes as a whole region originated in the east and precisely as a result of the special conditions of the frontier there’. Bowersock 1976. 7 Monitoring and control of Arab movements. Diplomacy. Control of natural resources (water and seasonal pastorage). Parker 1986. 8 Mapping and dating forts without considering the road-network is an unstructured procedure which cannot lead to an understanding of the system’. Isaac 1992. 9 Of course no single interpretation can suffice to explain the location and function of all the forts in the frontier zone, but the hypothesis that they served a military purpose, to ward off all nomadic raids, apparently lacks the elements of a synchronized road system necessary for it to gain any credibility. Many of the forts along the Arabian frontier may only represent similar imperial tentacles extending into the desolate countryside to exploit the agricultural and pastoral potential of the region’ Graf 1997.

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The official annexation of the Arabia Province occurred in AD 106, but strong interference in the Nabataen kingdom by the Roman Empire had already begun under Pompey in 63 BC.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean areas not yet exploited for agriculture and grazing. The situation improved at the end of 1970s, thanks to data provided by an increasing number of excavations, field and aerial surveys led by D.L. Kennedy (Kennedy and Bewley 2004) which allowed for the creation of more planimetric maps, and architectural and epigraphic surveys that gathered more precise information on certain sites. Of particular note, for example, the decade of research carried out at Umm al-Jimal (De Vries 1998), and the extensive survey of the entire central sector of the limes arabicus (Parker 1987) which was part of the Limes Arabicus Project, an broad research project focusing on the central sector which, in addition to field surveys, included the el-Lejjun legionary camp excavation and targeted stratigraphic sampling in the Qasr Bshir quadriburgium.

fectly documented, it may be difficult to link information from the epigraph to that part of the building. The aggregate of the available epigraphic documentation shows that the first phase of construction of the system of defence took place during the final years of the Antonini period and, mainly, during the Severi dynasty.10 For example, epigraphic study of two best-known and bestdocumented fortified sites located in the northern part of the limes arabicus, Qasr al-Azraq11 and Qasr al-Hallābāt, where many epigraphs were found (Kennedy 2004, 96102; Parker 1986, 30-32; Arce 2007, 325-344) leads to the conclusion that there was continuity of use of the site from the first half of the 2nd century to the beginning of the 3rd century AD. For Qasr al-Azraq, the dating is less certain, because sources tell of an inscription, today lost, datable to a very broad period (AD 138-222), while other still-extant epigraphs datable to between AD 273 and AD 326/333. The construction of Qasr al-Hallābāt is even more complicated, as one epigraph surely dates to AD 213, but recent studies still in progress are providing more updated information about the site (Arce 2007, 325-344 and information communicated at this conference). In the same zone and dating to the same chronological period on the basis of archaeological and epigraphical data, are Qasr al-Uwaynid and Qasr al-Aseykhim; the positions of these building and the importance of Wadi as-Sirhan (south-east of the Azraq Oasis), show that the extensive construction activity recorded represents an exceptional effort to protect the region during the first half of the 3rd century AD. Other epigraphic evidence, dating to between the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th centuries AD, show an intense building and rebuilding activity in strategic areas of the limes precisely during the fundamental period of administrative and military re-organization of the province under Diocletian. Epigraphs from this period have been found at Qasr Bshir (297-304),12 Deyr al-Kahf (306) and at Qasr al-Azraq (326-333). During the re-organization effected by Diocletian and Constantine, it is evident that particular attention was given to reinforcing such crucial areas as Wadi as-Sirhan and the Azraq Oasis. Epigraphic sources have helped to determine that said protection was required due to the rebellion of Mavia, a Saracen queen, who, like Zenobia a century earlier (AD 269), broke an alliance with Rome after her husband’s death. Mavia converted to Aryanism in 373, and

EPIGRAPHIC EVIDENCE AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOURCES What has been said up to this point indicates that the study of the limes arabicus is still open to the development of issues and interpretations that may further enrich debate. In this second part, we will try to examine material sources, such as epigraphs and data from archaeological excavations and field surveys, which we have begun to verify through direct observation. In fact, we have defined some specific case studies of archaeological sites located in different areas of Jordan. In particular we dealt with sites located in two geographical zones: the north-eastern belt (Figure 1) and the Wadi Mujib area (Figure 2). The former comprises four sub-regions (the Azraq Oasis, the Southern Hauran, the Northern Steppe and the Basalt desert) geo-morphologically distinct, but having in common the widespread use of volcanic basalt as a building material. The second zone was chosen in order to examine the situation of a geomorphologically and climatically very different area, the Wadi Mujib, a strategic zone as it provided access to the Dead Sea and the West. Examination of epigraphic evidence was accompanied by an initial survey of the walls. Partial results of these crosschecked studies led us to reflect on the nature of the limes arabicus and especially on many of the architectural structures of which it is composed: burgi, quadriburgia, towers and more complex residential buildings. Epigraphic evidence provides very important chronological markers (fossil markers) (Parenti 1988, 280-304) to aid in dating architectural structures. Naturally, epigraphs or any other written evidence must be analysed critically and with great care. In sites that were continually inhabited, reused material is fundamental. In many cases, perfectlypreserved epigraphs were reused as simple building materials, and thus de-contextualized from their original situations; there are also cases of readings and illustrations of epigraphs now lost or unavailable. In the end, given the complexity of the building history of many constructions, if the section of wall contextual to the epigraph is not per-

10 Severi interest in the Near East is well documented by material sources:

two extensive phases of road building and renovation were carried out in the Arabian Province: one in 194 and the other between 200 and 202. Kennedy 1980, 883. 11 Azraq: JRS 61 (1971) 241 (a Latin inscription reports the castle renovation between 326 and 333, [inc]uria vetustate [parietu]m ruina conlapsam); Hallābāt: Princeton Arch. Exp. Syria III. A. 12 Engraved on an architrave at the entrance door is the following epigraphy datable between 293 and 305 A.D.: OPTIMIS MAXIMISQUE PRINCIPIBUS NOSTRIS GAIO AURELIO VALERIO DIOCLETIANO PIO FELICI INVICTO AUGUSTO ET MARCO AURELIO VALERIO MAXIMIANO PIO FELICI INVICTO AUGUSTO ET FLAVIO VALERIO CONSTANTIO ET GALERIO VALERIO MAXIMIANO NOBILISSIMUS CAESARIBUS CASTRA PRAETORI MOBENI A FUNDAMENTIS AURELIUS ASCLEPIADES PRAESES PROVINCIAE ARABIAE PERFICI CURAVIT. CIL III: 14, 149.

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R. Parenti, P. Gilento : “Limes Arabicus” And Still-Standing Buildings this coincides almost precisely with evidences found in the buildings of Umm al-Jimal13 and Deyr al-Kahf.14 These sites were again reinforced and fortified around 411 in conjunction with an invasion of Arab peoples, while the latest datable fortification in Roman Arabia, again from the Qasr al-Hallābāt site, dates to 529 or 555 (Kennedy 2004, 100). From this brief analysis of written sources and archaeological evidence, it is clear that the traditional meaning of limes as a fortified boundary only partially serves to define and identify a border zone, thus demonstrating how complex the construction situation is, and to what extent the life of these structure has yet to be clarified. Let us consider the area south of Hauran - the last fertile zone on the bordering on the inhospitable Basalt Desert. The relatively favourable climatic conditions of this zone allowed for intensive exploitation of the territory for agriculture and pastureland, thus enabling the continuous habitation of these sites from prehistoric times to the present day. The presence of farms, villages and small towns, surely dating from the Nabataen period to the first Islamic period, is well documented. Umm al-Quttein is one of the best-documented examples of this continuity of habitation. Again in this case, epigraphs are of primary importance. Ten Nabataen epigraphs (Kennedy 2004, 81-86) have been found on the site, and one may well date to the period of the last Nabataen king (Rabbele II, AD 71-106). Other epigraphs in Latin and Greek date to between the 3rd and the 4th centuries AD, while pottery provides more precise information about the habitation of the site during the early Islamic period. According to D.L. Kennedy, after the first and well-documented Nabataen occupation between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, with Roman annexation the place became a military outpost, probably housing an auxiliary regiment. Surveys have not yet provided good results regarding this period, as the hypothesized fort was completely obliterated by the Late Roman city during the 3rd-4th centuries. Moreover, the modern city almost perfectly overlays the ancient one.

buildings, tell us about construction activities in the city at the end of the IV century. Both epigraphs are in Latin, one dating to 368 (Kennedy 2004, 88-89) and referring to a tower, and the other dating to 371 (Kennedy 2004, 8891) and mentioning the construction of a “burgu[s] ex fundamento mano”. The continuity of habitation of this site is again well-documented by both epigraphs and material from archaeological digs, for the Ghassanid and Umayyad periods as well. As for the so-called “central sector of the limes”, where the Wadi Mujib drainage basin originates, the context is completely different from that of the north-east sector of Jordan. In fact, it was not a densely populated zone; settlements are scattered and often on high ground, taking advantage of the morphological features of the territory, which descends from 900 meters above sea level to the Dead Sea; there is little epigraphic evidence from the area. Moreover, precise excavations have been carried out only in circumscribed zones, so archaeological data is limited. More detailed information comes from field surveys effectuated by the Parker team for the Limes Arabicus Project. Let us consider a few of the buildings in this area of Jordanian territory: Qasr Bshir, Qasr Abu al-Kharaqah, Qasr el-Al and Qasr eth-Thuraiya (Figure 3). The situation appears much more complicated than bibliographic sources would suggest. It seemed immediately evident upon initial analysis of the walls that the wall stratigraphy added much information to data from previous archaeological excavations. For example, at Qasr Bshir, excavation data16 led to the hypothesis that the site had surely been settled prior to the Roman period, as suggested by structures that are no longer extant but traces of which are still partially visible on the ground, along with more recent walls, and in the Western wall of the Tetrarchic fort, large blocks, completely different from the rest of the building techniques utilized in the structure, lead to the hypothesis of re-utilization of a previous structure. Qasr Bshir itself is a Tetrarchic fort, but its continuity of use is a key to reading the building and understanding the history of the surrounding landscape. Excavations finds suggested a continuity running from the Byzantine period to the Umayyad period. The standing structures show the high degree of re-utilization of the site, and further analysis of the walls will surely confirm this. A similar circumstance can be found at another site, Qasr eth-Thuraiya. The site is larger and more complicated than bibliographic sources indicate (Parker 1986). Very different building techniques are visible, showing greater complexity of con-

Umm al-Jimal is the largest city south of Hauran and has a very interesting continuity of habitation, about which archaeological excavations and extensive territorial surveys provided very important information during the early 1970s.15 Archaeological excavations unearthed the small Nabataen village later occupied during the Early Roman period, adjacent to the Late Roman/Early Islamic site. Once again, in this case epigraphs have been very important chronological markers for the construction history of the site. The inscription on the so-called Gate of Commodus gives us a very precise chronological period (AD 177-180) on which to base indications, although this epigraph does raise some problematic questions. Two other epigraphs, no longer in situ but which were re-utilized in subsequent

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small sample digs were done: two in 1982 and four in 1985 within the sphere of the Limes Arabicus Project, with the primary goals of determining the history and the occupation of the site and which type of garrison had occupied it, and above all comparing information from the excavation of the fort with that from the el-Lejjun legionary camp. During the field survey, many Nabataen and Iron Age materials were also found. The date of the fort’s foundation is on the entrance inscription, raising no doubts as to the years between AD 293 and 305; this dating is confirmed by dig data and by field survey data, which, also testify to an initial abandonment of the site during the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD, and a reoccupation during the Umayyad period. The Iron Age and Nabataen surface finds prove an occupation prior to the Roman period.

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A very well-preserved Latin epigraph reused as architrave in a later church, datable to 371 A.D. (see below). Another epigraph, found in the courtyard of a house south of the western gate, mentioning the foundation of a castle, dates to 412-413 A.D. 14 A Latin inscription is on the Eastern facade of the southern wall, dating to between 367 and 375 A.D. ��For Umm al-Jimal see above D. Vries 1998.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean struction than would be found in a building considered Tetrarchic. Qasr eth-Thuraiya was included in a territorial re-organization carried out during the tetrarchy, and field surveys date it to between the end of the III and the middle of the IV centuries,17 but other findings date to the Ayubbid/Mamluk period. Regarding the sites of Qasr Abu al-Kharaqah and Qasr elAl, the literature mentions lookout towers. But in this case as well, it is clear even upon simple observation of the structure that these two sites cannot be considered mere lookout towers.18 Both sites present structures formed by a building with sides measuring between 16 and 20 meters long, almost surely on two levels, internally adjacent to a large enclosure to which other internal rooms are linked (Figure 4). This type of construction is quite common in this area, but is difficult to date due to the lack of a specific study of the structures and the near-total absence of epigraphic sources. However, pottery found on the surface indicate a settlement as far back as the Iron Age. A particular case is Qasr el-Al, on the northern wall of which an engraved Nabataen inscription provides an important terminus post quem. (Figure 5) S.T. Parker (Parker 1986) established, on the basis of pottery found on the surface, that these two sites were founded during the Iron Age, occupied by Nabataens and then brought into the widespread system of limes. Pottery finds date to the early Byzantine period, 4th-5th century. The Romans probably re-utilized these sites as rest stops and visual links between different locations. It is interesting that no traces from the Early Islamic period have been found on this high-ground site. This is a very important indicator of the nature of occupation of the territory at the advent of Islam. The relative peacefulness of the territory that came with its conquest by the first Islamic families meant that there was no necessity to occupy high-ground sites with strictly strategic functions.

of social, political and cultural exchange and experiences, not only among the Romans and Arabic peoples, but also among nomadic desert populations. This situation generated a highly complex construction tradition that is still today, at least in part, recognizable in buildings constructed in these zones. STILL-STANDING BUILDINGS AND PROBLEMS OF WALL CHARACTERIZATION AND CHRONOLOGY In a 1995 article, S.T. Parker Parker 1995, 251-260), deals with the problem of interpretation and dating of buildings, Forts and Fortresses, located on the limes arabicus. Although Jordan possesses the best-preserved construction in the Roman and Byzantine panorama, lack of excavation campaigns (except for a few sites) or specific targeted studies meant that, at least until the late 1970s, these buildings presented significant problems regarding chronology. Nevertheless, Parker, in light of new and more detailed information, attempted to draw up a typology of forts from the Roman and Byzantine period located in Jordan. In his view, one of the most critical hindrances to comprehension of a building is the complexity due to successive reconstructions: “the extant plan may well reflect several periods of later rebuilding that may be difficult to disentangle”. This assertion is one to keep in mind. The Jordanian situation as regards archaeological complexes with still-standing buildings (and there are a great many) is characterized by a very evident stratigraphic complexity (based on the last thirty years of study of the distinct constructive acts that characterize the current situation of a building). This complexity is not an obstacle to understanding a building, but if well sorted out, constitutes the key to reading and may precede excavations. In fact, elevated structures have been considered rather unreliable as sources of information by recent generations of archaeologists. In the Jordanian case, however, where many structures present well-conserved elevated structures (large surfaces and little transformation for at least ten centuries), stratigraphic reading of the elevated structures and the creation of typologies tied to the construction sphere – i.e., the Building Archaeology – can provide excellent results in terms of knowledge of these buildings, and thus also contribute to a deeper understanding of the limes arabicus. Of course, determining the chronology of building structures using the aggregate of pre-existing information is desirable, and surveys, digs, epigraphs and inscriptions and building typologies are, without doubt, sources we cannot do without. In every single case, the Building Archeology can help – by offering largely new observations as far as the Jordanian situation is concerned - to improve our ability to more precisely determine the dates of the construction and the transformation of buildings and to develop instruments that are applicable in a much wider range of situations than the individual architectural complexes analysed. For example the diachronic development of a building could be identified through the relative chronologies, that

Looking through this brief list of archaeological sites it becomes clear that even before the establishment of the Provincia Arabia, the situation in the region was complex, with various types of defensive structures that the Romans simply occupied and adapted. Applying a specific working strategy for these sites may provide us with more detailed information to improve our understanding of the history of these buildings. Studying these “minor structures” may offer a point of departure for important reflection on the history and nature of the limes. Structures that were re-utilized over time, sometimes without excessive modifications and sometimes with significant ones, and adapted for different needs. A more in-depth study of these sites, and their construction techniques in particular, can provide us with small pieces of information to insert into the larger picture of the history of the limes arabicus. In fact, the limes may no longer be considered as a border zone but, on the contrary, as an important point �� A

interesting coin dated to Costantinus II (AD 337-340) was found. Parker 1986, 50. ��The more appropriate term to define these structures formed of a tower, an enclosure and rooms along the enclosure would be burnus; see also Aföldi, 47 f.

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R. Parenti, P. Gilento : “Limes Arabicus” And Still-Standing Buildings is by studying how it relates to anterior, contemporary and posterior features, identifiable on a wall surface as well as in the three-dimensional structure of the building. Even without certain dating elements, such as epigraphs or excavation finds (in any case useful when available), it is possible to determine a typological seriation of building systems, techniques and materials which, with an appropriate number of samples, could help enormously in determining the absolute chronology. Relative chronologies, then, in the absence of clearly dated contexts as in many of the Jordanian cases, can be used as fossil guides for better comprehension of the history of the limes arabicus, suggesting new perspectives for a rereading of architectural complexes and their surrounding landscapes, beginning with the material structure and the study of building techniques. Building techniques change and evolve more or less slowly (in other geographical areas we have noticed that variations are directly proportionate to increasing demand for new buildings), so recording the characteristics of a significant number of constructions through the study of building techniques is a fundamental step towards understand a building’s history. The characteristics of the workmanship of individual building elements, how they were finished with tools, the laying of cornerstones and panels, what type of mortar was used if any, and the size of each individual component of the wall, are all elements that can be easily and quickly documented. The drawing up of abacuses in which these indispensable elements for characterizing the building systems of geological homogeneous areas are arranged in chronological order is an important objective, if we want to verify already-available information or propose new interpretative hypotheses. Characterizing a masonry wall and defining different building techniques in order to determine the construction history of buildings entails a complete reversal of the usual approach to understanding architecture, but can be extremely productive even when the remains of walls are partial or not yet visible. This article presents a way to consider some still-open questions, and above all proposes new work and research methodologies that utilize stratigraphic reading of elevated structures as an indispensable tool for better understanding of a building. The line of research proposed here is even more effective in a territory like Jordan, where climatic conditions and the morphology of the territory make intensive and continuoing excavations problematic. Nor do classical architectural studies based on typological and stylistic comparisons prove to be suitable, due to the complexity of the buildings themselves, and because it is now clear that simple typological comparisons - which do not consider variations occurring over time – provide only partial and often misleading results regarding the construction and functional history of a building. For example, the dated but fundamental essay by James Lander (Lander 1984) based its comparisons almost totally on building plans.

A comprehensive review of the stratigraphical readings performed up to now will be the subject of another publication, but initial, in some cases partial, results can already be presented. Close examination of the typology of the quadriburgia, a Tetrarchic architectural complex, shows that protruding towers were almost always built after completion of the curtain walls. Three of the corner towers of Qasr Bshir may have been built during a construction phase (a walled enclosure was constructed first for safety reasons and then, one or two seasons later, the towers were added), but the fourth tower was inserted through modification of the upper part of a lateral entrance (Figure 6). How should this be interpreted? Surely the original plan was modified, but in order to move from a relative chronology to an absolute chronology, it is necessary to more fully explore the building techniques. The oldest building element of the entire complex is, of course, the main entrance with an epigraph on the architrave, made with perfectly squared and levelled blocks that suggest the utilization of specialized masons. This tower-entrance serves to support the first two-to-three rows of the entire perimeter. The rows are made with stone blocks that are much larger than the other materials utilized. On the western side, we hypothesize that they may have come from the demolition of an older building, but they may also have responded to the need to build the elements, interpreted as horse mangers, inserted within the thickness of the wall, with an individual vertically set stone as a base. All of these walls are characterized by the presence of mortar, probably with lime as a binder. (Figure 7) As far as we know, the use of mortar with a binder is not traditional in Nabataen or Iron Age walls, which utilized soil or clay to level and fill the gaps between rows. Was this technological innovation introduced by Roman workers, as hypothesized in other areas of the Roman Provinces (Camporeale 2004)? Currently we are unable to assert with certainty that the use of mortar in Qasr Bshir is the most ancient example in Jordan, as it is a late example and because until now such observations have been lacking. Certainly the introduction of the use of mortar had a widespread and lasting impact. Mosaic affixers, external and internal plasters and decorations for buildings in the south of Hauran, waterproofing for cisterns and the characteristic mortars of Umayyad buildings (one based on limestone with large amounts of carbon residues and the other with plaster as a binder) are just a few examples we can note in the architecture of subsequent centuries. Another building not far from Qasr Bshir, pertaining to the typology of the quadriburgia, Qasr eth-Thuraiya, seems at first glance to have been built using two main building techniques, but the most unusual aspect is that in this building the south-eastern corner tower seems to have been built prior to the rectangular enclosure (Figure 8). In this case, as in Qasr Bshir, there are several possible interpretations, one of which is that the enclosure may have been built around a pre-existing building. 117

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean With these types of observations, the entire schema of buildings thought to be part of the limes in this region (fortalices, forts, lookout towers), should be re-evaluated, because the in synchrony presence of the structures in different historical periods (some buildings have existed since the Iron Age) will have to be compared with their frequentation, which is not always known for all historical periods. In the other area, south Hauran, the presence of mortar is much more limited due to the reduced availability of limestone. But traces of its use are present: in Umm al-Jimal, religious buildings (churches) used it as setting mortar for walls and mosaics. It is also found on other surfaces, both as decoration (visible traces on many buildings, including the tower of the “Barracks”), and as a sealant for seams (probably to impede leakage of earth used for setting blocks in walls) and cisterns. The evolution of diatonics present in walls from different construction periods seems more promising. Diatonic walls and orthostats pertain to classical tradition (Martin 1965), but during the various construction phases of many buildings in volcanic basalt area sites, an evolution in their utilization has been documented. We are not yet able to precisely determine an absolute chronology (probably 4th8th century), but we have a good relative seriation (one pattern is older than another because both were utilized in the same building but in different construction phases) and widespread use in Umayyad walls. Comparison with VIIIXI-century Andalusian masonry (Selleria a soga y tizòn iregular de época emiral, de época califal y de época taifa, see Civantos 2004) appears to be interesting.

will yield 2D and 3D CAD plans as well as 3D vector reproduction of the walls (Figure 9). Vectorialized 3D wall surfaces will be generated, on which all necessary analyses can be successively carried out (stratigraphical readings, characterization of dimensions, finishes and workmanship, the presence of facings, results of archaeometric analyses, etc.). Once processed, the data will be readily available online. As the plug-ins for 3D drawing in a 3D GIS are still in the testing phase, only currently-available GIS used for recording information on vertical wall bases can be used at present, such as the SICaR - the evolution of the GIS developed for documenting restoration work on the leaning tower of Pisa and now utilized by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. This strategy can provide excellent results as the number of analysed sites increases, creating a database that is readily available and consultable and, above all, one that can be updated by expert users even from a distance, as it is on-line and can thus be managed by different research groups. This working strategy will be put to the test in 2009-2010 by the “Building Archaeology in Jordan” research group from the Building Archaeology Laboratory of the University of Siena, along with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, at the Umm as-Sarab site in north Jordan, an exemplary project in the development of a new type of field work carried out using new computer technologies. CONCLUSIONS Construction in the Mid-East is characterized by extremely long-term continuity of skills and techniques. Although field documentation is in need of methodological updating, there is no doubt that many areas of Jordan are marked by topographical continuity between Nabataen buildings (in some cases from the Iron Age, 12th-9th century BC) and those built by the Romans and later reused by the Byzantines, Ghassanids and Umayyads (7th-8th century AD), leaving us a wealth of information that must now be properly decoded. Said continuity naturally concerns materials, but also workmanship and the use of particular constructive systems, with few technical innovations. The continuity, or rather the slow evolution of building systems (the laying and sectioning of walls, the construction systems of certain types of buildings and apertures, roofing systems – for example the diaphragm arch -, tools used for finishing, etc.) can easily be ascertained for the long period between the end of the III century and the mid-7th century, with some periods of increased building activity and others of preservation of the existing structures. The walls are a testimony to the strong stonecutting tradition that has always characterized these geographical areas, where stone was readily available. Refined, Hellenized Nabataen culture carried on this tradition, later flanked by the orderly Roman architectural tradition that brought innovative models, schemas, techniques and materials that spread and blended with Middle-Eastern material culture. No single influence predominated over the others, but rather, they melded with one another, creating along the

RECORDING CRITERIA AND AVAILABILITY OF DATA In this innovative method of studying the limes arabicus, which will be developed in coming years in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, given that extensive territories and numerous sites are involved, the best strategy seems to be to utilize tools made available by new technologies to the greatest possible advantage. Foremost among them are those that aid in the localization of sites. Jordanian territory has always been a very fertile ground for aerial surveys, given the nearly total visibility of the sites. An instrument like Google Earth now allows us to clearly identify archaeological sites and to georeference them in photographic-quality maps (the error in geographical coordinates inherent to the Google Earth application can be overcome through double surveying of the positions of discernable points of the buildings using a simple GPS). At this point we have two possibilities. The first is to enter all information regarding topography, surveys, completed excavations, bibliography and a database of photos of a large number of sites into a new-generation static on-line database. Such a collection of on-line data can also be made available to the next Jordan GIS MEGA J. The second possibility has to do with the successive phase of field work. An architectural survey will involve a smaller amount of sites. Remote sensing techniques based on specialised hi-tech photogrammetry equipment 118

R. Parenti, P. Gilento : “Limes Arabicus” And Still-Standing Buildings limes a fertile ground for experimentation and above all evolution of forms and construction techniques. With the arrival of Islam in the mid-7th century and the advent of the first caliphal dynasty of the Umayyad (AD 660-750), the situation underwent rapid change in the first half of the VIII century. There was great demand for new buildings (mosques and minarets, and “palaces” or qusur, newly built or adaptations of old buildings) but some already-confirmed typologies continued to be utilized (thermal baths were transformed into hammams, but the distribution and functions of the rooms remained the same.) The increased demand was met with the arrival of skilled Byzantine workers (as is well documented), as well as Armenians and probably Sasanids, who brought “new” material such as bricks or chalk-based mortar and new shapes of openings (such as the pointed arch), and new construction methods for the vaulted roofs. Following this evolution, analysing multi-layered architectural complexes, documenting the features of construction systems and creating a chronological Atlas means creating a new instrument which, at the very least, can aid tremendously in the study of Jordanian sites. But it may also offer opportunities to investigate the continuity, or rather the evolution, of classical construction systems, in a context where continuity seems already ascertained, and to hypothesize new paths of transmission to Western Europe through the process of the Islamization of Spain.

De Vries, B.1985. Urbanisation in the Basalt Region of North Jordan in Late Antiquity: The Case of Umm elJimal. In A. Hadidi (ed.), Studies in the History and Archaeologyof Jordan II, 249-56. Amman, Department of Antiquities of Jordan. De Vries, B. 1986. Umm el-Jimal in the First Three Centuries A.D, in P. Freeman and D. Kennedy, eds., The Defense of the Roman and Byzantine East. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 297, 227-41. Oxford, B.A.R.. D. Vries B., 1998. Umm el-Jimal, A frontier Town and its Landscape in Northern Jordan, Voll. I-II. Gaube, H. 1974. An Examination of the ruins of Qasr Burqu. Ann. D.A.J. 19, 93-100. Glueck, N. 1934-1951. Explorations in Eastern Palestine. 4 vols. AASOR. Graf , D.F. 1978. The Saracens and the Defense of the Arabian Frontier. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 229. (Feb.,1978), 1-26. Graf, D. F. 1989. Rome and the Saracens: re-assessing the nomadic menace. In T. Fahd (ed.), L ‘Arabie preislamique et son environnement historique et culturel, 341-400. Leiden. Graf, D.F. 1997. The “Via Militaris in Arabia”. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 51, 271-281. Isaac, B. 1988. The meaning of the terms Limes and Limitanei. The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 78, 125147. Jaussen, RR.PP.A. and Savignac, R. 1922. Mission Archéologique en Arabie. Paris (Réédition Le Caire-1997). Kennedy, D. L. 1980. The frontier Policy of Septimius Severus: new evidence from Arabia. 12th Congress: 883.1980. Kennedy, D.L., 1982. Archaeological Explorations on the Roman Frontier in North-East Jordan. The Roman and Byzantine military installations and road network on the ground and from the air, BAR International Series 134. Kennedy, D.L. (edited by) 1996. The Roman Army in the East. Ann Arbor Kennedy, D.L. 2004. The Roman Army in Jordan, Council for British Research in the Levant. London. Kennedy D.L. e Bewley R. 2004. Ancient Jordan from the Air. London. Lander, J. 1984. Roman Stone Fortifications. Variation and Change from the First Century A.D. to the Fourth. British Archaeological Reports International Series 206. Martin, R. 1965. Manuel d’Architecture greque. I. Materiaux et Techniques. Paris. Mommsen, Theodor 1908. Der Begriff des Limes. Westdeutsche Zeitschrift 13: 134-43.=Pp. 456-64 : (‘ Es scheint den Limes-forschern wenig zum Bewusstsein gekommen zu sein, dass der Limes seinem Wesen nach bei allen sonst möglichen Verschiedenheiten, eine irgendwie markierte zweifache Grenze, eine äussere und eine innere fordert’) in vol. 5/2 of Gesammelte Schriften. Berlin, Weidmannsche. Mordechai, G. 1967. The Negev Frontier, in Israel and her Vicinity in Roman and Byzantyne Periods, 35-64. TelAviv: Tel- Aviv University.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Arce, I. 2007. Qaşr al-Hallābāt: Continuity and Change from the Roman-Byzantine to the Umayyad Period. SHAJ, 325-344. Bowersock, G.W. 1971. A Report on Arabia Provincia, JRS 61, 219-242. Bowersock, G. W. 1975. The Greek-Nabataean bilingual inscription at Ruwafa, Saudi Arabia. In Le monde grec: Hommages à Claire Preaux, 513-522. Brussels. Bowersock, G.W. 1976. Limes Arabicus. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 80, 219-229. Bowersock, G. W. 1983. Roman Arabia, Cambridge, MA, 1983. Butler, H.C. et alii 1930. The Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904-5 and 1909. Leyden Brünnow R., Domaszewski, A. 1904-1909. Die Provincia Arabia. 3 voll. Strassburg, Trübner. Camporeale, S. 2004. Tecniche edilizie in pietra nella Mauretania Tingitana tra l’epoca mauretana e romana. Osservazioni sulle apparecchiature e utilizzo della malta. Archeologia dell’Architettura IX, 195-205. Civantos, J.M. 2004. Proposta preliminare di sistematizzazione delle tecniche costruttive d’al-Andalus nel territorio di Ilbira-Granada (Andalusia-Spagna). Archeologia dell’Architettura, IX, 207-220. Creswell, K.A.C. 1969. Early Muslim Architecture, I-II. Oxford. Creswell, K.A.C. with a contribution by J.W. Allan, 1989. A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecture. El Cairo. 119

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Musil, A. 1907-1980. Arabia Petraea. 3 vols. Vienna, Holder. Parker, S.T. 1986. Romans and Saracens: A History of the Arabian Frontier. Philadelphia, American Schools of Oriental Research. Parker, S.T. 1987. The Roman Frontier in Central Jordan. Voll. I-II, British Archaeological Reports International

Series340 (i). Parker, S.T. 1989. The Nature of Rome’s Arabian Frontier. In Roman Frontier Studies 1989. proceedings of the fifteenth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies, Exter, 498-504. Parker, S.T. 1995. The Tipology of Roman and Byzantine Forts and Fortresses in Jordan. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan, Vol. 5, 251-260. Poidebard A., 1934. Le Trace de Rome dans le Désert de la Syrie. Paris, Geuthner.

Figure 1. NE Jordan with spots of Umm as-Sarab, Umm al-Jimal, Umm al-Quttein and Deyr al-Kahf. (satellite photo source: GoogleEarth, Febr. 20.2009).

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Figure 2. The “Central Sector” of Limes Arabicus. The quadriburgia of Qasr Bshir and Qasr eth-Thuraiya and the burgi of Qasr el-Al and Qasr Abu al-Kharaqah are spotted on the map (satellite photo source: GoogleEarth, Febr. 20.2009).

Figure 3 General view of the “Central Sector “from Qasr el-Al, southwards.

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Figure 4. Satellite photos from Google Earth. From the left: Qasr el-Al, Qaşr eth-Thuraiya, Qasr Abu al-Kharaqah and an unidentified site. (satellite photo source: GoogleEarth, Febr.20.2009)

Figure 5. A Nabatean inscription from Qasr el-Al northern wall (source: Parker 1986)

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Figure 6. Qasr Bshir, detail of the SW tower, with the stratigraphic relation between the main wall and the tower wall with a little door.

Figure 7. Detail of the mortar found at Qasr Bshir. Photos are taken from the eastern section of the main wall.

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Figure 8. General view of Qasr eth-Thuraiya (photo source: Kennedy 2004). Detail of the relations between the S wall and the SE tower.

Figure 9. Preliminary results of the instrumental survey of the main church at Umm as-Sarab (3D reconstruction by means of the photogrammetric “Z-Scan” application)

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PATTERNS OF SETTLEMENT IN TRANSGIORDANIA BETWEEN THE MUSLIM CONQUEST AND THE CRUSADES Hugh Kennedy Soas Abstract (2008) This paper will look at patterns of settlement in Transgiordania from the Muslim conquest to the crusades and attempt to place the history of the region in broader historical context. The argument will be made that the Umayyad period saw a continuation of the extensive settlement on the arid margins which had been typical of the Byzantine period. The Muslim conquest did not mark a major change and the Arab presence was dominated by tribes like Judham which were already established in the area in the pre-Islamic period. The Nessana papyri will be used to show how the early interactions between the people of the villages and towns and the Bedouin worked in practice. It will further be argued that the subsidies paid by the Umayyad government to the Syrian tribes, generated commercial activity and markets in the area. We can see this is the establishment of a clearly Muslim presence in cities like Jerash and Amman and the building of high-status residences like Mshatta and Qusayr Amra on the desert margins. This situation changed with the coming of the Abbasids after 750. The Syrian tribes were effectively excluded from power under the new regime and were no longer paid for their services. This led to a decline an effective abandonment of urban centres. In the civil war after the death of Harun al-Rashid in 809, the impoverished Bedouin began raiding settled areas and attacking Christian monasteries like St Sabas. No more churches or other dated monuments were constructed in the villages of the area. The ninth and tenth centuries saw a retreat in settled agriculture and the growing importance of pastoralism. It also saw the replacement of the tribes of the early Muslim period, like Judham, with newcomers like the Banu Tayy. It will be argued that these tribes attracted populations from the settled areas who now abandoned their villages and adopted a pastoral lifestyle and a Bedouin identity. This ascendancy of the nomads of Transgiordania and Palestine continued until the coming of Fatimid rule in the area. In 1029 the great Fatimid general Anushtagin Dizbari defeated a coalition of the main tribes, Kilab, Kalb and Tayy at the battle of Uqhuwana near Lake Tiberias. From this point there was a gradual consolidation of settlement, a process which gathered pace in the Crusader and Ayyubid periods.

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TESTIMONIANZE PREISTORICHE NEL SITO DI WU’EIRA Mario Frau

La presenza di rilevanti attività umane nel sito di Wu’ayra è più antica di quelle più note nabatea, romano bizantina, crociata e islamica. Nella stessa area dei resti del castello medievale e nelle aree adiacenti si sono conservate grotticelle scavate nella roccia e aree cultuali, caratterizzate da coppelle, di epoca preistorica. Oltre i resti monumentali, confermano la presenza preistorica numerosi strumenti di selce, ciottoli levigati e alcuni frammenti ceramici con decorazioni a graticcio che, pur affini a motivi presenti in epoca storica, si differenziano per la qualità della ceramica. La ricostruzione delle presenze più antiche nel sito è stata fortemente e comprensibilmente compromessa dalla quasi ininterrotta frequentazione del luogo, praticamente sino ai giorni nostri. Nell’ambito delle indagini condotte ad al Wu’eira si è svolta anche la presente ricerca che ha individuato una necropoli di undici grotticelle artificiali e dieci aree cultuali (Figura1).

È singolare una nicchia ellissoidale scavata quasi al centro della parete di fondo del bancone per tutta l’altezza, dove oggi campeggia la silhouette di una figura femminile, ottenuta con vernice bianca, di recente fattura. Sulla soglia dell’apertura occidentale è scavata una cavità oblunga per tutta la larghezza, sede probabilmente di un chiusino ad incastro. La grotticella n.2 è scavata in un affioramento arenaceo di forma sub rettangolare (Figura 3). Non essendo stata scavata è ancora per buona parte colma di crollo, ma si intravede una planimetria curvilinea, tendenzialmente reniforme. La volta è a forno. L’ingresso trapezoidale ha stipiti profondi. Di estremo interesse sono 13 coppelle che ricoprono gli stipiti e l’architrave. Anche se parzialmente erose, sono evidenti nella loro disposizione quasi regolare che contorna l’apertura. Ai lati dell’ingresso inoltre sono scavate sei nicchie rettangolari non molto profonde, tre a nord e tre a sud. Anche sul piano esterno la superficie rocciosa al di sopra del soffitto, presenta cavità coppelliformi. Soltanto alcune, di forma cilindrica e allineate a distanze regolari, secondo planimetrie rettangolari, potrebbero aver contenuto le basi di pilastri lignei di sostegno a strutture di copertura di edifici di difficile collocazione cronologica e culturale; ma anche questa funzione risulta improbabile per la profondità non adeguata delle cavità a sostenere solidamente qualunque supporto, salvo integrazione all’esterno con ulteriori sistemi di bloccaggio. Altre cavità circolari di dimensioni variabili si allineano obliquamente, rispetto alle precedenti, due collegate da una canaletta che le rende comunicanti. Infine una sequenza di tre vaschette scavate nella roccia. Anche in questo caso non è possibile stabilire l’epoca di realizzazione di questo impianto, neppure se nello stesso periodo o in epoche diverse. È però improbabile che sia connessa con le fasi storiche di utilizzazione dell’area, quando gli ambienti costruiti furono realizzati in muratura e le superfici di calpestio coperte da pavimenti che ne avrebbero occultato la vista. A nord-ovest della grotticella n.2, è situata un’altra grotticella, ostruita da un riempimento, manca il verbo di pianta reniforme (Figura 4). È ben visibile l’architrave arcuato. A sud del cassero si trovano altre tre grotticelle, scavate nelle pareti di una balza, due in coppia su un lato e una nell’altro. Si tratta di ambienti a pianta e volta curvilinei, semplici e di non grandi dimensioni: la grotticella A, è larga 2,20m per 2,40m di profondità, con un’altezza di 1,55m; la grotticella B è larga 1,50m e profonda 1,60m, per un’altezza di 1,45m; la grotticella C, posta sull’altro lato, frontalmente, misura

NECROPOLI Gli ipogei sono dislocati nell’area sud-orientale dell’affioramento areanaceo-carbonatico di Wu’eira. L’antiporta del castello è un ipogeo riutilizzato e adattato dai Crociati, o precedentemente (Nabatei, Romani e Bizantini) per l’accesso al cassero (Figura 2). La tecnica di lavorazione delle superfici rocciose mostra evidenti i segni di interventi in tempi diversi per ampliare e modificare l’architettura precedente, adattandola alle specifiche esigenze. Alla simbologia della religione preistorica della fertilità sono da attribuire le cavità coppelliformi scavate in diversi punti dell’interno, risultando prive di qualunque altro significato funzionale. Sono scavate negli spigoli dei gradini, nei piani dei banconi senza evidente connessione, in posizione verticale od orizzontale. La struttura dei banconi richiama quella di grotticelle artificiali preistoriche del Mediterraneo, soprattutto il bancone settentrionale, caratterizzato dalla presenza nel lato est di un rilievo quadrangolare, quasi un capezzale. L’utilizzo del piano del bancone è agevolato da un gradino scavato nella roccia per tutta la lunghezza. Analogamente avviene nel bancone meridionale. In questo il piano presenta una coppella circolare ed una cavità ellittica piuttosto profonda scavate nel lato occidentale, affiancate da piccole coppelline, una distanziata e posizionata quasi a bordo nella parte mediana del bancone. La coppella più grande presenta una scanalatura di drenaggio che si riversa verso l’interno della camera; la cavità ellittica invece taglia lo spigolo, penetrando nella parete rocciosa per una buona metà, risultandovi incassata. Un’altra cavità ellittica, ma molto, più piccola è scavata nello stesso modo nello spigolo interno del lato orientale. 126

M. Frau: Testimonianze preistoriche nel sito di Wu’ Eira 2,20m di larghezza x 1,40m a W e 1,00m a E di profondità, altezza al centro di 1,90m. Quest’ultima ha una nicchia alla base dello stipite occidentale. Anche se si tratta di ambienti non ben definiti, con aperture ampie e irregolari, prive di una distinzione del portello di accesso con stipiti e architrave, le grotticelle potevano assolvere al compito di accogliere sepolture secondarie, sigillate con muretti di pietrame oggi scomparsi, come usanza in ambiti preistorici all’interno di varie necropoli del Mediterraneo. Tra gli ipogei presenti all’interno del cassero soltanto uno è stato oggetto di scavo: la grotticella denominata come UT80

strutture stagionali (tende di pelli, a cui potrebbero riferirsi resti di pelle con pelame trovati all’interno del crollo) per uso dell’ipogeo come rifugio. I resti ossei presenti testimoniano pasti consumati sul luogo. L’apertura della volta ha favorito l’infiltrazione di materiali delle strutture soprastanti e di terreno contenente materiali di varie epoche. La frammentarietà dei materiali, la commistione confusa sembrano causati non da regolare giacitura, ma da caotica deposizione quasi una discarica. Le parti mancanti delle strutture architettoniche relative all’epoca crociata potrebbero essere state riutilizzate come materiali da costruzione in edifici posteriori della zona, e in gran parte precipitate nel wadi Wu’ayra, su cui si affaccia la grotticella, a seguito del crollo del soffitto, seguendo il destino di gran parte delle strutture perimetrali del cassero, costruito nel lato di accesso a filo con la balza occidentale del wadi stesso. Sul letto del wadi ormai in secca si trovano accumulati in gran quantità blocchi del castello.

GROTTICELLA UT80 In attesa della prossima pubblicazione dello scavo della grotticella, oggetto di indagine parziale negli anni ’93 e ’94, si dà in questa sede qualche notizia preliminare. La struttura ha ingresso rettangolare; un breve dromos porta alla camera curvilinea, divisa in due lobi espansi, con la parete orientale scavata da tre nicchie di pianta ogivale. Queste ultime furono sfondate, probabilmente in epoca crociata o forse precedentemente, nei tempi della dominazione romana prima e bizantina poi, per ricavarvi delle feritoie da cui controllare la sottostante antiporta (Figura 5). Undici cavità coppelliformi sono distribuite all’interno della grotticella, dislocate in apparenza senza un disegno regolare, nelle pareti delle nicchie, nei diaframmi rocciosi che le distinguono sia alla base che sul soffitto, e nel pavimento roccioso della camera. Accanto a quattro coppelle integre, scavate sul pavimento, si trovava un cumulo di argilla seccata naturalmente, e strumenti di selce. Dentro una coppella furono trovati un pestello in quarzite nerastra, e frammenti di una ciotola emisferica, lisciata a stecca, di impasto granuloso (Figura 6). Potrebbero essere le tracce residue dell’utilizzo, presumibilmente sepolcrale, della grotticella in epoca preistorica. Le frequentazioni successive della grotticella si sono svolte a più riprese. Le tracce sono i diversi crolli di strutture in muratura, anche intonacate, che si sovrappongono in modo non chiaro nella camera ipogeica e i materiali, prevalentemente ceramici, di epoca nabatea (scarsi), romana, bizantina, islamica. Sono stati trovati anche elementi metallici, lignei, oggetti d’ornamento, ma non in giacitura originaria. I segni di riutilizzo più consistente e meglio conservati sono quelli riferibili all’ epoca crociata, quando la camera fu integrata con strutture murarie e adeguata alle architetture murarie esterne (Figure 7 e 8). A questa fase potrebbero risalire la scalinata di accesso alla grotticella e i muri che rifasciano il corridoio di comunicazione con la parte alta del cassero. Di queste strutture sono residui alcuni frammenti di blocchi squadrati con finitura, schegge di marmo, frammenti di gesso e malta. La grotticella fu interessata da un crollo del soffitto, non è chiaro se dovuto ad azione antropica o per degrado naturale della roccia arenacea. Sul crollo si sono avvicendate ulteriori frequentazioni sporadiche con focolari e forse costruzione di

MATERIALI I reperti più antichi contenuti nel deposito della camera sono 31 strumenti e un arnione in selce, prevalentemente raschiatoi, bulini, grattatoi e qualche frammento di lama; certamente antico è il ciottolo con depressione coppelliforme rinvenuto sul pavimento della grotticella, in associazione con le coppelle. Tra i frammenti ceramici, uno presenta la tipica decorazione a maglie reticolate di colore rosso-violaceo su fondo beige, che richiama analoghe ceramiche decorate dell’Early Bronze II, ma sono necessari ulteriori accertamenti. È certa l’attribuzione ad epoca preistorica dello strumentario litico e delle coppelle scavate in vari punti dell’ipogeo e conseguentemente lo scavo della grotticella. Dei periodi successivi troviamo frammenti di ceramica nabatea, romana, bizantina, del periodo crociato e islamica (ayyubide e mamelucca). Si tratta generalmente di abbondanti frammenti appartenenti a più recipienti di non grandi dimensioni e di qualità comune o scadente. I pochi i frammenti decorati appartenenti a recipienti di maggior pregio appartengono a vasi del periodo ayyubide in maggior parte, con i tipici motivi a triangoli reticolati o rombi di colore bruno violaceo. Rari i frammenti di ceramiche invetriate di color turchese e verde, più frequenti di colore giallo verde. Rari i reperti metallici: qualche borchia e ribattini in bronzo, chiodi in ferro. Rinvenute anche una testa di martello e una spatola in legno, alcuni frammenti di braccialetti in pasta vitrea e vaghi di collana. Un cippo o altarino in calcarenite, a forma di fungo con cavità coppelliforme nella parte superiore, alcuni ciottolini oliviformi, un mortaio in calcare. Numerosi i fossili interi e frammentari di capulidi (Exogyra densata), contenuti nella roccia fossilifera in cui è stata scavata la grotticella e depositatisi successivamente nel materiale di riporto disperso nell’area circostante e da cui in parte sono fluitati di nuovo all’interno per effetto degli agenti atmosferici e delle attività umane che si sono avvicendate nel tempo.

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in piano e nelle balze. Il successivo presenta nel fianco occidentale una serie di gradini. Altri due affioramenti con squadri nella parte piana allineati a sud ovest collegano al cosiddetto ‘camminamento nabateo’. Le aree che si sviluppano all’interno di questo, non è chiaro se come mete del percorso stesso o precedenti la realizzazione del camminamento, sono adiacenti. Quella più esterna, esposta a ovest, contiene le coppelle all’interno di uno squadro ben distinto sul piano roccioso, mentre l’area interna presenta le coppelle disposte a semicerchio su un bordo del rilievo. In una prossima pubblicazione sarà ulteriormente approfondita l’analisi dell’argomento.

Otto aree sono interessate dalla presenza di coppelle, di gradinate, di vasche scavate nella roccia, di nicchie, per lo più sulla sommità di rilievi mammellonari. Le coppelle sono talvolta isolate, ma anche allineate in gruppi da quattro a sette secondo schemi che sembrano richiamare la rappresentazione di ‘costellazioni’ (Figura 9). Una coppella isolata si trova all’esterno della grotticella UT80, in asse con l’ipogeo stesso. All’interno del cassero, oltre l’affioramento roccioso in cui è scavata la grotticella n.2, due raggruppamenti con coppelle interessano: uno il rilievo mammellonare a est della strada di accesso, dopo aver superato l’antiporta e l’altro il rilievo che separa la chiesa e la torre orientale del castello. Il primo è costituito da coppelle di diverso diametro distanziate in modo asimmetrico sul lato orientale della strada, da una serie di tre vaschette e da due bacini circolari scavati nella roccia e comunicanti attraverso canaletta sul lato occidentale. Il secondo, interessato dalla presenza di una grotticella artificiale sepolta e da una nicchia o grotticella incompleta, comprende una coppella ed una vaschetta, accanto a due tavolette da gioco con sequenze parallele di coppelline, sede di pedine o altro, la cui pertinenza è da riferirsi a epoca recente, non in connessione certamente con le aree cultuali preistoriche. Altre aree con coppelle potevano essere presenti nell’ambito del cassero, ma la successione di edificazioni può avere compromesso la loro conservazione. Meglio conservate risultano senza dubbio le aree cultuali distribuite all’esterno del cassero, ad occidente, per un’ampia area caratterizzata dalla prosecuzione del rilievo ad altopiano di Wu’ayra, che degrada verso la valle di Petra. La superficie dell’area si estende con una successione di affioramenti mammellonari isolati separati da brevi zone pianeggianti. Un singolare itinerario interessa i rilievi rocciosi uniti in un percorso segnato da gradini scavati nella roccia, senza attenzione per la pendenza che in alcuni punti è veramente accentuata rendendo difficoltosa la salita. È il cd. ‘Camminamento nabateo’. L’area immediatamente a ovest, superato il fossato occidentale del cassero è costituita da una valletta da cui emergono cinque affioramenti mammellonari allineati da nord a sudovest, interessati dalla presenza di raggruppamenti di coppelle, vaschette e gradini nella roccia. Risultano quasi un’area periferica rispetto al percorso nabateo, che in due punti viene interrotto nella sequenza di gradini da aree con coppelle. Anzi appaiono come area o autonoma o fulcro dell’intero complesso cultuale. Il rilievo settentrionale presenta un raggruppamento di cinque coppelle, del diametro di 40cm x10 di profondità, sulla parte piana a sud dell’affioramento, precedute da una serie di quattro gradini a nord, da cui si sale. Nel rilievo meridionale successivo sono scavati due gruppi di coppelle analoghe per dimensioni alle precedenti, contenuti in due squadri ricavati nella roccia, il primo di sette, il secondo di quattro. La disposizione richiama in modo suggestivo la disposizione di costellazioni. Il terzo rilievo è scavato da vaschette, squadri nella roccia

LA TECNICA DI SCAVO DELLE GROTTICELLE La vicinanza della città di Petra con la sua immensa necropoli e il ritrovamento di numerosi frammenti di ceramiche nabatee hanno favorito l’attribuzione ai nabatei anche degli ipogei di Wu’ayra. Anche lo scavo dell’ipogeo più meridionale, all’esterno del cassero, con l’individuazione di una fonderia, sembra non lasciare dubbi. Ma alcune osservazioni potrebbero suggerire l’attribuzione ad epoca più antica dell’area. L’elemento più evidente è l’architettura tombale che nella civiltà nabatea predilige quasi esclusivamente il gusto rettilineo, con ambienti quadrati o rettangolari e soffitti piani, anche negli esempi più semplici, mentre le grotticelle di Wu’eira si caratterizzano per la curvilinearità delle camere, l’assenza di rifinitura delle pareti che rivela una tecnica di scavo della roccia grossolana, ma efficace, con solcature profonde oblique o convergenti. Si aggiungono le coppelle, elemento simbolo della religiosità preistorica della fertilità. Nella civiltà Nabatea non sono estranee nel contesto architettonico dell’ipogeismo funerario. A Petra una tomba presenta una coppia di coppelle di fronte alla soglia, esternamente alla cavità oblunga che conteneva il portello di chiusura (Figura 10). Potevano essere funzionali all’utilizzo di pali lignei per bloccare il portello. Ma potrebbero essere anche una testimonianza della conservazione di un rituale religioso arcaico preesistente alla tradizione canonica della più moderna religiosità nabatea. Un altro esempio di coppella, con anello concentrico scavato intorno, è nella soglia di uno degli ambienti laterali del Kazneh. Il riferimento a persistenze di culti precedenti è possibile non conoscendosi con certezza l’origine di questo popolo, originariamente tribù nomade, ma la cui discendenza da popolazioni preistoriche locali o di altra area legate ai culti della fertilità è accettabile. I Nabatei si insediarono nell’area e riutilizzarono gli ipogei preesistenti adattandoli alle loro necessità. L’esempio più evidente è la cosiddetta fonderia, ricavata in una ampia camera scavata nella roccia, che si trova a sud del cassero. Un esempio di architettura di ipogeo simile alle grotticelle di Wu’ayra si trova in prossimità di Beidha, sito distante appena sette chilometri e noto per l’insediamento neolitico preceramico più antico del Medio Oriente. Analogie più strette si possono riscontrare invece con tombe dell’ EB/MB (At Tla el ‘Ali, Jabel Jofeh, Jabal Jaj, 128

M. Frau: Testimonianze preistoriche nel sito di Wu’ Eira Gebel, H. G. 1986. Die Jungsteinzeit im Petra_Gebiet. In M. Lindner (ed), Petra. Neue Ausgrabungen und Entdeckungen, 273-308. München, Delp. Gebel, H. G. and Starck J. M.1985. Investigations into the Stone Age of the Petra Area (Early Holocene Research). A Preliminary Report on the 1984 Campaigns. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 29, 89-114. Kenyon, K. M. and Holland, T. A. 1983. Excavations at Jericho 5. London, British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. Kirkbride, D. 1959. Short Note on Some Hitherto Unrecorded Prehistoric Sites in Transjordan. PEQ 91, 5255. Marino, L., Labanca, G., Nenci, C., Orlando, F. e Sabelli R. 1994. La fortezza di al-Wu’ayra a Petra: osservazioni sullo stato di conservazione, in L. Marino (ed), Siti e monumenti della Giordania, rapporto sullo stato di conservazione, 97-102. Firenze, Alinea. Perrot,J. 1977. Siria-Palestina I, Archaeologia Mundi, Enciclopedia archeologica. Nagel, Ginevra. Tonghini, C. e Vanni Desideri, A. 2001. The Material Evidence from al-Wu’ayra: A Sample of Pottery. vol. 7. 707-719, Convegno: Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan. Vannini, G. e Vanni Desideri, A. 1995. Archaeological Research on Medieval Petra: a preliminary report. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan. Vannini, G. e Tonghini, C. 1997. Medieval Petra. The stratigrafic evidence from recent archaeological excavations at al-Wu’ayra. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan VI ,371-384. Amman, Departement of Antiquites.

Sport City, Dhar Mirzbanek e Tiwal esh-Sharqi, Bab EdhDhra ( Thomas Schaub e Rast 1965), Hablet el Amud, presso Silwan (ADAJ 1964), Gerico (Kenyon 1981 e 1983), Pella (Potts, Colledge e Edwards 1985). Ma i riscontri architettonici più evidenti riportano alle necropoli scavate nella roccia un po’ in tutto il Mediterraneo (Cipro, Grecia, Malta, Nordafrica, Sicilia, Sardegna, Italia Meridionale). Anche le cavità coppelliformi richiamano contesti tombali della preistoria mediterranea, maltese e sarda in particolare, ma in generale dell’Europa. BIBLIOGRAFIA Bini, M. e Bertocci, S. 1997. The Survey of Al Wu’ayra: a Contribution to de Knowledge of the Crusader castles in Jordan. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan XLI, 403 ss. Bisheh, G. Report About a Survey in the Ma’an District (Petra- Area Wadi Rum, Shobak, Aqaba), 25th Sept.-8th Oct. 1972. Amman, Department of Antiquites, Open File Report. Brown, R. M.1987. A 12th Centhury A. D. Sequence from Transjordan Crusaders and Ajjubid occupation at el AlWu’ayra. Dorell, P. G.1983. Stone Vessels, Tools and Objects, in K. M. Kenyon and T. A. Holland (eds), Excavations at Jericho 5. London, British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. Fujii, S. 2006. Wadi Abu Tulayha: A preliminary Report of 2005 Spring and Summer Excavation Seasons at the al-Jafr Basin Prehistoric Project Phase2. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan L (2006) (1), 9-32.

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Figura 1. Wu’eira: Planimetria generale del sito di al-Wu’eira con segnalazione dei siti di interesse preistorico: ipogei, aree con coppelle, scalinate e squadri.

Figura 2. Wu’eira: L’antiporta del castello di Wu’ayra, ipogeo preistorico riutilizzato in epoca storica per ricavare un ingresso protetto all’area del castello.

Figura 3. Wu’ eira : Grotticella n. 2, con prospetto scavato da serie di coppelle.

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Figura 4. Wu’eira: Grotticella con architrave arcuato scavato nella roccia, all’interno del cassero.

Figura 5.Wu’eira : Interno della UT80: particolare delle nicchie sfondate per ricavare feritoie di osservazione della sottostante antiporta del castello.

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Figura 6. Wu’eira: Reperti ritrovati sul pavimento roccioso della UT80, in un deposito di argilla che ricopriva una coppia di coppelle.

Figura 7. Wu’eira ; Scorcio dall’interno della UT80, con residui del crollo delle strutture di epoca crociata.

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Figura 8. Wu’eira: Vista della scalinata in muratura di transito tra la UT80 e l’esterno.

Figura 9. Wu’eira : L’imponente area cultuale a ovest del cassero, con i rilievi scavati da raggruppamenti di coppelle che sembrano riprodurre costellazioni.

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Figura 10. Petra: Raro esempio di coppelle scavate sulla soglia di una tomba nella necropoli di Petra.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

L’ETÀ CROCIATO - AYYUBIDE E LA NASCITA DI UNA FRONTIERA MEDIEVALE THE CRUSADER-AYYUBID AGE AND THE BIRTH OF A MEDIEVAL FRONTIER SHAWBAK: STRUTTURE MATERIALI DI UNA FRONTIERA Guido Vannini Michele Nucciotti Università di Firenze A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011 Abstract (2008) Shawbak: material frames of a frontier South Jordan and Shawbak: a land and a settlement that from the 12th to 14th century more and more and deeply intertwined their history with each other, so that may mirror one other. The material situation of the site of Shawbak represents a case of study of great consequence, in order to ascertain ways and times, whereby the regional identity originated from the Jordanian ‘Medieval frontier’ progressively evolved between the early Crusader and Mamluk epoch, through the conclusive Ayyubidid resettlement. This paper illustrates the architectonic and archaeological elements, which back such interpretation. Special attention will be turned to those material structures which, within the castle-citadel of Shabak, attested to the ancient and Medieval frontier, as emerged from ‘light’ surveying carried out by the archaeological mission of the University of Florence between 2000 and 2007, within the bilateral Italian and Jordanian project ‘Shawbak Project’. Although it is not clear what Nabatean-Age Shawbak was, in Roman and Byzantine epoch this site, strategically situated upon the Kings’ Road, was actually fortified, as comes out from the archaeological investigations of standing and (more recently) unearthed contexts. Besides, in that period, considering its proximity to Udruh/Adrianopolis, Shawbak had probably a mainly local, even though considerable, role within the settlements relating to the Limes Arabicus. However, it is within the very Medieval ‘power experiences’ that Shawbak achieved its political, administrative, economic and military supremacy over the wide region that, south of Kerak, extended to the Red Sea, and then took over de facto the legacy of Late Antique and Byzantine jurisdictions of Udruh and, above all, Petra. The process of achieving its regional competence is shown by the erection of appropriate structures in terms of power, deputation and service. The extraordinary Medieval rise of Shawbak can be realised from the great still existing building and architectonic heritage. Church of St. Mary, the Ayyubidid quarters of 1212, dye-works and the monumental Mamluk fortifications of 1297-8 are the best examples of such process, which, in a topographic and symbolic respect, reached the top with the great Ayyubidid Hall, situated on the recently exposed monumental remains of the old Crusader palace.

LE FRONTIERE DI SHAWBAK

anche con lo strumento dello scavo in estensione (affiancandolo alla metodologia ‘leggera’ della ricerca che aveva connotato la missione fino dai suoi esordi), rappresentava una svolta che, basandosi sulla messe di risultati raccolti negli anni da un’esplorazione del sistema insediativo che aveva condotto (appunto ‘dal territorio’) a riconoscere nella Petra del XII2 secolo (dove peraltro sono tuttora in corso indagini per aspetti tuttaltro che marginali), un’autentica chiave di lettura in grado di rappresentare aspetti di fondo relativi all’intero territorio indagato e quindi, per questa via, potere attingere indicazioni spendibili in ordine alla costruzione di nuovi modelli di interpretazione storica di quest’area (così

Decidere, nel 2002, di indagare Shawbak rappresentava la naturale estensione di una ricerca che, fino dalla sua stessa impostazione (1986), si presentava come ‘territoriale’ e ‘tematica’; un’impostazione che potrebbe apparire una ‘rischiosa’ ma anche promettente scommessa, almeno sulla base dei risultati che consimili progetti avevano conseguito da parte della recente scuola archeologica ’medievista’ italiana e da parte della stessa Cattedra di Archeologia Medievale promotrice della missione dell’Università di Firenze in Transgiordania1 (Figura 2). E tuttavia affrontare Shawbak 1

Una scommessa rischiosa, perchè si trattava di rinunciare programmaticamente ad una strategia della ricerca che mirasse esclusivamente alla comprensione della topografia ed alla stratigrafia ‘profonda’del sito in sé, secondo quanto è peraltro consuetudine fare nella generale tradizione archeologica. Della missione gli autori sono, rispettivamente, direttore del progetto e (dal 2005) condirettore del

programma archeologico. 2 Un approccio (e, appunto, una scommessa, dichiarata nello stesso titolo della missione (Archeologia dell’insediamento crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania). Una sintesi recente in Vannini (ed) 2007 e in Vannini e Nucciotti (eds) 2009. Su Petra ‘medievale’ si vedano in particolare Vannini e Tomghini 1997 e Vannini et al. 2002.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean come avvenuto per la stessa Petra ‘medievale’) (Figura 1). Una scelta – ‘scavare Shawbak’ - che mirava a far luce su quelle condizioni stratigrafiche e contestualiche prioritariamente permettessero di istituire rapporti fra quanto il sito avrebbe potuto rivelare e, appunto, il patrimonio di dati ‘prodotto’ dalle indagini ‘leggere’ fin ad allora condotte sul territorio (ad esempio con una campionatura stratigrafica degli elevati della stessa Shawbak, come peraltro di Kerak, Tafileh, etc.) e, in particolare, sul ‘sistema’ incastellato riconosciuto nella valle di Petra (Figura 3). Ma anche una scommessa promettente, dato che una serie di indizi, sistematicamente rilevati ed obbiettivamente convergenti, ci faceva ritenere che le stratigrafie di Shawbak (elevati, interrato, superficie) potessero conferire a questa straordinaria area archeologico-monumentale transgiordana quella funzione di ‘osservatorio archeologico’ sull’intero territorio, che così produttiva si era rivelata per Wu’ayra. In altri termini, sostanzialmente mutando solo di scala, l’insediamento pluristratificato di Shawbak avrebbe potuto avere, per la lettura delle conseguenze del riattivarsi della frontiera nella regione, la stessa funzione che l’area incastellata di Wu’ayra aveva svolto per la proposta di un modello di interpretazione dell’insediamento crociato nella valle di Petra (Vannini e Vanni Desideri 1995) (Figura 4). E in effetti Shawbak si sta dimostrando un autentico archivio materiale per la storia dell’intera regione e per un esteso arco cronologico; come vedremo, ne sta emergendo una sorprendente funzione poleogenetica - che in questo sito trova origine con esiti, secondo il modello che qui si inizia a proporre, destinati ad estendersi per tutto il territorio - che attinge a ‘strumenti’ e condizioni di una cultura definibile come mediterranea (almeno per il medioevo) ed a ripercuotersi nei ‘tempi lunghi’ della storia, sia recuperando valenze territoriali antiche (il rapporto con Petra) sia dando origine ad una vera, nuova tradizione identitaria locale, destinata a mantenersi per secoli. Il sito medievale di Shawbak si trova a circa 25 km a nord di Petra. Il castello-cittadella occupa la parte sommitale di una collina rocciosa di forma vagamente ellittica dalla cui base scaturivano, fino al 1950, due sorgenti, che si univano circa 400m a est del sito a formare un torrente. Il piccolo corso d’acqua perenne confluiva a sua volta, dopo un chilometro, presso il villaggio di Abu Maktub, nell’ampia depressione in cui sono state tracciate per secoli le grandi arterie della viabilità internazionale attraverso questa regione: dalla biblica Strada dei Re, alla Traiana Nova di età romana, alla viabilità verso la Palestina attraverso il Wadi Arabah (Roll 2007; Walmsley 2001 e 2009). Posizione topograficamente dominante, controllo delle sorgenti e dei suoli fertili della fascia predesertica, relazione diretta con la grande viabilità militare, commerciale e (in epoca islamica) di pellegrinaggio, questi, in estrema sintesi sono gli elementi costanti della storia di Shawbak, che può essere considerato, per molti motivi, un classico insediamento di frontiera. Per quanto riguarda la frontiera per così dire ‘stabile’, ovvero quella pedologico-orografico-climatica, Shawbak occupa il limite orientale della dorsale del Wadi Arabah, in posizione quasi baricentrica tra il crinale dello stesso wadi e l’autostrada del deserto, che ricalca il percorso dell’antica via carovaniera

tra Ma’an e Qatrana (Walmsley 2009, 461). Il sito si trova cioè su una stretta fascia di terre coltivabili ampia una trentina di chilometri e delimitata da due deserti: la valle di Arabah a ovest e il grande deserto arabo-siriano a est (Figura 5). Altrettanto importanti per comprendere la storia di questo sito sono però le frontiere ‘immateriali’, politiche, che, a partire dal XII secolo, hanno fatto perno su Shawbak e che hanno assunto tendenzialmente quattro forme: la frontiera verso il deserto,3 la frontiera meridionale della Transgiordania crociato-ayyubide,4 la frontiera tra Sira ed Egitto a sud di Shawbak5 e la frontiera tra Siria ed Egitto a nord di Shawbak (Figura 6)6. LA FRONTIERA ROMANO-BIZANTINA Le frontiere politiche ‘di Shawbak’, così come sono state sinteticamente esemplificate, hanno avuto un profondo effetto sulla storia materiale del sito, particolarmente in età ‘medievale’. Tuttavia le più antiche strutture finora individuate nell’area del castello appartengono a un periodo precedente. Sulla base delle analisi stratigrafiche degli elevati e dei confronti con le murature dei siti medievali di Petra (Wu’ayra e Al-Habis) sono stati individuati a Shawbak lacerti di murature che precedono l’insediamento latino di XII secolo. Tali murature appartengono ad almeno due distinte strutture: una cinta muraria e un edificio (schedato come Cf18) che presenta restauri di età ayyubide, probabilmente relativi alle riparazioni che fecero seguito al disastroso terremoto del 1 maggio 1212.7 I recenti scavi condotti nel 2007 nei pressi di due tratti della cinta muraria (aree 10.000 e 39.000) ne hanno confermato una datazione precedente all’occupazione latina della collina, evidenziando contesti ceramici tardoantichi associati alla fondazione delle mura (Vannini e Nucciotti 2007, 42-50). Da un punto di vista tecnologico sia la cinta ‘romano-bizantina’ sia l’edificio Cf18 sono realizzati in grandi blocchi di un calcare organogeno di mare sottile e, in particolare il Cf18, mostra puntuali confronti con le murature del vicino campo legionario di Udruh/Augustopoli, in cui Diocleziano stanziò, spostandola da Megiddo, la legione VI Ferrata Ricalcava più o meno il tracciato dell’antico Limes Arabicus. Come la Palaestina Tertia, infatti, anche l’Oultrejordan latino aveva un confine orientale sfumato che si perdeva nel deserto. 4 Relativa alle dominazioni di Al-Adil, Al-Nasir Dawud, Al-Mughit ‘Umar ( Humphreys 1977, 87 e ss., 271-290, 305-317). 5 Riferibile soprattutto alla dominazione di Al-Mu’Azzam ‘Isa (cfr Humphreys 1977, 125-191). 6 Al-Kamil pretende da Al-Nasir Dawud nel 1228 la cessione di Shawbak (e non di Kerak), ottenendola poi al termine della guerra di conquista di Damasco nel 1229. Nel 1240 Al-Nasir Dawud chiede al sultano egiziano al-Salih Ayyub di restituire Shawbak alla Transgiordania ma non viene ascoltato (Humphreys 1977, 193-265). Inoltre, a cavallo tra il 1249 e il 1250 Dawud e i suoi eredi, signori di Transgiordania, fanno più volte pressione per scambiare con Al-Salih Ayyub Kerak con Shawbak (Humphreys 1977, 283-307). 7 Sembra ipotizzabile anche per Shawbak una suddivisione in due fasi dell’occupazione di epoca romano-bizantina, sulla scorta di quanto avviene ad Hallabat. A una fase più antica dovrebbe appartenere, sulla base della tecnica muraria (confronti con Udruh e Hallabat), l’edificio Cf18 (forse secc. II-III), mentre il muro di cinta pre-medievale mostra forti analogie tecnologiche con quello del quadriburgium di età tetrarchica (secc. IV-V) di Hallabat (Arce 2009, 941-943). Per le ricostruzioni ayyubidi in seguito al terremoto del 1212 (a Shawbak), si veda Nucciotti 2007, 44 e ss. 3

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G. Vannini, M. nucciotti: Shawbak:strutture materiali di una frontiera (Roll 2007, 121). In seguito alle analisi archeologiche leggere e profonde delle strutture pre-medievali di Shawbak è stato, quindi, individuato un insediamento fortificato di età romano-bizantina caratterizzato da elementi di edilizia di prestigio e probabilmente abbandonato in seguito alle campagne militari condotte in questa regione, intorno all’anno 628, dall’esercito persiano. Questa scoperta è sicuramente molto interessante per la conoscenza del Limes Arabicus nei pressi di Petra. Le fortificazioni romane di Shawbak vengono, infatti, a collocarsi a controllo del bivio viario in cui la via Nova Traiana si divide in direzione di Petra e Udruh/ Augustopoli, con un ruolo di controllo/sbarramento che potrebbe essere analogo a quello del forte di Ayl,8 che occupa una posizione speculare nel punto di congiunzione meridionale dei due rami della Traiana, in direzione del Mar Rosso. In questo quadro la Shawbak romana potrebbe aver costituito una difesa della città di Negla, menzionata nella Tabula Peutingeriana a 22miglia (ca 32 chilometri) a nord di Petra. Sebbene, infatti, non sia conosciuto esattamente il sito di questa città romana, la sua associazione con Shawbak è assodata da tempo (Graf 1999, 227) e il suo ricordo si tramanderebbe nel toponimo ‘Nijil’, il nome del villaggio moderno di Shawbak. In via alternativa non è comunque da escludere che i ruderi romani su cui i crociati edificarono il proprio castrum possano essere, essi stessi, i resti della città limitanea di Negla.

connotate dalla compresenza di (almeno) una sede di giurisdizione politico-amministrativa e un complesso di fortificazioni, entro lo stesso insediamento. L’individuazione nel 2006 dei resti del palazzo di età crociata (Vannini e Nucciotti (eds) 2007, 23-24, 35-41), nel settore nord del sito, attualmente in corso di indagine, ha permesso di acquisire nuovi elementi, sia di carattere archeo-topografico sia, più in generale, ha concesso la possibilità di studiare uno dei complessi architettonici storicamente e politicamente più importanti della Giordania medievale. Shawbak fu, infatti, fondato come castello regio da Baldovino I di Gerusalemme (che lo chiamò Mons Regalis) nel 1115 e il controllo del suo palatium fu un rilevantissimo mezzo di legittimazione politica per tutti i signori della Transgiordania crociata. Un ruolo politico per il quale Shawbak superò la stessa Kerak, generalmente accreditata come ‘capitale’ della signoria dell’Oultrejordan, e che si esplica nel ricorso quasi sistematico al titolo di ‘Dominus Montis Regalis’ nella titolatura ufficiale dei ‘principi’ di Transgiordania (anche nell’unico sigillo noto), laddove il titolo di ‘signore di Kerak’ è, per contro, rarissimo (Mayer 1990, 5-16). Le strutture del palatium di Shawbak sono ancora da chiarire nei dettagli, anche per la sua successiva inclusione nel complesso architettonico del duecentesco palazzo ayyubide. L’ambiente individuato e attualmente in corso di scavo è un ampio edificio voltato integrato con la cinta muraria del castrum. La presenza di quattro feritoie aperte sul muro orientale, verso l’interno del castello, fa supporre la presenza in quell’area di un ambiente aperto, probabilmente un grande cortile o un corridoio porticato, da cui sarebbe stato possibile accedere alla sala voltata attraverso un ampio portale di cui si conservano ancora gli stipiti (Figura 8).

LA FRONTIERA CROCIATO-ISLAMICA È però nel quadro della frontiera ‘medievale’ che Shawbak, tra XII e XIV secolo, sviluppa una egemonia politica, amministrativa, economica e militare sull’ampia regione che, a sud di Kerak, si estende fino al Mar Rosso, ponendosi come erede de facto delle giurisdizioni tardoantiche, bizantine e omayyadi-abbasidi di Udruh e, soprattutto, di Petra-Wadi Mousa.9 Ciò fu reso possibile, in primo luogo, per la natura peculiare di una frontiera ‘medievale’ che, nei fatti, non rispondeva a un centro di potere lontano ma era, invece, formata da cellule quasi indipendenti di giurisdizione centrate sui castra latini (e successivamente sui centri urbani ayyubidi). In questo quadro il riflesso materiale della frontiera nell’urbanistica di Shawbak si fa, a partire dal XII secolo, particolarmente evidente (Figura 7). In un certo senso, riprendendo un recente lavoro di Ronnie Ellenblum (2002, 114-116) sulle forme della frontiera arabo-cristiana nella seconda metà del XII secolo (in relazione al viaggio compiuto da ibn Jubair tra Baghdad, Damasco, Tiro e Acri negli anni ’80 del XII secolo), si può affermare che, a partire dalla sua ri-fondazione nel 1115 Shawbak diventi, esso stesso,‘la frontiera’. Le infrastrutture necessarie al mantenimento del confine politico della sua giurisdizione non erano, infatti, localizzate sulla linea immaginaria di demarcazione del suo distretto (come avviene oggi) quanto, piuttosto, all’interno del castello stesso. Le strutture materiali di una frontiera medievale sono, quindi, variamente

LA FRONTIERA AYYUBIDE La conferma più straordinaria della centralità acquisita da Shawbak in età crociata a controllo della frontiera della Giordania meridionale è costituita dagli interventi che gli ayyubidi, i discendenti di Saladino, realizzarono in questo sito tra il 1189 e il 1260. Tra questi il più spettacolare e anche quello più carico di significato è sicuramente la costruzione del palazzo finora attribuito ad Al Mu’azzam ‘Isa (Brown 1988; Rugiadi 2009), figlio del fratello di Saladino e, dal 1218 al 1227 quarto ‘sultano’ ayyubide di Damasco. La costruzione di un palazzo di governo, che si sostituisce ma anche si integra al palazzo regio e signorile latino, conferma, infatti, la centralità di Shawbak (un forte romano abbandonato da secoli fino al 1115) nel controllo degli equilibri, ora interni, dell’impero arabo, sulla linea di confine tra Egitto e Siria (Figura 9). Non è un caso, infatti, che Shawbak sia continuamente conteso tra i signori di Damasco e quelli del Cairo (a cui sarà legato con più continuità) e faccia occasionalmente parte, insieme a Kerak, di un principato Transgiordano che ricalca i confini della precedente circoscrizione latina (v. sopra, par. 1). Gli effetti di questa ‘frontiera ayyubide’ sulle strutture materiali del sito sono di grande portata anche se, fin qui, la maggioranza delle stratigrafie di questo periodo indagate, in elevato e nei depositi interrati, si riferisce alla prima età

8

Per un inquadramento topografico di Shawbak/Negla, Petra, Udruh e Ayl si vedano le carte in Roll 2007, 123-124. 9 Per le circoscrizioni amministrative della prima età islamica nell’area di Petra e per l’ascesa di Wadi Mousa come centro amministrativo in epoca abbaside e fatimide si vedano Walmsley 2001 e ‘Amr 2000.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean ayyubide e, in particolare, all’attività di Al Mu’azzam ‘Isa. Già accreditato come costruttore del palazzo e della splendida sala delle udienze10 il suo operato è altrettanto evidente nella trasformazione ‘genetica’ di Shawbak da castrum a città. A partire dal duecento Shawbak non viene, infatti, più indicato come castello ma come fortezza o cittadella, quindi una fortificazione urbana, e come tale viene affiancato nel XIV secolo a Ba’albak e Damasco (tra le maggiori cittadelle dello stato) dal cronista Ibn Al- Furat.11 Il legame tra Shawbak e la Damasco ayyubide è particolarmente evidente nelle ricostruzioni del tessuto urbano del castello promosse da Mu’azzam ‘Isa all’indomani del terremoto del 1212. Gli strumenti e le finiture dei materiali da costruzione impiegati negli edifici, sia civili sia militari, connotate da un ampio nastrino realizzato con uno strumento dentato, trovano precisi confronti nelle coeve architetture ayyubidi di Damasco).12 Ciò potrebbe indicare l’attività di maestranze damascene nella Giordania meridionale, in uno dei rari momenti in cui questa regione fu sotto il controllo dell’antica capitale Omayyade. Questa ipotesi va naturalmente vagliata con tutte le cautele che si devono utilizzare per una linea di ricerca, sebbene l’assenza di finiture analoghe negli edifici ayyubidi del Cairo (quantomeno in quelli noti in bibliografia) offra più di un appiglio alla teoria di un intervento di maestranze siriane durante l’epoca ‘damascena’ di Shawbak. LA FRONTIERA MAMELUCCA Il ruolo centrale di Shawbak sembra continuare anche nel periodo iniziale dell’età mamelucca, almeno dal 1260 a tutto il XIV secolo. Per questo periodo non disponiamo di attestazioni positive di nuove strutture palaziali nella cittadella, che potrebbero comunque indicare che il palatium crociatoayyubide fosse ancora in uso, probabilmente con aggiunte nell’area orientale, non ancora raggiunta dalle indagini archeologiche. Nel 1293 il sito viene improvvisamente e, secondo il cronista Ibn Al-Furat13, inspiegabilmente, decastellato dal sultano mamelucco al-Ashraf Khalil, che lascia però in piedi la qülla (un insieme di edifici in cui forse possiamo includere anche il palazzo, che fu in effetti risparmiato). La rifortificazione della cittadella, 4 anni dopo, lascia però pochi dubbi su quanto Shawbak fosse ancora strategico, giacché il sultano Husama al Lagin volle segnalare il proprio intervento con le iscrizioni monumentali sulle grandi torri in calcare organogeno con cui il sito venne protetto, a perenne e pub10

La costruzione potrebbe tuttavia essere stata realizzata anche dal padre di Al-Mu’azzam e fratello di Saladino: Al-Adil. 11 Faucherre 2004, 47. Per l’importanza della ‘scuola’ di Shawbak nella formazione del personale amministrativo e religioso di età mamelucca si veda il contributo di Hani Falahat in questo stesso volume. 12 Cristina Tonghini, che ringraziamo per le puntuali segnalazioni, ha indicato i seguenti confronti damasceni per tale finitura: a Damasco, quartiere di Salihiyye, la finitura è attestata in mausolei e madrase datate alla prima metà del XIII e nella madrasa al-Adiliyya (parete esterna della sala di preghiera) terminata nel 1223, ma già avviata in precedenza, addirittura da Nur al-Din. Continua poi nel periodo mamelucco, senza significative variazioni.  Esempi molto raffinati si trovano anche all’interno della cittadella di Damasco (sala ayyubide, pareti interne,  databili intorno al 1210). 13 Cit. in Faucherre 2004, 47.

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blica memoria. Alla stessa epoca mamelucca appartiene infine una infrastruttura molto particolare, che costituisce una testimonianza materiale della frontiera in termini della rilevanza artigianale e commerciale di Shawbak. Si tratta della probabile tintoria medievale che, realizzata e ampliata tra fine duecento e durante tutto il secolo successivo, costituisce un elemento di grande interesse sia per l’archeologia, sia per la storia economica di questo insediamento. L’opificio si compone di tre ambienti e occupa l’intero complesso edificato dai cavalieri dell’ospedale di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme nella seconda metà del XII secolo (Mayer 1990, 131-134). Vi si riconoscono: la fornace per il riscaldamento delle miscele di tintura (realizzata nel vano di una piccola cappella crociata, probabilmente alla base di una torre della cinta del borgo), la grande vasca a sezione circolare per i trattamenti a caldo della tintura delle matasse e l’ambiente detto ‘delle vaschette’ destinato ai trattamenti a freddo nel processo di colorazione. Le analisi archeometriche sui rivestimenti in cocciopesto delle vaschette, condotte da Roberto Franchi (Vannini Nucciotti (eds) 2009, 174 e ss.), evidenziano la presenza di probabili fibre tessili tra gli strati di malta utilizzata per impermeabilizzare i bacini litici (Figura 10). Le analisi stratigrafiche degli elevati, assieme allo scavo dell’ambiente del prefurnium, hanno consentito di datare l’opificio all’epoca mamelucca e di documentarne un progressivo ampliamento delle strutture. La tintura delle matasse era probabilmente utilizzata per la realizzazione di quei tappeti e tessuti che, attraverso lunghi viaggi (e un efficiente sistema commerciale), raggiungevano l’Europa assieme agli altri prodotti ‘tipici’ (come lo zucchero crancum di Mont Real) che avevano reso nota e famosa, anche dal punto di vista artigianale e agricolo, questa antica terra di frontiera del Mediterraneo orientale.14 In conclusione – certo molto resta da fare, soprattutto per la sistematizzazione del modello storiografico qui solo tratteggiato in rapporto ad una base documentaria materiale opportunamente calibrata e ‘criticata’ – il caso di Shawbak si prospetta di straordinaria densità concettuale (quasi un pendent della sua articolata complessità pluristratigrafica) nella quale si riflettono storie e vicende di un’intera regione per secoli e con una particolare identificazione per quelli successivi all’XI; storie e vicende che, per aspetti fondamentali, si riferiscono ad evoluzioni culturali di grande rilievo e che, peraltro, sono documentabili essenzialmente e spesso esclusivamente per via archeologica. In concreto, la vicenda materiale del sito di Shawbak rappresenta così un caso di studio paradigmatico per comprendere le modalità e i tempi in cui l’identità regionale nata dalla frontiera ‘medievale’ giordana venne progressivamente a formarsi, tra la prima età crociata e quella mamelucca, attraverso la decisiva rielaborazione ayyubide (Figura 11).

14

Per la produzione di tappeti a Shawbak in età mamelucca si vedano Little 1984 e 1986. Per la produzione di zucchero nella Giordania ‘medievale’ si veda Nashef 2009.

G. Vannini, M. nucciotti: Shawbak:strutture materiali di una frontiera Medioevo, in Vannini e Nucciotti (eds), 142-143. Nucciotti, M. 2007. Analisi stratigrafiche degli elevati [a Shawbak]: primi risultati.In Vannini (ed), 27-55. Roll, I. 2007. Crossing the Negev in Late Roman times. The administrative development of Palaestina Tertia Salutaris and of its imperial road network, in A. S. Lewin e P. Pellegrini, The Late Roman army in the Near East from Diocletian to the Arab conquest, BAR (I. S. 1717), 119130. Oxford (UK). Rugiadi, M. 2009. Il palazzo ayyubide a Shawbak, in G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti (eds), 120-121. Shqour, R., DE Meulemeester, J. and Herremans, D. 2009. The Aqaba castle project, in AA. VV., Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan X, Amman (Jordan), 641-655. Vannini, G. et alii 2002, Medieval Petra. Archaeology of the Crusader-Ayyubid fortified settlment in Transjordan, in AA. VV., Civilisations of the past, dialogue of the present. Italian research missions in Jordan. Amman. Vannini, G. (ed) 2007. Archeologia dell’insediamento crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania. Il progetto Shawbak. Firenze. Vannini G. e Nucciotti, M. (eds) 2007. Medieval Petra – Shawbak Project: season 2007, field report consegnato al Department of Antiquities of Jordan, Amman (consultabile online dal sito www.shawbak.net). Vannini, G e Nucciotti, M. (eds) 2009. Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una frontiera. Firenze. Vannini, G. e Tonghini, C. 1997. Medieval Petra. The stratigraphic evidence from recent archaeological excavations at al-Wu’Ayra, in AA. VV., Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan VI. Amman. Vannini, G. Vanni Desideri, A. 1995. Archaeological research on Medieval Petra: a prelimitary report. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, XXXIX/1995,509-540. Walmlsley, A. 2001. Restoration or Revolution? Jordan between the Islamic conquest and the Crusades: impressions of twenty-five years of archaeological research, in AA. VV., Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan VIII, 633-640. Amman (Jordan). Walmlsley, A. 2009. Roads, Travel and Time ‘across Jordan’ in Byzantine and Early Islamic times, in AA. VV., Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan X, 459466. Amman (Jordan).

BIBLIOGRAFIA ‘Amr, K. et alii 2000. ����������������������������������� Summary results of the archaeological project at Khirbat an-Nawafla. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 44/2000, 231-255. Arce, I. 2009. Coenobium, palatium and hira: the Ghassanid complex at Hallabat, in AA. VV., Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan X , 937-966. Amman (Jordan). Balard, M. 2003. A Christian Mediterranean: 1000-1500. In D. Abulafia (ed), The Mediterranean in history, 183217. London. Brown, R. M. 1988. Report of the 1986 excavations at Shobak, unpublished report submitted to the Department of Archaeology of Jordan in March 1988. Ellenblum, R. 2002. Were there Borders and Border-lines in the Middle Ages? The Example of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, in N. Berend and D. Abulafia (eds), Frontiers in the Middle Ages, 105-119. London. Faucherre, N. 2004. La forteresse de Shawbak (Crac de Montreal). Une des premieres forteresses franques sous son corset Mamelouk, in N. Faucherre, j. Mesqui, and N. Prouteau (eds), La fortification au temps des Croisades (Actes du colloque Parthenay 2002), 43 – 66. Rennes (France). Graf, D. 1999. Roman Roads East of the Jordan, in M. Piccirillo and E. Alliata (eds), The Madaba Map Centenary 1887-1997:Travelling Through the Byzantine Umayyad Period, 227-234. Gerusalemme. Humphreys, R. S. 1977. From Saladin to the Mongols. New York (USA). Little, D. P. 1984. The Haram Documents as Sources for the Arts and Architecture of the Mamluk Period, «Muqarnas», Vol. 2/1984, 61-72. Little, D. P. 1986. Data from the Haram Documents on Rugs in Late 14th Century Jerusalem, in R. Pinner and W. B. Denny (eds), Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies II, Carpets of the Mediterranean Countries 1400-1600, 8394. London. Lo Jacono, C. 2003. Il Vicino Oriente. Storia del mondo islamico (VII-XVI secolo), volume primo. Torino. Mayer, H. E. 1990. Die kreuzfahrerherrschaft Montreal (Sobak). Jordanien im 12 jahrhundert, Wiesbaden (Germany). Milwright, M. 2008. The fortress of the Raven. Kerak in the Middle Islamic Period. Leiden (The Netherlands). Nashef, K. 2009. La produzione dello zucchero nel

Figura 1. La base a Wadi Musa della Missione archeologica dell’Università di Firenze, con funzioni residenziali, di laboratorio e logistiche

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Figura 2. Archeologia della società feudale mediterranea (Progetto Strategico d’Ateneo dell’Università di Firenze per l’Archeologia Medievale)

Figura 3. Il castello di Wu’ayra: la porta di Petra, chiave della Trangiordania crociata

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G. Vannini, M. nucciotti: Shawbak:strutture materiali di una frontiera

Figura 4. Letture archeologiche ‘leggere’ ad al-Habis

Figura 5. Shawbak e il controllo dell’’ultima’ fascia fertile predesertica: il crinale del Wadi Arabah e il suo rift

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean

Figura 6. La Transgiordania in età crociato-ayyubide e le sue ‘frontiere’

Figura 7. Il castello di Shawbak, il Crac de Montréal di Baldovino I re di Gerusalemme, fra strategia territoriale e tattica sul terreno

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G. Vannini, M. nucciotti: Shawbak:strutture materiali di una frontiera

Figura 8. Lo scavo nel Palazzo comitale di Shawbak, ‘capitale’ della Transgiordania regia

Figura 9. Il ‘Palazzo Ayyubide’: continuità e innovazione di un potere territoriale

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Figura 10. L’opificio ‘industriale’ tessile di età mamelucca (fine sec. XIII-XIV) rinvenuto in scavo

Figura 11. Shawbak, analisi archeologica di un’area monumentale stratificata: aree di scavo e corpi di fabbrica con strutture antiche, crociate, ayyubidi, mamelucche

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

RINALDO DI CHÂTILLON, SIGNORE DELL’OLTREGIORDANO Giuseppe Ligato Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East Abstract (2008) Reynald of Châtillon, Lord of the Outrejordain Among Levant’s Crusader settlements, the Outrejordain had ‘extreme’ features for its nature of frontier zone, and so militarily contended for, but also place of relations, which were not seldom balanced and peaceful. However, the most important local seignior, Reynald of Châtillon (1120-1187), was a dramatic and extravagant character, unsuitable for a region, that, in contrast, required a wise alternation of war and diplomacy, which had been in the far-off times promoted by the King of Jerusalem Baldwin I, founder of that feud, strategically located between Egypt and Syria. His behaviour reflects an independent lord more than a vassal of the King of Jerusalem, as Reynald not only made the Outrejordain his own seigniority, but also a base of operations for his attack against the Muslim World, far from any defensive necessity of the kingdom. Moreover, he dared an incredible raid to the Red Sea, in order to occupy the Holy Places of Islam and divert commercial traffics between Yemen and Indian Ocean towards his land. He interpreted his warlike mission in the spirit of no compromise, even when the Crusader soldier became a landlord, and so the Châtillon was one of the few characters of the Latin Levant to play constantly his role of strict, but also obstinate, miles Christi. His ruthless aggressiveness provoked the fall of the Crusader Levant and made him the most hated enemy of Saladin, with whom he entered into such a rivalry, which could only tragically finish on the battlefield, where the role of just man must be ascribed to the sultan.

Sit tibi copia, sit sapiencia formaque detur; inquinat omnia sola superbia si comitetur Il più importante (nonché il peggiore) signore dell’Oltregiordano crociato è stato immortalato non solo da recalcitranti ammissioni del suo valore da parte di alcune fonti arabe, ma anche dal riconoscimento del ruolo che svolse con sin troppa energia, come titolare di un feudo di frontiera: ‘finibus in Arabia Christianis egregie praesidebat’. Un personaggio fuori misura, pure per qualche suo correligionario.1 Rinaldo è un esempio, almeno all’inizio, della più tipica ‘leva’ del movimento crociato. Era nato intorno al 1120 nella famiglia dei signori di Châtillon-sur-Marne, ‘super Wainum fluviolum’ nell’attuale dipartimento della Marna, e certe fonti insistono sulle modeste origini del personaggio che invece nel panegirico dedicatogli da Pietro di Blois è ‘dominus Castellionis, Samurii, Burbonis aliorumque magni nominis castellorum’; ma Pietro voleva evidenziare gli onori e gli agi (comprese le nozze con la figlia di Ugo III duca di Borgogna) sdegnosamente respinti dal suo eroe ormai guadagnato alla militia Christi.2 Giunto in Oriente all’epoca della seconda crociata, si era posto al servizio del re di Gerusalemme Baldovino III avendo intuito gli spazi politici aperti davanti ai milites minores come lui, in un Levante cronicamente bisognoso di braccia armate. Presto segnalato come ‘multis probitatibus famosus’ e degno di governare e difendere feudi, dopo essersi distinto all’asse-

dio di Ascalona – e ormai ‘in bellis clarus’ ma anche ‘virum Christianissimum, et tam armorum gloria quam animi nobilitate celeberrimum’, ‘vir consilii parsimonieque et honestatis amator’, ‘Turcorum impugnator acerrimus et nostrorum fidissimus propugnator’, ‘haus hom et bons chevaliers’3 – Rinaldo sposò nel 1153 Costanza vedova di Raimondo di Poitiers ed erede del principato di Antiochia, con cui avrebbe generato una discendenza esclusivamente femminile, fattore che lo condizionò sia come princeps di Antiochia sia come dominus dell’Oltregiordano.4 Parco nel cibo e nell’abbigliamento, sprezzante del ‘mondan romore’, dedito a preghiera, elemosine e digiuni, prodigo esclusivamente ‘ad usum pauperum et armorum exercitium contra inimicos crucis Christi’: la ricostruzione meta-agiografica della vita di Rinaldo effettuata da Pietro di Blois e da altri autori esalta la morigeratezza adottata dal nuovo princeps Antiochenus, il quale avrebbe sentito il peso anche morale di quella responsabilità rinunciando alle vesti raffinate; e in effetti, la seconda crociata sul cui sfondo era giunto in Oriente aveva visto l’introduzione di norme (anche papali) severe contro l’abbigliamento lussuoso.5 Ciò non gli impedì di interpretare le proprie prerogative in modo brutale, soprattutto dopo essersi accanito sul patriarca d’Antiochia che aveva disapprovato le sue nozze e gli aveva negato il denaro per la sua politica aggressiva: Rinaldo lo fece esporre nudo capite e strofinato di miele all’azione degli insetti, meritandosi l’accusa di ‘viri dementis insaniam’ e altre reazioni, provocate anche

1

3

Guglielmo di Newburgh, 259; al-Dahabi, 167; Hamilton 1978: 97108. Più generico un altro autore: ‘potentissimus erat in partibus illis’: Brevis historia, 139. Tra le biografie più recenti, dopo la classica di Schlumberger 1923 figurano Gourdon 2001 e Thoquet 2007. La frase in esergo è tratta da un’iscrizione sulla torre sudoccidentale del Crac dei Cavalieri (Siria), riportata da Coppola 2002, 60. 2 Guglielmo di Tiro, 795-796; Ernoul, 22-23; Pietro di Blois, 42; Alberico, 849; Aubé 2007, 285; Deschamps 1991, 81; Familles d’Outre-Mer, 190191. Per l’identificazione del casato v. anche Sigillographie, 33; Richard 1987, 10; Barbero 1987, 105. Rinaldo, al pari di altri in Outremer, restò consapevole delle proprie origini: come principe d’Antiochia dichiarò a re Luigi VII di Francia la propria sottomissione (ma forse solo per eludere quella al più vicino e fastidioso basileus): Luigi VII, 15; Regesta regni, I, 81-82, doc. 319; Barbero 1987, 65 e 79.

Anche il severo Guglielmo di Tiro (deceduto prima delle peggiori nefandezze di Rinaldo) lo chiama ‘virum approbate fidei et mirabilis constantie’: Gugliemo di Tiro, 979-980, 790; Alberico, 849; Guglielmo di Newburgh, 259; Roberto di Auxerre, 250. Una rassegna bibliografica su Rinaldo sta in Mallet 2008, 141-153. 4 Per la contorta discendenza di Rinaldo, nella quale si nota l’assenza di un erede maschio – che qualcuno segnala, ma senza che l’interessato abbia lasciato segno di attività – v. Pietro di Blois, 43; Alberico, 849850; Familles d’Outre-Mer, 193-194; Lignages d’Outremer, 147 e 172; Roberto di Torigni, 157; Chiappini 2001, 31-32; Hillenbrand 2003, 93; Sweeney 1981, 469; Runciman 1993, 1137; Aubé 2007, 284, Maestri 2009, 15. 5 Pietro di Blois, 45; Ernoul, 23; Roberto di Auxerre, 250; Jaffé, doc. 8796.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean baroni rivali.10 Occorreva, ai sensi di una legge feudale che ammetteva la successione femminile a condizione che le terre fossero ben difese, un adeguato successore che fu trovato in Rinaldo, liberato da poco ed escluso dalla successione ad Antiochia di cui era stato solo il reggente in attesa della maggiore età del figliastro Boemondo III (asceso al trono nel 1163, durante la captivitas del patrigno che come princeps Antiochenus poté coniare il proprio nome sui sigilli ma non sulle monete). La morte di Costanza durante la captivitas lo aveva privato degli ultimi diritti sul principato, ma il valore dimostrato in precedenza gli aprì una nuova carriera al fianco dell’ereditiera dell’Oltregiordano.11 Il matrimonio con Stefania, celebrato nel 1177, assicurò a Rinaldo tale feudo che in una fonte è indicato semplicemente mediante la designazione dei suoi due castelli principali (‘del Crac et de Monroial’),12 ma a quale titolo? Il regno, specialmente prima delle grandi vittorie di Saladino del 1187-1188, praticamente ignorava le autonomie cittadine e l’allodio,13 ma con lo Châtillon era difficile parlare di gerarchia feudale: figura tragica, solitaria e inafferrabile, avrebbe ricevuto da certe fonti la qualifica di princeps Antiochiae anche alla fine della carriera e della vita, un quarto di secolo dopo avere formalmente perso il principato, mentre il titolo di dominus è vago come il suo corrispondente seignor nella lista di servitia redatta poco prima della sua morte. L’elenco dei servitia feudali che vari anni dopo ritraeva la struttura militare del regno sotto Baldovino IV (1174-1185) recita ‘la seignorie dou Crac (et) de Mont Real’,14 ma non era la signoria contrapposta

dalle sue azioni piratesche a danno di certe navi genovesi (che gli attirarono anche la minaccia della scomunica, materializzatasi solo secondo alcuni studiosi); entrato in contrasto con l’imperatore di Bisanzio, nel 1156 devastò Cipro meritando un’umiliante espiazione pubblica al cospetto della corte bizantina, allora come anche in seguito intenzionata a ribadire con studiata coreografia di chi era quella città.6 Dopo essersi diviso fra incursioni e assedi nel Nord degli Stati latini di Terra Santa, Rinaldo fu catturato dai damasceni nel 1160 o 1161 e avviato a una dura detenzione nelle carceri di Aleppo; ne conseguì un vuoto di potere nel Nord ma anche un relativo sollievo, se possiamo fidarci del rivale Guglielmo di Tiro che lo nomina il meno possibile e vede in questa disavventura una giusta espiazione per le numerose colpe.7 La captivitas si concluse solo nella primavera del 1176, con l’intervento di imprecisati amici e soprattutto con un pingue riscatto, ma l’insolita lentezza della raccolta della relativa multa pecunia fa sospettare scarsa urgenza di liberare un personaggio ritenuto scomodo, violento e pericoloso dai propri stessi correligionari.8 Umiliato più a lungo di altri, riscattato a un prezzo elevato, Rinaldo uscì dalle prigioni siriane ancora più determinato a colpire l’Islam; ma soprattutto, la detenzione e l’evoluzione della situazione politica esterna avevano azzerato la sua carriera facendolo retrocedere al ruolo di nuovo arrivato, un avventuriero senza feudi. Non aveva solo 16 anni di furor bellicus arretrati, ma anche una fortuna da ricostruire,9 senza alcuna considerazione per le potestates cristiane che gli avrebbero vanamente ricordato i doveri della subordinazione e della diplomazia, una condotta da lui aborrita anche prima della prigionia. Nel frattempo, era diventata ancora più evidente l’importanza strategica del feudo dell’Oltregiordano il cui incastellamento era iniziato nel 1115 con la fondazione del Kerak di Shawbak (Montréal) da parte di re Baldovino I, e culminato con la costruzione nel 1142 del Kerak di Moab, che con la prima fortificazione costituiva il ganglio delle comunicazioni fra il Cairo e Damasco. Nel 1161, in virtù di uno scambio della propria Nablus con l’Oltregiordano e ricevendo anche Hebron con un atto separato, era diventato vassallo per l’Oltregiordano Filippo di Milly, fattosi templare nel 1165; sua figlia Stefania, moglie e poi vedova di Unfredo III di Toron, ereditò il feudo ma il suo nuovo marito, Milone di Plancy, venne assassinato nel 1174 da

Guglielmo di Tiro, 1012; Regesta regni, I, 96-97, doc. 366; BulstThiele 1974, 80-81; Faucherre 2004, 45-46. Il regno gerosolimitano ammetteva la successione femminile, ancorché rafforzata da una forte guida maschile previo matrimonio con l’ereditiera: Mayer 1987, 202. 11 Guglielmo di Tiro, 837; Ernoul, 23 e 31; Sigillographie, 33; Lignages d’Outremer, 147; Mayer 1987, 202; Malloy 1994, 186; Metcalf 1995, 118; Metcalf 2006, 308-309. 12 Ernoul, 31; Familles d’Outremer: 404. Ernoul data l’investitura al 1173, quando però Rinaldo era ancora prigioniero. 13 Prawer 1980, 11 14 Edbury 1997, 116, 118; Assises, 604, 607. Anche Milone di Plancy era stato ‘dominus Syrie Sobal’, ossia della regione associata al toponimo ‘Montréal’: Guglielmo di Tiro, 964. Secondo Aubé 2007, 144, lo stesso Rinaldo si qualificò ancora princeps Antiochenus non molto dopo la propria liberazione. Nel 1183 per Guglielmo di Tiro, 1054 egli era ‘dominus Terre ultra Iordanem, qui aliquando fuit princeps Antiochenus’; l’oscillazione di Guglielmo fra princeps (anche nel 1182: ivi, 1027), quondam princeps e colui che ‘aliquando princeps Antiochiae fuerat’ deriva dal retaggio di un onore effettivamente ricevuto ma ormai ceduto, senza considerare casi come quello del 1181 in cui Rinaldo sta presso il figliastro Boemondo III suo successore e princeps effettivo dal quale deve essere distinto (ivi, 979-980, 987-990, 1012, 1015). Al momento della morte, Rinaldo era ‘quondam princeps Antiochenus [cfr. Rodolfo il Nero, 336], dominus Montis Regalis’ secondo Pietro di Blois, 41, 51 (idem, con erronea designazione ‘Raimondo’, in Gesta regis, II, 37 [lettera del patriarca d’Antiochia] e Ruggero di Howden, II, 341); Beha ed-Din, 97 (al-brins). Altre fonti gli attribuiscono il principato antiocheno come detenuto fino alla morte, o comunque non del tutto sostituito dall’Oltregiordano: Fortsetzung, 62 e 71; cfr. Itinerarium peregrinorum, 259; Itinerarium regis Ricardi, 16; Continuatio Weingartensis, 476; Izz al-Din-Ibn Shaddad, 254. Rinaldo stesso, poco dopo la propria liberazione si era definito ‘quondam princeps Antiochensis, nunc autem per Dei gratiam Montisregalis et Hebron dominus’, e alla battaglia di Montgisard era ormai signore di Kerak nell’Oltregiordano: Chartes de Terre Sainte, 88-89, doc. 41 (= Regesta regni, I, 159, doc. 596; cfr. ivi, 146-147, doc. 551 = Mayer 1985, 75 [1177]); Makrizi 1900-1901, 527; Mayer 1987, 202; Aubé 2007, 153. Roberto di Auxerre, 250 aggiunge correttamente il dominio su Kerak a quello su Hebron e Montréal. Lo chiama Antiochenus 10

Guglielmo di Tiro, 809, 833-835, 844-845; Papsturkunden, 217, doc. 77-78; Smbat, 46; Runciman 1993, 575; Aubé 2007, 285. Sull’azione di Rinaldo contro gli antichi privilegi genovesi, v. pure Regesta regni, I, 80, doc. 312. Grande fu lo scorno del basileus Manuele quando, dopo la cattura di Rinaldo, re Baldovino III assunse la tutela del principato: La Monte 1932, 254-256, 261. 7 Guglielmo di Tiro, 852; Abu Shama, IV, 188. Sulla datazione della cattura: Hillenbrand 2003, 82-83, ivi nota 20. 8 Guglielmo di Tiro, 979; Runciman 1993, 585; Roberto di Auxerre, 250; Ligato 2005a, 392 ss.; Hillenbrand 2003, passim; Facey 2005, 90. Durante la prigionia di Rinaldo la reggenza di Antiochia sareebbe spettata al re di Gerusalemme Baldovino III, ma Costanza si era opposta fino al contrasto con Boemondo III (suo figlio, nato dalla precedente unione con Raimondo di Poitiers): Ayyubids, 120, 227 nota 8. Secondo Ayyubids, 51 Rinaldo venne rilasciato alla morte di Norandino, ma questa precedette di almeno due anni la liberazione dell’ex-principe. 9 Hillenbrand 2003, 88 ss. e specialmente 99-100. 6

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G. Ligato: Rinaldo di Chatillon, signore dell’Oltregiordano al feudo; d’altra parte, quella di Rinaldo era una signoria di fatto. Il feudo dato allo Châtillon si estendeva tra lo Yarmuk e il mar Rosso ed è stato definito uno ‘stato regionale transgiordano’.15 In precedenza, i re di Gerusalemme erano riusciti a impedire che i signori dell’Oltregiordano estendessero eccessivamente i territori da essi controllati, secondo la politica avviata dal fondatore di Shawbak Baldovino I, il quale vi aveva stabilito un vicecomes; ora, invece, non solo il nuovo dominus mantenne il controllo su Hebron16 ma negli ultimi anni giunse a manifestare anche nelle forme la propria autonomia davanti a una monarchia gerosolimitana sempre più debole. Risoluto violatore di tregue, a cominciare almeno da quella stipulata nel maggio 1180, diede a Baldovino IV una risposta brusca e negativa all’ingiunzione di restituire la preda delle aggressioni all’inizio del decennio, e fu ancora più esplicito replicando al nuovo re Guido di Lusignano in una circostanza analoga.17 Subito dopo la liberazione, il nuovo vassallo dell’Oltregiordano ricevette la procuratio regni per sostituire il re Baldovino IV, sempre più debilitato dalla lebbra. È però errato sostenere che si fosse pensato a lui come erede al trono, come scrisse Pietro di Blois: ‘Ei sepissime magni et ambitiosi honores, regnum etiam Ierosolimorum eidem quandoque oblatum est’: in realtà, nonostante le offerte di sovranità a principes d’Oltremare ed europei divenute più frequenti sotto il re lebbroso, Pietro accresce la portata dell’offerta per evidenziare meglio la modestia del rifiuto degli onori e del potere, o forse comprende poco la potentissima procuratio gerosolimitana (che talvolta suggeriva vaghe prospettive di successione, soprattutto dopo il 1174), estranea alle consuetudini della salda monarchia plantageneta in cui non si concedevano poteri tanto elevati.18 La funzione di comando – o comunque di protagonista – ricoperta dallo Châtillon nel trionfo di Montgisard

(a Ramla in alcune fonti arabe) del novembre 1177 è accreditata soprattutto dalla storiografia orientale, anche in connessione con il conseguente giuramento personale di vendetta fatto dal sultano; ma ben altro poteva stimolare il rancore dell’Ayyubide, leale con chi lo aveva battuto sul campo e molto più intransigente verso i violatori di tregue e carovane. Guglielmo di Tiro, legato a uomini ostili all’avventurismo anarchico di Rinaldo (e avversario di un suo futuro alleato, ossia Eraclio suo antagonista nell’elezione patriarcale), scrisse che poco prima Baldovino IV aveva nominato ‘regni et exercituum procuratorem Rainaldum’, come aveva concepito prima e soprattutto dopo il fallimento di un’offerta analoga fatta all’intrigante conte Filippo di Fiandra.19 Una fonte cristiana orientale affianca Rinaldo e il sovrano nella successiva vittoria di Montgisard, quasi una diarchia, mentre la testimonianza che dovrebbe essere la migliore, quella di Guglielmo di Tiro, sopravvaluta la funzione del pur valoroso Baldovino per devozione alla monarchia; quanto al procurator, la carica non gli è più attribuita in seguito nonostante il valore dimostrato; infatti Guglielmo pone lo Châtillon (‘quondam Antiochie principem’, e da lui chiamato ancora princeps tempo dopo) semplicemente come uno dei comandanti nel 1177, pur ammettendo che in caso di indisponibilità del re i regni negocia sarebbero stati assunti da Rinaldo.20 Rinaldo nel periodo successivo alla detenzione diede poche prove, oltre a quella di Montgisard, di intesa con gli altri baroni del regno; ed è significativo che l’eccezione sia una battaglia, eventualità alla quale lo Châtillon era sempre pronto e all’altezza. In generale, per individualismo o istintiva scelta bellicista non si era schierato con la cauta feudalità di antico radicamento (diffidente di fronte alle nuove cooptazioni), preferendo i novi homines ansiosi di imporsi con una politica aggressiva e prestigiosa. Non sarebbe stata la prima volta nella storia, in cui un personaggio di ceto elevato avesse scelto di aderire a una fazione socialmente inferiore pur di guadagnare spazio politico, ma proprio qui sta il destino di Rinaldo nel Levante crociato, dove non venne mai accettato dai ‘vecchi’ baroni come uno di loro: non solo i Lignages d’Outremer lo relegano fra i non-nobili, ma nel 1157 alla presa di Cesarea di Cappocia la sua pretesa di ricevere l’omaggio feudale da parte del vassallo locale di nomina regia fu respinta, con motivazioni che nella cronaca di Guglielmo di Tiro fanno capire che Rinaldo non era ritenuto altro che il reggente provvisorio di Antiochia, a beneficio del figliastro Boemondo III

il Versus, 462, v. 173 (anche qui atribuendogli tale qualifica alla fine della vita); solo princeps secondo la testimonianza genovese in Gesta regis, II, 12 e 22 (ma anche in atti da lui stesso siglati: Bulst-Thiele 1974, 84 nota 37; cfr. Annales de Margan, 19; Rodolfo di Coggeshall, Chronicon Anglicanum, ed. J. Stevenson, Rolls Series, 66, 21; prinche Renaut del Crac nel 1187 secondo Ernoul, 173). Princeps Antiochiae nel 1187: Itinerarium peregrinorum, 253-254; Itinerarium regis Ricardi, 11-12, 16. Sui titoli di Rinaldo dopo l’acquisizione del feudo v. pure Regesta regni, I, 143-144, 145, 146-147, 159, 162, 162-163, 170, docc. 539, 545, 551, 553, 596, 613, 614, 643. Il titolo di dominus del Mons Regalis senza allusioni a Moab appare come una delle designazioni preferite: cfr. supra nonché Pietro di Blois, 45. Rinaldo figura anche come princeps Montis-Regalis in occasione del colpo di stato del 1186 e ancora come prince Renaut al momento della morte: De expugnatione, 209 e 218; Continuation, 54; Burcardo di Ursperg, 60. Rinaldo, seppur in una fonte che chiama principes tutti i baroni d’Oltremare coevi, figura come princeps Antiochiae nel 1187 anche secondo Guglielmo di Nangis, 741743; Ottone di S. Biagio, 42. Pure per certa cronachistica mamelucca era ancora signore di Antiochia al momento del rilascio (1176): Ayyubids, 51. 15 ‘La seignorie dou Crac et de Mont Real et de Saint Abraham doit .lx. chevaliers, et la devise: / Dou Crac de Monreal .xl. / Et de Saint Abraham .xx.’, in Assises, 607; Edbury 1997, 118; Vannini 2007, 14-15. 16 V. supra. Sul vicecomes di Shawbak: Murray 2000, 213. 17 Continuation, 36; Ernoul, 55-56, 60-61; 96-97; Rey 1896, 21-22; Vannini, Vanni Desideri 1995, 511-512; Edbury 1998, passim e in particolare 149-150; Aubé 2007, 152. 18 Pietro di Blois, 45. Di un’altra offerta di reggenza gerosolimitana scambiata per una proposta di trasferimento della corona, lo stesso Pietro era stato testimone poco prima, alla corte d’Inghilterra: Phillips 1996, 251-266; Ligato 2005b, 140-156.

Guglielmo di Tiro, 979-980; Ernoul, 54; Beha ed-Din, 63; Abu Shama, IV, 188; Makrizi 1900-1901, 527; al-Dahabi, 166-167; Hamilton 1998, 122; Aubé 2007, 162. 20 Il prestigio di Rinaldo presso Guglielmo di Tiro muta secondo le relazioni con il re, e nel periodo di Montgisard il cronista lo elogia; però la sua procuratio sarebbe stata, almeno negli intendimenti iniziali presto accantonati, controllata sia dalla corona sia da Filippo di Fiandra. V. Anonimo Siriaco, 141; Guglielmo di Tiro, 979-980, 987-990, 1012; Ernoul, 35-36, 54; Guglielmo di Newburgh, 259; Runciman 1993, 643. Michele il Siriaco, 366 indica in Rinaldo colui che era stato ‘mandato’ a combattere a Montgisard, e nonostante la confusa cronologia del resoconto (che pone solo in seguito la sconfitta bizantina di Myriokephalon del 1176: ivi, 371-372) il suo ruolo di comandante sul campo traspare con un’evidenza che invano cercheremmo in Guglielmo di Tiro, deciso a evitare qualsiasi riduzione di ruolo a spese del caro re Baldovino; idem Guglielmo di Newburgh, 242. 19

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean rifiuto di essere suo mercennarius e la preferenza per terre da cui ricavare digna stipendia per i propri uomini; il re di Gerusalemme Baldovino I aveva avuto al proprio servizio stipendiarii, i primi difensori dei Luoghi Santi: mercenari? Altri lo erano ma questi certamente no, visto che il coevo patriarca Daimberto doveva erogare magna stipendia a certi crociati ‘convenzionali’ (da non confondere, dunque, con gli avventurieri prezzolati quali parecchi erano stati prima dell’appello di Clermont). Lo stipendium restava il primo motore della militia, anche la più santa, pure dopo la creazione della struttura aristocratico-militare del Levante crociato: esso fu regolarmente accordato agli uomini reclutati per affrontare Saladino nel 1187, purché sapessero impugnare un’arma.26 Pochi anni dopo la morte di Rinaldo, la situazione non era diversa: anche Enrico VI promise stipendia ai propri crociati e, pochissimo tempo dopo, Innocenzo III elencava fra le necessità della Terra Santa la concreta raccolta di fondi per gli stipendia militum.27 Tuttavia, se la dipendenza dalla largesse di un dominus non implicava di per sé un declassamento ed era anzi normale, la situazione mutava se era coinvolto lo sposo di un’importante ereditiera, e infatti Rinaldo e Guido avrebbero condiviso anche il successo con le massime ereditiere locali, rispettivamente Costanza ad Antiochia e Sibilla a Gerusalemme (accomunate dall’accusa di volubilità), con la conseguente avversione di vari altri e più blasonati pretendenti (nel caso di Rinaldo, in particolare, a restare scornato fu Giovanni Ruggero fratello del principe di Capua, che in quanto parente della famiglia imperiale dei Comneni aveva forse fatto temere alla nobiltà antiochena influenze bizantine).28 Infine, se per Rinaldo era stato esplicitamente concepito un esercizio poco più che formale del principato di Antiochia quale reggente per il vero erede (incarico non

più gradito ai baroni locali. Inoltre, la storiografia ufficiale del regno accusa Costanza di essersi invaghita di un miles gregarius (Rinaldo per l’appunto), giunto ad Antiochia come principe consorte da cui si sarebbe atteso un passo indietro una volta giunta la maggiore età di Boemondo. Evidenti le similitudini fra le carriere dei futuri compagni di schieramento nella crisi istituzionale del regno: Guido di Lusignano, parimenti descritto da tante cronache come un bravo cavaliere ma anche come un volgare parvenu,21 era un vassallo pittavino di secondo rango reduce da ripetute ribellioni al re d’Inghilterra e per questo fuggito dall’Aquitania, e condivise con lo Châtillon non solo l’estraneità a una stirpe regia (fattore che nelle fonti torna con insistenza) ma anche la qualifica di mercenario: Guido è descritto infatti come advena, peregrinus, conducticius miles, coraggioso ma privo di virtù politiche;22 se a Rinaldo spetta, soprattutto nell’opera del coevo Guglielmo di Tiro, la definizione di stipendiarius miles, talmente privo di quarti aristocratici da doversi fidanzare occulte con la principessa antiochena giudicata da Guglielmo un esempio di volubilità femminile, la stessa cattiva scelta fu oggetto di severissime critiche – e non solo da parte del coinvoltissimo Guglielmo – anche riguardo alla preferenza accordata a Guido dalla fatua Sibilla, sorella del re Baldovino IV ed erede al trono a causa della lebbra che vietava al fratello di avere una discendenza.23 Il termine stipendiarius insieme ai propri sinonimi non è traducibile esclusivamente con ‘mercenario’,24 almeno nell’accezione moderna che è anche alquanto dispregiativa: a parte infatti gli stipendia distribuiti nelle consorterie cavalleresche e nelle strutture vassallatiche per garantire servitia e consenso, il mercenariato e la chevalerie erano contigui e predisposti a ‘trasferimenti di personale’ alquanto fluidi, specialmente quando qualche membro restava senza riferimenti o appoggi.25 Già Abbone di Fleury aveva indicato nello stipendium un compenso dato ai militantibus affinché si astenessero dalla brutale caccia alla preda, ma in pieno XII secolo era normale che il miles ricevesse dal proprio signore segni tangibili della sua largesse: Gerardo de Ridefort, futuro complice di Rinaldo, aveva servito come sodoier, ma già Guglielmo il Conquistatore aveva invitato il figlio Roberto a servire sotto le sue bandiere rinunciando al ducato di Normandia, sentendosi opporre il

26

Abbone di Fleury, 506; Orderico Vitale, III, 98 e ivi nota 2; VI, 432; De expugnatione, 218; Mancini 1972, 95-96. Le parole usate da Roberto ricompaiono in Guglielmo di Tiro, 718 a proposito dei difensori di Edessa, mercennarii in attesa degli ‘exhibite militie stipendia’ ossia la concreta pecunia che li accomuna al mercenariato moderno (ma già nel 1109 i milites del conte di Edessa avevano reclamato per averlo servito sine stipendiis: ivi, 511). V. anche ivi, 510-511, 526; Epistulae, 177. Per il 1187: De expugnatione, 218. Stipendium era anche la ricompensa spirituale che aveva mosso la crociata sin dall’inizio: Guglielmo di Tiro, 414; Historia peregrinorum, 159; Sibilio 2004, 42 e 128; De nova via, 585 (un paragone con il peccaminoso mercenariato sta anche in Fulcherio di Chartres, 324). Alla prima crociata, lo stipendium quotidianum era stato versato dal basileus per tenere i latini fuori da Costantinopoli: ivi, 331. Alla battaglia di Bourgthéroulde del 1124, i milites di Francia sapevano che erano in gioco i loro stipendia di uomini del re: Orderico Vitale, V, 348-350. Su Gerardo de Ridefort: Eracles, 50. 27 Continuatio Weingartensis, 478; Register Innocenz’ III, 1. Band, 663 e 742, docc. 439 e 508; ivi, 2. Band, 495, doc. 258 (Potthast, nn. 445, 559, 922). Un esempio dall’assedio di Acri: Genealogiae, 329. Nello stesso assedio, gli stipendia furono le retribuzioni date a milites et satellites: Fortsetzung, 131. 28 Si confrontino le accuse di leggerezza che Guglielmo di Tiro rivolge a Costanza e Sibilla nella loro scelta di Rinaldo e Guido rispettivamente, preferiti a partiti più degni, e il giudizio sullo stesso Guido da parte di un altro autore: ‘fuit et aduena Pictauiensis natione, mediocris quidem genere sed miles elegantis forme et armis strennuus. In quem cum regina oculos iniecisset, ut amens, ut femina, indulgens animo nupsit ei preter ipsius comitis [Raimondo III Conte di Tripoli] et aliorum voluntatem’: Historia peregrinorum, 118-119. Cfr. Guglielmo di Tiro, 795-796, 837, 1007; Cathalogi magnatum, ivi, 1067; Ottone di S. Biagio, 41; Gervasio di Canterbury, 373; Familles d’Outre-Mer, 190-191; Lignages d’Outremer, 147; Maestro Tolosano, 105; Bulst-Thiele 1974, 83.

21

Guglielmo di Tiro, 795-796, 837; Guglielmo di Newburgh, 255; Roberto di Torigni, 291; Guido de Bazoches, 2; Alberico, 859. 22 Ottone di S. Biagio, 41; Guglielmo di Tiro, 1007; Guido de Bazoches, 2 e 26; Alberico, 859; Continuatio Aquicinctina, 424; Annales Stadenses, 351; Fortsetzung, 130; Historia peregrinorum, 118-119; Guglielmo di Newburgh, 255-256; Burcardo di Ursperg, 60. Sulla taccia di parvenu contenuta nel termine vena, nonostante l’altezza della carica a cui l’interessato fosse eventualmente pervenuto, cfr. Anonimo di Laon, 453. 23 Guglielmo di Tiro, 790, 795-796, 1007; Maestro Tolosano, 105. Guglielmo scriveva mentre la fazione da lui contrastata era attiva, quindi egli critica l’opzione di Sibilla indirettamente, ricordando la sua violazione del lutto causato dalla morte di Guglielmo Lungaspada però deceduto almeno due anni prima; il suo iniziale fidanzamento con Ugo III Borgogna; il suo rifiuto di una scelta migliore, non solo fra i nobili del regno ma anche ‘de advenis’; e solo alla fine concede – per devozione alla dinastia – che il Lusignano resta satis nobilis. 24 Interpretazione invece da accogliere in contesti come quello francoinglese del XII secolo: Fitz-Stephen, 34; Gesta regis, 49; Guglielmo di Newburgh, 277. 25 Guglielmo di Poitiers, 36; Suger, 52; Flori 1975, 241-244.

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G. Ligato: Rinaldo di Chatillon, signore dell’Oltregiordano diverso dalla procuratio esercitata nel 1177 alla battaglia di Montgisard), per Guido era stata tarata una procuratio parimenti mirante a tenerlo lontano dalla successione, a vantaggio del figliastro Baldovino V (concepito da Sibilla nelle precedenti nozze con Guglielmo Lungaspada di Monferrato), e non solo: Guglielmo di Tiro, che a queste precauzioni prestava maggiore attenzione, occupandosi dei fatti del 1183 insiste nel trattare Rinaldo da reggente per un altro erede, il figliastro Unfredo IV di Toron, e stabiliva le stesse distanze istituzionali fra l’altro avventuriero, Guido, e l’oggetto delle sue ambizioni, ossia la corona di Gerusalemme a cui mirava in quanto marito di Sibilla (Ligato 2005b, 89 ss.). A Rinaldo non furono fatti mancare i debiti ‘segnali’: il fatto che nel 1180 egli, pur qualificandosi dominus di Montréal ed Hebron, potesse effettuare una donazione solo con ‘assensu et voluntate’ di Unfredo, e che ben tre anni prima costui sposasse Isabella, figlia di secondo letto di re Amalrico I e quindi sorellastra di Baldovino IV e Sibilla nonché erede alternativa al trono, annunciava il ridimensionamento in vista della vera successione (e il documento cita anche l’assenso di Stefania e Isabella). Anche Guglielmo si riferisce a Rinaldo come a colui che ‘regionis illlius [l’Oltregiordano] tanquam hereditatis uxorie curam gerebat’. Già come princeps Antiochensis egli aveva preventivato la chiusura degli spazi politici, se Pietro di Blois sostenendo che aveva deciso di restare ‘crociato a vita’ aveva preso atto che il suo eroe, nonostante il titolo acquisito sposando Costanza, sapeva di non avere altra città se non quella Eterna. Anche come ‘principe’ antiocheno aveva siglato nel 1159 un atto con il consenso di Costanza, quindi per lui la situazione non era sostanzialmente mutata. Non sappiamo se Rinaldo fosse tra coloro dei quali Guido guadagnò il favore promettendo vasti feudi a non identificati personaggi ‘de maioribus regni membris’ (Guglielmo di Tiro, 1049-1050, 1055; Pietro di Blois, 43; Regesta regni, I, 146-147, 159, docc. 551; 596; II, doc. 336a), ma egli oltre a recriminare per lo scarso interesse per la sua liberazione doveva considerare la propria mancanza di eredi maschi; pertanto si pose come arbitro della successione al trono giocando sulla rivalità tra la coppia Guido-Sibilla e quella costituita dalla seconda erede, Isabella, e Unfredo IV. Pertanto Rinaldo non privilegiava i diritti del giovane parente acquisito, e l’influenzabilità di cui Guido, inviso al re e a molti baroni e apparentemente fuori dai giochi, avrebbe presto dato prova dimostra che il signore dell’Oltregiordano vedeva in lui uno strumento contro le ambizioni del conte Raimondo di Tripoli, alfiere della fazione baronale meno avventurista la quale avrebbe poi considerato Unfredo un burattino nelle proprie mani. Rinaldo però intendeva disporre di pedine alternative e nel 1180, pochi mesi dopo le nozze di Guido e Sibilla, Baldovino IV autorizzò il fidanzamento di Unfredo e Isabella ‘tractante […] et plurimum laborante principe Rainaldo’.29 Quest’ultimo, poco dopo, svolse una mediazione presso l’altro figliastro Boemondo III d’Antiochia, in contrasto con la Chiesa (Guglielmo di Tiro, 1015).

Tolti i panni per lui insoliti del pacificatore, verso la fine del 1181 Rinaldo poteva riprendere la propria crociata personale e permanente con una puntata verso l’oasi di Tayma, quasi a metà stra fra Gerusalemme e la Mecca, azione implicante la violazione di una tregua biennale siglata nel 1180 e l’aggressione a una carovana (e chissà dove sarebbe giunto, se un attacco su Kerak non l’avesse fatto risalire verso il proprio feudo). Seguirono due richieste di riparazione da parte di re Baldovino IV e altrettanti rifiuti, dei quali il secondo, opposto a una delegazione ufficiale inviata dalla corte, nella versione latina della cronaca di Ernoul conteneva un offensivo invito a non importunare ulteriormente: ‘… et quasi comminando innuit, super his servandum a rege silentium’. Saladino avvertì il re che se non avesse avuto giustizia se la sarebbe fatta da sé, ‘quando ciò sarebbe stato possibile’. Ciò fu fatto con la strafexpedition in Galilea del 1182, una campagna sterile che tuttavia il sultano non volle chiudere senza avere dato una lezione a Rinaldo assediando Kerak; a questo punto però la ricostruzione della cronaca di Ernoul diverge da quella di Guglielmo di Tiro, secondo il quale la rappresaglia ayyubide iniziò direttamente dall’Oltregiordano, invaso da un Saladino deciso a conquistare ‘unum vel plura de presidiis nostris’. Certamente Guglielmo, storico ufficiale, per quanto freddo verso Rinaldo di cui non nasconde le colpe nel precedente sequestro degli Arabes della carovana, ‘deve’ accusare Saladino di essere il violatore della tregua nel 1182, e insiste sul significato della sua marcia su Kerak come una grande manovra di copertura di mercanti e altri viaggiatori non combattenti, che come d’abitudine si aggregavano agli eserciti siro-egiziani per passare incolumi nel raggio d’azione degli avidi predatori sguinzagliati dal signore dell’Oltregiordano da Kerak e Montréal. Dal canto proprio, Ernoul fa un’altra delle proprie contaminationes di eventi, in quanto l’assedio di Kerak da lui posto alla conclusione della campagna in Galilea dell’estate 1182 è quello databile al novembre 1183, quando il castello venne assediato durante le nozze di Unfredo e Isabella.30 Guglielmo, almeno riguardo alla tabella di marcia dell’armata sultaniale, dispone dei dati migliori per descrivere la parL’aggressione del 1182 è citata da Ernoul due volte: una poco dopo la battaglia di Montgisard del novembre 1177 e un’altra subito dopo la descrizione dei torbidi costantinopolitani precedenti e successivi; ma quando riprende a descrivere la rappresaglia ayyubide, Ernoul parla del desiderio sultaniale di vendicare ben due aggressioni contro carovane da parte di Rinaldo. V. Guglielmo di Tiro, 1026; Ernoul, 54-56, 96-106; Bernardo il Tesoriere, 776; Hamilton 2000, 170-171; Eddé 2008, 231. Altra incongruenza è la collocazione del raid nel mar Rosso (1182-83) prima della campagna in Oltregiordano e Galilea dell’estate precedente; inoltre, Ernoul parla altre due volte della campagna del 1182 secondo lui chiusa da un assedio di Kerak dopo lo scontro di Forbelet (invece Saladino aveva attraversato l’Oltregiordano, lambendo il territorio di Kerak, prima di giungere a Forbelet: Ernoul, 61, 80-81; Guglielmo di Tiro, 1026, 1030-1031). Ponendo nel 1182 un inesistente assedio di Kerak, l’autore pensava forse a quello dell’autunno 1183. Sulla tregua biennale, che non sarebbe stata violata dalle incursioni anfibie di fine 1182 (ma va ricordato l’attacco a Tayma): Facey 2005, 89 e 90. Per il dibattito sull’obiettivo (Tayma o carovana), v. Mallett 2008, 144. Secondo Hamilton 1998, 124 la tregua biennale stipulata nella primavera del 1180 spirò senza incidenti nel maggio 1182, ma l’autore non si sofferma sulle coeve scorribande di Rinaldo, separando la politica dell’Oltregiordano da quella del regno (ma ciò era incompatibile con il trattato). Ibn al-Athir (I, 651-653) divide le guerre del 1182 in tre fasi, concentrando nella prima le azioni di disturbo contro i due grandi castelli dell’Oltregiordano. 30

29

Guido e Sibilla si sarebbero sposati in primavera, il fidanzamento di Isabella è datato a ottobre dalla storiografia ufficiale del regno (Guglielmo di Tiro, 1012); Familles d’Outre-Mer, 405.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean tita a scacchi fra cristiani e ayyubidi nell’Oltregiordano; ma soprattutto, se Ernoul si sofferma principalmente sulla partenza di Saladino da Damasco ossia da nord con la contigua Galilea quale primo obiettivo incontrato (senza una nitida saldatura con il preambolo egiziano, e con un assedio di Kerak che pare mutuato piuttosto dai fatti dell’estate 1184), Guglielmo con maggiore linearità antepone a questa fase l’inizio della campagna segnato dalla partenza di Saladino dal Cairo (11 maggio 1182), solennemente registrata dalle fonti arabe;31 quindi il sultano invase l’Oltregiordano da sud, ingaggiando un’azione di copertura per proteggere la massa dei non-combattenti che nel frattempo veniva fatta transitare lungo la via più a oriente dei castelli di Montréal e Kerak-Moab, in direzione di Damasco; né la stessa fonte accenna a un assedio di alcun castello dell’Oltregiordano, che invece Ernoul descrive con toni drammatici ma confondendosi con eventi dell’anno seguente, perché nel 1182 il sultano si limitò a mandare un distaccamento nei dintorni di Montréal (confermato da Ibn al Athir). Ernoul e Guglielmo, pur con queste distinzioni, concordano quando Ernoul afferma che dopo i combattimenti nel Nord Baldovino IV, irato con Rinaldo che era la causa di tutto (e che si sarebbe fatto lautamente indennizzare per i danni subiti dal castello), rallentò volutamente la marcia verso Kerak assediata per dare una lezione al turbolento vassallo; mentre l’arcivescovo di Tiro scrive che Baldovino si portò sotto le mura di Kerak per liberare Rinaldo solo grazie alla lobby di amici che Rinaldo aveva a corte, in quanto altri importanti vassalli come il conte di Tripoli (non a caso un moderato) insistevano perché non si anteponesse l’Oltregiordano alle altre province del regno parimenti minacciate; ne sapeva qualcosa la Galilea di cui lo stesso Raimondo era signore.32 La crociata personale di Rinaldo stava per congiungersi con la vocazione offensiva del feudo d’Oltregiordano. La puntata del 1181 verso Tayma non era stata una semplice razzia: per gli arabi Tayma, lontana dalla via carovaniera siro-egiziana, era ‘il vestibolo di Medina’, che con la Mecca fu l’obiettivo di Rinaldo nel raid anfibio del 11821183; da lì avrebbe attaccato Aylah sul mar Rosso prima di essere costretto da Farrukh Shah – che nel 1182 attaccò a nord per distogliere le forze franche dal settore meridionale – a rinunciare (Abu Shama, IV, 214-218; Ibn alAthir, I, 659; Ayyubids, 51-52; al-Dahabi, 167; Deschamps

1991, 83; Facey 2005, 91; Pringle 2005, 341; Aubé 2007, 181). L’attacco anfibio mediante navi smontate, trasportate su cammelli e ricomposte sulle rive del mar Rosso, percorso verso sud-est saccheggiando e puntando sulle Città Sante musulmane, screditò Saladino: restava campione dell’Islam, una volta fattosi sorprendere da un’azione simile? Forse l’incursione puntava addirittura allo Yemen: una combinazione di odio e avidità (Ernoul, 68-69; Ibn al-Athir, I, 659; al-Dahabi; Abu Shama, IV, 230 ss.; Historia peregrinorum, 118)���������������������������������� . Gli uomini di Rinaldo furono respinti e sterminati con una controffensiva anfibia, e il loro capo pur salvandosi firmò la propria condanna: Saladino giurò infatti che si sarebbe vendicato personalmente (Ibn al-Athir, I, 676)������������������������������������������� . Le motivazioni del raid sono state serratamente dibattute: alcuni studiosi attribuiscono a Rinaldo mire sul commercio egiziano, mentre altri hanno rivalutato il desiderio, a lui attribuito, di impadronirsi delle spoglie di Maometto a Medina (Beckingham 1996, 276-277; Milwright 2006, 235-259). Nel 1183 Guido, contestato dai baroni di Terra Santa gelosi del suo successo, nonostante la conservazione della contea di Giaffa cadde in disgrazia presso il re a vantaggio del conte di Tripoli, ormai avviato a sostituirlo come procurator; e pur restando sposo dell’erede Sibilla, vide temporaneamente tramontare le proprie speranze di successione sul trono al quale potevano legittimamente aspirare lo stesso Raimondo, il figliastro Baldovino V e la coppia Unfredo-Isabella (Guglielmo di Tiro, 1039 ss.; Continuation, 19 ss.; Guido de Bazoches, 2; Alberico, 859-860; Histoire anonyme, 239)����������������������������������� . Rinaldo di Châtillon, già artefice del suo fidanzamento, organizzò le nozze del figliastro nell’autunno 1183 nel castello di Kerak; alla cerimonia si presentò pure Saladino il quale iniziò un assedio interrotto solo dall’arrivo di una colonna guidata da Baldovino IV e Raimondo di Tripoli (Guglielmo di Tiro, 1055-1056, 1060; Ernoul, 80-81, 103 ss. ). Rinaldo manovrò le scarse risorse con freddezza: deciso a non cedere il suburbium, vietò l’ingresso alla popolazione che cercava rifugio nel castello (presidium; pure l’anno seguente Saladino occupò la civitatem Crati e ne assediò – ancora senza successo – il castrum). Anche questo assedio fu sterile,33 e Rinaldo 33 Guglielmo di Tiro, 1056-1057; Ernoul, 80-81. Sul paragone con l’assedio

del 1184: Rodolfo da Diss, II, 27-28. Stefania di Milly fece mandare al sultano alcuni piatti del banchetto nuziale e Saladino, memore del periodo trascorso come ostaggio nella stessa Kerak da giovane, ricambiò sottraendo al bombardamento la torre dove si teneva il ricevimento: Ernoul, 35-36, 103. L’episodio, poco credibile per Runciman 1993, 658 nota 1, pare riecheggiare in certa novellistica italiana del tardo Duecento (e forse il permesso dato quattro anni dopo a Stefania di lasciare con i propri beni Gerusalemme assediata, sarà stato suggerito anche da questo gesto): Ibn-al-Athir, 703; Libro dei sette savi, 88-90. Ernoul parla della permanenza en prison del giovane Saladino nel Crac de Monroial, ma in alcune fonti è noto con questa equivoca designazione anche il Kerak di Moab: cfr. Gesta regis, II, 176 e 180 nonché una lettera la quale presenta come ben distinti Graccus Montis Regalis e Mons Regalis (Gesta regis, II, 41; Ruggero di Howden, II, 346; Fortsetzung, 87); Pringle 1993, 286; Pringle 1997, 59. Probabilmente le due definizioni, oltre a conservare la possibilità di distinguere i due castelli (cfr. Fortsetzung, 90 e 117, nota 400 la cui editrice però identificò il Crach montis regalis con Shawbak, sebbene il testo riguardi la cacciata delle bocche inutili e lo scambio con Unfredo di Toron, decisioni che le altre fonti preferiscono collegare all’assedio di Kerak di Moab) rimandano alla continuità istituzionale dal primo Mons Regalis alla fortificazione sui monti di Moab, ossia al Kerak strettamente inteso. Per Saladino il più importante sembra il Kerak

31 Resumé, 50; Kamal -Din 1896, 159.

Ernoul, 61 e 80, fa durare l’assedio di Kerak ben cinque mesi, citando il tentativo di colmare il fossato che però è del 1184: Abu Shama, IV, 253-254. 32 Ernoul, 103; Guglielmo di Tiro, 1026-1027; Hamilton 2000, 172. Ernoul e Guglielmo fanno intendere che era mancato lo scontro campale fra Baldovino e Saladino, e in effetti al primo interessava proteggere le messi ormai mature dalle consuete devastazioni, al secondo premeva coprire il trasferimento dei non-combattenti (senza disdegnare l’attacco ai raccolti del fertile Oltregiordano: cfr. Ibn al-Athir, I, 651-653). Sull’azione intorno a Montréal, v. Guglielmo di Tiro, 1029. Ernoul parla, riguardo a questi eventi, del Crac che è una definizione insidiosa: sebbene infatti entrambi i castelli siano noti come Kerak (di Montréal e di Moab rispettivamente) e quello di Montréal sia definito da Ernoul Crac de Monroial (forse una contrazione di ‘del Crac et de Monroial’ che troviamo in altre intitolazioni?), il Kerak per eccellenza è quello di Moab, anche per Ernoul, 35-36, 80-81, 103 ss. A volte Montréal e ‘Crac de Montréal’ indicano pure il Kerak di Moab: Dotti 2005, 100-101, ivi nota 264 (ringrazio la autrice e la relatrice, prof.ssa Tonghini, per avermi permesso di consultare questo studio).

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G. Ligato: Rinaldo di Chatillon, signore dell’Oltregiordano mantenne il controllo di una pedina per controllare la successione: il figliastro Unfredo era un’alternativa alla candidatura di Sibilla ed era gradito ai baroni, che detestavano il parvenu Lusignano. L’oscillazione fra le due candidature è spiegabile con il pragmatismo del personaggio (che cercava nel sovrano solo un appoggio per la propria strategia bellicista), ma di Rinaldo deve essere rilevato anche l’uso spregiudicato dei due primari strumenti medievali nella produzione di consenso: l’amicizia e la parentela, intese non come valori affettivi ma come risorse strategiche se la prima diventava libera condivisione di un destino e la seconda passava dalla naturale commistione del sangue a un’alleanza operativa (Smith 2008, 115-152). L’amicizia era lo strumento di cui Guido di Lusignano, pur sempre marito dell’erede al trono e quindi mai privato di potenziale influenza come dimostra il suo retour del 1186 favorito per l’appunto da Rinaldo, era latore; quanto alla parentela, la funzione di quest’ultima nella politica dello Châtillon stava nelle potenzialità delle nozze del figliastro Unfredo. Quest’ultimo e il Lusignano erano alternativi l’uno all’altro, con lo Châtillon che sarebbe rimasto kingmaker con chiunque si fosse schierato. La corte sultaniale era ben informata sulla situazione a Gerusalemme, ma la sua visione strategica lasciava spazio sia alle iniziative dello Châtillon sia alla funzione dell’Oltregiordano da lui governato, se il segretario di Saladino, alFadel, poteva scrivere: ‘Kerak e Montréal sono i due leoni, che ogni giorno divorano la nostra carne e bevono il nostro sangue’ (���������������������������������������������� Newbold 1945, 225-226)������������������������ . Nell’estate 1184 Saladino assediò nuovamente Kerak da cui si ritirò alla notizia dell’arrivo di rinforzi cristiani; ormai era procurator del regno il conte di Tripoli, che pareva avere estromesso per sempre la coppia Guido-Sibilla dalla linea di successione, anche perché Baldovino IV aveva concordato con i baroni una successione che lasciava relativo spazio alle ambizioni dello stesso Raimondo. Ma il conte sapeva che la vera

scelta si sarebbe fatta tra Sibilla e Isabella, delle quali la prima condivideva la sorte del marito Guido, apparentemente senza chances nel 1183-1184, mentre la seconda era moglie di un personaggio facilmente manipolabile come i fatti seguenti avrebbero provato, e screditato anche dalla rinuncia all’importante feudo di Toron scambiato con una rendita a corte (Continuation, 19 ss.; Abu Shama, IV, 250; Piana, Curvers 2004, 334, 354). Nel marzo 1185 morì Baldovino IV, e dopo un anno e mezzo il suo giovanissimo nipote: la lotta per la successione poteva aprirsi. I baroni contrari alle avventure militari fecero quadrato intorno a Unfredo ma Sibilla poteva contare sull’appoggio del patriarca, del magister templare e soprattutto di Rinaldo di Châtillon. Perché il signore dell’Oltregiordano non sostenne il figliastro? Entrambi i candidati maschi erano privi di peso politico, ma Guido portava quel dinamismo militare in cui Rinaldo si riconosceva; mentre invece Unfredo era il candidato di quella fazione rimasta indifferente e forse soddisfatta davanti al lunghissimo imprigionamento di Rinaldo, che non si era tirato mai indietro al momento di crearsi dei rivali. Unfredo era l’erede dell’Oltregiordano, ma debole e privo di ambizioni com’era, non poteva insidiare il potente e spregiudicato patrigno. Nel 1186, dunque, Sibilla iniziò a cercare consensi per l’incoronazione propria e del marito. Il ruolo di Rinaldo di Châtillon fu determinante: Jocelin III, conte nominale di Edessa, in quanto ultimo responsabile della tutela di Baldovino V diede disposizioni per l’inumazione di Baldovino V, che secondo l’uso si sarebbe tenuta nella basilica del S. Sepolcro; ma affidò il rito ai templari convincendo il conte di Tripoli a raggiungere la sua Tiberiade, mentre con un pretesto parimenti imprecisato convinceva anche gli alleati del conte a non recarsi alle esequie; subito dopo invitava Sibilla a raggiungere Gerusalemme con i cavalieri a lei fedeli, per ricevervi la corona. Era una palese violazione delle clausole concordate con il re lebbroso, secondo le quali un arbitrato delle principali monarchie europee avrebbe dovuto scegliere il successore fra Sibilla e Isabella, così il conte e i suoi alleati una volta scoperto l’inganno si radunarono a Nablus mentre Jocelin restava a controllare Acri e Rinaldo di Châtillon a Kerak, il secondo senza avere obbedito alla convocazione a Nablus; intanto nella Città Santa Sibilla, il patriarca Eraclio e il magister templare completavano il colpo di Stato stabilendo che Sibilla sarebbe stata incoronata a dispetto di qualsiasi procedura contraria e invitando Rinaldo ad aderire. Lo Châtillon, convinto dai congiurati a trasferirsi da Kerak alla capitale (ma secondo una fonte avrebbe fatto in tempo a presenziare alle esequie del re bambino), non solo entrò nella congiura ma dopo aver respinto insieme ai complici la diffida baronale a consultare l’arbitrato, dopo aver accompagnato con gli altri Sibilla al S. Sepolcro arringò direttamente la cittadinanza ricordando che dopo la morte di Baldovino IV e V Sibilla restava l’erede più diretta e legittima, in quanto figlia di re Amalrico I (come Isabella, ma di primo letto), e fu in nome della memoria dell’amato Amalrico che il popolo si dichiarò all’unanimità per l’incoronazione di Sibilla. In passato, la partecipazione popolare – praticamente la sola cittadinanza gerosolimitana come in questo caso –

per antonomasia, ossia Moab che è anche il ‘Crach de Monteregali’ identificabile come Kerak grazie a quei testi che lo associano a Petra (‘Crach de Monte Regali qui antiquitus dicebatur de Petra deserti’: Le pèlerinage, 225, dove l’attribuzione del toponimo al Kerak di Moab è aiutata anche dalla segnalazione del castrum inexpugnabile quale tesoreria sultaniale, posta a Moab anche da Le testament, 114 nota 6). V. pure Marino Sanudo, 166. Crac e simili sono usati anche altrove per indicare Montréal sebbene il Kerak di Moab sia il Crac vero e proprio, ma Petra Deserti è il nome del capoluogo ecclesiastico presso Moab. Montréal avrebbe ceduto lo status di capoluogo dell’Oltregiordano una volta eretta Kerak: Dotti 2005, 62, 83, 86. L’identificazione del Crac di Montréal con il Kerak di Moab sorse anche, come si congetturò già molti anni fa, per effetto della relativa vicinanza (Gaudefroy-Demombines 1923, 125-126 e ivi, nota 1). In un testo del XII secolo il Crach montis regalis è quello che resiste due anni, quindi si tratterebbe di un elemento a favore dell’identificazione con Montréal caduta nel 1189, mentre Kerak aveva capitolato nel novembre 1188: Fortsetzung, 117 e Pringle 1997, 59 e 76, ma cfr. Burcardo del Monte Sion, 128: ‘Mons Regalis, qui Krach dicitur’. Anche nelle descrizioni bassomedievali appaiono innestate sul castello di Moab le notizie relative a Montréal: ‘… Petra Deserti, sive Mons Regalis eo quod a rege Balduino, primo scilicet rege Latinorum in Ierusalem, fundamenti sumpsit exordium. Vulgariter autem dicitur Chrach, quod est in finibus Moabitarum in monte sublimi’: Fedanzola, 4; cfr. Marino Sanudo, 156. Ma la mappa del Fedanzola (quadro 76) e l’accostamento del toponimo Chrach a Petra Deserti ‘in finibus Moabitarum’ indicano che al Kerak per antonomasia (Moab) fu adattata la storia di Montréal, anche per la menzione di fattori (ruolo di Baldovino I, bontà del suolo e clima) riferiti anche da altri testi. Cfr. Deschamps 1937, 495 ss.; Bulst-Thiele 1974, 101-102.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean aveva svolto il ruolo di formale, quasi recitata approvazione di successioni già risolte da baroni e clero, secondo una prassi che le fonti descrivono in modo generico pur lasciando trasparire gli indizi di un contributo non sempre passivo; ma il carattere irrituale della procedura fu presto denunciato dal conte di Tripoli, il quale contestò un’elezione effettuata ‘sine electione primorum et consensu populorum’, riferendosi non solo all’assenza del gruppo di Nablus ma anche al modo in cui era stato sollecitato il consenso della popolazione di una Gerusalemme i cui accessi erano stati sigillati.34 La legge feudale garantiva a entrambe le sorellastre la facoltà di trasmettere ai rispettivi mariti il diritto di successione (Hamilton 1997, 13.); una presunta priorità di Sibilla era legittima? Baldovino IV, sentendosi vicino alla morte, a partire dal 1183 aveva fissato una serie di clausole per la successione assegnando la priorità a Baldovino V, che in caso di morte prematura avrebbe lasciato la corona a un nobile del regno, da designare sotto il controllo del reggente Raimondo III; quest’ultimo era anzi esplicitamente indicato, ma non si escludeva l’elezione di un sovrano giunto dall’Europa, fermo restando il placet del reggente. Su ogni fase doveva vigilare il succitato arbitrato dei re di Francia e d’Inghilterra, insieme a imperatore e papa. Quanto ai diritti di Sibilla, essi erano in ribasso essendo noto che Isabella era nata quando loro padre Amalrico era già re, mentre Sibilla era nata quando era ancora conte di Giaffa e questo le nuoceva nell’opinione dello stesso Baldovino IV, che pure si trovava nella medesima situazione.35 Ma Isabella era la candidata della fazione baronale più conservatrice e favorevole alle tregue, opposta al Lusignano nella cui carriera Rinaldo rivedeva la propria; fu così rispolverata la successionis spes che Guido aveva ragionevolmente concepito sposando l’allora contessa di Giaffa, impegnandosi a non metterla in atto prima della morte di Baldovino IV e senza discutere la precedenza di Baldovino V, ormai però scomparso al pari dello zio; dopo aver superato l’opposizione del magister ospitaliero, i congiurati imbastirono la cerimonia che riuscì anche per l’ignavia di Unfredo di Toron rifiutatosi di difendere i diritti della consorte (Gesta regis, I, 343; Guglielmo di Tiro, 1048 ss., 1058; Fortsetzung, 58, 64-66; Histoire anonyme, 237-238; Ernoul, 131-133; Continuation, 33-35; Arnoldo di Lubecca, 164-165; Ruggero di Wendover, I, 139; Mayer 1988, 63-64; Ligato 2005b, 89 ss.������������������������� ). L’incoronazione fu totalmente irrituale nelle forme e irregolare per il rigetto delle

clausole fissate dal re con largo consenso fra i dignitari: tre uomini – Rinaldo, Gerardo, Guido – ebbero la loro illusoria ed effimera rivincita sul ceto baronale, prima di contribuire insieme alla catastrofe che già allora qualcuno prevedeva. La guerra civile fu evitata grazie al recalcitrante omaggio al nuovo re da parte dei vassalli, con l’eccezione di Baldovino d’Ibelin signore di Ramla; al successivo parlement di Acri, Rinaldo – che Raimondo aveva indicato come l’unico dei grandi baroni del regno schierato con il Lusignano – era accanto a quest’ultimo a sollecitare l’omaggio dell’Ibelin, il quale però preferì andarsene in esilio nel principato d’Antiochia. Quanto al conte di Tripoli, che con l’incoronazione della nuova erede insieme al marito vedeva esaurirsi reggenza, speranze di successione e appoggio da parte degli altri baroni ormai sottomessi a Guido, prestò omaggio al nuovo re poco dopo (Continuation, 33-35, 36 ss.; Arnoldo di Lubecca, 166). Fattosi kingmaker contro i diritti del figliastro, Rinaldo non rinunciava alla propria libertà d’azione e alla proverbiale aggressività: saputo che una grande carovana stava transitando fra l’Egitto e la Siria percorrendo l’Oltregiordano, l’attaccò violando la tregua. Tra gli aggrediti alcune fonti pongono anche la sorella di Saladino, e alla richiesta di re Guido di rendere i beni e la nobildonna (forse su sollecitazione dello stesso sultano), Rinaldo – come già aveva fatto nei riguardi di Baldovino IV – oppose un rifiuto accompagnato dalla precisazione che ‘aussi estoit il sires de sa terre come il de la soue, et que il n’aveit nulles trives as Sarazins’. Una fonte genovese, oltre a confermare che lo Châtillon dominava la regione, dà un resoconto più articolato del rapporto fra i due: ‘princeps Rainaldus, et quia amicissimus erat regis et quia operam exhibuit ad ipsum coronandum, nichil restituere voluit’; un altro cronista assegna il ruolo di sfortunato mediatore fra il reclamo di Saladino e Rinaldo proprio al conte di Tripoli, ossia a colui che aveva sempre avversato la fazione con cui Rinaldo, seppur con larga autonomia, si era schierato.36 Un cronista vide nell’episodio la causa della spedizione punitiva culminata nello scontro di Cresson del 1o maggio 1187, da non confondere Continuation, 36 e 40; Eracles, 34 e 41; Brevis historia, 139; Fortsetzung, 58-59 (secondo il quale si trattava della madre e non della sorella di Saladino; cfr. Hamilton 2000, 216 ss.); Abu Shama, IV, 258259; Ruggero di Wendover, I, 139. Non pone parenti di Saladino nella carovana Ibn-al-Athir, I, 676. La nobildonna sarebbe comunque uscita incolume dalla disavventura: Continuation, 75. Fanno coincidere la cattura della carovana con la violazione della tregua, senza nominare parenti del sultano di cui però si ricordano le rimostranze, Brevis historia, 139; Burcardo di Ursperg, 60. La replica di Rinaldo a Guido è stata interpretata come il segno di una velleità di indipendenza: Aubé 2007, 179. Secondo l’Historia peregrinorum, 118, il sultano avrebbe vanamente mandato messi a Guido (direttamente a Rinaldo secondo Kamal -Din 1896, 180-181). Secondo Guglielmo di Nangis, 742 la carovana confidava nella tregua, quindi doveva trovarsi in territorio latino al momento dell’aggressione; ma la stessa fonte dice che questa avvenne ‘praeter limites terrae Christianorum’. Una fonte situa il fatale attacco a una carovana nel territorio di Montréal fra la morte di Baldovino V e l’incoronazione di Guido, ossia tra maggio e metà settembre del 1186; ma la datazione a prima dell’incoronazione contrasta con ciò che lo stesso testo afferma, ossia che il rifiuto di Rinaldo di chiudere l’incidente fu opposto all’ancora procurator Raimondo costretto a riferire a Saladino: Fortsetzung, 58 e 62. Nella cronachistica francese troviamo la risposta data invece a Guido, ossia dopo il settembre 1186 quando è ragionevolmente databile l’incoronazione di quest’ultimo (Continuation, 36; Hamilton 2000, 216-227). 36

Continuation, 31-32; Eracles, 26-28; De expugnatione, 209; Brevis historia, 137-138. Ad approvare l’incoronazione di Baldovino I nel 1100 erano stati i ‘christiani unanimi consilio’ (non è più precisa la descrizione della ‘scelta’ del suo successore, 18 anni dopo); Fulcherio di Chartres, 373, 382, 441 racconta che la cerimonia del 1100 fu celebrata ‘una cum episcopis cleroque ac populo assistentibus’, ma dopo che a Baldovino era stato comunicato che ‘omnis populus Iherosolymitanus eum in regni principem substituendum heredem exspectarent’: Fiorenzo di Worcester, 565. Baldovino II nel 1131 trasferì i poteri a Folco d’Angiò d’intesa con i dignitari del regno ‘sed et de populi favore’, mentre per Amalrico I nel 1162 una parziale opposizione fu superata anche ‘favente populo’ e Baldovino IV nel 1174 salì sul trono ‘consonante omnium desiderio’, esaltato però dal devoto arcivescovo di Tiro: Guglielmo di Tiro, 633, 864, 963. Sulla mancata adesione di Rinaldo alla convocazione di Nablus e sulla contestazione del conte di Tripoli: Ernoul, 130-131; Arnoldo di Lubecca, 165. 35 Continuation, 19-21; non ha dubbi sulla legittimità dei figli di Amalrico Guglielmo di Tiro, 868-869. 34

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G. Ligato: Rinaldo di Chatillon, signore dell’Oltregiordano con la grande battaglia di Hattin di oltre due mesi dopo (Eracles, 37 ss., 41); ma esso rimase per molti – compreso l’autore appena citato – la causa della successiva catastrofe, e non si tratta solo di avversione verso Rinaldo, le cui colpe sono peraltro ammesse anche da parte latina (actor sceleris).37 Inoltre, egli aveva infranto una tregua che secondo una fonte sarebbe dovuta durare in perpetuum, ma tale estensione non quadrava con la strategia di Saladino e con la teoria islamica dell’hudna, ossia della tregua concepita come sospensione solo provvisoria e contingente della guerra (Giacomo di Vitry, 283; sull’hudna: Weigert 1997, 400 ss. ). Anche fra i latini dopo la morte di Baldovino IV ‘pax Salaadini suspecta habebatur et ignominiosa’,38 ma in ogni caso era in vigore una tregua concordata ‘al tempo del piccolo re’ (Baldovino V), incoronato nel novembre 1183 ma salito sul trono – seppur sotto reggenza – dal marzo 1185, data della morte del re lebbroso quando ormai la procuratio del conte di Tripoli era pienamente operativa (non lo era ancora alla fine del 1183, nonostante il diffuso consenso di cui godeva tale scelta). Secondo altre fonti, la tregua sarebbe stata quadriennale o addirittura settennale ma la Continatio Aquicinctina parla di due soli anni.39 La voce di una violazione da parte di Saladino è da respingere, ma è possibile una relativa soddisfazione del sultano davanti a un casus belli non provocato da lui e che gli avrebbe permesso la ripresa delle ostilità (Itinerarium regis Ricardi, 11; Itinerarium peregrinorum, 253-254; Ruggero di Wendover, I, 139; Histoire anonyme, 239). Quando in seguito accusò Rinaldo, finalmente suo prigioniero, di avere aggredito la carovana, Saladino gli avrebbe ricordato che ciò – insieme ad altre aggressioni che non tutte le fonti specificano – aveva costituito la violazione di un patto personale fra i due, più che un obbligo derivato da quello assunto per tutto il regno dalla corona gerosolimitana (Abu Shama, IV, 287; History of the Patriarchs, 121-122; Smbat, 61; Kamal ad-Din 1896, 180-181)�������������������������������������� ; resta però difficile, pur considerata la sostanziale indipendenza di Rinaldo e l’attuazione di una spregiudicata politica estera personale anche da parte del conte di Tripoli, un patto simile, e pare più accreditato quello ufficiale fra il regno e il sultanato (il quale infatti non attaccò soltanto l’aggressore). La vendetta personale era stata promessa da Saladino almeno dall’epoca del raid

nel mar Rosso, nell’inverno del 1182-3 (Ligato 2005a, 289 ss.�������������������������������������������������������� ). Nella primavera 1187 Rinaldo avrebbe teso un’ulteriore imboscata a una carovana di pellegrini prima di ritirarsi temendo, ‘il distacco dell’anima dal proprio corpo’, come scrisse Imad ed-Din con uno dei fiori di stile a lui cari ma pensando alla fatale aggressione dell’anno precedente (V. Imad ed-Din, 13). Iniziata la campagna, Rinaldo si schierò per una controffensiva intesa a cacciare Saladino dalla Galilea. Raimondo suggerì la rinuncia a un’azzardata puntata su Tiberiade e una difesa in profondità, piuttosto che avanzare con scarse possibilità di rifornirsi d’acqua, ma Rinaldo e Gerardo de Ridefort lo accusarono di tradimento e imposero l’attacco40. Rinaldo, al corrente dell’ambigua diplomazia del conte, giunta a una breve alleanza con Saladino al tempo dei contrasti con Guido, lo accusò di intese con il nemico;41 ma sicuramente ricordava anche la proposta di Raimondo nel 1182, allorché aveva sconsigliato di soccorrere i castelli dello Châtillon nell’Oltregiordano per evitare di sguarnire il Nord (terra del conte), e magari anche la diffidenza di Raimondo, allora procurator del regno, al momento di cercare uno sposo per Stefania di Milly, evento che avrebbe posto alla guida dell’Oltregiordano un personaggio meno malleabile di Unfredo, per l’appunto Rinaldo nel 1177.42 A Saladino bastarono poche ore per liquidare l’esercito cristiano, mentre il conte di Tripoli riusciva a fuggire con pochissimi altri. Poche ore dopo, sconfitto, catturato e trascinato nella tenda di Saladino, Rinaldo attendeva con Guido e altri baroni di conoscere la propria sorte.43 La sua morte è stata descritta in tante altre sedi; qui ci concentriamo sul ruolo dell’Oltregiordano in questo momento estremo, in cui il più fellone dei nemici di Saladino avrebbe tenuto testa al sultano respingendo sdegnosamente le lusinghiere offerte fattegli in cambio dell’abiura o dei suoi castelli (‘Montem Regalem et alias munitiones fortissimas’), o anche solo del ‘vestigium unius pedis Sancte Terre’. Saladino uccise il rivale personalmente e ordinò che la sua testa fosse trascinata fino a Damasco (Pietro di Blois, 50; Rodolfo il Nero, 336; Ligato 2005a, 471 ss.). I castelli dell’Oltregiordano si arresero per fame molti mesi dopo, ma il loro destino era stato segnato da Rinaldo molto tempo prima della loro capitolazione. Infatti Rinaldo fu il distruttore dell’Oltregiordano, per quanto una politica più prudente avrebbe soltanto rimandato la riscossa islamica, troppo potente per le risorse dei latini: fu un personaggio circonfuso di una certa sinistra grandezza fatta di fanatismo e disinteresse, spregiudicato uso del potere e massimo rischio personale. Non sarebbe stato folle trasformare il proprio feudo, relativamente lontano dagli scali

37 Continuation, 36; Fortsetzung, 62; Burcardo di Ursperg, 60; Salimbene

de Adam, 9; Historia peregrinorum, 118; Giacomo di Vitry, 283 (in realtà, una compilazione formata con elementi di altre opere: v. Repertorium, 142); Guglielmo di Nangis, 742. Insofferenza per le tregue: Roberto di Auxerre, 250. L’aggressione alla carovana nel 1179 (data errata) durante una tregua, fu un mal secondo Ernoul, 55. 38 Fortsetzung, 51; Continuation, 40. Nemmeno i crociati di recente arrivo avevano violato la tregua sulla quale si reggeva la transizione tra Baldovino IV e il nipote: Fortsetzung, 57 (evento situato dalla fonte verso la fine del 1184, ma Baldovino IV era morto nel marzo 1185). 39 Continuation, 23-24, 36; Ernoul, 124; Continuatio Aquicinctina, 424; Historia peregrinorum, 118; poco preciso sulla durata della tregua Fortsetzung, 51, 56 e 57. La tregua, concordata fino all’ottava di Pasqua del 1185, sarebbe stata prolungata di tre anni: Gesta regis, I, 342 e 359; Ruggero di Howden, II, 316. Hamilton 2000, 222 vede in questi dati alcuni errori da parte delle fonti (infatti dopo la tregua comprata nel 1185 troviamo citata la morte di Guglielmo conte di Giaffa avvenuta otto anni prima, insieme ad altre imprecisioni prosopografiche: cfr. Ruggero di Howden, II, 307-308: parziale rettifica dei Gesta regis), ma è comunque certo che al tempo dell’ultima, fatale aggressione la tregua era in vigore: Ruggero di Howden, II, 226-227).

Continuation, 43-47, 53; Eracles, 48-49; con termini diversi Ibn-alAthir, I, 682; più stringata la Continuatio Aquicinctina, 424. 41 Ibn al-Athir, I, 682; Fortsetzung, 58-59, 66; Roberto di Auxerre, 249; Baldwin 1936, 69 ss. Secondo un altro testo l’accusa di pavidità se non addirittura di tradimento sarebbe stata rivolta da Rinaldo e Gerardo insieme, mentre in un’altra versione le insinuazioni sarebbero partite dal solo Gerardo: Eracles, II, 49; Continuation, 45. 42 Ibn al-Athir, I, 651 ss.; Abu Shama, IV, 217-220; Ernoul, 80-81, 103; Guglielmo di Tiro, 1026-1027. Sulla politica matrimoniale del conte di Tripoli: Mayer 1987, 202. 43 Continuation, 53-54. Rinaldo era stato preso da uno scudiero di Ibrahim el-Mihrani: Abu Shama, IV, 287. 40

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G. Ligato: Rinaldo di Chatillon, signore dell’Oltregiordano East in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford). London. Metcalf, D. M. 2006. Six Unresolved Problems in the Monetary History of Antioch, 969-1268, in K. Ciggaar, M. Metcalf (eds.), East and West in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean, I, Antioch from the Byzantine Reconquest until the End of the Crusade Principality, Acta of the Congress held at Hernen Castle (May 2003). LeuvenParis-Dudley. Murray, A. V. 2000. The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. A Dynastic History, 1099-1125. Oxford. Newbold, D. 1945. The Crusaders in the Red Sea and the Sudan. Sudan Notes and Records 26, 13-27. Phillips, J. 1996. Defenders of the Holy Land. Relations between the Latin East and the West, 1119-1187. Oxford, University Press. Piana, M. and Curvers, H. 2004. The Castle of Toron (Qal’at Tibnin) in South Lebanon. Preliminary Results of the 2000-2003 Campaigns. Bulletin d’archéologie et d’architecture libanaises 8, 333-356. Prawer, J. 1980. Crusader Institutions. Oxford, Clarendon Press. Pringle, D. (ed.) 1993. The Churches of the Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem. A Corpus. Cambridge, University Press. Pringle, D. (ed.) 1997. Secular Buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. An Architectural Gazetter. Cambridge, University Press. Pringle, D. 2005. The Castles of Ayla (al-Aqaba) in the Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk Period, in U. Vermeulen and J. van Steenbergen (eds.), Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras, IV, Proceedings of the 9th and 10th International Colloquium organized at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (May 2000 and May

2001). Leuven-Dudley. Rey, E. G. 1896. Les seigneurs de Mont-Réal et de la terre d’Outre-le-Jourdain. Revue de l’Orient latin 1896, 19-24. Richard, J. 1987. L’arrière-plan historique des deux cycles de la croise, in K. Bender and H. Kleber (eds.), Les épopées de la croise, Premier colloque international (Trèves, 6-11 août 1984), 6-16. Stuttgart. Runciman, S. 1993. Storia delle crociate. Torino, Einaudi2 (orig.: A History of the Crusades, Cambridge, 1951-1954). Schlumberger, G. 1923. Renaud de Châtillon, prince d’Antioche, seigneur de la terre d’Outre Jourdain, quarta edizione. Paris, Plon. Sibilio, V. 2004. Le parole della prima crociata. Galatina. Smith, J. M. H. 2008. L’Europa dopo Roma. Una nuova storia culturale, 500-1000. Bologna (orig. Europe after Rome. A new cultural History, 500-1000, Oxford, 2005). Sweeney, J. R. 1981. Hungary in the Crusades, 11691218. International History Review 3, 467-481. Thoquet, J. 2005. Renaud de Châtillon, Satan des Francs ou la colère d’Allah. Paris, Société des Ecrivains. Vannini, G. 2005. Insediarsi in Oriente: l’incastellamento del XII secolo nella Transgiordania meridionale. Una lettura archeologica, in G. Vannini (ed.), Archeologiadell’insediamento crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania: il progetto Shawbak, 10-21. Borgo S. Lorenzo. Vannini, G. and Vanni Desideri, A. 1995. Archaeological research on Medieval Petra: a prelimitary report. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 39, 509-540. Weigert, G. 1997. A Note on Hudna: Peace Making in Islam. In Y. Lev (ed.), War and Society in the Eastern Mediterranean, 7th-15 th centuries. Leiden, Brill (The medieval Mediterranean, IX), 399-405.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

KARAK CASTLE IN CRUSADER OULTREJOURDAIN (AD 1142-1188) AND ITS LEGACY IN THE EUROPEAN CARTOGRAPHIC TRADITION THROUGH THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY Robin M. Brown Independent scholar Abstract (2008) Karak in the Crusader Period: The Premiere Castle of Oultrejourdain The construction of the Crusader castle of Petra Deserti (also Crac, Crac de Montreal; Ar. al-Karak) in 1142 revealed a new phase of Frankish ambitions in Transjordan. The seat of the Lordship of Oultrejourdain was transferred from Mons Regalis (also Montreal; Ar. al-Shawbak) to the larger castle at Petra Deserti and regional administration was reinforced in Frankish territories north of the Wadi Hasa. The construction of Petra Deserti also inspired the growth of a substantial Christian town adjacent to the castle, to which a bishop was assigned in 1167. A thriving rural economy in the hinterland of Petra Deserti led to extensive settlement and expanded trade networks, as commodities were shipped to Palestine on boats crossing the Dead Sea, and carried overland around its southern shores. The castle was renowned for its formidable defensive works and succeeded in withstanding several prolonged sieges led by Salah al-Din. Nevertheless, the history of Petra Deserti is brief, for it capitulated to Muslim forces in 1188, following the disastrous Frankish defeat at the Battle of Hattin. This presentation provides an overview of the castle at Karak during the 12th century Crusader occupation and a summary of the efforts of modern scholars whose research has shed light on this monument, particularly its architecture. A broader historical perspective is also introduced by considering the role and image of Karak castle from the 13th to the 15th centuries, during which time it was a highly valued resource under the control of the Ayyubid and Mamluk sultans. At the same time, European cartographers illustrated western notions of Crusader Transjordan long after Oultrejourdain passed into history. Petra Deserti was mapped through the centuries in ways that both memorialized and minimized the Crusader experience in Transjordan, while embedding its representation within increasingly popular maps of biblical places and scenes that served the needs of the growing body of western pilgrims seeking to experience the Holy Land.

... a certain nobleman, Paganus by name, built a fortress in the land of Arabia Secunda, which received the name of Chrac. Paganus had been at one time butler to the king and later held lands beyond the Jordan ... This place was strongly fortified both by its natural situation and by artificial means ... Later it was called Petra Deserti; whence Arabia Secunda is now called Petracensis.1

symbol of European rule in Oultrejourdain.3 Assaulted repeatedly, the castle at Karak was never taken by military force. Yet it was lost less than fifty years after its construction when the garrison capitulated to the forces of Salah al-Din al-Ayyub toward the end of 1188. The surrender of Karak was a tragedy in the history of the Frankish enterprise in the Levant, for it heralded the permanent loss of southern Transjordan. Nevertheless, the castle continued to play important roles in the post-Crusader era both in the making of new history as a celebrated Muslim fortress of great practical and cultural significance to the Ayyubid and Mamluk polities, and as an enduring symbol of Frankish rule within a lost landscape that was memorialized in European maps of the Christian history of the Holy Land. This paper provides an overview of Karak castle during the Crusader period and considers aspects its legacy from a European perspective.4

INTRODUCTION Oultrejourdain, the land of southern Transjordan bordering the desert fringe, was the strategic, southeastern frontier province of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem during most of the twelfth century. The principal Crusader castles of this terre oultre le Jourdain were legendary throughout the Frankish period, and they gained further stature over the centuries that followed. Among the initial defenses constructed in the early decades of the twelfth century were the primary castle of Montréal at Shawbak (1115) and additional fortifications in the region of Wadi Musa and Petra, which together formed a cluster of strongholds within the Jabal al-Shara. A second principal castle, known as Petra Deserti or Crac was built later at Karak (1142).2 The construction of this large and costly monument was a tremendous achievement and it stood as an impressive

THE SITE OF KARAK IN ITS NATURAL SETTING The castle is situated to the west of the center of the Karak plateau, known in Arabic as Ard al-Karak, Ma’ab, and Jabal Ma’ab, which is the highland belt that extends from the Wadi al-Mujib to the Wadi al-Hasa (FIG. 1). The castle is renown for its commanding position on the summit of a steep hill within a high ridge overlooking rolling agricultural plains to the north, south, and east.5 Toward the west lies the Dead Sea valley, and Jerusalem is visible on a clear

1 William of Tyre (xv: 21 in 1986 [2], pp. 703-704; translation 1976 [2], p. 127). 2 Also Petra, Petracensis, “metropolim Petram”, civitas Petracensis, and Crac de Montréal. In William of Tyre: Crac or Chrac (xv: 21, xx: 26, xxii: 29 [28] in 1986 [2], pp. 703, 950, 1055); Petra Deserti (xxii: 29 [28] in 1986 [2], p. 1055); Petra (xi: 26 in 1986 [1], p. 535); Petracensis (xv: 21, xx: 3 in 1986 [2], p. 704, 914); “metropolim Petram” (xx: 26 in 1986 [2], p. 950). In Deschamps: civitas Petracensis (1939, p. 98, fig. 6); Crac de Montréal (1937, pp. 494-98). In some instances, these designations may also refer to the region rather than exclusively to the site at Karak.

was also known as the Lordship of Crac, the Lordship of Montréal, and the Lordship of Montréal and Crac (see Mayer 1987, p. 199; 1990, pp. 15-16). 4 For reviews of the history of Crusader Karak see Milwright (2008, pp. 29-37, 54ff.); Mayer (1990, pp. 115ff.); Deschamps (1937, pp. 26ff.). For the history of Karak in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods see Milwright (2008, pp. 29-93); Brown (2007); Johns (1994, pp. 14-19). 5 Karak stands at 949 m above sea level and 1309 m above the Dead Sea. 3 Oultrejourdain

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean day. The castle hilltop’s east and west flanks are protected by the deep valleys of Wadi al-Sitt and Wadi al-Franj, which merge into the Wadi al-Karak. From this advantageous position, the site has had a long history.6 Fortified settlement at Karak is portrayed in sixth and eighth century mosaics depicting Karakmoba, as well as being mentioned in later Arabic texts and documented by an early Islamic (pre-twelfth century) defensive wall and projecting tower within the castle site.7 Yet occupation appears to have been disrupted, for the Latin historian William of Tyre (d. 1185) described Karak as a site of ruins at the time that the Franks arrived.8 In contrast, the massive facades constructed at Karak during the medieval period encouraged continuous occupation of the site from the second half of the twelfth century until the early twentieth century when the modern town developed and the castle received government protection as a significant antiquity site. For much of that period Karak experienced a rich history as both a military stronghold and administrative center.

protected by steep slopes. Today these slopes are crowned with the remains of medieval perimeter walls and towers, and the area of the former medieval settlement is covered by the modern town of Karak. KARAK IN THE CRUSADER PERIOD The Crusader presence in southern Transjordan was established by Baldwin I’s military forays into the Wadi Musa/ Petra region, which culminated in 1115 with the construction of Montréal castle as the centerpiece within a network of Frankish fortifications in southern Transjordan. Within this territory, holdings in al-Balqa’ were initially granted to Roman of Le Puy, but all of Oultrejourdain appears to have been in the crown’s royal domain by 1126, at which time Pagan the Butler was seated as its first lord (seigneur), a position bearing the distinction of Lord of Montréal.12 This district soon grew to become the largest lordship (seigneury) of the Latin Kingdom. Pagan’s construction of the substantial castle at Karak in 1142 markedly enhanced Frankish authority over the southern lands in Transjordan. Oultrejourdain was divided into two regions. Arabia Secunda (also Petracensis), with its metropolis at Petra Deserti / Crac, encompassed the districts of al-Balqa’, the eastern Dead Sea Plain, and Jabal Ma’ab. Arabia Tertia (also Syria Sobal) included the al-Jabal and al-Shara regions to the south, with its principal castle at Montréal (Shawbak) and a major secondary fort at li Vaux Moysi (al-Wu`ayra at Wadi Musa).13 A document of 1161 describes Oultrejourdain as reaching from the Zarqa River (north of `Amman) to the southern tip of Transjordan at Ayla on the Red Sea, with sub-districts centered around Ahamant (Amman), Petra Deserti / Crac, Montréal, and li Vaux Moysi. 14 This refers to the province at its broadest geographic expanse, prior to the ceding of its most northern and southern districts.15 While a succession of Frankish fief-holders collected revenues from this territory, the crown retained, from time to time, lucrative rights of taxation over caravans crossing Transjordan and other privileges.16

Today, the castle architecture displays surviving Frankish works from 1142-1188, as well as substantial additions of the Ayyubid (1188-1263) and Mamluk (1263-1516) periods; later constructions from the Ottoman-era (15161918) were cleared from the castle in the early twentieth century. The perimeter walls follow the contours of the hilltop, forming a trapezoid with long walls along the east and west rims (220 m in length) and shorter walls along the north and south faces (140 m and 50 m, respectively). The two major sections include the Crusader upper castle and a later lower bailey, which extends along the west side of the upper castle and probably dates to the Ayyubid period.9 It has been suggested that the original Frankish castle also included a lower bailey in this same location,10 yet this inference requires further clarification. The upper castle preserves aspects of the Frankish constructions while also including prominent Middle Islamic features of the thirteenth to fourteenth century. Among the latter is the massive, south-facing half-tower or shield wall that may have been erected at the end of the thirteenth century.11 Adjacent to the castle, the town site was naturally

To the north of Oultrejourdain, the Franks established and maintained a foothold in Terre de Sueth (Sueta, Suite; from Arabic, Sawad), which included the Jawlan and adjacent regions in northern Transjordan. From this area

name al-Karak originates from karka in Aramaic, referring to a walled town, and the site is often identified with the Old Testament Moabite cities of Kir, Kir-har´eseth, and Kir-he´res (in Isa. 15.1; 16.7, 11; Jer. 48.31, 36); yet these associations are not substantiated (Knauf 1992, p. 22). Karak’s early history is summarized in Knauf (ibid., pp. 22-24), Miller (1991, p. 89), and Johns (1997, pp. 280-83). 7 Piccirillo (1993, pls. 65, 296, 345); Ibn al-Dawadari (in Milwright 2008, p. 62); Bianqis (1986-1989, pp. 141-42); Ibn Shaddad (1963, p. 69); see also Mayer (1990, pp. 123-24). The Early Islamic defensive constructions described by Biller et al. (1999, p. 48) may belong to the Fatimid and Seljukid period (from 970 through the early twelfth century), which included the era of intermittent Jarrahid rule in southern Jordan during the late tenth century (Schick 1997: 76-77; Bianqis, op. cit.). 8 William of Tyre (xxii: 29 [28] in 1986 [2], p. 1055). 9 The architecture of the lower bailey indicates an Ayyubid construction, perhaps during al-`Adil’s building campaign of 1192-1193. Korn (2004, p. 94); see also Baha’ al-Din (1884, p. 358); Ibn al-Athir (1887, pp. 73, 76). 10 Deschamps (1939, p. 87); De Meulemeester and Pringle (2008, pp. 339-40). ��See Biller et al. 1999, p. 50, fn. 53); this structure is described as a donjon in Deschamps (1939, pp. 88-89). The palace in the upper 6 The Arabic

castle, cited as “... le Logis du seigneur de Kérak et de sa famille” by Descamps (1939, p. 88), is a Middle Islamic residence (Brown 1989). 12 Tibble (1989, pp. 35-36). The lords of Oultrejourdain included Pagan the Butler (1126-1152), Maurice (1152-1161), Philip of Milly (11611165/66), Walter III of Beirut (1165/66 -1174), Miles of Plancy (1174), and Reynald of Châtillon (1177-1187). 13 For these divisions see William of Tyre (xi: 26 in 1986 [1], p. 535; xv: 21, xx: 26, xxii: 5 in 1986 [2], pp. 703-704, 950, 1012). At least seven Frankish fortresses or citadels of southern Transjordan (Arabia) were dependent upon the principal castles at Karak and Shawbak during the twelfth century, as indicated by Jacques of Vitry (2007, p. 309). From a broad perspective, the construction of the Frankish castles marked a turning point in the gradual rise of citadels in Transjordan, some of which were to remain persistent features of the landscape (see Walmsley 2001, pp. 554-55). 14 In Röhricht (1893, p. 96, no. 366). ��Milwright (2008, pp. 32-33). 16 Milwright (2008, p. 57-58, n. 18); Mayer (1990, pp. 135ff; 1987, pp. 201-202).

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R. M. Brown: Kerak Castle In Crusader Oultrejourdain (Ad 1142-1188) they exerted influence, at times, in the Ajlun highlands and parts of the Hawran. A principal Frankish castle was built in the Jawlan as early as 1105, cited by Ibn al-Qalanisi as al-`Al, yet it was quickly razed by Damascene troops.17 Henceforth, the defense of this fiefdom relied upon the cave fortress of Sueth (Arabic, al-Habis Jaldak) and other small installations.18 The Franks established treaties with the Damascenes in order to ensure revenues through shares of rural produce within this rich and well-settled agricultural land.

concessions to the order did not include the fortifications at Karak that were described in the original document. 23 Yet Reynald’s document shows that the Hospitallers remained a presence in the region. ECONOMY AND TRADE IN THE KARAK REGION The castle and town of Petra Deserti at Karak thrived, for its location was economically favorable and for some forty years, between 1142 and 1183, the region was generally calm, experiencing relatively few military disruptions. Stable conditions and the presence of the castle as a defensive and administrative center, encouraged production, trade, and growth of the town, all indicating a fair measure of prosperity.24 The town population consisted of Aramaicspeaking, native Christians (suriani), Franks, and possibly some Armenians; most of the rural farmers were native Christians, although some Frankish agriculturalists may have settled in the region as well.25 Karak would have provided a market center for farmers from the surrounding rural villages and tribes in the outlying areas, and it may have hosted an annual fair.26 The open plains and low hills of the Karak region traditionally supported sedentary and semi-sedentary agricultural and livestock-raising populations. Settlement was widespread during the Frankish era, leading to Ibn Jubayr’s claim in 1184 that Karak supported 400 villages.27 While this hearsay statement should not be interpreted as authoritative, it indicates a strong rural population. Among the estates, villages, and other properties of Oultrejourdain that were granted as fiefs to knights and the religious orders, several were located in or around Karak.28 Throughout the Karak region, the staple triad of grains, olives, and grapes yielded marketable commodities of flour, oil, raisins, and wine. William of Tyre’s chronicle of 1183 described the houses of Karak as “... well stocked with wheat, barley, wine, and oil”, and he notes that the townspeople kept plenty of livestock.29 Although Abu al-Fida wrote over a century after the Crusader era, his mention of Karak as a source of excellent fruits, famed for its apricot, pear, and pomegranate orchards, certainly suggests that high quality produce was cultivated during the twelfth century as well.30

Pagan the Butler’s 1142 construction of the castle at Karak, which marked the inception of the metropolis of Arabia at Petra Deserti, occurred near the end of the reign of King Fulk of Anjou (r. 1131-1143), the third monarch of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, under whose leadership the territory experienced relative prosperity. As successor to the expansionist kings, Fulk’s ambition was to strengthen and preserve Crusader holdings by securing roads and encouraging new defensive strongholds in border areas.19 The new castle at Karak bolstered the defense of the Arabian frontier considerably while also expanding Frankish administrative control, particularly over the population of Arabia Secunda, and positioning the seat of the lordship notably closer to Jerusalem and its royal court. From Karak, the lord of Oultrejourdain also had the advantage of overseeing trade with Palestine as goods were conveyed across the Dead Sea on boats and around its southern shore by the overland route via the settlement at Segor (Zughar in Ghawr al-Safi). Maurice succeeded to the fief of Karak in 1152 and introduced the military-religious order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem to strengthen its defensive capacity. The knights Hospitaller received a tower and barbican within Karak castle as well as other properties in the region in exchange for their support.20 Isabelle, daughter of Maurice and heiress of Karak, married Philip of Milly (also known as Philip of Nablus) who exchanged his Palestinian holdings for the Lordship of Oultrejourdain in 1161.21 Both Maurice and Philip added new constructions at the castle, including a moat or rampart as well as towers.22 By 1177 the knights Hospitaller appear to have relinquished or forfeited their rights within the castle as Reynald of Châtillon’s renewal, in that year, of Maurice’s

The lords of Oultrejourdain and their administrators in Karak were probably closely involved with industries along the eastern Dead Sea plain, particularly in the areas of Ghawr al-Safi, al-Lisan, and Ghawr Mazra’a – a region known for production of salt, bitumen, and indigo. Sugar was also an important industry. Cane grown on the plain was crushed in mills driven by water-wheels, as the first step in the production of syrups and refined sugar. The

��Ibn

al-Qalanisi (1932, pp. 71-72). The site of this fortress is often, but perhaps erroneously, associated with Qasr Bardawil (Pringle 1997, p. 117, no. R14). 18 William of Tyre (xviii: 21, xxii: 22 [21] 1986 [2], pp. 841, 10391042). See also Devais (2008); Nicolle (1988); Deschamps (1939, pp. 99-116). 19 Prawer (1969, pp. 328ff.). Fulk strengthened the Palestinian southern frontier by constructing the castles of Bethgibelin, Ibelin, and Blanchegarde in 1134, 1141, and 1142 (William of Tyre, xiv: 22, xv: 2425 in 1986 [2], pp. 659-61, 706-708); see also Mayer (1990, p. 116). 20 In Delaville le Roulx (1894, p. 160, no. 207); see also Mayer (1990, pp. 132-34). 21 See Mayer (1990, pp. 208-215). 22 William of Tyre (xxii: 29 [28] in 1986 [2], p. 1056). Qui vero successerunt ei, Mauricius videlicet, nepos eius, et Philippus Neapolitanus, locum predictum vallo et turribus reddiderunt insigniorem. Vallo typically refers to a rampart but may indicate a moat.

23

In Röhricht (1893, pp. 146-47, no. 551). (1980, p. 109-112). 25 Pringle (1993, p. 286); Prawer (1980, p. 111; 1969, p. 332); Brooker and Knauf (1988, p. 184). 26 Johns (1994, p. 12). 27 Ibn Jubayr (1952, p. 301). 28 See Milwright (2008, pp. 57-59); Mayer (1990, pp. 133-34). 29 William of Tyre (xxii: 30 in 1986 [2], p. 1059); see also Walmsley (2001, p. 520). 30 In Le Strange (1890, p. 479). ��Prawer

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean visions, including varieties of dates …”.37 Commodities shipped from Karak to Jericho, Jerusalem and other destinations west of the Dead Sea included barley and wheat, oil, wine, dates, refined sugar, bitumen, and salt.38 These were expedited from Karak’s port (al-minah) on the Dead Sea, which was apparently located in the bay of the Lisan Peninsula near Ghawr Mazra’a.39

mill at Tawahin al-Sukkar in Ghawr al-Safi, for example, probably produced sugar from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, while ancillary industries such as ceramic manufacturing and iron working would have been necessary to support this endeavor.31 In addition to sugar cane, dates were grown in abundance on the Dead Sea plain, as observed by Fulcher of Chartres in 1100, when the Franks first crossed into Transjordan at Segor. The geographer alIdrisi also commented on the dates of the Dead Sea Valley in 1154,32 which added to the rich resources of the region by providing tradable commodities of dried and fresh fruit for consumption and processing into syrups, juices, and wines.

Commercial relations between Oultrejourdain and its neighboring Muslim lands endured, even despite the increasing warfare of the early 1180s. Writing from Damascus on the eve of Salah al-Din’s 1184 campaign against Karak, Ibn Jubayr captures the complexity of these relationships while referring to the siege carried out in the prior year of 1183.40

Karak was well-positioned with respect to established overland trade routes. Notably, the castle was situated directly on the primary north-south route, which facilitated caravan traffic and communications along a passage that ultimately connected Syria with Egypt and Arabia. Muslim caravans paid a tax to the Latin crown in exchange for permission to cross Transjordan.33 The residents of Karak and its surrounding villages would have benefited from ample trading opportunities as a result. This trade would have drawn bedouin tribes from the desert fringe lands of the eastern frontier seeking to exchange pastoral products, and perhaps other trade goods as well. The north-south route was also essential for the Muslim Levant as it was the principal darb al-hajj (pilgrim’s road) linking Syria with the holy cities of Mecca and Madina during the annual pilgrimage. Trade via the port at Ayla on the Red Sea, which was carried along the main north-south route and its subsidiaries, also appears to have been important to the Lordship of Oultrejourdain.34 This exchange is evidenced by notable quantities of fish remains from twelfth century Crusader deposits at al-Wu`ayra and Shawbak.35 As preserved fish from the Red Sea was distributed to these Frankish locations, it was certainly available in Karak as well.

... we saw at this time ... the departure of Saladin with all the Muslims troops to lay siege to the fortress of Kerak, one of the greatest of the Christian strongholds lying astride the Hejaz road and hindering the overland passage of the Muslims ... it occupies the choicest part of the land in Palestine, and has a very wide dominion with continuous settlements ... [t]his sultan invested it, and put it to sore straits, and long the siege lasted, but still the caravans passed successively from Egypt to Damascus, going through the lands of the Franks without impediment from them. Ironically, as Ibn Jubayr penned these words, the Lordship of Oultrejourdain was entering its last years and its economy already stood on the verge of ruin. The violent confrontations between1183 and 1187, including the pillaging and destruction of the town of Karak and repeated sacking of the countryside, were certainly devastating for the region’s economy and its large Christian community, even prior to the end of Frankish rule in Transjordan with the success of the final siege of 1188. SALAH AL-DIN’S SIEGES OF KARAK

Karak also commanded a westward passage, across and around the Dead Sea, which was critical for communications, particularly with the king’s court in Jerusalem. With regard to trade, the lords of Karak benefitted from a lucrative Dead Sea shipping industry by exercising their rights of oversight, taxation of goods, and ownership of boats. The descriptions of concessions to the knights Hospitaller in Maurice’s 1152 charter and a document of Reynald of 1177 include duty-free rights of travel and transit of commodities across the Dead Sea, as well as permission to maintain a boat.36 Writing in 1154, al-Idrisi also commented on Dead Sea shipping, noting “… small boats circulate there, facilitating travel in the region and transporting pro-

During the 1170s and 1180s Karak sustained several sieges by Muslim forces. The 1170 offensive of Nur al-Din Zangi of Damascus failed, but his withdrawing forces plundered and burned Frankish villages. Oultrejourdain was threatened again in 1171 with Salah al-Din’s assault on Montréal, and a surrender of that key fortress was in negotiation when the commander abruptly withdrew in order to avoid a confrontation with Nur al-Din, his chief rival. Nevertheless, Salah al-Din quickly returned to Transjordan to ravage the countryside around the Crusader fortresses, burning and destroying villages and cutting bushes and vines.41 With Nur al-Din’s death in 1174, Salah al-Din gained political autonomy over both Damascus and Cairo, as well

Photos-Jones et al. (2002, pp. 591ff.). Fulcher of Chartres (1969, p. 146); al-Idrisi, in Marmardji (1951, p. 15); see also Goor (1967, pp. 335-36). 33 In Röhricht (1893, p. 96, no. 366). ��See Deschamps (1939, p. 49). 35 Brown and Rielly (forthcoming); Mazza and Corbino (2007, pp. 55ff); Corbino and Mazza (2009, pp. 679 ff). 36 In Delaville le Roulx (1894, p. 160); Röhricht (1893, p. 71, no. 279, pp. 146-47, no. 551). See also Mayer (1990, p. 133). 31 32

37

In Marmardji (1951, p. 15). See Johns (1994, pp. 11-12). 39 Abel (1909, pp. 596-97); see also Musil (1907, pp. 170-71). 40 Ibn Jubayr (1952, pp. 300-301). 41 Ibn al-Athir (2007, pp. 184, 198-99); Ibn Shaddad (in Ibn al-Furat 1971 [2], p. 51); Maqrizi (1980, pp. 41-42); William of Tyre (xx: 26-28 in 1986 [2], pp. 950-52); see also Mayer (1990, pp. 219-20). 38

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R. M. Brown: Kerak Castle In Crusader Oultrejourdain (Ad 1142-1188) as their hinterlands. Shortly after this transition within the Muslim political realm, Reynald of Châtillon married Stephanie, daughter of Philip of Milly, and became the Lord of Oultrejourdain (r. 1177-1187). Reynald’s aggressive hostilities against Muslim properties, including his 1181 raid against Tayma and seizure of a caravan bound for Mecca, appear to have provoked Salah al-Din’s nephew Farrukh Shah to ravage the countryside around Karak.42 Reynald’s more ambitious but ill-fated Red Sea raiding campaign during the winter of 1182-1183, heightened Salah al-Din’s urgency in securing Transjordan.43 During his march on Karak in October of 1183, Salah al-Din took the town by force and seized all of its property while the castle was filled with merrymakers celebrating the royal wedding of Stephanie’s son Humphrey IV of Toron to Isabelle, the half-sister of King Baldwin IV.44 The castle was plunged into chaos as Christian townspeople stampeded the bridge spanning the moat and jammed the entrance to the fortress, with enemy troops at their very heels. William of Tyre described the wedding party, the besieged population, and the assault, which included a concentrated bombardment along the north face of the castle and a secondary assault based outside of the town, probably from the ridge overlooking the southern defenses.45 The attack caused enormous damage to the castle, for the north wall was breached and only the vast ditch in front of it prevented troops from storming the interior. One of Salah al-Din’s advisors at the scene wrote “... the towers of Karak were prostrate in worship, the veils of their mantlets had been removed and their noses cut off ...”.46 Yet the siege was abandoned when Baldwin IV’s army reached the Dead Sea, on route to Karak.47 Subsequently, Reynald must have invested considerable efforts in repairing the castle for it was worthy of another challenge when the next assault took place the following year.

frustration by describing Karak castle as “... the blockage strangling the throat, the dust cloud that darkens vision, the obstacle that destroys hope ...”.48 It is not surprising that Salah al-Din returned to the region in 1184, at which time he ravaged the Frankish countryside from his base in Ma’ab (Rabbah) before seizing the town of Karak. At the castle, nine mangonels were set up along the north wall, and more were quickly added.49 Here the castle defenses were demolished, again leaving only the task of filling the vast ditch. A month after the assault began, and while still filling the ditch, Salah al-Din received news that a Frankish relief force had crossed into Transjordan, whereupon he withdrew once more.50 In 1186 Reynald violated a truce by capturing an enormous and wealthy caravan entering the Karak region from Egypt; he then refused to surrender the plunder and captives to Salah al-Din.51 This provocation furthered Salah al-Din’s imperative to take control of Transjordan and he returned to Karak in the spring of 1187. While Salah al-Din did not succeed in taking the castle, his troops burned and ruined the houses of the town, then scoured the countryside for a month, destroying rural villages and grain fields, and cutting down vines as the farming population fled.52 In July of 1187, the disastrous Battle of Hattin decisively shifted the regional balance of power. Salah al-Din held complete victory as the majority of the Crusader army and its leaders were killed or taken prisoner, including Reynald who was soon executed.53 Shortly thereafter the fortresses of Transjordan were put to siege and forced to surrender as there were no Frankish reinforcements to provide aid. Salah al-Din’s brother al-`Adil blockaded Karak in November 1188. When the garrison faced starvation, it capitulated and was allowed to depart unharmed. Montréal fell the following year. With the onset of Ayyubid control, al-`Adil soon received the coveted iqta` of Karak and Shawbak, as well as Salt in al-Balqa’. At Karak, his first task was to carry out an inspection and improvements (1192-1193).54

In contrast to Ibn Jubayr’s description of caravan traffic passing through Karak unhindered, Baha’ al-Din assessed the situation in Transjordan harshly, stating that Karak was an obstacle that had broken the connection between Syria and Egypt, and caravans could cross the region only with military escorts, a situation clearly exacerbated by Reynald’s raids against Muslims and their property. His contemporary al-Qadi al-Fadil expressed similar Muslim

CRUSADER ARCHITECTURE IN THE CASTLE AND TOWN William of Tyre provided a valuable description of the

42

Eracles (1844-1859 [2], p. 34); Ibn al-Athir (2007, p. 276); Maqrizi (1980, p. 63-64). 43 Maqrizi (1980, p. 70); see also Milwright (2006b); Mallett (2008). 44 Ernoul (1871, p. 103) relates a doubtful account of Stephanie sending banquet dishes to Salah al-Din’s camp with a message that she had held him in her arms when he was enslaved at the castle as a child. Purportedly, Salah al-Din responded with an inquiry as to which tower housed the newlyweds, then directed his troops not to bombard that façade. 45 William of Tyre (xxii: 29 [28], 31 [30] in 1986 [2], pp. 1056-57, 1059-60). Obelet (also Hobelet) in William of Tyre (ibid., p. 1059) may have been a suburb spread across the hills immediately to the south and/or east of Karak castle. Although the eastern ridge was known to Deschamps as Houboul Ezzekia, the southern ridge is sufficiently close to the castle to serve as the stage for an assault (1939, p. 64 n. 2). 46 Al-Qadi al-Fadil’s letter to commander Taqi al-Din `Umar, in Lyons and Jackson (1988, p. 210). 47 William of Tyre (xxii: 31 [30] in 1986 [2], p. 1060); see also Baha’ al-Din (1971, pp. 91-92).

48

Baha’ al-Din (1971: 63, 97); Mayer (1990, pp. 59, 127). described by Chevedden (2000, p. 94), “[t]hese machines [manjaniqat al-kibar] delivered an around-the-clock bombardment, while three digging-mantlets were constructed across the deep ditch ... to dismantle the castle wall. Filling mantlets were also employed to protect men engaged in filling up the ditch in preparation for an escalade.” See also Baha’ al-Din (1971, pp. 96-97); Lyons and Jackson (1988, p. 217). 50 Baha’ al-Din (1971, p. 97); Imad al-Din in Lyons and Jackson (1988, pp. 217-18). 51 Ernoul (1871, pp. 54-55); Baha’ al-Din (1971, p. 42); Imad al-Din in Lyons and Jackson (1988, p. 248); Schlumberger 1898, pp. 320-22). 52 Imad al-Din in Lyons and Jackson (1988, p. 248); Baha’ al-Din (1971, pp. 108-109). 53 Baha’ al-Din (1971, pp. 113-15). 54 Baha’ al-Din (1971, pp. 336, 397); Ibn al-Athir (1887, pp. 73, 76). See also Korn (2004, p. 94). Ernoul, however, refered to the neglect of damages at Karak (1871, p. 464). 49 As

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Frankish construction of Karak castle.55

Hans-Heinrich Häffner, which proposes significant revisions to Deschamps’ architectural phases and plans (FIG. 2).60 Perhaps most intriguing is the relationship between the upper castle, which is the core of the fortress, and the lower bailey or barbican along the west side. As it stands, the lower bailey is typically attributed to the Mamluk period, although an Ayyubid date is quite plausible.61 Deschamps believed he found structural traces related to an earlier Frankish barbican on the site of the lower bailey, but this assertion needs further clarification.62 When Maurice donated part of the castle defenses to the knights Hospitaller in his charter of 1152, the religious order specifically received a “barbican” that extended up to a “Tower of St. Mary.”63 Johnny De Meulemeester and Denys Pringle suggest that the barbican mentioned in this charter refers to a Frankish construction on the site of the lower bailey,64 although it is conceivable that this reference pertains to the double wall along the east side of the upper castle.

Here, upon a very high mountain surrounded by deep valleys, the city ... had once been located. For a long time, however, it had lain in ruins, utterly desolate. Finally, during the reign of Fulk, the third king of the Latins in the Orient, one Paganus, surnamed the butler, lord of a domain laying beyond the Jordan, built a citadel [presidium]56 on this site ... The successors of Paganus, namely his nephew Maurice and Philip [de Milly] of Nablus, had added a moat [or rampart, vallo] and towers to render the place still more unassailable. Clustering on the outskirts of this fortress, on the site of the earlier city, was now a village whose inhabitants had placed their homes there as a comparatively safe location. East [sic] of them lay the fortress, the best of protection, while on the other sides rose the mountain itself, encompassed ... by deep valleys. Thus, if the village had even a moderately low wall, the inhabitants need not fear any hostile attack. At two points only was there any possibility of reaching the top of the mountain, and these could be easily defended by a few men even against large hostile forces. The other sides were supposed to be impregnable.

The upper castle includes features from the initial phase of Frankish construction under Pagan the Butler (1142-1152) as well as from the second phase of works accomplished by Maurice and Philip of Milly (1152-1165/66).65 Yet the phasing of a number of Crusader-era features remains undetermined, particularly as the upper castle holds at least four areas with subsurface constructions.66 The castle was well-protected by its “unassailable” east and west slopes. The steeper west slope was the easiest to defend and along this rim (overlooking the lower bailey) the wall of 1142 was reinforced by five or more shallow salients.67 Along the east side, the Franks doubled their fortification efforts by constructing two defensive walls, and a robust glacis (now reconstructed) was set upon the slope below. The earlier, inner wall dates to 1142 while the outer wall and its projecting towers (now reconstructed) were built during the second phase.

Karak castle is a complex, multi-period monument that remains poorly understood in many respects, particularly as some areas remain obscured by debris.57 The original Frankish features and plan were substantially altered by new phases of construction that appear to have continued through the fourteenth century. The extent to which major and costly constructions were undertaken at Karak castle during the Frankish era and subsequent Ayyubid and early Mamluk periods, particularly with respect to its defensive works, underscore the significance of this site from the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries. Shawbak experienced a similar history,58 demonstrating that the possession of southern Transjordan hinged on the security of both of the castles that straddled the inland road from Cairo to Damascus, the twin centers of Muslim power in the Levant.

On the vulnerable north face, a deep ditch cut through bedrock. Standing between the town and the north wall of the castle, this presented a substantial barrier, as encountered by Salah al-Din in 1183 and 1184. Spanned by a drawbridge, the ditch was up to 25 m in width and originally cut to a depth of some 30 m.68 Behind it, a massive northern defensive wall still stands over 20 m in height and up to 4 m in thickness. Constructed of exceptionally lar-

A few reconstructions of the original Crusader plan have been offered. Paul Deschamps undertook the first architectural survey at Karak castle in 1929, assisted by architect François Anus. His landmark publication, with site plans and descriptions of the exposed structures (of that time), remains an importance resource.59 More recent commentaries offer fresh perspectives, including the insightful architectural analysis by Thomas Biller, Daniel Burger, and

Biller et al. (1999, pp. 45-53). See also remarks by De Meulemeester and Pringle (2008). Ellenblum (2001) offers an alternative interpretation of the Crusader plan. 61 Korn (2004, p. 94). 62 Deschamps (1939, p. 87); Biller et al. (1999, pp. 50, 58 n. 51) challenged this interpretaton. 63 Item dono et concedo penes Cracum quamdam turrim, que est a parte sinistra sicut fit ingressus per portam castelli, et barbacanam, que est inter duos muros sicut protenditur ab hac turri predicta usque ad turrim S. Marie (in Delaville le Roulx 1894, p. 160, no. 207). 64 De Meulemeester and Pringle (2008, pp. 339-40). 65 Deschamps (1939, p. 82); William of Tyre (xxii: 29 [28] in 1986 [2], p. 1056). 66 Biller et al. (1999, p. 52). 67 The two large towers projecting set against the original west wall are Ayyubid or Mamluk additions. 68 Ibn al-Athir (cited in Deschamps 1939, p. 82). 60

55

William of Tyre (xxii: 29 [28] in 1986 [2], p. 1056); translation (1976 [2], p. 499). 56 Presidium refers to a place occupied by a military guard or garrison, such as any sort of post, camp, or fortification. 57 Some clearance and reconstruction work has been undertaken at the site in recent years. 58 Faucherre (2004, pp. 46ff.). 59 Deschamps (1939, pp. 34-98, plans 1-2, plan of Kerak). Deschamps observed that Crusader constructions were typically built of red and black volcanic stone, whereas subsequent Middle Islamic constructions employed softer, yellow-grey limestone cut into bossed blocks; he also distinguished three styles of Crusader-era constructions (ibid., pp. 80-81).

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R. M. Brown: Kerak Castle In Crusader Oultrejourdain (Ad 1142-1188) ge, undressed stones, this feature is flanked along its inner face by two tiers of large, vaulted halls that were furnished with arrow slits. The towers at the east and west corners were also integrated within the northern defensive plan.69 A postern gate stands at the northeastern tower and traces of another opening are evident in the center of the north wall. By 1188, when the final siege of Karak occurred, the north wall had probably been largely rebuilt at least twice since its initial construction. This complex at the north face of the castle, which includes the north wall, corner towers, and interior vaulted halls, probably dates to the 1180s.70 The main gateway presently in use is a Middle Islamic construction at the northwest corner tower that opens to the north face of the castle. The location of the original main entrance to the Frankish castle is unknown, yet it may have stood some 15 meters south of the present gate and faced to the west rather than north, as the west side of the castle was less exposed to assault.71

m in width, and outer walls some 2 m thick.75 The eastfacing, semi-circular apse drawn by Deschamps is no longer discernable.76 A small side chapel or sacristy adjoins the main chapel by a stairway. Once a two story structure, the surviving ground level is covered with pointed barrel vault. In 1818, Charles Leonard Irby and James Mangles observed in the main chapel traces of a gothic inscription and frescoes showing “... the remains of paintings of large groups of figures on the stuccoed walls ...”, one of which appeared to be a king in armor while another resembled the martyrdom of a saint.77 These representations are no longer visible. The area between the vaulted halls along the north wall and the chapel (toward the center of the upper castle environs), where the rock plateau is elevated, may have been occupied by a courtyard with its own enclosure wall. It is also conceivable that a great hall once stood along the west wall of the upper castle, just north of the chapel.78

The southern facade was the most vulnerable as it was not protected by steep slopes. Here the Franks inserted a huge ditch below the south face of the castle platform to detach it from the adjoining ridge. This fosse was cut 30 m in width, but its depth is undetermined due to infilling over time.72 Above the ditch rose the massive south wall of a Crusader tower (35 m in length), probably constructed in 1142 and likely cited in the 1152 charter of Maurice as the Tower of St. Mary (see above).73 Traces of this feature’s foundations rest on the extreme edge of the southern rock ridge, immediately south of the imposing Mamluk halftower (commonly referred to as a donjon), whose massive walls dominate the southern line of the castle today (see FIG. 2).74 A second Frankish phase is indicated by remains of additional walls (to the north and east of the present Mamluk fortification) that further enhanced the southern defenses of the Crusader era.

The Crusader town of Karak has disappeared almost entirely, yet sections of the remaining medieval enclosure walls may date to the Frankish period.79 There is no clear evidence of a Frankish era entranceway into the town, but William of Tyre mentioned two points of access (see above), raising the possibility that at least one of the two, rock-hewn, entrance tunnels that were in use from the thirteenth through the nineteenth century already existed in the twelfth century.80 In 1167 Guerricus, a canon of the Templum Domini, the Frankish church at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, was appointed as archbishop of Petracensis and metropolitan of Arabia.81 The site of the Latin cathedral in Karak was noted in the late nineteenth century by Henry Baker Tristram who observed the foundations of a basilica beneath a mosque in ruins.82 Formal archaeological investigations at Karak castle have been few and the only excavation of a Crusader structure was conducted in the chapel and sacristy in 1997 under the direction of John R. Lee and in collaboration with the late-Jum’a Kareem and Mu’tah University.83 The human burials and objects from this campaign appear to date to the Late Ottoman and Modern periods, although Roman

A few prominent Frankish constructions remain within the upper castle. In addition to the vaulted halls along the north wall, there are a nearby oven area and a room with a millstone and storage bin (possibly for grain). Farther south is the chapel (FIG. 3), most recently documented by Pringle, with a barrel vaulted hall 25 m in length by 8.5

75

Pringle (1993, pp. 288-91, 293); four chaplains are known to have served the lords of Karak between 1152 and 1180. 76 Deschamps (1939, pp. 87-88, plan 1); see also Tristram (1873, p. 91). 77 Irby and Mangles (1844, p. 111). 78 Biller et al. (1999, pp. 52-53). �� The construction of a town wall by Frankish settlers is mentioned in Eralces (1844-1859 [1.2], p. 1125) and Deschamps identified sections of the medieval town wall as Frankish (1939, p. 95, plan of Kerak). William of Tyre, however, implied that the town was unwalled or inadequately walled, (xxii: 29 [28] in 1986 [2], p. 1056). The area within the walls of the medieval town was 850 m north-south by 750 m east-west (Pringle 1993, p. 287; see also Musil 1907, p. 47, fig. 9). �� William of Tyre (xxii: 29 [28] in 1986 [2], p. 1056). The northwest tunnel bears a 1227 inscription of Sultan al-Mu`azzam `Isa (Mauss and Sauvaire 1874, p. 202, no. 20). See also Ibn Battuta (in Marmardji 1951, p. 171); Irby and Mangles (1944, p. 110). 81 William of Tyre (xx: 3 in 1986 [2], p. 914). 82 Tristram (1873, p. 93). The mosque may have been constructed by al-`Adil in 1188; see Combe et al. (1939, pp. 276-77, no. 3800 A); Korn (2004, p. 94); Pringle (1993, p. 287). 83 Lee (2003), unpublished report.

Biller et al. (1999, p. 50). Biller et al. (1999, pp. 49-50) suggest that the northern defensive complex, as it stands today, is a Frankish construction of either 11501160 or 1170-1188, or an Ayyubid construction of al-`Adil from 11921193. 71 Biller et al. (1999, p. 50). 72 Deschamps (1939, p. 80). 73 Biller et al. (1999, pp. 50-51). 74 The Mamluk half-tower may date to 1297/98 as similar defenses were undertaken at Shawbak under Sultan al-Mansur Lajin (r. 1296-1299) (Biller et al. 1999, p. 50, fn. 53); these constructions were probably a result of the 1293 earthquake, which caused the collapse of three towers at Karak (Maqrizi 1842, p.146). The similarly constructed “Tower of Baybars” (Burj al-Zahir) at the northwest corner of the town defenses at Karak, probably also dates to this period (Biller et al. 1999, p. 50, fn. 53); its inscription citing al-Zahir Baybars (Mauss and Sauvaire 1874, pp. 199-200, no. 17) appears to have been reused from an earlier structure (Tristram 1873, pp. 89-90). The badly damaged inscription on the Mamluk half-tower in the castle is undecipherable. 69 70

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean and Nabataean pottery was also collected. In several places the excavators reached the original paved floor or the plaster bedding that lay beneath it. However, the report does not mention a medieval phase, deposits or artifacts, which suggests that the chapel and sacristy were swept clear of debris prior to the accumulation of the Late Ottoman materials. Marcus Milwright’s recent study of some 8000 medieval era sherds from unstratified collections found that most belonged to local, regional and imported ceramic types that are known from the twelfth century through the Mamluk period; none of this pottery could be specifically associated with the Crusader presence at Karak.84

al-`Adil’s improvements and constructions of 1192-1193 may have included a mosque within the town, in addition to fortifications.88 A palace and reception hall were built in the castle by al-Nasir Da’ud (1227-1249). 89 When Karak fell to the Mamluks in 1263, Sultan al-Zahir Baybars, who held his court in al-Nasir Da’ud’s palace, launched a major building campaign.90 Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, a luminary of the early Mamluk period, is credited with building another palace at Karak in 1311. At the same time, he embellished the town with a suite of urban facilities including a mosque (jami`), a bath (hammam), a Shafiite religious school (madrasa), a caravan hostelry (khan), a hospital (maristan), and a parade ground (maydan).91 Late fourteenth century inscriptions also indicate building activities by Sultan al-Zahir Barquq and Amir Zayn al-Din Baraka.92 Some of this patronage under the Mamluk sultans of the Bahri era was prompted by close personal ties with Karak. Al-Nasir Muhammad spent much of his youth in exile at Karak, and he later sent his sons to be raised and educated there. Similarly, when al-Zahir Barquq was exiled to Karak in 1389, after having been deposed from his first reign as sultan, he spent several years building support among that population.93

KARAK CASTLE IN THE DOMAIN OF THE SULTANS The two centuries that followed the Crusader episode in Transjordan were an era of patronage under the Ayyubid princes and sultans who followed Salah al-Din (11881263) and their successors, the Bahri sultans of the early Mamluk period (1263-1389). While Palestine remained contested territory and the scene continuing confrontations between Muslim and Frankish forces until 1291, Transjordan was celebrated by Ayyubid and Mamluk leadership as the essential, although still vulnerable, bridge between Cairo and Damascus, and its resources were sought after by various contenders aspiring to control those seats of power. As such, Karak and Shawbak castles remained major prizes and important centers of defense, administration, and economic development, while their communities and hinterlands were generally productive, and at times flourished, as was typical of Transjordan during this period.85 Yet aside from the maintenance and embellishment of the two principal castles, the defensive topography of Transjordan shifted in several respects as some of the former Crusader facilities were either maintained only briefly or not at all, such as in the instances of al-Wu`ayra and other installations in the Petra region. At the same time, new castle defenses were constructed in the north at Ajlun in the Jabal Awf (1188-1192), Salt in al-Balqa’ (1220), and Azraq beside the Wadi Sirhan (initiated prior to 1237); smaller facilities also appeared, among them the fort of Qasr al-Shibib on the Zarqa River and the square tower at the citadel in Amman.86

Karak’s location on the highland corridor of Transjordan and well-defended position above the Dead Sea, in relative proximity to Palestinian lands under Frankish rule, made it a natural warehouse and treasury for Ayyubid and Mamluk leaders who were anxious to protect the eastern territories that they had wrested from the Franks and gain greater footholds in Palestine. As such, the rivalrous Ayyubid princes and sultans clashed with one another over possession of the Transjordan castles. When the Egyptian-based Sultan al-Salih Najm al-Din succeeded in taking Karak from al-Nasir Da’ud in 1249, he rejoiced, ordering the cities of Cairo and Fustat to be decorated and drums beaten from their citadels in celebration.94 Al-Nasir Da’ud had kept a treasury at Karak and al-Salih followed suit, immediately sending cash (reported as 1,000,000 dinars), treasures, and weapons to Karak for safe storage, while the crusading forces of Louis IX, invaded and occupied the port of Daat Shawbak was probably constructed during the early decades of the Ayyubid period, by al-`Adil (1193-1198) or his son al-Mu`azzam `Isa (1198-1227); see Brown (1988, pp. 240, 242); Nucciotti (2007, p. 45). As noted above, a Middle Islamic palace still stands within the castle at Karak. This complex was initially attributed to the fourteenth century based on excavations (Brown, 1989), but the dating of the numismatic evidence is presently under reconsideration and the possibility of an Ayyubid date should not be dismissed. �� Baha’ al-Din (1884, p. 358); Ibn al-Athir (1887, pp. 73, 76); Pringle 1993, p. 287). For the inscription of al-`Adil at Karak, see Mauss and Sauvaire (1874, pp. 198-99, no. 16). 89 Al-Nasir Da’ud’s residence of authority (dar al-sultana) was known as the Dar al-Sa`ada and his reception hall (qa`a) is described as the Qa`a al-Nasiri (Ghawanimah, 1979, p. 219). 90 Ibn `Abd al-Zahir, in Sadeque (1956, pp. 179, 181). Al-Zahir Baybars received the civil servants of Karak in the Qa`a al-Nasiri (ibid., pp. 179, 315). 91 Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani (1973, p. 317). 92 Mauss and Sauvaire (1874, pp. 200-202, nos. 18-19). 93 Milwright (2008, pp. 44-46). 94 Maqrizi (1980, p. 293).

Royal patronage at Karak and Shawbak was most significant from the late twelfth through the fourteenth century and both sites were invested with new defenses and other monuments, including royal palaces.87 At Karak, 84 Milwright (2008, pp. 137ff.). Twelfth century deposits from the Crusader-occupied sites of Wu`ayra and Shawbak include many examples of handmade ceramics belonging to a local tradition (Brown 1987, pp. 277-85; 1988, pp. 230ff.; Tonghini and Vanni Desideri 2001, pp. 710-13). ��Walmsley (2001, pp. 539-41); Milwright (2006a, pp. 15-20); Walker (2003, 2004, see also 2010); Kareem (2000, pp. 11-17). 86 Humphreys (1977, p. 77); Walmsley (2001, pp. 529-31); Milwright (2006a, pp. 13-14). 87 For Middle Islamic constructions at Karak, see Deschamps (1939, pp. 80ff.); Mumani (1988, pp. 156-242); Brown (1989, pp. 290-92; 2007); Korn (2004, pp. 93-95). For Middle Islamic constructions at Shawbak, see Nucciotti (2007); Faucherre (2004, pp. 46-64); Mumani (1988, pp. 243-293); Brown (1988, pp. 227ff.); Korn (2004, pp. 92-93). The palace

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R. M. Brown: Kerak Castle In Crusader Oultrejourdain (Ad 1142-1188) mietta, directly threatening Egyptian sovereignty.95 When the Mamluk Sultan al-Zahir Baybars deposed al-Mughith `Umar, the last Ayyubid prince of Karak, in 1263, he invested heavily in new constructions at both fortresses, and at Karak he stored large cash reserves (reported as 70,000 dinars and 50,000 dirhams), weapons, grain, flocks, and trade goods.96 This tradition continued during the Bahri era of Mamluk rule, particularly under the Qala’unid sultans (1280-1382) who kept close economic, political, and cultural ties between Cairo and Karak. Following the reign of Karak’s great patron al-Nasir Muhammad (d. 1342), his son al-Nasir Ahmad moved the seat of the Mamluk sultanate to Karak in 1342, bringing with him the entire royal treasury, including vast quantities of cash and valuables.97 While this exceptional and ill-advised situation soon ended with the sultan’s overthrow, it underscores the notion of Karak as a royal retreat or safe haven during this period, in addition to its roles as a treasury, arsenal, and pantry holding huge, imperial reserves of money, weaponry and foodstuffs. This enduring perception of Karak as both a repository for significant royal resources and a potential seat of royal authority was well-calculated, particularly as Frankish ambitions in the eastern Mediterranean appeared unabated, and mid-thirteenth century crusading strategies led to confrontations on Egyptian soil with the intention of striking at the heart of Muslim power by subjugating Cairo.

ceeded in subordinating Transjordan.101 The fall of Acre in 1291 marked the end of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, by which time many of the former Frankish defensive positions on the Levantine coast had been reduced to rubble by al-Zahir Baybars and his successors. Nevertheless, by the close of the thirteenth century calls for new crusades abounded across Europe. THE EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE: REPRESENTATIONS OF KARAK IN MAPS OF THE HOLY LAND FROM THE THIRTEENTH THROUGH THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY The Crusader experience in the East expanded European awareness of Levantine geography, inspired a surge of interest in pilgrimage, and created a new, growing demand for detailed information about the Holy Land. Of the many soldiers on crusade, pilgrims, adventurers, merchants, and others who journeyed eastward from the twelfth through the fifteenth century, a few left travel accounts and itineraries that became widely read as popular guidebooks.102 Most of these were written by pilgrims and provided encouragement to others to undertake the perils of a Holy Land journey. For the many who desired to embark on pilgrimage but were confined to monastic communities or lacked the means for travel, itineraries and other practical documentation about the Holy Land provided a basis for imagining the processes and experiences of such a journey.103 European cartographers who were motivated to prepare Holy Land maps also sought contemporary geographic information. A few cartographers were able to draw on their own pilgrimage experiences, but they also appear to have consulted a variety of travel narratives, however accurate or misleading, as well as historical sources. While new knowledge accumulated in Europe, misconceptions about geographic space, locational contexts and regions that were not well-known to Europeans were often repeated as well.104 Transjordan emerges in this literature as a marginal territory that was well-imagined in some respects, but not well-comprehended, by pilgrim writers and cartographers. Within this European notion of Frankish Transjordan, Petra Deserti or Crac emerges as a particularly strong symbol during the era of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and after its collapse at the end of the thirteenth century (FIG. 4).

In Frankish eyes, the loss of the Transjordan castles in 1188-1189 had been catastrophic, for they were critical to any plan of defense for a Latin Jerusalem and its hinterlands. Thus, while the initial Frankish capture of the Egyptian port of Damietta in 1218-1219 resulted in negotiations that were favorable to the occupiers, the Franks refused Sultan al-Kamil Nasir al-Din’s offers as they did not include the return of Karak and Shawbak.98 Similarly, the 1229 treaty finalized during the crusade of Frederick II specified alKamil’s concession of territories in Palestine, but excluded Transjordan, which remained in Ayyubid hands.99 It also appears that earlier peace negotiations between Richard I and Salah al-Din may have faced an obstacle over Crac de Montréal, as alleged in the epic poem L’Estoire de la guerre sainte, prepared by Ambroise, one of Richard’s companion’s during the Third Crusade.100 Despite lingering uncertainty over Europe’s strength and resolve, the most serious threat to mid-thirteenth century Muslim sovereignty in southern Transjordan was the persistent advance of the Mongols under Hülegü Khan. Having received a concession from al-Mughith `Umar, Hülegü dispatched an overseer to Karak in 1260 to ensure payment of tribute, but Mongol power in the Levant ebbed before the khanate suc-

The regional maps of the Holy Land that were created between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries tended to describe either an actual Frankish presence in Palestine and Transjordan or a nostalgic memory of it (depending on when the map was compiled). Typically, this Frankish presence was set within a historically Christianized landscape populated with places linked to significant events in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Thus cartographers located Frankish settlements and fortresses beside sites whose toponyms were mined from biblical

95

Ibn al-Athir (2008, p. 295); see also Irwin (1986, p. 22). `Abd al-Zahir, in Sadeque (1956, p. 181). 97 Shuja`i (1985, pp. 250-53); Levanoni (1995, pp. 180-81). 98 Ibn al-Athir (2008, p. 180); Maqrizi (1980, p. 184); Ernoul (1871, p. 417); Jacques of Vitry (2007, p. 309). ��Ibn

99

101 Amitai-Preiss

Ernoul (1871, p. 464). Ambroise (1941, p. 291). This claim is also found in the anonymous Itinerarium peregrinorum et gesta regis Ricardi (Nicholson 1997, p. 274).

(1997, pp. 7-8). See Wright (1925, p. 293); Hamilton (2004); Delano-Smith (2004). 103 Connolly (1999, pp. 598, 606ff). 104 See Bartlett (2008, pp. 6-27).

100

102

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean scripture and classical texts, such as works by Pliny the Elder, Josephus, Ptolemy, and Eusebius. In addition to providing Europeans with the means to visualize their own real or imagined itineraries, regional maps of the historic Holy Land were also political tools. The loss of Frankish hegemony in the Levant in 1291 was not perceived as irrevocable, and European calls for renewed and strategically crafted crusades continued into the fifteenth century.105 Most of these recovery treatises were prepared between 1290 and 1336 on behalf of, or as appeals to, papal and secular leaders, and some contained histories and maps of the former Frankish territories.

ster Thietmar, who arrived in the Holy Land as a soldier of the Fifth Crusade, was an exceptional traveler and the only European pilgrim known to have journeyed into Transjordan. In 1217 he undertook a bold and unusual itinerary across the southern highland plateau, at the time a territorial possession of the Ayyubid prince al-Mu`azzam `Isa (1198-1227), on his way to Saint Catherine’s monastery in the Sinai Desert. His commentary briefly mentions meeting a Greek bishop at Erach (Karak), which he notes as a large town on top of a mountain and defended by strong towers and walls. At Shawbak he found accommodation with a Frankish widow, and viewed the castle as very impressive, surrounded by three rings of walls, and having a lower town occupied by Christians and Muslims. Thietmar cites three names for this castle; Petra in Latin, Monreal in French, and Scobach in the Saracen language (Arabic).110 From this same period is a detailed, mid-thirteenth century regional map of the Holy Land that describes Frankish Transjordan as it existed in the twelfth century. This map is generally associated with the Benedictine monk Matthew Paris (c. 1200-1259), a well-known historian, artist and cartographer. 111 Paris’ illustration of a politically idealized, historically intact, Frankish landscape (interspersed with locations of significance in earlier Christian history) includes castle-icons for Crag and Mount Real, both located east of the Dead Sea, and north of their actual locations. 112 While the map displays a nostalgic rendering of the fortresses of the former Oultrejourdain, it also reflects threads of political realism, for it is inscribed with notes referring to “Saracen” populations and “soldans” ruling Damascus, Egypt, and other neighboring regions.

Despite European enthusiasm for geographic knowledge, the accounts of Europeans who visited Palestine during the twelfth century tended to be vague and incomplete with respect to Frankish Transjordan, for these authors lacked personal knowledge of that territory and relied on historical impressions or copied the works of their predecessors. Among the earliest works are two descriptions (1137, 1148) of the Holy Land by Fretellus, Archdeacon of Nazareth, which mention a castle of Montréal (Mons Regalis) in Arabia, built by King Baldwin to subjugate that territory under Christendom.106 Later works, including the pilgrim accounts by John of Würzburg (Descriptio locorum Terre Sancte, c. 1160) and Theoderich (Libellus de locis sanctis, c. 1172), copy Fretellus’s statement on Montréal, but surprisingly make no mention of Petra Deserti / Crac, which is a stark omission given the castle’s conspicuous standing from 1142 onward.107 In contrast, William of Tyre (d. 1186), the prominent, native historian of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem during twelfth century, was well-versed in the geography of Oultrejourdain and the significant roles of its three primary fortresses.108 Also from the mid-to late twelfth century is perhaps the earliest European cartographic representation of medieval Transjordan. This anonymous, relatively well-informed map expresses a distinctly Frankish perception of the landscape of the Latin Kingdom, and was probably produced by an Italian cartographer. Notably, it portrays Crach and Mons Regalis by stylized castle-icons that are situated east of the Dead Sea. 109

Also from the thirteenth century is the Descriptio Terrae Sanctae of Burchard of Mount Sion, a Dominican monk who spent some years in Palestine (c. 1280-1283). His accompanying Holy Land map has not survived, but the geographic text in Burchard’s Descriptio provides a narrative of what would have been represented on the map. In this work, Second Arabia is described as “… that whose capital is the city of Petra, of old called Rabbath [Rabbah], on the brook Arnon [Wadi al-Mujib].” Third Arabia is “… that whose capital is Montréal, also called Krach, which once was called Petra Deserti [Petra in the Wilderness], standing near the Dead Sea. This Arabia contains the land of Moab, which should properly be called Syria Sobal, and all Idumaea … and all the country round about the Dead Sea…”. Burchard also cites the land of Moab as reaching to “… Petra Deserti, which is now called Krach,” and referring to the Dead Sea he states “about midway on its eastern shore is shown Montréal, which of old was called Petra Deserti, and now is called Krach, an exceedingly strong fortress built by Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, to enlarge the borders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.” 113 Bur-

The thirteenth century was an era of new crusades to recover territories lost after the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Magi105

Leopold (2000, pp. 8-51); Schein (1991). Fretellus, Descripcio cuiusdam de locis sanctis (c. 1137) and Liber locorum sanctorum terrae Jerusalem (c. 1148), in Boeren (1980, pp. 18, 56); see also Wilkinson (1988, pp. 12-16, 353). 107 John of Würzburg (1971, p. 61; Tobler 1874, p. 180); Theoderich (1971, p. 50; 1865, pp. 75-76). These texts refer to Montréal (... mons ille regalis, and ... mons ... qui appellatur Regalis) as a site conquered by King Baldwin of Jerusalem. They also cite Wadi Musa (... vallis ... quae Moysi appellatur and vallis Moisis) but in reference to a biblical story of Moses rather than to the Frankish fortification and settlement. 108 Several passages in William of Tyre refer to the constructions at Montréal, Petra Deserti / Crac, and Vallis Moysi (xi: 26 in 1986 [1], pp. 534-35ff.; xv: 21, xvi: 6, xxii: 29 [28] in 1986 [2], pp. 703-704, 721-22, 1056). ��� Röhricht (1895, p. 177, Taf. 5); Harvey (2003, pp. 55-56); Bartlett (2008, p. 10, fig. 2). The map resides in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenzian of Florence. 106

���Thietmar,

in Saint-Genois (n.d., p. 41). Proposed dates for this map, now at Oxford University’s Corpus Christi College, range from 1230 to 1265 and its origins have been ascribed to Paris (as author or copyist) or one of his successors (Harvey 2001, pp. 165-66, 168). 112 Röhricht (1895, pp. 178-80, Taf. 6); Bartlett (2008, pp. 11-13). 113 Translation by Stewart, in Burchardus de Monte Sion (1971, pp. 7-8, 111

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R. M. Brown: Kerak Castle In Crusader Oultrejourdain (Ad 1142-1188) chard acknowledged the source for his description of the districts of Transjordan and the locations of its principal castles as Jacques of Vitry (1219-1224) ,114 whose history was largely based on the history of William of Tyre (1184), a relatively authoritative work. Yet Burchard’s narrative is confused as it merges the sites of Petra Deserti / Crac and Montréal into one entity, which is described as a construction of Baldwin (as indeed was the origin of Montréal) but located east of the Dead Sea, in the place of Karak. At the same time, Burchard places another, earlier Petra at Aeropolis (Rabbah) The conflation of the two predominate Frankish castle sites may have been encouraged by the compound expression, Crac de Montréal, which emerged in the late twelfth century as a reference to Petra Deserti / Crac or, at times, to its region. 115 Burchard’s narrative became a popular work, influencing a number of later pilgrim authors and map makers, and leading to continued confusions over the former Frankish castle sites of Transjordan, despite the clarity offered by the history of William of Tyre and the travel narrative of Thietmar.

Among the recovery pleas of the fourteenth century is the work of Venetian merchant Marino Sanuto (the Elder) of Torcello (d. 1343), who devoted his later life to the creation and distribution of a logistical plan for the repossession of the Holy Land. Presented to Pope John XXII in 1321, and subsequently to European heads of state, Liber secretorum fidelium crucis super Terrae Sanctae recuperatione et conservatione contained a history of the Holy Land and several maps that were prepared by professional cartographer Pietro Vesconti, among them a gridded map of Palestine and Transjordan.118 Although drawing on Burchard and other earlier works, the Sanuto and Vesconti map carries exceptional detail and an attempt at precision as it was intended for practical use. In this work, the Frankish claim to Transjordan is indicated by the hilltop of Petra Deserti situated east of the Dead Sea, which is accompanied by the inscription, “here the sultan [soldan] deposits his treasures from Arabia and Egypt and (the place) is called Crac and Mons Regalis.”119 This inscription, equating Petra Deserti with Crac and Montréal, mirrors Burchard’s comment of several decades earlier. The same inscription is repeated in a version of the Sanuto and Vesconti map that appeared in Paolino Veneto’s Chronologia magna, another historical treatise dating to the first quarter of the fourteenth century.120

Burchard’s explanation of the geography of Frankish Transjordan, however muddled, enabled him to imagine locational relationships and reconcile the multiplicity of historic toponyms. Nevertheless, the author makes an apt comment on the status of Karak (Krach) in his time, stating “... now the sultan [soldan] holds it, and lays up therein all the treasures of Egypt and Arabia.”116 At the time of Burchard’s sojourn in Palestine, Transjordan was within the Mamluk domain and ruled by Sultan al-Mansur Qala’un (r. 1280-1290). Thus his expression shows clear understanding that Karak castle had held a substantial state treasury under the Mamluks. Apparently, Karak’s status as a repository of cash and valuables for the sultanate was more commonly perceived within Burchard’s community than the geographic relationship between the two primary castles of the former Frankish dominion. As Burchard’s Descriptio Terrae Sanctae gained wide popularity among Europeans, his comment referring to this treasury became an oft-repeated descriptor of Karak in the writings of later pilgrims. Burchard’s geography may have also influenced an anonymous cartographer whose map (c. 1300) displays artistic renderings of Holy Land sites, including a prominent representation of Petra Deserta as a castle. It has been suggested that this work not only illustrates Burchard’s narrative, but may even be a copy of his no longer surviving map. However, John Bartlett’s observation that this map may be an early draft (c. 1306) of a landmark map by Sanuto and Vesconti is perhaps more plausible.117

The repetition of Karak’s status as the treasury of the sultans continued to appear in writings through the fifteenth century. Ludolph von Suchem’s narrative of 1350 was based on contemporary accounts and his own travels in Palestine (1336-1341). His text, as presented in Incipit liber Ludlophi de itinere Terrae Sanctae, states “... the sultan [soldan] now always keeps his treasure in this castle, and his son and heir, and to this castle he flees in time of need.”121 This description of Karak’s functions under the Mamluks alludes to its capacity to serve as a refuge of the sultans, as well as citing the practice among some of the Qala’unids (1280-1382) of sending their young sons to Karak for education and experience with bedouin life styles, while at the same time conveniently exiling them from Cairo. As a result of their upbringing in Karak, both al-Nasir Muhammad and his son al-Nasir Ahmad maintained exceptionally strong ties to southern Transjordan. Early in the fifteenth century, the German pilgrim Johannes Poloner prepared a geographic narrative and map inspired by his Holy Land travels (1421-1422). While the map did not survive, it was undoubtedly influenced by the maps or

38, 58); see also Bartlett (2008, pp. 13-14). 114 Burchardus de Monte Sion (1971, p. 8). Jacques of Vitry was a native Frenchman appointed Bishop of Acre in 1214 and active in the Fifth Crusade. His historical treatise, known as Historia orientalis or Historia Hierosolymitana abbreviata (1219), was largely copied from William of Tyre, including the passages on Frankish Transjordan (Jacques of Vitry, 1971, pp. 6-7, 25, 34, 105-106). 115 One of the earliest appearances of Crac de Montréal as a toponym for Karak is in a January 1188 letter written by a preceptor of the Knights Templar to King Henry II of England (Deschamps 1937, p. 489). 116 Translation by Stewart, in Burchardus de Monte Sion (1971, p. 58). 117 This map is in the Archivio di Stato of Florence; see Röhricht (1891,

pp. 8-11, Taf. 1); Bartlett (2008, pp. 14,15, fig. 4); Harvey (2003, p. 57). 118 Röhricht (1898, pp. 84-126, Taf. 2); see also Sanuto (1971); Edson (2004); Harvey (2003, pp. 58-59); Tyerman (1982). 119 Hi[c] soldan[us] suos repo[n]it th[e]sauros Arabie et Egypti et d[ictitu]r Crac et Mô[n]s regalis; see Röhricht (1898, Taf. 2); Nebenzahl (1986, p, 45, pl. 15). The author is grateful to E. Axel Knauf of Bern University for this interpretation of the Latin text. 120 Degenhart and Schmitt (1973, p. 119, pl. 153). 121 In hoc castro Soldanus nunc semper habet suum thesaurum et filium suum successorem, et ad hoc castrum semper fugit tempore necessitatis; in Deycks (1851, p. 90). Translation by Stewart, in von Suchem (1971, p. 119).

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean (from Prologus Arminensis in mappam Terrae Sanctae), which cites “Petra Deserti that is Mons Regalis.” 127 This phrase recalls the expression “Crac and Mons Regalis” that was applied to the well-known 1321 map of Sanuto and Vesconti.128 Similarly, the phrase “Petra Deserti also Mons Regalis” appears on versions of the Ptolemaic Tabula Moderna Terre Sancte map that were distributed during the last quarter of the fifteenth century.129 The later fifteenth century map by pilgrims Bernhard von Breitenbach and Erhard Reuwich (1486) illustrates a hilltop fortress east of the Dead Sea labeled “Petra Deserti – the castle is so named.” 130 ­ In summary, the thirteenth through the fifteenth century maps show that European cartographers generally recognized the castle standing at Karak by the Latin names of Petra Deserti and Crac (and sometimes as a compound adding Montréal), and as having been the principal, Frankish-fortified settlement of the former Oultrejourdain. Yet while Petra Deserti (in the locus of Karak) continued to appear on European maps as the prominent symbol of the Frankish past in Transjordan, the fortress at Montréal (in the locus of Shawbak) was neglected, if not entirely forgotten, by cartographers, who followed Burchard of Mount Sion’s geography in merging its name (and actual being) with the castle at Petra Deserti. At the same time, Petra Deserti’s post-Frankish-era reputation as a treasury of the Muslim princes and sultans became an established theme in pilgrim literature, as is even apparent on the map of Sanuto and Vesconti (1321). This attribution was perpetuated for two hundred years, from the narrative of Burchard (1280) through the journal of Felix Fabri (1484), long after Karak’s role as a critical resource within the Mamluk domain waned toward the end of the fourteenth century. By the close of the fifteenth century, printed works, including bibles and bible maps, had become widespread in Europe. Holy Land maps from this period become more prolific and show a renewed emphasis on biblical scholarship, a trend that gained further momentum with the Protestant Reformation. 131 By this time, attention to the historical geography of the Crusader era had diminished, although Petra Deserti does linger on, most probably as a legacy from earlier compositions.

descriptions of Poloner’s predecessors, for the narrative cites Petra Deserti as the place of “... an impregnable castle once called Pirach (Kirach), where the sultan [soldan] lays up the treasures of Arabia and Egypt.”122 This assertion of Karak’s role as a treasury endured in pilgrim literature even into the late fifteenth century. Felix Fabri’s journal (1484) Evagatorium in Terrae Sanctae, Arabiae et Egypti peregrinationem refers to Petra Deserti as a castle where “... the sultan [soldan] put his eldest son ... and all his treasures; it is the treasure chamber of the sultans of Egypt.”123 It is clear that, from the time of Burchard (1280) onward, European visitors composing narrative geographies of the Holy Land gleaned their vague impressions of Transjordan from their predecessors, in much the same way as the twelfth century pilgrim writers had borrowed from one another, rather than introducing new knowledge. Both Ludolph von Suchem and Felix Fabri struggled with the Frankish topography of the terra incognita east of the Jordan Valley. In following clues from Thietmar’s authentic visit to Transjordan and probably Burchard’s imagined topography as well, von Suchem describes the strongest castle in the world as lying east of the Dead Sea and assuming the names of Montréal (from Latin), Schobach (from Chaldean), and Arab (from Arabic).124 While the location suits Karak, von Suchem’s description, which does not refer to Petra Deserti, is an elaborated version of Thietmar’s observations at Shawbak. Fabri continues this tradition of deriving information, yet he places the castle of Petra Deserti in the location of Shawbak, rather than east of the Dead Sea at Karak. Fabri’s description of the castle is yet another variation of Thietmar’s narrative on Shawbak, in which he lists its names as Petra Deserti (from Latin), Krach (from Saracen [Arabic]), and Schabat (from Greek). Following Burchard, he cites a second Petra (or Petraea) at Areopolis (which is presently Rabbah, not far north of Karak), which he explains as the former principal city of Arabia.125 Cartographers of the fifteenth century whose Holy Land maps include Transjordan appear to have been influenced more by the topographic representation of Frankish era as mapped by Sanuto and Vesconti (1321) than by the pilgrim narratives, although the latter are evident in some of these works as well. Thus Petra Deserti continued to appear on European maps during the second half of the fifteenth century, such as those prepared by pilgrims William Wey (1458-1462) and Gabriele Capodilista (1458).126 It is also found in the Burchard-influenced maps of Lucas Brandis (1475, 1478). Brandis’ 1478 composition is a typeset map

The long-standing Arabic toponym al-Karak does not appear on a European map until the 1810 publication of Ulrich Jasper Seetzen’s travel journal documenting his 1806 scientific expedition through the territory east of the Jordan River.132 A German scholar and explorer, Seetzen was the first European known to have traversed Transjordan

... aedificatum est inexpugnabile castrum quondam Pirach (Kirach), in quo soldanus suos deponit thesauros Arabiae et Aegypti; in Tobler (1874, p. 256). Translation by Stewart, in Poloner (1971, p. 25). 123 Capto autem eo Soldanus tunc existens filium suum primogenitum posuit ibi castellanum et Petrae deserti dominum, et omnes thesauros suos in eo recondidit tamquam in loco tutissimo, et hodie est camera thesaurorum Soldanorum regum Aegypti; in Hassler (1849, p. 169). Translation by Stewart, in Fabri (1971, p. 184). 124 Von Suchem, in Deycks (1851, pp. 89-90). 125 Fabri, in Hassler (1849, pp. 169-70). 126 See Bartlett (2008, pp. 24-25, pl. 5); Nebenzahl (1986, p. 54, pl. 18). 122

127

Brandis 1475, in Nebenzahl (1986, p. 61, pl. 20); Brandis 1478, in Röhricht (1898, Taf. 11); Bartlett (2008, p. 29, fig. 8). 128 Petra deserti·i·môs reab (petra deserti i[d est] mo[n]s re[g]al[is]). The author is grateful to E. Axel Knauf for this interpretation of the Latin toponym in the Brandis map of 1478 (contra Röhrich 1898, Taf. 11). 129 Petra deserti vel mons regalis, in Bartlett (2008, pl. 9). 130 Petra deserti, castru(m) sic appellant(ur); see Röhricht (1901, pp. 84-126); Nebenzahl (1986, p. 64, pl. 21). 131 Bartlett (2008, p. 25). 132 Seetzen (1810, front piece).

170

R. M. Brown: Kerak Castle In Crusader Oultrejourdain (Ad 1142-1188) since the medieval pilgrim Magister Thietmar crossed the southern highlands from Karak to Shawbak in 1217. Seetzen’s narrative shows a strong interest in the Decapolis cities, but he also referred to a number of biblical sites, a well as the modern towns. The map that accompanies the 1810 volume was prepared by the publisher, who included a selection of the locations noted in the text. Citing numerous places named in scripture and Classical texts, this map is consistent with the long established interpretation of Transjordan as a landscape that is familiar to European audiences for its Christian heritage. Significantly, the map also cites contemporary points of reference, including Salt, Amman, Madaba, and Karak, which were among the few settled towns in central Transjordan at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In the introduction to the text, the publisher emphasized the unusual significance of Seetzen’s 1806 exploration by declaring Transjordan as one of very few places across the globe to be completely unknown to Europeans. The publisher carefully underscores the book’s unique purpose as revealing new knowledge of an ancient terrain through authentic experience.133 It is clear, however, that among the historical layers described in Seetzen’s journal and on the publisher’s map, the medieval era from the twelfth century Crusader period through the following thirteenth to fifteenth centuries is not represented. In this respect, Petra Deserti and its cognates have vanished. 134

Geburtstag, 33-58. Petersberg. Boeren, P. C. 1980. Rorgo Fretellus de Nazareth et sa Description de la Terre Sainte: histoire et edition du texte. Amsterdam. Brooker, C. H. and Knauf, E. A. 1988. Notes on Crusader Transjordan. “Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins” 104, 184-188. Brown, R. M., 1987. A 12th century A.D. sequence from southern Transjordan: Crusader and Ayyubid occupation at el-Wu`eira. “Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan” 31, 267-288. Brown, R. M. 1988. Summary report of the 1986 excavations: Late Islamic Shobak, “Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan” 32, 225-245. Brown, R. M., 1989. Excavations in the 14th century A. D. Mamluk palace at Kerak. “Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan” 33, 287-304. Brown, R. M., 2007. Karak Castle / Qal`at al-Karak. In The Chicago Online Encyclopedia of Mamluk Studies. Brown, R. M. and Rielly, K., forthcoming. A twelfth century faunal assemblage from al-Wu`ayra in the southern highlands of Jordan. “Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan”, 54. Burchardus de Monte Sion, 1971. Burchard of Mount Sion: A.D. 1280, A. Stewart, trans. New York. Chevedden, P. 2000. The invention of the counterweight trebuchet: a study in cultural diffusion. “Dumbarton Oaks Papers” 54, 71-116. Combe, E., Sauvaget, J., and Wiet, G. (eds.), 1939. Répertoire chronologique d’épigraphie arabe, 10. Connelly, D. K. 1999. Imagined pilgrimage in the itinerary maps of Matthew Paris. “Art Bulletin”, 81 (4), 598-622. Corbino, C., and Mazza, P. 2009. How and where did the inhabitants of Shawbak Castle live? The faunal remains. “Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan” 10, 679-684. Degenhart, B. and Schmitt, A. 1973. Marino Sanudo und Paolino Veneto: Zwei Literaten des 14. Jahrhunderts in ihrer Wirkung auf Buchillustierung und Kartographie in Venedig, Avignon und Neapel. “Römisches Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte” 14, 1-137. Delano-Smith, C., 2004. The intelligent pilgrim: maps and medieval pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in R. Allen, ed., Eastward bound: travel and travellers, 1050-1550. Manchester. Delaville Le Roulx, J. 1894. Cartulaire général de l’ordre des Hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem (1100-1310), vol. 1. Paris. De Meulemeester, J. and Pringle, D. 2008. Die Burg Kerak (al-Karak) in Jordanien, in M. Piana, ed., Burgen und Städte der Kreuzzugszeit, 336-342. Petersberg. Deschamps, P., 1937. Les deux Cracs des croisés, “Journal Asiatique”, 229, 494-500. Deschamps, P. 1939. Les châteaux des croisés en Terre Sainte. II, La défense du royaume de Jérusalem: étude historique, géographique et monumentale. Paris. Devais, C., 2008. L’expression du pouvoir aux frontières du royaume de Jérusalem: terre de Suète et Oultre-

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Figure 1: Map: Major Fortified Sites in southern Transjordan during the Crusader era.

Figure 2: Karak Castle: schematic plan of the upper castle (after Biller et al. 1999: fig. 9). Adapted and reprinted with permission of Thomas Biller.

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R. M. Brown: Kerak Castle In Crusader Oultrejourdain (Ad 1142-1188)

Figure 3: Karak Castle: plan of the chapel and sacristy (after Pringle 1993: fig. 84). Adapted and reprinted with permission of Denys Pringle.

Figure 4: References to Petra Deserti and Montréal in European Maps from the twelfth to the fifteenth century.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

FROM JERICHO TO KARAK BY WAY OF ZUGHAR: SEAFARING ON THE DEAD SEA IN THE 12TH13TH CENTURIES Joseph Greene Semitic Museum - Harvard University

Abstract(2008) Through much of the 12th century the eastern frontier of Oultrejourda in enclosed the Dead Sea, and on this andlocked lake Crusader-era shipping flourished. Evidence for this is copious but indirect. Written accounts in both Latin and Arabic agree that ships sailed the Dead Sea during the Crusading era, carrying cargoes between Jericho and Zughar, on the lake’s southeastern shore. Direct evidence, however, is sparse. Unlike the medieval Mediterranean, the Dead Sea itself has yielded up no medieval shipwrecks, no sunken cargoes, and no remains of medieval ports around its shores. There were, however, much earlier and much later episodes of Dead Sea seafaring that offer evidence suggesting how this medieval maritime enterprise came into being. These parallel episodes also suggest how to understand the political, economic, and social conditions under which Crusader-era shipping operated, and how changes in those conditions eventually led to its abandonment. Evidence for these other episodes of Dead Sea seafaring is widely assorted, consisting of inter alia written accounts ancient, medieval and modern; a geologically-derived reconstruction of the millennia-long sequence of periodic fluctuations in Dead Sea levels; ancient archaeological remains around the Dead Sea shore; and for the very latest period, photographs of actual Dead Sea sailing vessels. Bringing together these disparate strands of evidence—archaeological, geological, textual, artifactual — it is possible to sketch a preliminary maritime history of the Dead Sea in the era of the Crusades, to trace factors common in successive episodes of Dead Sea seafaring before, during and after that era, and finally to suggest directions for future research.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, aVannini cura diG., G. Nucciotti Vannini e M. M. (a Nucciotti cura di),, BAR, Oxford, 2012

BIOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF MIGRATION AS EVIDENCED BY SKELETONS FROM THE TWELFTH CENTURY FRANKISH CASTELLUM VALLIS MOYSIS, JORDAN (AL-WU’AYRA) Jerome C. Rose University of Arkansas Ali Khwaleh A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011 Abstract (2008) The European Crusades into the Levant were not passing military operations, but ones of conquest and settlement. Crusader success resulted in permanent occupation by Europeans, construction of substantial residential-administrative castles, churches and monasteries; and creation of kingdoms with a European flavor to their economics and way of life. The migration of people from one area to another where there are major differences in climate and ecology requires the population to adapt behaviorally and biologically. Consequences of a failure to change the pattern of living (adaptation) can be any combination of early death, increased incidence or new disease and nutritional deficiencies. Thus, analysis of 16 skeletons from the Al-Wu’ayra castle, located within the Petra system, offered a great opportunity to assess the impact on the Europeans who migrated into a different environment without changing their way of life. Between 1996 and 1998, the Università Degli Studi di Firenze conducted an extensive survey and limited excavations at the Crusader castle of Al-Wuayra (Castellum Vallis Moysis). The fortified church is the main structure remaining within the castle and excavations focused on identifying the original structures and reconstructing the sequence of construction. During this work the 16 burials discussed here were discovered buried in graves cut into the bedrock alongside of the entrance ramp into the church. The single adult consisted only of skull, hand, and foot fragments, along with a few teeth. This collection is unusual in having such a high proportion (94%) of subadults. There are two possible premature births (12%), seven dying at or near birth (44%), four dying during the first year (25%), and two older children (12%). One third of these skeletons display erosional surfaces of the cranium and long bones that have a coral-like character suggesting a pathological process involving bone resorption without (or very little) new bone formation. Comparing these lesions to the published literature eliminated the most common chronic bacterial infections and led us to look at a variety of deficiency diseases with scurvy (deficiency of vitamin C) being chosen as the most likely diagnosis. The skeletal lesions suggests that there was something more involved than simply scurvy. One common problem in these latitudes is folic acid deficiency. Folic acid is destroyed by ultraviolet light as it passes through the capillaries of the skin, and, thus, fair skinned Europeans living in sunny locals could experience folic acid deficiency with even minimal dietary restrictions. Taken together these deficiencies might explain all of the observed bony lesions as well as the high neonatal mortality rate due to nutritional deficiency and compromised immune systems. When these Western Europeans attempted to live in a new environment without changing their way of living we can expect and do find consequences of this failure to adapt.

The European Crusades into the Levant were not passing military operations, but ones of conquest and settlement. Crusader success resulted in permanent occupation by Europeans, construction of substantial residential/defensive castles along with churches and communities; and creation of kingdoms and principalities with a European flavor to their economics and way of life. When the biology of a population and its cultural behaviors are in balance or adaptation with its particular residential eco-zone, we can expect reasonable health and longevity. When out of balance, there can be serious consequences such as stunted human growth, increased disease, and shortened lifespans. The migration of people from one area to another with major differences in climate and ecology requires the population to adapt behaviorally to minimize mismatch between behavior and the environment. Consequences of a failure to change the pattern of living (adaptation) can be any combination of early death, increased incidence or new disease, and nutritional deficiencies (Mitchell 1998). Some of the consequences of this failure to adapt can be found on the skeletons long after death. The analysis of 16 individuals excavated from the Crusader Castle of Al-Wu’ayra (Castellum Vallis Moysis) located just outside the main site of Petra in southern Jordan offered a great opportunity to assess the consequences for Europeans who migrated to the hot and dry environment of the holy land without changing their way of life.

numerous loci of scattered human bone were encountered during the clearing operation. Ultimately a series of graves were found cut into the bedrock adjacent to the castle church. Stratigraphic relationships of the walls and grave plasterings demonstrate that the graves are contemporaneous with the structures. In addition to the normally scheduled excavations, in 1997, a team of students and faculty from Yarmouk University and the University of Arkansas were invited to complete the excavation of two graves. The skeletal remains from all excavation seasons were transported to the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Yarmouk University (Irbid, Jordan) for cleaning and analysis. The bones were cleaned by dry brushing and limited washing with water. The skeletal remains from both graves and comingled contexts were laid out in anatomical order and bones from each provenience were compared to all the other sets of bones. Using the criteria of color, size and developmental stage, the bones were grouped to produce a total of 16 individuals (1-16). Most bones were easily assigned to individuals because the differences in bone length between infants just a few months older or younger are easily observed. Age was determined by dental development supplemented by epiphyseal changes. In those cases where teeth were not available, long bone lengths were compared to those aged by the teeth and ages at death were assigned by fitting them into the birth to six year bone length sequence. To ensure that the skeletons assembled from the commingled remains all belonged to the same individual, age was calcu-

Between 1996 and 1998, the Università Degli Studi di Firenze conducted limited excavations at Al-Wu’ayra and 177

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean lated from each long bone length using a growth chart and all of the long bone lengths from the same individual had to produce the same estimated age at death. Consistency of age from long bone lengths was found for all except Individual 3, which might in fact be two individuals. Sex cannot be determined for subadult skeletons. All bones were visually examined for pathological lesions and all surface irregularities were compared to the published literature as well as infant and subadult bones from study collections in Jordan, Egypt, and North America. All possible lesions were then examined with a stereomicroscope to differentiate between postmortem erosion and alterations of the bone caused by disease processes. Some of the lesions were X-rayed. Diagnosis proved difficult and all of the bones were examined on three separate occasions between 1997 and 2002. The final determinations are presented below. Because Individual 11 is the only adult and consists of a few fragments all further discussion will be confined to the subadults.

Individual 14: birth to 3 months; 80% complete; cribra orbitalia; extensive porosity of the sphenoids, temporals, basio-occipital, mandible and maxilla. Individual 15: at birth; 40% complete; no pathological lesions. Individual 16: at birth; 50% complete; porosity of left mandible body, sphenoid, eye orbits, temporals, and ribs. Comparison of the Al-Wu’ayra skeletons to those from the 12th-13th century site of Tel Jezreel in Israel is relevant because these 50 children were buried beside the village church in an area that appears to be the children’s section of the cemetery for the local Syrian Christian farmers residing within the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (Mitchell 2006). Ethnic origin cannot be established for the AlWu’ayra skeletal remains, but burial inside the castle adjacent to the church suggests that these infants belonged to the castle inhabitants and were presumably European. There are no skeletal indicators that suggest otherwise. The assumption at this point is that the Al-Wu’ayra skeletons represents the progeny of migrants not adapted to the environment, while those from Tel Jezreel represent the progeny of the locals who are adapted to the environment. Comparison of the ages at death from Al-Wu’ayra and Tel Jezreel points to interesting differences: possible premature births at Al-Wu’ayra 13% and at Tel Jezreel 8%; birth to one month 41% and 26%; birth to 1 year 33% and 30%; older than 1 year 13% and 36%. They both have the same number of premature births (less than full term) and those dying during the first year, while Al-Wu’ayra differs by having almost twice as many dying at birth and only one third the proportion dying after 1 year as Tel Jezreel. This suggests that the women of the castle were having trouble bringing their children to term and keeping them alive after birth. Because 53% of the skeletons show abnormal bone surfaces and 54% died at or just before birth, a common, yet severe, infectious disease was thought to be the cause, but even after two additional comprehensive examinations, conducted over a span of 4 years, the general pattern of lesions could not be matched to any infectious disease. Having eliminated bacterial infections, a variety of deficiency diseases, and in particular scurvy (deficiency of vitamin C), seemed the most likely candidate (Aufderheide and Rodríguez-Martín 1998). The most convincing comparative data were provided by a large survey of subadult scurvy cases from North America (Ortner et al. 2001). The extensive porosity and coral-like nature of the bone surfaces of the Al-Wu’ayra infants match the photographs provided for the sphenoid, maxilla, mandible, and long bones (Ortner et al. 2001). The distribution of lesions on the cranium, mandible and postcranial bones is also congruent. Considering only the individuals with skulls 27% exhibit cribra orbitalia, 64% lesions on the maxilla, 54% lesions of the sphenoid and temporal, and 45% lesions elsewhere on the skull. Despite the match between the lesions and scurvy it was difficult to accept this as the cause because the abundant fruit in the Levant should have provided sufficient

Individual 1: birth to 6 months; 95% complete; both temporal bones have large areas of porosity and bone formation (Figure 1); mandible (lower jaw) and right lower face (maxilla) exhibit widespread porosity of the cortical surfaces with new bone on the face (Figure 2); cribra orbitalia of both eyes;and ribs exhibit porosity. Individual 2,: 6 to 9 months; 40% complete; porosity is scattered throughout the skeleton; both eye orbits have cribra orbitalia; the lower forehead directly above the nose has a coral like texture; focal porosity penetrates bone just posterior to the right auditory meatus; less profound porosities are anterior to the meatus on the left temporal bone; and the vertebral arches, ribs and long bones display porosity. Individual 3: birth to 6 months; 40% complete; no pathological lesions. Individual 4: 5 to 6.5 years; 98% complete; no pathological lesions. Individual 5: at birth; 95% complete; porosity and new bone formation just posterior to the left auditory meatus and on the mandible. Individual 6: 6 months; 70% complete; and proliferative lesions with porosity on the proximal radius and humerus midshafts. Individual 7: at birth; 70% complete: porosity of the occipital, mandible, maxilla and ribs. Individual 8: 1month premature to birth; 95% complete; no pathological lesions. Individual 9: 1month premature to birth; 50% complete; no pathological lesions. Individual 10: at birth; 30% complete; no pathological lesions. Individual 11: young adult (20 to 35 years); 5% complete; no pathological lesions. Individual 12: 4 to 6 years; 80% complete; no pathological lesions. Individual 13: at birth; 20% complete; all bones have active surfaces with a coral like texture including both temporals. 178

J C. Rose, A. Kwaleh:biological Concequences Of Migration As Evidenced By Skeletons From Al Wu’aira vitamin C. However, between the first tentative diagnoses and the present time, cases of subadult scurvy reported for the Middle East and other areas of Europe have become more numerous. Subadult scurvy has been reported from the Early Byzantine of both Crete, the Peloponnese (Bourbou 2003) and Turkey (Schultz and Schmidt-Schultz 2000) indicating its presence in the Middle East prior to the Crusades. Mitchell (2004, 185-186) suggests that the symptoms of the Crusaders fighting in the Egyptian delta in 1250 indicate scurvy. Brickley and Ives (2008) report two cases of infant scurvy from a historic church in England, while Agnew et al. (2008) report a case from medieval Poland. Mays (2008, p.184) describes a two-yearold infant with scurvy from Early Bronze Age Britain and comments that prior to the work of Ortner and colleagues that (similar to the problem here) many cases of scurvy went undiagnosed. In all of these cases the lesions resemble those observed at Al-Wu’ayra. In conclusion, infantile scurvy has a long history in Europe and the Middle East, it was present in the Middle East before the Crusades, the recently published lesions all resemble those found at AlWu’ayra and, thus, scurvy appears be one cause of the lesions observed. Mitchell (2006) states in his comparison of the paleopathology of the locals (Tel Jezreel) with the migrants (AlWu’ayra) that the locals are better adapted having far fewer pathological lesions and a better at birth survival rate. The elevated level of deaths at birth, the presence of cribra orbitalia hinting at anemia, and the high frequency of lesions attributed to scurvy all suggest that something more than vitamin C deficiency is involved. The interaction of vitamin C, iron metabolism, and folic acid is well known and deficiencies of any combination of these nutrients can result in anemia (Aufderheide and RodríguezMartín 1998, 310). Folic acid deficiency can result in complications of pregnancy, fetal abnormalities, severe anemia, and decreased survival after birth (Jablonsky and Chaplin 2000; Jablonsky 2004; Parra 2007). The literature clearly establishes that folic acid deficiency is detrimental to reproductive success. The relationship of high frequencies of birth defects and problem pregnancies with folic acid deficiency in modern groups living in the subtropical and tropical populations (Ramakant 2007) has resulted in rethinking the relationship between skin color and nutritional deficiencies (Jablonsky and Chaplin 2000). It has long been known that light colored skin in the northern latitudes is necessary to permit ultraviolet light to aid in the production of vitamin D in the skin, but more recently it has clearly been established that dark skin in the lower latitudes is necessary to prevent ultraviolet light from destroying folic acid in the capillaries (Jablonsky and Chaplin 2000; Jablonsky 2004; Parra 2007). Thus, if we have lighter skinned people from Western Europe who are adapted to permitting maximum penetration of ultraviolet light for vitamin D production migrate to the middle east with its dry sunny climate (where the adaptation is for darker skin for blocking ultraviolet light) while maintaining the same cultural behaviors and diet, then we might expect increased ultraviolet light exposure, destruction of folic acid,

and an increase in problem pregnancies (Jablonsky and Chaplin 2000; Jablonsky 2004). This argument suggests that the lesions observed on the skeletons and the elevated neonatal mortality rate at Al-Wu’ayra are due to a combination of vitamin C and folic acid deficiencies caused by a failed attempt to adapt a European diet and behaviors to local circumstance and excessive exposure of light-skinned mothers to sunlight in southern Jordan. Crusaders were immigrants from another environment (Europe) who came to the Holy Land and lived under ecological conditions different from those to which they were adapted. They resided in their castles following much of their traditional way of life with all the health problems of crowding, poor sanitation, and dietary limitations, unlike their Moslem neighbors and antagonists. Excavations at Al-Wu’ayra produced the skeletal remains of 15 infants and one adult from graves and disturbed features adjacent to the castle church. The age distribution shows a pattern of high fertility and high neonatal mortality. The skeletal evidence for scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) is clear and indicates dietary deficiency probably related to an inappropriate diet. The severity of these lesions combined with the elevated neonatal mortality suggests that folic acid deficiency resulting from low intake due to a traditional diet and over exposure to ultraviolet radiation by a light skinned people living in a high sunlight region was also a major problem. In short, the inhabitants of Castellum Vallis Moysis maintained many of their traditional behaviors that were not adapted to their new home that resulted in vitamin C and folic acid deficiencies that clearly compromised the survival of its infants. The severity and frequency of the lesions and elevated neonatal mortality far exceed the rates of the contemporary local inhabitants at Tel Jezreel (Mitchell 2006). Acknowledgments: We thank Dr. Tarja Formisto for her excellent advice in documenting the pathological lesions from these skeletons, and Dr. Piers Mitchell for helpful discussion, references to the literature, and useful comments on the paper over the past years. I profited from all of this help, but all errors in diagnosis are mine. BIBLIOGRAPHY Aufderheide, A.C. and Rodríguez-Martín, C. 1998. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Paleopathology. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Bourbou, C. 2003. Health Patterns of Proto-Byzantine Populations (6th – 7th Centuries Ad) in South Greece: the Cases of Eleutherna (Crete) and Messene (Peloponnese). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 13, 303-313. Brickley, M. and Ives, R. 2006. Skeletal Manifestations of Infantile Scurvy. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 129, 163-172. Jablonski, N. 2004. The Evolution of Human Skin and Skin Colo. Annual Review of Anthropology 33, 585-623. Jablonski, N. and Chaplin G. 2000. The Evolution of Human Skin Color, Journal of Human Evolution, 39, 57-106. 179

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Mays, S. 2008. A Likely Case of Scurvy From Early Bronze Age Britain. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 18, 178-187. Mitchell, P.D. 1998. The Archaeological Approach to the Study of Disease in the Crusader States, as Employed at Le Petit Gerin, in The Military Orders. Volume 2. Welfare and Warfare. (H. Nicholson, Ed.), 43-50. Aldershot, Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Mitchell, P.D. 2004. Medicine in the Crusades: Warfare, Wounds and the Medieval Surgeon. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Mitchell, P.D. 2006. Child Health in the Crusader Period Inhabitants of Tel Jezreel, Israel. Levant 38, 37-44. Ortner, D.J., W. Butler, Cafarella, J. and Milligan, L.

2001. Evidence of Probable Scurvy in Subadults from Archeological Sites in North America. American. Journal of Physical Anthropology 114, 343-351. Para, E. J. 2007. Human Pigmentation Variation: Evolution, Genetic Basis, and Implications for Public Health. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 50, 85-105. Ramakant, B. 2007. India Moh Alert on Iron-deficiency Anaemia, Scoop, Tuesday, 22 May, 10:54am, . Schultz, M. and Schmidt-Schultz, T.H. 2000. Childhood in Early Byzantine Anatolia- Etiology and Epidemiology in the Subadult Population from Arslantepe (Turkey), Paper presentation, Annual Meeting of the Paleopathology Association. San Antonio, Texas. April.

Figure 1. Temporal bone of Individual 1 showing bone destruction

Figure 2. Maxilla of Individual 1 showing bone destruction.

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RURAL SETTLEMENTS IN SOUTHERN TRANSJORDAN PRIOR AND THROUGHOUT THE AYYUBID – MAMLUK PERIODS Basema Hamarneh Università Kore di Enna A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011 Abstract (2008) This paper aims on collecting the evidence coming from both literary sources, surveys and archaeological excavations of rural settlements in Southern Jordan in order to investigate the modality of emplacement of villages in relation to viability centres, trade and pilgrimage routs. The analysis of the topographic assessment of the upper mentioned settlements during the Ayyubid-Mamluk Periods will also consider the relation with earlier Fatimid settlements in the same area. This may help us to focus on terms of the influence of the urban model on each village and in particular to analyse the aspects of habitat morphology and assessment, territorial exploitation, demographic growth and population. Further more the examination of juridical terms that appear in literary sources may shed light on aspects of land property, taxation and role of local governors in building or adaptation of existing structures.

Filastin,4 the same administrative structure was maintained under the Fatimids with additional division in kura. During the Omayyad and Abbasid periods, a gradual and significant transformation of the rural landscape took place, correlated to intensive land exploitation as can be evinced from the establishment of new settlement patterns, sites rose near important viability crossroads and included a network of terraced wadis (Haiman 1995, 297-298) and were provided by sophisticated catchment and water management arrangements (Hamarneh 2009, forthcoming). A relatively prosperous agrarian economy was conveyed of parallel operating realities: Byzantine villages and Omayyad latifundia5, it may be also suggested that this phenomenon was initiated by the state to control the Nomad tribes particularly active in the desert areas and thus protect major communication routes. These features were supported by written sources that mention the possession of several members of the new elite of land in the Balqa’ and report the interest of the rulers themselves in large scale agricultural investment (Kennedy 1992, 293). The Omayyad compounds, were used as inhabited units of a clan or a family group mainly to administrate substantial landholdings as a sort of a “colony” raised independent from the religious stand point by the construction of small mosques. Large scheme agricultural estates that featured similar lines and were fully oriented towards economic activities can be observed in the area of Mushash, Azraq-alJiyashi, Shuqayra al-Gharbiyya (Karak) (Al Shdaifat, Al Tarawneh, Ben Badhan 2006, 206-210), al- Mutrab - Khirbat al-Samra – al-Hammam (Ma’an) (Genequand 2003, 25-34) and seems far more developed on the fringes of byzantine villages in Palaestina Tertia even though our knowledge of such settlements is still archaeologically limited. Equally important is to understand if these large estates were connected either among each other or to a

The area of southern Transjordan, corresponds roughly to the province of Palaestina Tertia Salutaris, has experienced an incredibly continued economic prosperity especially in late Byzantine and Islamic periods. Its territory stretched from the natural border of Wadi Mujeb – Arnon until Ayla – Aqaba and included a high number of villages well evidenced in surveys and regional studies1. In the Byzantine period, the territorial organization of Palaestina Tertia in urban and rural centres is attested since the first decades of the 4th century: funerary inscriptions coming from Zoara – Ghor es-Safi mention the burial of Bishop Apses in AD 369 and document a flourishing Christian community during the 5th-8th centuries (Meimaris, Kritikakou – Nikolaropoulou 2005, n. 27, 123-124). Further epigraphic material comes from the villages of An-Naq; Umm Tawabeen, Khirbet Isa, Feinan and Khirbet Qazone (Meimaris, Kritikakou – Nikolaropoulou 2008, 23-28). Moving towards Karak several sites are mentioned in literary sources, and documented by ecclesiastical compounds and inscriptions (Figure 1) as in the villages of: Mahna; Mu’ta; Ainun; Samrah, el-Frang; el-Thaniyye; Azra; Kefeiraz, Juwir; Majra; al-Araq, Ga’fa; Sul; Al-Amaqa; Rugm Sakhari, al-Aina, Nakhl and Duweikhle.2 A relevant contribution on the assessment of the province is given by Petra papyri, that displays the general conditions and prosperity of Petra and its hinterland in the 6th century (Fiema 2002, 213-214). The recent discovery of the church of the Theotokos at al-Rashidiyah, on the road between Petra and Tafila dated to AD 573/743 must be included in this general overview, though less intensive investigation work has been so far conduced in the districts of Tafila and Ma’an. According to early Arab geographers the area of southern Jordan, during the early islamic period (Figure 2), included the districts of Ma’ab, al-Sharat and Jibal, falling in the jurisdiction of Jund Dimashq and Jund

4

The territorial identification of the districts of Ma’ab, Al-Sharat and Jibal by early Arab geographers between the 9th and 10th centuries vary. For details see Schick 1997, 73-75; Walmsley 2005, 511-512; Milwright stresses on the lack of evidence on the governmental structures of the area of southern Jordan prior to the first Crusader expedition. See Milwright 2008, 27. 5 Northedge 1992, 50; The creation of agricultural latifundia may have been also initiated by the state to control the movement of Nomad tribes. For discussion and bibliography see: Haiman 1995, 297.

1

For a comprehensive analysis of rural settlements in the Byzantine and early Islamic period see Hamarneh 2003, 23-29. 2 Also see Canova 1954; for new material from the southern Kerak plateau see Meimaris, Mahasneh, Kritikakou – Nikolaropoulou 2007, 530-560. 3 The village of el-Rashidiyah, situated near Buseira on the Petra – Tafila road, has yielded recently a Byzantine church. The excavation report is published in: Mahamid 2003, 7-16; for the inscription see Di Segni 2006, 587-589.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean larger qasr/estate owned by an eminent member of the ruling dynasty that may have exercised a sort of control on taxation and productivity. The case of Ma’an identified with Kastron Ammatha is worth mentioning. According to Ibn ‘Asakir in “Tarikh Madinat Dimashq” a Qasr and a garden in Ma’an in Balqa were owned by one of the Banu Omayya (Genequand 2003, 25; Hamarneh 2009, forthcoming������������������� ), later the allotment was enlarged as al-Istakhri and Ibn Hawqal mentions a fortress inhabited by the Omayyads and their mawali. The phenomenon can be also monitored in al-Humaima, were members of Abbasid family bought the qaria and later transformed it to their enclave building a qasr, a mosque, a garden and implanting 500 olive trees (Oleson, Baker, de Bruijn, Foote, Logan, Reeves, Sherwood 2003, 55-59; Schick 2007, 346-347). The agricultural potential of Southern Transjordan followed roughly the affluence of socio-economic groups and seems to change assessment in the 9th-11th century during the Fatimid and Seljuk rules. Early Islamic geographers identify the districts of Ma’ab, al-Sharat and al-Jibal and enumerate several centres as Arandal, Ma’ab, Zughar, Mu’ta, Adruh and Humeima. It is worthy to mention that all sites listed above had an important occupation phase in late antiquity and early islamic period. Al-Istakhri in AD 951 describes the kura of al-Jibal and al-Shara as highly fertile (Al Istakhri 1870, 58), similar is the impression of Ibn-Hauqal in AD 978 (Ibn Hawqal 1938, 173). Later, during the 12th century Jibal and al-Sharat are listed as “very fruitful and have many trees of olives, almonds, figs, vines and pomegranates” (Al Idrisi, 357; Le Strange 1890, 35; Milwright 2008, 113), along with large quantities of wheat, barley, olives and fruits. ll-Muqaddasi gives more specific information of the general economic condition of several centres of the province as in the case of Zoara, Sughar (Ghor es-Safi) (Al- Muqaddasi 1886, 62-63, 69), his observations are effectively valuable to monitor an important example of continuity throughout the 6th – 10th century. The mentioned town seems to be an important market place for indigo and dates (Goitein 1983, 45, n. 228; Schick 1992, 75), products that travelled to northern Arabia, Egypt and Jericho.6 In the 12th century Sughar is described as fruitful with many palm trees. In the Karak region, Ma’ab (al-Rabba) is mentioned to be in a district with many villages that cultivated almonds and grapes (Al-Muqaddasi 1886, 63). Ma’an also finds its way into the writings of geographers as an important pilgrim halt, administrative centre and market place for fruits, vegetables and slaves (Genequand 2003, 26). Thus the development of towns and villages was highly dependant on revenues obtained from cultivated land and commercial exchange of products and services. The unquestionable economic and strategic value of southern Jordan was due to the vital importance of the networks (Figure 3) passing through the region for commercial traffic from Ayla, through the Karak plateau to Damascus and other urban centres of Syria. The pre-eminent factor

for the continuity of settlement in the area was certainly connected to the transit of the annual Hajj to Mecca and Medina (Milwright 2006, 3), that stopped in the stations of Udruh and Ma’an, passing by important shrines as Mu’ta and Mazar particularly relevant since the early Fatimid period7, while Egyptian pilgrimage maintained its transit point through Aqaba-Ayla.8 The intense political conflict in the area in the 11th century followed by the gradual withdrawal of the Fatimids and the establishment of the Barony of Oultrejourdain, also known as Syria Sobal and terra trans Jordanem under control of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, had important political and economic repercussions on the economic history of the area, on one hand the Crusaders seeked to extend their control on one of the main routes between Cairo and Damascus, in order to obtain direct economic benefit from payments from travelling of commercial and religious carovans;9 on the other they targeted the flourishing agricultural economy as most of the villages and towns of the region were connected into trading networks operating within Bilad esh-Sham. The building policy of the Crusaders was addressed to determinate this intent in fact the fortresses of Karak – Crac de Montréal (Figure 4) (Vannini 2007, 10-21), Shawbak – Montréal (Figures 5-6), Wua’yra – Vaux Moïse, TafilaTraphyla, al-Habis and Aqaba - Ayla, formed a significant system of installations (Pringle 2001, 678) had succeeded in impeding communications between Syria and Egypt according to a later text by Yaqut al-Hamawi.10 The upper mentioned strongholds were apparently attached to urban development that provided the necessary means of subsistence, the habitat was probably not walled and had direct accesses to the cultivated land and nearby villages. The annexed civilian settlement was probably composed by Christian population as attested by Abu alFida and al-Maqrizi, crusader chronicles also state that in the beginning of the 12th century Arab Christians from the Karak plateau were brought by the crusader king to repopulate Jerusalem and its surrounding areas.11 On the other 7

The shrine build over the tomb of Ja’far Ibn Abi Talib, ‘Ali’s brother was particularly relevant for the Shi’ite Fatimids. Schick 1997, 76; the development of the shrine is also attested under the Ayyubid rule. See Johns 1998, 81. 8 Schick 1997, 76-77. The account of Ibn Battuta (d. 1377) mentions that caravans travelled to Hijaz through Zizia, and stopped for four days in the locality of eth-Thaniyya, situated about 4 km east of Karak, in order to buy provisions for their journey towards Mecca. Ibn Battuta, 255-257; Milwright 2008, 111. 9 For discussion and bibliography see also Milwright 2006, 4. According to Albert of Aix and Ibn al-Qalanisi, raiding of merchants was also practiced by the newly settled Crusaders: Albert of Aix, 702-703; Ibn al-Qalanisi, 183; also Milwright 2008, 114. 10 According to Yaqut (d. 1229): ‘owing to the construction [of Shawbak] the passage from Egypt to Syria was blocked’. Oliver of Paderborn (d. 1227) also states: ‘Now there are two palaces [Karak and Shawbak] located in Arabia, which have seven very strong fortresses through which merchants of the saracens and pilgrims, going to Mecca or returning from it, usually cross; and whoever holds them in his power can seriously injure Jerusalem with her fields and vineyards when he wishes.’ See Gavigan 1971, 84-86. 11 According to William of Tyre: ‘The king (Baldwin I) felt that the responsibility for relieving the desolation of the City (Jerusalem) rested upon him. Accordingly, he made careful investigation in regard to some sources whence he may obtain citizens. Finally he learned that beyond

6

Gil 1992, 797. Al-Idrisi mentions that small boats transported dates from Ghor es-Safi to Gerico through the Dead Sea (Le Strange 1890, 66).

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B. Hamarneh: Rural Settlements In Southern Transjordan Prior And Throughout The Ayyubid – Mamluk Periods between 1188 and 1263.12 The security and control of the viability was vital for the commercial and religious purposes thus the route between Mu’ta and Ma’an received the attention of the Sultan of Damascus al-Mu’azzam Isa in 1227 (Ibn al-Jawzi 1907, 429). He also commissioned the construction of a khan in Ayla in 1213 (Milwright 2006, 13) and subterranean tunnel in Karak in 1227 (Milwright 2008, 74), patronizing also two castles in Salt and Azraq according al-Umari (alUmari 1985, 120). Later Ibn Shaddad (d. 1285) states that the Sultan has actively promoted agricultural production of the lands around Shawbak, implanting fruit trees and gardens.13 If this statement is correct it may explain the sum of 16,000 dinars offered by the Sultan of Egypt al Malik al-Kamil to his cousin al-Nasir Dawud for its purchase (Bakhit 1997, 373-74; Milwright 2008, 114). Towns and villages located in proximity of Darb al-Hajj and along the routes set south of the Dead Sea received enormous benefit from constant transit, surveys has evidenced deposits of 12th-13th century ceramics especially glazed pottery considered items of importation in numerous rural centres, al-Lajjun for example has yielded well dated deposits (Milwright 2006, 23) and is mentioned in 1231 as a meeting place between the Prince of Karak, alNaser Dawud and his uncle the Sultan of Egypt al-Malik al-Kamil (Milwright 2006, 23). Similar importance can be ascribed to the site of Nakhl with a partially conserved tower (Figures 7-8), with glazed ceramics and painted hand made ware dated to the Ayyubid-Mamluk period (Hamarneh 2007, forthcoming). Also Khirbet an-Nawafla (Figure 9) identified with el-‘Odma, south of Petra, reached its higher expansion during the Ayyubid/Mamluk period, with an olive press set in the northern part of the settlement (Egan, Bikai, Zamora 2000, 564). Still several sites in the countryside remain unknown to archaeological investigation, some years later Mamluk sources mention towns in southern Jordan in the account of the Voyage of Sultan Baybars from Cairo to Karak in 1276 (Zayadine 1985, 170-171). In 1341 Aqsunqur, the na’ib of Gaza, ordered 3,000 sacks of barley and 4,000 head of sheep to be sent from Shawbak to Gaza (Maqrizi 1934-72, II, 599600). A detailed account of landed property, agricultural land, cisterns, industrial compounds is enumerated in the possession of the Waqf of Ader, a village near Karak, documented in the list of Waqf al- Sultan al-Ashraf Sha’aban dated to AD 1376 (Ghawanmeh 1982, 367-368). Archaeological surveys has evidenced the wide spread of hand made pottery in rural context in southern Jordan during 12th-13th century indicating probably a period of relative political stability and economic prosperity and seems to give credit to the general picture suggested by historical

hand Salah ed-Din, during his military campaigns against the Karak and Shawbak in 1170 and 1180, has focused on the intentional destruction of the farmlands around them (Lyons, Jackson 1982, 216-218, 249-251; Milwright 2006, 16) in order to prevent the vital access to the natural resources, in fact the kingdom of Jerusalem much relied on the fertile lands of the Karak plateau and the Jordan valley for the supply of basic food production. William of Tyre in his account of the siege of the homonymous stronghold in 1183 records that Muslim soldiers found the houses “well stocked with grain, barley, wine and oil” (William of Tyre 1986, XXII. 15.34-46; XXII.28; Lyons, Jackson 1982, 216-18). The high settlement level and agricultural wealth of local economy is indirectly recorded by Ibn Jubayr who enumerates in the area of Karak 400 villages (Ibn Jubayr 1907, 287). After 1193 the castles and surrounding regions formed the iqta’ of al-‘Adil, Salah ed-Din brother, remaining under the direct control of the Sultan of Damascus (Milwright 2008, 69), the area experienced a period of flourishing stability as regular agricultural production and the range of specialized crops grew in the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea region, in particular the massive expansion in cultivation and processing of sugar cane (Hamarneh 1977-78, 1219; Jones et al. 2000, 523-534), besides more traditional products as indigo, figs, dates, bananas and citrus. Sources list also important mineral resources as copper, asphalt, sulphur and salt (Milwright 2006, 17), added to the cattle raised by the Bedouins, providing necessary revenue that guaranteed the continuity of settlement and production patterns in the districts; as also confirmed by regional studies that report an increased number of settlements from the midth 12th century onwards. The economic and strategic connotation of Karak and Shawbak, and the land surrounding them, for both Crusaders and Ayyubids is reflected in the offer made in 1218-19 following the capture of the Egyptian port of Damietta: Ibn al-Dawadari, al-Maqrizi and Ernoul mention that a sum of 30,000 besants was added later as a compensation for the two castles and their dependent land (Ibn alDawadari 1961-92, vii, 195; Al-Maqrizi 1934-72, I, 207, Ernoul 1871, 417, 464; Milwright 2006, 5). Though the major interest of the Ayyubids was directed towards the military potential and to maintain mosques and shrines rather than agricultural investment (Johns 1998, 81). The defensive qualities of the castles of Karak and Shawbak had far more political and strategic relevance as denoted by Ibn al-Dawadari and al-Maqrizi though none of the of Frankish military installations were extensively renovated Jordan in Arabia there were many Christians living in villages under hard conditions of servitude and forced tribute. He sent for those people and promised them improved conditions. Within short time he had the satisfaction of receiving them with their wives and children, flocks and herds and all their household. They were attracted not only by reverence for the place but also for affection for our people and the love of liberty. […] To those the king granted those sections of the city which seemed to need this assistance most and filled the houses with them’. William of Tyre (1844, 500-1; 1986, 535-36; 1943, 1, 507-8 ), also Mayer 1992, 4849; Lyons, Jackson 1982, 216-218, 249-251; Schick 1992, 80; Milwright 2008, 26.

12

The defence of central and southern Jordan were an aspect of priority in Ayyubid policies though only few strongholds received adequate attention and regular economic investment. For discussion see Milwright 2006, 9; Milwright 2008, 73-74, 260-261. 13 According to Abul Fida the gardens around Shawbak produced apricots which were exported to Egypt (Abul Fida, 247). Under the patronage of al-Mu’azzam Isa trees were brought from other districts resembling Shawbak to the gardens of Damascus. Ibn Shadad, 80. The site of intensive cultivations may be identified in Wadi al-Bustan, east of the castle. Milwright 2008, 74.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean sources. It seems likely that handmade technology has actually replaced wheel-thrown products that remained a selective item of importation, indicating that production centres were established in villages themselves or as Jeremy Jones suggested, were operated by itinerant potters (Jonhs 1998, 83; also Milwright 2008, 261). The political and economic history of southern Jordan during the Ayyubid period still arise several questions on the aspects of territorial administration and assessment within the frame of the vast domain created by Bani Ayyub dynasty in southern Bilad esh-Sham. The complex history of rural settlements demonstrates that continuity was one of the major features of sedentary occupation yet this aspect must still be investigated in detail. Much effort must be still addressed to stratigraphic study of pottery deposits comparing types and models of Bilad esh-Sham production to determinate the circulation of both local and imported materials in order to identify possible production areas. This paper can be only concluded with the auspice that future archaeological research may offer a relevant contribution on the improvement of our knowledge of southern Transjordan in the medieval period.

47, 25-34. Ghawanmeh, Y. D. 1982. al- Qariya fi janub ash-Sham (alUrdun wa Filastin) fi al-Asr al-Mamluki fi Dhu’ waqfiyat qariat Ader (in arabic), Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan I, Amman, 363-371. Gil, M. 1992. A History of Palestine 634-1099. Cambridge. Haiman, M. 1995. Agriculture and Nomad – State Relation in the Negev Desert in the Bizantine and Early Islamic Periods, Bullettin of American Schools of Oriental Research 297, 1995, 297-298. Hamarneh, B. 2003. Topografia cristiana ed insediamenti rurali nella Giordania bizantina ed islamica V-IX secc., Città del Vaticano. Hamarneh, B. 2007. The Survey of Nakhl / Karak, in Munjazat, forthcoming. Hamarneh, B. 2009. Dynamics and Transformation of the Rural Settlements of Provincia Arabia and Palaestina Tertia in the Omayyad and early Abbasid periods. Archaeological Evidence, in Proceedings of V ICAANE, forthcoming. Hamarneh, S. 1977/78. Sugar Cane Cultivation and Refining Under The Arab Muslim During The Middle Ages (in arabic), in Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 22, 12-19. Ibn Battuta 1853-58 Ibn Battuta, Mohammad ben Adb Allah, Voyages d’ibn Batoutah (tuhfat al-nuzzar fi ghara’ib al-amsar wa ajaib al-asfar), in Ch. Defrémery, B. Sanguinetti (eds.), Paris. Ibn al-Dawadari 1961-92 Ibn al-Dawadari, Abu bakr ben Adb al-Rahim, Die Chronik des Ibn al-Dawadari, Cairo, Weisbaden. Ibn al-Jawzi 1907 Ibn al-Jawzi, Yusuf ben Qizughlu, Mir’at al-zaman fi tarikh al-‘ayan, in J. Jewett (ed.), Chicago 1907. Ibn Jubayr 1907 Ibn Jubayr, Mohammad Ibn Ahmad, The Travels of Ibn Jubayr (Rihla), W. Wright (ed.), Oxford. Ibn al-Qalanisi 1908 Ibn al-Qalanisi, Hamza ben Asad, History of Damascus 363-555 A.H. (Dhayl TArikh Dimashq), In H. Amedroz (ed.), Leiden. Ibn Shaddad 1963 Ibn Shaddad, Izz al-Din Mohamed Ibn Ali, in S. Dahan (ed.), Liban, Jordanie, Palestine. Topographie historique d’ibn Saddad, Historien et géographe mort à Alep en 684/1285, Damascus. Jones, J. 1998. The Rise of Middle Islamic Hand-Made Geometrically Painted Ware in Bilad al.Sham (11-13th centuries A.D.), in R. P. Gayraud, Colloque International d’Archèologie Islamique, Cairo, 65-93. Jones, R., Tompsett, G., Politis, K.D., Photos-Jones E., 2000. The Tawahin as-Sukkar and Khirbet ash-Shaykh ‘Isa Project. Phase I: The Surveys, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 34, 523-534. Kennedy, H. 1992. The Impact of Muslim Rule on the Pattern of Rural Settlement in Syria, in P. Canivet, J.P. Rey Coquais (eds), La Syrie de Byzance à l’Islam VII-VIII

BIBLIOGRAPHY Abul Fida, Imad ed-Din Ismail ben Ali, 1840. Taquim al-Buldan, in J. Reinaud, W. MacGuckin de Slane (eds.), Géographie d’Aboul Fida, Paris. Albert of Aix 1967 Albertus Aquensis, Liber Christianae expeditionis pro ereptione emundatione Sanctae Hierosolymitanae ecclesiae, in Receuil des historiens des Croisades. Historiens occidentaux, 1967, Paris. Al-Umari 1985 al.Umari, Ibn Fadl Allah, Masalik al-absar fi mamalik alamsar, in A. Sayyid (ed.), Textes Arabes et Études Islamiques, XXIII, Cairo. Bakhit Bakhit, M. A. 1997. Shawbak, Enciclopedia of Islam 2, 373-374. Canova, R. 1954. Iscrizioni e monumenti protocristiani dal paese di Moab, Città del Vaticano. Di Segni, L. 2006. Varia Arabica. Greek Inscriptions from Jordan, in M. Piccirillo (a cura di), Ricerca Storico – archeologica in Giordania, LA 56, 587-589. Egan, V., Bikai, P. M., Zamora, K. 2000. Archaeology in Jordan, American Journal of Archaeology, 104, 561-588. Ernoul, 1871. Chronique d’Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier, in M. Mas Latrie (ed.), Paris. Fiema, Z.T. 2002. Late – Antique Petra and its Hinterland: Recent Research and New Interpretations, in J.H. Humphrey (ed.), The Roman and Byzantine Near East, vol. 3, Portsmouth, Rhode Island 2002, 191-252. Gavigan, J. 1971. Oliver of Paderborn,The Capture of Damietta, Christian Society and the Crusaders, Sources in Translation, Philadelphia. Genequand, D. 2003. Ma’an, An Early Islamic Settlement in Southern Jordan: Preliminary Report on a Survey in 2002, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 184

B. Hamarneh: Rural Settlements In Southern Transjordan Prior And Throughout The Ayyubid – Mamluk Periods siècles, Damas, 291-297. Kennedy, D., Bewley, R. 2004. Ancient Jordan from the Air, London. Lyons, M., Jackson, D. 1982. Salah al-Din: The Politics of The Holy War, Cambridge, New York. Mahamid, H. 2003. Results of the excavation of the church of al- Rashidiyah / al-Tafilah, in Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 47, 7-16 Maqrizi (1934-72), Maqrizi, Taqi ed-Din Ahmad ibn Ali, Kitab al-suluk li-ma’rifat duwal al-muluk, in M. Ziada, S. Ashour (eds.), Cairo. Marino, L. 1997. La fabbrica dei castelli crociati in Terra Santa, Firenze. Mayer, H.E. 1992. Die Kreuzfahrerherrschaft montréal (Sobak): Jordanien im 12. Jahrhundert. Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästinavereins 14. Weisbaden. Meimaris, Y., Kritikakou, K., Nikolaropoulou, I 2005. Inscriptions From Palaestina Termia. The Greek Inscriptions from Ghor es-Safi (Bizantine Zoara), Vol. Ia, Athens. Meimaris, Y., Kritikakou, K., Nikolaropoulou, I 2008. Inscriptions From Palaestina Termia. The Greek Inscriptions from Ghor es-Safi (Bizantine Zoara) – Supplement, Khirbet Qazone and Feinan, Vol. Ib, Athens. Meimaris Y., Mahasneh, H.M., Kritikakou – Nikolaropoulou, 2007. The Greek Inscriptions in the Mu’tah University Collection, in LA 57, 527-562. Milwright, M. 2006. Central and Southern Jordan in the Ayyubid Period: Historical and Archaeological Perspectives, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society JRAS, Series 3, 16, pp. 1-27. Milwright, M. 2008. The Fortress of The Raven. Karak in the Middle Islamic Period (1100-1650), Brill. Northedge, A. 1992. Studies in Roman and Islamic Amman, Oxford. Oleson, J.P., Baker, G.S., de Bruijn, E., Foote, R.M., Logan, J., Reeves, M.B., Sherwood, A.N. 2003. Preliminary

Report of Al-Humayma Exacavation Project 2000-2002, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 47, 5559 Pringle, D., 2001. Crusader Castles in Jordan, in B. McDonald, R. Adams, P. Bienkowski (eds.), The Archaeology of Jordan, Sheffield, 677-84. Schick, R. 1997. Southern Jordan in the Fatimid and Seljuk Periods, in Bullettin of American Schools of Oriental Research 305, 73-85. Schick, R. 2007. Al-Humayma and the Abbasid Family, Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan IX, 346347. Al-Shdaifat, Y., Al Tarawneh, K., Ben Badhan, Z.N. 2006. Mu’ta University Excavations at Shuqayra al-Gharbiyya: Preliminary Report on the 2005 Season, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 50, 206-210. Walmsley, A. 2005. The Village Ascendance in Byzantine and Early Islamic Jordan: Socio – Economic Forces and Cultural Responses, in J. Lefort, C. Morrisson, J.P. Sodini (eds.) Les villages dans l’empire byzantin IVe – Xve siècle, Paris, 511-522. William of Tyre 1844, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum. Recuil des Historiens des Croisades: Historians Occidentaux 1. Paris William of Tyre 1943, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea. Trans. E.A. Babcock, A.C. Krey, New York. William of Tyre 1986, Chronicon. R.B.C. Huygens (ed.), Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 63, Turnh olt. Vannini, G. 2007. (ed.), Archeologia dell’insediamento Crociato-Ayyubide in transgiordania. Il progetto Shawbak, Firenze. Zayadine, F. 1985. Caravan Routes Between Egypt and Nabataea and the Voyage of Sultan Baibars to Petra in 1276 Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan II, 159-171.

Figure 1. Rural centres in Byzantine south Jordan (from Canova 1954).

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Figure 2. South Jordan in the early Islamic period (Walmsley 2005)

Figure 3. Commercial and religious caravan routs (Zayadine 1985)

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Figure. 4. Karak Castle (from Kennedy, Bewley 2004, 241)

Figure 5. Shawbak Castle (from Kennedy, Bewley 2004, 243)

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Figure 7. Nakhl (Photo B.H.)

Figure 6. Shawbak- tower (Marino 1997, 68)

Figure 8. Nakhl (Photo B.H.)

Figure 9. Khirbet an-Nawafla (Eagan, Bikai, Zamora 2000)

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L’INDUSTRIA DELLO ZUCCHERO NEL MEDIOEVO Khaled Nashef Dpt of Antiquities of Jordan A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011

L’industria dello zucchero costituiva una delle maggiori attività economiche nel mondo arabo durante il medioevo, tra XI e XV secolo. Era intimamente connessa con quella dell’olio d’oliva, avendo in comune la tecnica del frantumare e pressare. La lavorazione dello zucchero, a cominciare dalla coltivazione della canna da zucchero, fu probabilmente importata dall’India. La parola araba per zucchero, ovvero sukkar, deriva dal Sanskrito sarkara o sakkara. Le fonti arabe medievali si riferiscono esplicitamente a regioni dell’India e della Cina, dove la canna da zucchero era coltivata. Una produzione di zucchero era nota nel mondo arabo già nell’XI secolo. Il viaggiatore persiano Nasir Khusraw, che viaggiava verso Egitto e Siria nel 1047, parla dell’Egitto come produttore di molto miele e zucchero (Al-Khashshab 1970, 103). Lo stesso autore scrive che a Tripoli, lui presente, ‘miele di zucchero veniva raccolto’ (Al-Khashshab 1970, 47), ciò che implica l’esistenza di raffinerie. Un autore del periodo Fatimide parla di zucchero quale liquido usato in medicina, chiamato ‘fratello del miele’. Inoltre, leggiamo: ‘lo zucchero è usato per droghe purgative e non, perchè diminuisce l’amarezza di tali medicine rendendole accettabili. Libera il petto e dissolve la tosse’. L’autore elenca vari nomi di zucchero, uno è al-ahwazi, che significa ‘zucchero da Al-Ahwaz’.1 Il riferimento a Al-Ahwaz, la famosa capitale del Khuzistan non sorprende. Allora l’area intorno alla città, con le sue sorgenti d’acqua provenienti dal Tigri, era famosa per la coltivazione di zucchero, come molte città, (a nord l’antica Susa). La canna era coltivata nell’area di Jundisapur, celebre come centro culturale, ma anche per le cure ospedaliere. Più probabilmente raffinerie di zucchero sorsero in Khuzistan e furono poi importate in altre regioni, quali Iraq ed Egitto. Autori medievali quali Yaqout (m.1228), An-Nuwairi (m. 1332), Al-Qalqashandi (m. 1418), AlMaqriezi (m. 1442) danno ampie informazioni sulla coltivazione e la lavorazione dello zucchero, specialmente in Egitto; sulla costa mediterranea, raffinerie erano note a Beirut, Sidone, Tripoli e Tiro in Libano, Az-Zieb, Kaboul e cAkka in Palestina. In periodo crociato, l’industria dello zucchero fiorì ulteriormente nelle aree costiere, specialmente nella regione di cAkka. I Franchi realizzarono l’importanza dell’attività zuccheriera nell’economia agricola della Palestina. La domanda di prodotti dolci in Europa incrementò la produzione. La città costiera palestinese di Kaboul era famosa per la produzione di zucchero in sottili fette e polvere fine. Lo sfruttamento crociato di Tawahien As-Sukkar, in rapporto

ai castelli di Karak e Shawbak nella Giordania meridionale è ancora da verificare nelle sue dimensioni.2 Resti di un grande ‘zuccherificio’ di periodo crociato sono stati trovati nel villaggio palestinese di Al-Manawat, ad est di Az-Zieb, allora conosciuto come Manueth e citato dal geografo Arabo Yaqout(Yaqout 1984 Vol 5, 216) come Manawath. La raffineria di zucchero a Al-Manawat continuò a funzionare in periodo Mamelucco, come evidente dalla grande quantità di frammenti di olle da zucchero rinvenuti, e continuò fino al periodo Ottomano (Stern 1998, 11). Raffinerie di zucchero furono molto comuni nella valle del Giordano, dove abbondante acqua e luce del sole erano ideali per i campi di canne. Più di 30 raffinerie furono registrate a est del fiume (Cfr. Abu Dalu 1991, 22, 65), la più importante delle quali era Tawahien As-Sukkar nel AsSafi, sud-ovest di Karak. Il termine Tawahien As-Sukkar ‘macina da zucchero’ ricorre continuamente in altre località, specialmente nell’area intorno a Tiberiade (Arraf 1997,104), Beisan e Gerico. Le acque del Giordano o del Wadi el-Hasa furono sfruttate per creare strutture per la frantumazione e tali installazioni furono semplicemente chiamate ‘macine’ (tawahien, plurale di tahouna[h]). Yaqout scrive: ‘Il piccolo Giordano è un fiume la cui acqua proviene dal Lago di Tiberiade e fluisce attraverso la Valle verso sud, dove irriga villaggi, per lo più coltivanti zucchero, che da lì è portato in tutti i paesi dell’Est (Al-Mashriq), …’. In un altro passaggio, dice che le più famose città della valle del Giordano sono Beisan e Gerico, poi Tiberiade. Aggiunge che la coltivazione di canne da zucchero prevale nella valle. Le raffinerie di zucchero utilizzano gli stessi strumenti usati per frantumare e pressare le olive, quali la vasca per frantumare, dove le olive sono poste ed una pietra circolare verticale, con la quale sono macinate. La forza idraulica era applicata a questo stadio della produzione, ma anche animali, come avveniva nella produzione di olio d’oliva3. Dopo la raccolta delle canne, esse venivano messe nel Dar al-Qasab, ovvero ‘casa delle canne’. Il processo di pulitura si svolgeva in questa ‘casa’, dove la parte superiore della canna veniva tagliata e la bassa ripulita; sempre qui le canne erano tagliate in piccoli pezzi. I punti principali della lavorazione delle canne furono descritti dal viaggiatore tedesco Burcardo: ‘Le canne sono raccolte, tagliate in parti di mezzo palmo, poi frantumate nella pressa. Il succo spremuto da loro è bollito in pentoloni di rame e, una volta diventato denso, viene raccolto in ceste fatte di rami sottili. Subito dopo esso diventa secco e duro, e questo è come lo Cfr Politis et al. 2005, 324, suggerisce che l’attività iniziasse in periodo Ayyubide-Mamelucco. 3 Il materiale qui citato per la fabbricazione dell’olio d’oliva è ripreso da Nashef 2009. 2

Muhammad al-Tamimi al-Maqdisi, Kitab al-murshid ila jawahir alagdhiya(h) wa-quwa al-mufradat fi al-adwiya(h). Manoscritto nella Nationale Bibliotheque di Parigi. Citato da Hamarneh 1991, 193. 1

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean zucchero viene fatto’4. La fase successiva è la frantumazione delle canne da zucchero tagliate, come per produrre l’olio d’oliva; successivamente esse sono poste in una vasca di pietra rotonda (‘macina’) e la frantumazione avviene grazie alla pressione esercitata sulle canne da una pesante pietra circolare ‘macina superiore’. La vasca è chiamata da An-Nuwairi al-hajar ‘la pietra’ o al-qacida(h) ‘la base’ e da essa il liquido ottenuto fluisce attraverso uno sbocco sul suo lato inferiore. Il meccanismo impiegato nella frantumazione è semplice: la pietra circolare superiore è fissata ad un’asta verticale che si muove in un foro al centro della vasca sottostante, mentre nel sistema per l’olio d’oliva, c’è un’asta orizzontale che si muove con un’estremità collegata all’asta verticale, mentre all’altra estremità lunga è di solito aggiogato un animale. È possibile che questo semplice metodo fosse usato sia nella fabbricazione dell’olio che per lo zucchero. Così, quando l’animale gira intorno alla vasca, la pietra superiore, muovendosi in cerchio, frantuma le olive o le canne da zucchero. A volte l’asta è mossa manualmente, ma il movimento della pietra circolare superiore poteva essere ottenuto anche per mezzo di forza idraulica, specialmente in grandi impianti, quali Tawahien As-Sukkar in As-Safi, a sud-ovest di Karak (vd. sotto). La fase seguente di lavorazione era la pressatura, per assicurare una completa spremitura delle canne. Anche in questo caso il metodo è lo stesso degli impianti per l’olio d’oliva. La polpa ottenuta dalla frantumazione era messa in ceste intrecciate, accumulate una sopra l’altra in una particolare depressione, quindi soggette a grande pressione. Il meccanismo include una leva di legno fissata per una estremità ad un muro, mentre l’altra è attaccata ad una pietra, che premeva sulle pile contenenti zucchero o polpa di oliva. Al posto della leva poteva essere montata sulle pile una speciale struttura con una vite, chiamata da An-Nuwairi ‘ad-dulab al-takht’; al-takht significa tavola lignea, probabilmente rotonda, sotto cui erano poste le ceste. Questo tipo di pressa è simile a quelle per le olive, ben nota in Palestina, ed ha prototipi datati al periodo bizantino. La ‘pressa’ o macsara(h) è il termine effettivo per l’insieme dell’impianto per olive e zucchero. Per le olive è chiamato macsarat az-zaytoun, per lo zucchero macsarat al-qasab. Presso i Franchi era comune il termine massera o masera, che derivava direttamente dalla parola araba (Peled 1999, 257, fn. 3). Il succo ottenuto dalla frantumazione e pressatura è chiamato ma’ al-qasab ‘acqua di zucchero di canna’. Dopo un preliminare riscaldamento e filtraggio, il liquido è portato in una stanza speciale, chiamata al-matbakh ‘cucina’, dove è scaldato su forni in grandi contenitori di metallo da cucina (qudour). Proprio un qidr con maniglie sporgenti fu trovato nei campi a sud del lago di Tiberiade (Peled 1999,

256: 5), come già detto regione nota per le raffinerie di zucchero. A questo punto il liquido, chiamato al-mahlab, è trasferito dai contenitori da cucina in calderoni (dist, dusut) (Figura 1)5 nella bayt al-sabb ‘la casa del versatoio’, dove il liquido è versato in contenitori d’argilla, per farlo solidificare. Il processo avviene su panche appositamente costruite per questo fine. Ci sono due tipi di contenitori (Figura 2): il primo è a forma di cono capovolto con una larga apertura ed un foro sul fondo a punta. E’ chiamato ablaj, riferendosi probabilmente alla forma del contenitore6. L’altro tipo è ovoide o giara a forma di borsa, con una stretta apertura, chiamato da AnNuwairi ‘qadous’. Il primo contenitore, il cui foro è chiuso con un pezzo di canna da zucchero, usato come tappo, è posto sopra il secondo. Il liquido bollito è versato nel contenitore superiore. Dopo che il contenuto si è raffreddato, il tappo è rimosso per lasciar fluire la melassa nel recipiente sottostante. Lo zucchero cristallino separato è spesso asportato dal primo recipiente rompendolo. I frammenti di tali recipienti sono indicatori di raffineria in luogo. La melassa è chiamata al-casal al-aswad ‘miele nero’ o casal al-sukkar ‘miele di zucchero’ o dibs al-sukkar ‘melassa di zucchero’. An-Nuwairi lo chiama al-casal al-qatr ‘sciroppo di miele’. Burcardo scrive: ‘Prima che esso [il succo] diventi secco, un liquido cola da esso, chiamato miele di zucchero, il quale è molto delizioso e ottimo per speziare i dolci’ (Burcardo di Monte Sion [1971], 99-100). La parola araba qunoud, pl. di qand, si riferisce probabilmente a qualche prodotto dolce indurito delle melasse. L’arabo qand o sukkar qandi è all’origine di frasi o parole quali l’antico francese sucre candi, verbo candir, l’italiano candito e in ultimo l’inglese candy. Questo significa proprio zucchero cristallizzato. Se si desidera zucchero puro bianco, l’impasto è di nuovo scaldato, dissolto in acqua, dove viene aggiunto latte. La fabbricazione di zucchero raggiunse il suo culmine durante il periodo Mamelucco (1174-1516), specialmente nella valle del Giordano, dove furono stabilite molte raffinerie. Le terre nella valle erano dichiarate proprietà reale. Il sultano Mamelucco nominava un supervisore speciale per riscuotere i prodotti di zucchero. Una nuova carica fu introdotta, chiamata astadar al-aghwar, ovvero ‘astadar della valle del Giordano’. Lo astadar occupa una posizione importante nella struttura istituzionale mamelucca e significa ‘Capo degli Ufficiali Reali’. Gli era affidato il denaro per le raffinerie di canna da zucchero concesse al sultano o governatore (Abu Dalu 1991, 8, cit. Al-Bakhiet). Alcune raffinerie erano messe sotto il na’ib di Damasco, il delegato del sultano, in pratica il ‘governatore’. Il na’ib di Damasco veniva personalmente nella valle del Giordano durante la raccolta delle canne da zucchero e ispezionava le raffinerie. In una stagione particolarmente abbondante, stette nella valle per cinque mesi. I dirigenti mamelucchi introdussero nella valle piani di irrigazione, al fine di inco-

4

Burcardo di Monte Sion [1971], 99. Qui la fase della pressatura è messa dopo la ‘bollitura’, cosa non corretta. Nota anche che in contrasto con Peled 1999, 252, le ‘dita di canna’ di Burcardo non significano canne tagliate piccole, ma pezzi nodosi, necessari per le stagioni successive. ‘Inoltre, essi tagliano le canne in pezzi lunghi come un dito di un uomo, ma in modo da avere un nodo nel mezzo di ogni pezzo, … Seppelliscono questi pezzi in primavera in terreno umido, da essi crescono nuove canne, due ogni pezzo, da uno dei due lati del nodo. Questo è come le coltivano’ Burcardo di Monte Sion [1971], 100.

Diversamente Politis et al. 2005, 324, che vede in quest’oggetto un calderone per bollire. Comunque la forma di calderone di As-Safi corrisponde più alla parola araba dist, usata da An-Nuwairi. 6 Cfr i dizionari: Az-Zabiedi [1994], 299 dà una forma variante ublouj, aggiungendo as-sukkar. 5

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K. Nashef: L’industria Dello Zucchero Nel Medioevo raggiare ed espandere la coltivazione. I siti relativi all’industria di zucchero si trovano su entrambe le sponde del Giordano. Ad est del fiume, molti hanno restituito recipienti da zucchero (Cfr Abu Dalu 1991, 71112). Ad ovest di esso, uno scavo fu condotto a Tawahien As-Sukkar, a sud della moderna As-Safi, circa due km a nord-ovest di Gerico (Taha 2004). L’acqua necessaria per le operazioni delle raffinazione era portata attraverso un canale dalle sorgenti cAin An-Nucaima(h) e cAin AdDuyouk. Un frammento del recipiente da zucchero a forma di cono porta la scritta ‘il buon miele’. La raffineria è datata fra i periodi crociato e mamelucco, grazie ai reperti ceramici e numismatici e probabilmente il sito era parte di un impianto industriale dove era lavorato anche il rame7. Lo scavo di Tawahien As-Sukkar ha restituito chiare documentazioni di un meccanismo di raffinerie per canne da zucchero. Con tre macine (tawahien) e tecniche molto avanzate, il sito rappresentava uno dei principali complessi industriali per la produzione di zucchero nella Valle del Giordano (Politis et al. 2005, 325). Alcuni dei componenti furono trovati in situ. Una macina era collocata in un grande ambiente, conservato fino ad un’altezza di circa 3.2m ; al centro era presente una vasca, definita dallo scavatore ‘base della macina’, in cui la canna da zucchero era frantumata. Essa ha un foro squadrato centrale per inserire la trave, che guida la macina, la quale potrebbe essere stata sostenuta da una struttura in legno montata sopra di essa, come indicato da due fori nei muri nord-est e sud-ovest della stanza. La pietra circolare superiore (‘pietra superiore della macina’) fu rinvenuta giacente a bordo vasca: misurava 1.4m di diametro ed era spessa 0.4m, con un foro centrale squadrato largo 0.5m. Uno scivolo di pietra scendeva ripido penetrando il muro nord sotto l’angolo nordorientale della stanza. Ovviamente una ruota di macina lignea sarebbe stata posta nella camera voltata (non scavata), appena sotto la vasca per frantumazione, per essere mossa dall’acqua che giungeva attraverso lo scivolo. La ruota sarebbe stata connessa ad un ingranaggio per muovere la trave centrale che guidava la macina8. Tali meccanismi sono riflessi dalla parola tawahien, letteralmente ‘mulini’, ma potrebbe anche significare ‘ruote’. L’acqua era portata tramite condutture da Wadi al-Hasa. Una raffineria a nord nella valle del Giordano, a est del fiume, è rappresentata da Tell As-Sukkar (‘Cumulo di zucchero’), subito a nord-est di Tabaqat Fahl (Abu Dalu 1991, 45-51). Il sito mostra i tipici elementi di una raffineria di zucchero: la vasca per frantumazione con un’apertura per far uscire il liquido e la pietra per frantumare, trovata non lontano dalla vasca (Figura 2)9 ed uno scivolo di pietra per condurre l’acqua in una camera voltata (Figura 3), sopra la vasca per frantumazione. La camera avrebbe contenuto una ruota mossa dall’acqua proveniente dallo scivolo. Insediamenti connessi ad industrie dello zucchero sono state scavate sia a nord che a sud della Valle del Giordano. Tell Abu Sarbut, situata 1.5km nord-ovest di Tell Deir cAlla, è una piccola città che contiene attrezzature per

immagazzinamento e quartieri residenziali. Qui viveva il personale relativo alla vicina raffineria. Il sito data al periodo mamelucco. Molti siti nella Valle del Giordano, a est del fiume, hanno restituito recipienti da zucchero (Cfr Abu Dalu 1991, 71-112). Khirbet Ash-Sheikh cIsa, a nordovest di Tawahien As-Sukkar e subito a sud della moderna As-Safi, ovviamente rappresenta i resti della principale città a cui apparteneva la fabbrica. La documentazione archeologica mostra che in periodo mamelucco era di notevoli dimensioni; si ritiene che i lavoranti ed il personale amministrativo della fabbrica vivessero a Khirbet Ash-Sheikh cIsa. Inoltre, la città produceva la ceramica necessaria per l’attrezzatura produttiva (Politis et al. 2007, 207). Khirbet Ash-Sheikh cIsa/As-Safi è stata identificata con la Sughar delle fonti medievali10. Il geografo Yaqout ipotizza che Sughar sia il nome del sito presso i locali, mentre Zughar o Zoghar è la forma più usata nell’arabo classico (Yaqout [1984], 142-143; 410-411). Tale Sughar si dovrebbe identificare con la bizantina Zoara, citata da Eusebio (Gen. 14, 2)11. Eusebio dice che nella regione di Sughar erano coltivati balsamo e palme, stando a lui un resto di antica fertilità’. Durante il regno del re Nabataeo Rabbel II, alla fine del I secolo d.C., Simeone, un giudeo, viveva nella regione di Zoara, dove piantò palme nella sua proprietà. La mappa del mosaico di Madaba, un lavoro dipeso grandemente da Eusebio, mostra alberi di palma intorno al sito raffigurato. Yaqout dice che la regione è coltivata, probabilmente accennando alla fertilità della zona. In periodo medievale gli abitanti di Sughar sembrano aver ereditato le antiche tecniche agricole, coltivando balsamo e, sulla base di fonti arabe medievali, indigofera 12. In questo impianto era prodotto il colorante niela(h) o indigo, per cui Sughar era famosa (Ghawanmeh 1982, 108). La fertilità dell’area fu enfatizzata da autori quali Jacques de Vitry che scrive: ‘I campi presso la sponda del fiume riversano dolcezze dalla fitta moltitudine di canne da zucchero, da cui grande abbondanza di zucchero’ (De Vitry [1971], 30). Questo resoconto riflette le condizioni durante il periodo crociato; evidentemente i Franchi incrementarono l’industria dello zucchero nell’area. Essi produssero uno speciale tipo di zucchero, caratterizzato da morbidezza e bianchezza e chiamato ‘zucchero di Montreal’, ovvero di Ash-Shawbak (Ghawanmeh 1982, 106). Più tardi, tra 1310 e 1340, questo zucchero era venduto fino nei mercati di Firenze (Ghawanmeh 1982, 107). Tuttavia, a partire dal tardo XV secolo, l’industria dello zucchero nella regione iniziò a decadere. Coltivazioni di zucchero non sono più menzionate nelle carte ottomane del XVI secolo (Hütteroth e Abdulfattah 1977, 79-83). È stato suggerito che il declino dell’industria mamelucca dello zucchero fosse causato dal peggiorare delle condizioni ambientali e da 10

Per un’ampia letteratura sull’identificazione di Khirbet Ash-Sheikh cIsa con la Zoara romana e bizantina, cfr Politis 1999, 227. Per Zoara, negli archivi di Babatha cfr Bowersock 1983, 76-77. 11 Alliata 1999, 58. Il termine greco di Eusebio è Sigor, corrispondente all’ebraico Socar (ovvero, con l’iniziale tsade). Gerolamo aggiunge che sia la siriaca Zoara che la trascrizione greca dall’ebraico Socar (con l’iniziale tsade) significano ‘piccolo’. Sicuramente la parola è derivata dalla radice scr (con l’iniziale tsade); comunque la spiegazione di Gerolamo, che segue Gen. 19, 21-22, rappresenta una etimologia comune. 12 K. D. Politis (comunicazione personale).

7

Una parte del sito era chiamato Tell An-Nuhas, ‘Cumulo di rame’. La fossa voltata in basso, a As-Safi, non fu scavata. 9Slides of Archaeology of Jordan (57 e 58), del defunto James A. Sauer presso il Dipartimento alle Antichità della Giordania. 8

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean epidemie, poi accelerato dall’introduzione della canna da zucchero in alcune isole portoghesi e spagnole (Politis et al. 2005, 325). Nondimeno, nella valle del Giordano, una raffineria di zucchero vicino a Deir cAlla era ancora attiva nel 1967, prima che fosse trasformata in mulino per farina.

York.  Ghawanmeh, Y.D. 1982. Cultural History of Eastern Jordan in the Mamluk Period. Amman. Peled, A. 1999. The local Sugar Industry under the Latin Kingdom, in S.Rozenberg (ed) in The Knights of Holy land: the Crusaders Kingdom of Jerusalem, 251-257. Jerusalem: The Israel Museum. Politis, K.D. 1999. The sanctuary of Agios Lot, the City of Zoara and the Zared River , in the M. Piccirillo and E.Aliatta (eds), Madaba Map Centenary 1897-1997: Travelling through the Byzantine Umayyad Period. Proceedings of the International Conference held in Amman, 7-9 April 1997, in “Studium biblicum Franciscanum. Collectio Maior 40”, 222-227.Gorle-Jerusalem. Politis, K.D. et al.2005. Survey and exscavation in Ghawr As-Safi in 2004, The annual of Departement of Atiquities of Jordan, 49, 313-326. Politis et al. 2007. Ghawr As-Safi Survay and Excavations 2006-2007, The annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, LI, 199-210. Amman. Stern, E. 1998. Harbat Manot (Lower), “Escavation and surveys in Israel”, vol18, 10-18 Muhammad al-Tamimi al-Maqdisi. Kitab al-murshid ila jawahir al-agdhiya(h) wa-quwa al-mufradat fi aladwiya(h). Manoscritto nella Nationale Bibliotheque di Parigi. Citato da Hamarneh 1991. Taha, H. 2004. Die Ausgrabungen von Tawahin es-Sukkar im Jordan-Tal, in Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins, 120, 73- 78 Yaqout , 1984. Mucjam al-Buldan. Beirut, Dar Sadir.

BIBLIOGRAFIA Al-Khashshab, Yahya. 1970 Safarnama: The Voyage of Nasir Khusraw to Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula in the Fifth Century of Hijra. Beirut. Dar al-Kitab Al-Jadied (in Arabic). Abu Dalu, R. 1991. Sugar Refineries in the Jordan Valley during the 12th and 14th Centuries in Light of Historical Sources and Archaelogical Discoveries, MA Thesis.Yarmouk University. Alliata, E. 1999. The Legend of Madaba Map, in the M. Piccirillo and E.Aliatta (eds), Madaba Map Centenary 1897-1997: Travelling through the Byzantine Umayyad Period. Proceedings of the International Conference held in Amman, 7-9 April 1997, in “Studium biblicum Franciscanum. Collectio Maior 40”, 47-101.Gorle-Jerusalem. Arraf, S. 1997.Sources for Palestinian Economy from the oldest periods till 1948, Micliya: Dar “LLa al-cUmq”(in Arabic). Az-Zabiedi 1994, Taj el-cArous. Beirut: Dar al Fikr. Bowersock, G.1983. Roman Arabia. Cambridge. Hamarneh, S. 1991. The People and the Land: Studies in the History of Southern Levant during the first three Centuries of Hijrah. Amman. Hütteroth, W.D. and Abdulfattah, K. 1977. Historical Geographi of Palestine and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlangen. Frederick, C. T. 1971. The exempla or illustrative stories from the Sermones Vulgares / of Jacques de Vitry. New

1. Calderone in bronzo da Kerak (As Safi): prima diagnosi per un restauro (OpD)

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2. Vasi fittili da zuccherificio montati in opera, da Tell Abu Sarbut (Valle del Giordano)

La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

JABAL HAROUN IN THE CRUSADER, AYYUBID AND MAMLUK PERIODS Zbigniew T. Fiema and Jaakko Frösén University of Helsinki A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011

INTRODUCTION

of St. Aaron. Apparently, one of the religious phenomena associated with the rise of Early Christianity in the Near East - the transformation of a pagan cultic place into a sacred, Biblical location - had taken place at Jabal Haroun.

The preoccupation with Nabataean history and monuments - monumental tombs and temples - was the main focus of scholarly attention on the Nabataean capital city of Petra for a long time. However, the 1990s have witnessed a considerable expansion in a range of archaeological activities in Petra and its vicinity. These recent projects have yielded information which now allows for more substantive statements concerning the Byzantine and later occupation phases at Petra,1 such as the Early Islamic, Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. To such recently explored sites in the Petra area belongs the mountain of Jabal Haroun located c. 5km SW of Petra (Figure 1). The mountain has two peaks. The higher one, at 1327m above sea level, is crowned by the Islamic shrine (weli) which contains the sarcophagus of Aaron, according to Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions.2 Remains of a Christian memorial church below the weli were described in the early 20th century but only some parts of the external walls are currently visible.3 Of importance here is the ruined architectural complex located c. 70m below the peak, on a wide high plateau of the mountain. This site was briefly mentioned by some early explorers of the area but received a fuller description only in the early 1990s (Peterman, Schick 1996). Ancient sources, including the Petra Papyri,4 would indicate that this site may represent a Byzantine monastery of St. Aaron. However, the ultimate confirmation of this hypothesis could come only through the archaeological excavations. To this effect, the Finnish Jabal Haroun Project (FJHP) carried out a comprehensive investigation of the site and its environs between 1997 and 2008.5 The excavations have exposed remains of a Nabataean cultic center dated to the 1st century BC/AD which was, in the later 5th century, replaced by a Byzantine monastic complex, most probably dedicated to the veneration

The FJHP site, c. 62.9 m N-S x 46.7 m E-W, can be divided into four main components or wings situated around three courts (Figure 2). The east-central location is occupied by the church and the chapel (Figure 3). The former is preceded by an entrance porch located next to the central court which has a natural fissure or depression in the bedrock which apparently served as a cistern in the Byzantine period. Directly west of the cistern, there is the long, multiroomed Western Building, apparently of Nabataean origin, which features an orientation clearly different from that of the Byzantine monastery to which this building was later incorporated (Figure 4). South and southeast of the central court, there is a wing of rooms forming the southernmost part of the complex. This area of the site features a particularly complex architectural history which must have already begun in Nabataean times. In front of these rooms, a rock-cut water cistern, of Nabataean date, was partially excavated. North of the chapel there is a large, U-shaped wing of 16 rooms located around the northern court, which may be interpreted as the accommodation of the monastic community or a hostel. The major Byzantine structures at the site - the church and the chapel - feature several phases of occupation interspersed with the episodes of destruction and remodelling. The monoapsidal basilican church was richly decorated with marble furnishings, glass wall mosaics and a mosaic floor in the narthex. The chapel had two baptismal fonts and an altar of a type associated with the storing of relics. Generally, only a few monastic churches in the region can be compared with the Jabal Haroun church, and most of these are memorial churches, either commemorating a specific Biblical event or person and/or clearly associated with pilgrimages.6 This also implies that, in addition to the traditional association with a well-known Biblical figure, the size and appearance of the ecclesiastical structures at Jabal Haroun strongly support the idea of their memorial character and thus, the association with pilgrim traffic.

1

For the most recent study which contains summaries of historical archaeological data and their interpretations, see Fiema 2002, 191-252. 2 Palestinian grid coordinates of the shrine: 188.64E x 969.667N; UTM coordinates 731200E x 3356470N. The roof of the shrine, excluding the cupola, is at 1330.38m asl. 3 Wiegand 1920. For more recent description, see Lindner 2003, 177-204 and Fiema anf Frösén, forthcoming 2008. 4 For ancient sources and the early explorers of the site, see Fiema and Frösén, forthcoming 2008, Chapter 1 (J. Frösén and P. Miettunen) and Chapter 2 (P. Miettunen). For the Petra Papyri, see Frösén, Arjava and Lehtinen (eds.) 2002, and Arjava, Bucholz and Gagos (eds.) 2007. 5 The Finnish Jabal Haroun Project, directed by Prof. Jaakko Frösén, is carried out within the framework of the Research Centre “Ancient and Medieval Greek Documents, Archives and Libraries” at the University of Helsinki, which is part of the “Centres of Excellence in Research” program of the Academy of Finland. The first volume of the final publication (Fiema and Frösén, forthcoming 2008) will appear in September 2008.

The Byzantine pilgrimage complex existed between the later 5th and the 8th/9th centuries and probably later. The latest phases of occupation at Jabal Haroun – the Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods – are shrouded in uncertainty. Generally, it is the written historical sources which pro6

For the memorial churches, see discussion in Hirschfeld 1992, 55-56, 130.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean vide more information about these periods at Jabal Haroun than the archaeological data.7 The following text presents all historical and archaeological information concerning these periods.

Aaron and Mount Sinai were not places included in Crusader pilgrimages (Wilkinson et al 1988, 55). There is another contemporary anonymous eyewitness account – Gesta Francorum, a proto-source for the First Crusade – written soon after the conquest of Jerusalem, probably already by 1101, which possibly was one of the sources also used by Fulcher.13 A third contemporary – the anonymous writer of the Historiae Hierosolymitanae pars secunda – used Fulcher as his source and did not visit the place but was rather skeptical as to the identification (Historia Hierosolymitana Pars Secunda 1866, 556). They both mention an oratorium (“small church”, “oratory”) there. The latter conceives the meaning of the passage literally and cannot believe that the oratorium called Saint Aaron’s in his day could be the same still existent building, called collocutorium (“parlour,” “room for conversation”), which was earlier visited by Moses and Aaron.

HISTORICAL SOURCES The written sources would imply that the monastery of Aaron on Jabal Haroun still had some sort of existence when the Crusaders first arrived with Baldwin of Boulogne, shortly before he was crowned as the first King of Jerusalem on Christmas Day, 1100.8 Fulcher of Chartres (1059-1127), chaplain to Baldwin since 1097, accompanied the expedition east of the Dead Sea in December 1100 and he describes the events in his Historia Hierosolymitana. He mentions also the monastery: “Furthermore we found at the top of the mountain the Monastery of St Aaron where Moses and Aaron were wont to speak with God. We rejoiced very much to behold a place so holy and to us unknown.”9 Almost the same clauses were written in 1145 by the anonymous author of the Historia Nicaena vel Antiochena, but in the third person singular.10

Gilbert the Abbot (Guibert de Nogent 1053-1125), was not an eyewitness himself. He used both the written material, Gesta Francorum and Fulcher’s Historia Hierosolymitana as his major sources, as well as personal interviews with Crusaders on their return in writing his Dei gesta per Francos. He is the only one who specifically mentions the visit of Baldwin to the top of the mountain14: “When he reached the slopes of Sinai … There, in the church (ecclesia) which is called Saint Aaron’s, where God had given his oracles to our fathers, he prayed, and the army drank from the fountain of refutation … Here the opinion of my priest has faltered, for it is known that not Sinai, but the mountain Or, which forms the border of the ancient city of Petra in Arabia, was the place where Aaron lost his life, and water emerged from the depths of the rock which he struck.”15 The anonymous priest, the source used by Gilbert, named the place Mons Sinai, but the author corrects the name to Mons Or.

According to Gilbert the Abbot (see infra), Baldwin entered the church (ecclesia) in order to pray. Fulcher seemingly accompanied him since he refers to the event in the first person plural. As an eyewitness, he called the place the Monastery (monasterium) of Saint Aaron, which therefore must be the monastic building complex, or what was left of it, on the high plateau. He does not even mention the tomb of Aaron. Thus, the church (ecclesia) mentioned by Gilbert, who was not an eyewitness, should be identified with the remains of the pilgrimage center of the high plateau rather than with the church on the summit on the mountain (infra), described by Wiegand, which probably already lay in ruins.11 Fulcher’s is certainly the first account of a visit to Jabal Haroun. None of the other pilgrims between 1099 and 1187 followed him.12 Unfortunately, nothing was said about the monks and their number. Presumably, the monastery still functioned as a base of support of the Greek Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Church, as did the Monastery of Saint Mary (later Saint Catherine’s) on Mount Sinai. Understandably, that kind of Christian support was not yet well known to Fulcher and other representatives of Latin Christianity (“nobis incognita”). Mount

Canon Albert of Aachen (Albert d’Aix-de-la-Chapelle; Albertus Aquensis) also mentions the expedition of 1100 but not specifically a church or a monastery16 in his Historia Ierosolimitana which has traditionally been dated between 1120 and 1130. Nevertheless, he states that in 1107, during his second expedition to the area, Baldwin found the Wadi Musa area inhabited by Syrian Christians (Syri Christiani). They were surrounded by Arab inhabitants (Arabes, Arabitae) who lived in caves. The Arabs had called the Seljuq Turk forces from Damascus for help. However, Baldwin, together with a Syrian priest, using a stratagem

7

For full presentation of sources and archaeological data, see Fiema and Frösén, forthcoming 2008, Chapters 6 (E. Mikkola, et al.) and 16 (Z. T. Fiema). 8 For a short description, see, e.g., Mayer 1990, 19-21. 9 Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana. Gesta Francorum Iherusalem peregrinantium. In Recueil des historiens des croisades Historiens occidentaux 1866, book 2, chapter 5, 9, 381. See also Abel 1967, 389; Runciman 1952, 71-72; Pringle 1993, 251-252, Lindner 1997, 100-104; Lindner 2003, 198. 10 Historia Nicaena vel Antiochena. In Recueil des historiens des croisades - Historiens occidentaux 1895, 178. 11 Walmsley in (2001, 534) mentions the two possibilities but does not take a final stand on the matter. 12 Wilkinson et al 1988, 8-9, where “monastery of Moses” should be corrected to “monastery of Aaron.”

Gesta Francorum Expugnantium Iherusalem. In Recueil des historiens des croisades - Historiens occidentaux 1866, 523. 14 See Historia Hierosolymitana Pars Secunda. In Recueil des historiens des croisades - Historiens occidentaux 1866, 556: Fulcher reported only that they found and saw the Monastery / invenimus … intuebamur. It is possible that the report of Gilbert is based on an incorrect interpretation of the original eyewitnesses. 15 Gilbert the Abbot. Gesta Dei per Francos. In Recueil des historiens des croisades - Historiens occidentaux 1879, 255. Quoted also Musil 1907, 161. 16 Albert of Aachen. Historia Hierosolymitana. In Recueil des historiens des croisades - Historiens occidentaux, 1879, 535-536. 13

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Z. T. Fiema, J. Frösen: Jabal Aroun In The Crusader, Ayubbid And Mamluk Period widow (vidua Gallica) whom he met in Shobak (Monreal Scobach). She took care of his provisions and informed him about the route through the uninhabited desert to Mount Sinai (usque ad Montem Syna/Synai), and she also found the Bedouin guides with camels. Certainly, Thetmar had read at least some of the previous descriptions of Jabal Haroun, but the information about the two Greek Christian monks probably came from the Muslim (Sarraceni) or Christian (Christiani) inhabitants in the Shobak area, or Bedouin guides (Boydewini). Evidently, the Greek monks still represented a Christian Church other than the provincial Syrian Christians, namely the Orthodox Chalcedonian Church of the Greek-speaking Christians. Thetmar found all the area in and around Wadi Musa uninhabited.24

drove the Turks away.17 It may therefore be assumed that because there was a local priest, there was also a church, though its location is unknown unless it was the church of Jabal Haroun.18 After this incident Baldwin gathered the endangered Syrian Christians and took them with him.19 The story does not say whether Baldwin also took with him the monks from the Monastery of Jabal Haroun or not. If there were some, they possibly represented a Christian Church other than the local Syrian Christians, namely the Greek Orthodox Church, and did not want to leave their base of support and the tomb of Aaron, even if they must have felt endangered under constant threat from the Arabs and Seljuk Turks. Albert never visited the Holy Land, but had interviews with the returned Crusaders and access to correspondence.

The Greek metropolitan see, which still stayed loyal to the exiled Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem together with the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch, was moved in 1168 to Kerak, then called Petra Deserti.25 Furthermore, the new Latin archbishop of Petra and metropolitan of Arabia was appointed by the Crusaders in Kerak in 1168. One of his bishop suffragans was the Greek Orthodox archbishop of Pharan who was also the abbot of the monastery of Saint Mary (later Saint Catherine’s) on Sinai. Nevertheless, together with its monks, the monastery always stayed loyal to the Greek Patriarch (Adler 1966, 127). Thus, it is probable, that the monks of Jabal Haroun were also still Greeks during the Ayyubid period.

Other itineraries of the Crusaders, e.g., Archdeacon Fretellus (1130-1148) and Theodoric (1175), mention the tomb of Aaron on Mount Hor but do not provide any specific location other than in Arabia.20 It is noteworthy that in August 1217, a letter written by Pope Honorius III to Abbot Simeon of Sinai, and reissued in January 1226, listed among the possessions of the Sinai monastery land in Wadi Musa as well as land and houses in Montreal and in Kerak.21 A Christian pilgrim, Magister Thetmar (Thietmar), on his way to Sinai in 1217, certainly also saw the mountain during his visit to Petra, which he calls, probably following Josephus’ Arce (ÖArkh), Archy (accusative Archym): “At length I came to Mount Or, where Aaron died, on whose summit is built a church (ecclesia) in which live two Greek Christian monks. The place is called Muscera.”22 As he did not specify that he met the two monks and entered the church, he probably did not ascend the mountain himself. He just came “to Mount Or” (veni ad montem Or). Usually, he refers his own experiences and observations by using the first person of singular. Here his comments continue in the third person. The word ecclesia instead of oratorium also seems to be an overstatement based on hearsay. Because the church on the summit already lay in ruins, he was not even able to see the church from the foot of the mountain.23 Thetmar’s source could have been the French

Medieval Jewish pilgrims also describe Jabal Haroun, but do not mention Christian presence. Rabbi Jacob (12381244) notes: “It is three days’ journey on the road thence [from Sodom and Gomorrah] to Mount Hor where Aaron is buried” in a list of tombs outside the Holy Land. The presence of the monastic complex on the high plateau of Jabal Haroun would have ceased soon after the visit of Thetmar, probably not later than the construction of the Muslim shrine (weli) at the summit in the 14th century.26 That belongs to the new building activity program, which should be dated to the rules of the Mamluk sultans Baibars and Qalawun.27 The Arab chronicler Nuwairi (1279-1332) following28 the history by Ibn ‘Abd el-Zâher (1223-1292) of the voyage of

Albert of Aachen. Historia Hierosolymitana. In Recueil des historiens des croisades - Historiens occidentaux 1879, 644-645. 18 See Pringle 1998, 376-377, s.v. Parish Church of St. Moses, and Mayer 1990, 8-99. 19 Albert of Aachen. Historia Hierosolymitana. In Recueil des historiens des croisades - Historiens occidentaux 1879, 644. 20 Fretellus Archidiaconus, Liber locorum sanctorum terrae Ierusalem Retello Arcidiacono, Libro dei luoghi santi nel territorio di Gerusalemme. In De Sandoli 1980, 126-127; and Theodoricus. In De Sandoli 1980, 362363. 21 For a discussion and further bibliography, Pringle 1998, 52. 22 Magister Thetmar. In De Sandoli 1983. 270-273. See also Abel 1967, 389; Pringle 1993, 251-252; Lindner 1997, 191 and 198-199, and Peterman and Schick 1996, 477. 23 See Walmsley 2001, 534 who, citing Peterman and Schick 1966, mentions the church on the summit. For a comparison, one can observe Thetmar’s very detailed account of the monastery of Sinai and the life conditions of the monks and other religious men, both Greeks and Syrians (Magister Thetmar. In De Sandoli 1983). There were still some 100 monks in Saint Catherine’s in 1335 (Pringle 1998, pp. 52-54). From 17

the 13th century onwards, the dedication of the church seems to have been transferred from Saint Mary to Saint Catherine (Mayer 1990, 230231). 24 Magister Thetmar. In De Sandoli 1983, cap. 14. 25 Later on, until the 19th century, it was a common opinion that Kerak was the ancient Petra, as the diocese was called Petras. See also SARTRE 1993, 110-111. 26 See note III. 27 In 1330 (Palmer: A.H. 739, Peake: A.H. 728), the Sultan Nasir constructed the small shrine at the highest point of Jabal Haroun. See Palmer 1871, 365; Philby 1925, 9-10; Robinson 1930, 258; Peake 1958, 82 and 135; Pringle 1993, 251). See also, Lindner 2001, 198 (“um 1363”); Walmsley 2001, 534 (1338-1339); Milwright 2006, 24-25, and Fiema and Frösén forthcoming 2008, Chapter 2 (P. Miettunen) 28 The passage concerning Petra was first translated into French by Quatremere 1835, 27f. The Arabic text with an English translation was provided in Zayadine 1985, 172-173.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Sultan Baibars from Cairo to Kerak in 1276, gives a good description of the ruins of the Crusader castle el-Habis (called el-Aswît) and of the ruins of the houses in Petra “the cities of the children of Israel” (Zayadine 1985, 164, 167). He also refers to the tomb of Aaron when coming up from Wadi ‘Araba: “On this mountain is the tomb of Aaron, Prophet of God, brother of Moses, son of ‘Umran, peace upon them, on the left of the traveler whose face is unto Damascus …”29 He does not mention any building and any Christian presence, neither on Jabal Haroun nor in Petra. The Arabian historian and geographer Abulfeda (Abû alFidâ, 1273-1331) quotes in his Geography (1840: 69): “Tûr Hârûn is the name of a high, overtowering mountain to the south of Jerusalem. The tomb of Aron is located on its top.”30

and shelter for the visitors, especially as some parts of the complex, such as the chapel, were still in a reasonable state to provide shelter. Most importantly, however, Phase 11 is characterized by the removal and collection of reusable material – glass sherds, mosaic tesserae (glass and stone) and marble fragments – into small piles and caches throughout the church and the chapel. Such activities are well evidenced in the context of derelict churches in Palestine and Jordan. In the following, last, phase of occupation (Phase 13, dated to the 10th century and later) human activities are still attested but reduced now to large-scale collection and storage of mosaic fragments and stone tesserae inside the apse of the church. As this cache of mosaic fragments seems to be an intentional deposit, the ecclesiastical ruins at Jabal Haroun were still deemed worthy of exploitation and the material was obviously in demand somewhere else.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA The late phases in the history of the monastery can be summarized as follows. Phase 9 (the second half of the 8th century and possibly later) marks a profound change in the nature of occupation in the Jabal Haroun monastery. Following a destruction of a seismic nature, the center of liturgy, the apse area of the church, may have been partially in ruins and was never restored again. Apparently, the monastic community had finally given up attempting to fully restore the church to serve its ecclesiastical function. Instead, the parts of the church, if still habitable, were converted to serve a domestic type of occupation, either as a dormitory or a gathering place. The chapel, by contrast, was apparently not much affected by the calamity and was most likely still used as the main place of Christian worship on Jabal Haroun. At any rate, even in such a limited form, the religious existence of the community would have continued. Furthermore, this phase still saw some substantial construction work – massive supporting walls or buttresses were constructed against the outer faces of the main walls – at the site, indicating that at least the manpower was still available.

From the archaeological standpoint, the occupation of the church and the chapel, in whatever form, should be considered as terminated by the end of the 10th century. However, clear signs of contuinuing occupation, also during the Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, were detected in the area of the Western Building.31 Furthermore, a sloping, composite wall which is located directly west of the Western Building much resembles the sloping fortifications (glacis) which are characteristic of castles and fortfied cities of the Crusader -Ayyubid period, many examples of which are known from Palestine and Jordan.32 This particular type of fortification was used not only for purely defensive purposes but also as a reinforcement against potential earthquakes.33 It is probable that the western area was the longest occupied at the entire site. Even after the church and the monastery were no longer in use, pilgrimages to the Mountain of St Aaron would have continued. The reinforced Western Building would have accorded safety and protection for the visitors at that time. The continuing evidence of human presence on the mountain can be found in surface finds of the so-called AyyubidMamluk pottery or handmade geometrically painted ware, which is generally dated to the late 12th to 15th centuries.34 Pottery of this type has been found in abundance on the northeastern part of the summit of Jabal Haroun. This pottery could probably be associated with the monks mentioned by medieval chroniclers, although it is not unlikely that pilgrims might occasionally have brought some food in pots as well. Characteristically, the sherds come from the summit rather than from the plateau. At any rate, a permanent Christian presence must have ended, at latest, when the weli was built in the 14th century.

That occupation phase was, however, affected by another seismic destruction. Again, the chapel had apparently survived much better, yet by this time (Phase 11, ca. 9th century), it seems that both the church and the chapel had ceased to have any ecclesiastic function. The partially ruined structures were not abandoned, however, as is evidenced by the fact that a considerable effort was made to clear the buildings of stone tumble. This may mean a limited but possibly not permanent domestic use of both buildings, although a clear attempt was made to recover some useful elements of their construction and furnishing. The evidence from other parts of the monastic site indicates that pilgrims undoubtedly still visited the mountain. Therefore, the existence of a small religious community at Jabal Haroun in this phase should be considered plausible. Such a community would have provided some services

31

A mother-of-pearl cross dated to the 13th century was found in this area. 32 E.g., the glacis of the Crusader castle at Belmont (Harper and Pringle 1988, 104). 33 E.g., historical records indicate heavy damage inflicted on the fortifications of the Kerak castle by periodic earthquakes, and the need for constant reinforcement and rebuilding of the fortifications by the Mamluk rulers (Brown 1989, 290). 34 Walmsley 2001, 544-553

29

See Rey 1883, 396-397; Peake 1958, 80-82; Zayadine 1985, 173. See also, Lindner 2003, 55-57 and Lindner 2001, 191. 30 Quoted also by Musil 1907, 161 (in Arabic).

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sumed – a building/structure where religious ceremonies can be held – some hypotheses can be presented.35 One cannot fully exclude a situation in which the church on the northern summit of the Jabal Haroun mountain, the traces of which were described by Wiegand in the early 20th century, was still in some sort of use although it is very likely that the church would have suffered at least some of the (seismic) destructions that had affected the monastic complex located below the summit. Further, even after the last archaeologically attested destruction, the chapel of the St. Aaron monastery was still a structure with walls standing up to 2.5 m high, as currently. Judging from the extant state of preservation, the chapel, if somewhat cleared and provided with a makeshift roof, could still provide a relatively significant shelter or a meeting space as late as in the Crusader period. Theoretically then, Baldwin could have“prayed inside the church” (= in the sanctuary area of the monastic chapel), yet one must admit that access to its interior would not have been easy for him and his entourage.

One observes that, comparing the written sources with the archaeologically recovered data at Jabal Haroun, some kind of occupation is indeed attested by both during the Crusader-Mamluk period. There is, however, a notable discrepancy with regard to the existence of the Jabal Haroun church and/or the chapel during the Crusader period. Assuming that the individuals who described the mountain between ca. 1100 and 1217 indeed meant the mountain of Jabal Haroun near Petra, i.e., that they either personally climbed up the mountain, or their sources did or had knowledge of someone who had, they (or through their sources) claim to have witnessed/known of some specific structures up there. Fulcher of Chartres specifically mentions “the Monastery of St. Aaron.” The anonymous authors of Gesta Francorum and Historiae Hierosolymitanae both mention an “oratory.” Gilbert the Abbot specifies that Baldwin I “prayed in the church which is called Saint Aaron’s.” Finally, Magister Thetmar refers to “Mount Or... on whose summit is built a church in which live two Greek Christian monks.” For the sake of argumentation, all this information is treated here as if possessing some degree of truth. In other words, it seems reasonable to assume that they had seen/heard of something which, in their opinion, warranted the mention of a monastery, church, oratory or chapel and that such structure(s) was located on Jabal Haroun near Petra.

However, the most likely proposition will point again to the Western Building of the monastery, where at least some of its rooms were still fully habitable during the Crusader period. Three rooms there (excavated in Trenches O, S, and A1) are of particular interest. All are well preserved and two of these had the arches still standing at the time of excavations. The room with the three arches excavated in Trench S, would seem a particularly suitable candidate for a small, informal chapel. Notably, this room has E-W orientation which conforms to the usual orientation of Christian churches and, as such, to that of the church and the chapel at Jabal Haroun. Each of these rooms could have been easily utilized as a space for prayer and liturgical ceremonies after the original ecclesiastical structures at the Monastery of St. Aaron went out of use. Therefore, it appears that a small chapel located in one of the rooms of the Western Building is probably the most realistic scenario and this allows for the reasonable reconciliation between the historical sources and archaeological data. However, the issue will probably always remain unresolved.

At first, a 12th century reference to a “monastery” at Jabal Haroun may not, in fact, be totally inappropriate. Although the church and the chapel were already in ruins, some parts of the complex were still habitable, and they could easily provide the necessary infrastructure for a smaller and probably impoverished yet visible monastic community. In this context, especially the area of the Western Building should be considered. This multiroomed, massive structure is remarkably well-preserved, even now (Figure 4). Nothing then would seemingly prevent anyone from using this large, composite building for habitation or any other purpose, during the Crusader period or even later. The issue of the existence of a “church” “oratory” or “chapel” at Jabal Haroun during the Crusader period is more difficult, especially, if the structures meant as such are those excavated by the FJHP. The upper stratigraphic situation in the church and the chapel, characterized by massive stone tumbles containing mixed material datable to several centuries, does not allow for the suggestion that the church and/or the chapel were in ecclesiastical use beyond the 9th century. As such, from the archaeological standpoint, it is impossible to identify the Jabal Haroun church with a “church” mentioned in the Crusader sources.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Abel, F.-M. 1967. Géographie de la Palestine I., 3. éd. (first ed. 1933). Paris. Adler, E. N., 1966. Jewish Travellers: A Treasury of Travelogues from 9 Centuries. New York. Albert of Aachen, Historia Hierosolymitana, in Recueil des historiens des croisades - Historiens occidentaux, 1879, Tome 4. Paris. Arjava, A., Buchholz M. and Gagos, T. (eds.) 2007. The Petra Papyri III, Amman. Brown, R., 1989. Excavation in the 14th century A.D. Mamluk Palace at Kerak, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 33. Fiema, Z. T. 2002. Petra and Its Hinterland during the

That, however, does not necessarily imply that the existence of a “church,” “oratorium” or “chapel” at Jabal Haroun is a pure invention by the Crusader sources. If a somewhat more general definition of such structures is as-

35

For the full presentation of these hypotheses, see Fiema and Frösén 2008, Chapter 16 ( Z.T. Fiema).

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Byzantine Period: New Research and Interpretations, in Roman and Byzantine Near East: Some New Discoveries III, J. Humphrey (ed.). Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series, no. 49, Portsmouth, RI., 191-252. Fiema, Z. T.. and Frösén, J. forthcoming 2008, Petra – Jabal Haroun, Vol 1. The Church and the Chapel. Frösén, J., Arjava, A. and Lehtinen, M. (eds.) 2002. The Petra Papyri I. Amman. Fretellus Archidiaconus, Liber locorum sanctorum terrae Ierusalem - Retello Arcidiacono, Libro dei luoghi santi nel territorio di Gerusalemme. S. De Sandoli, ed. and transl. In Itinera Hierosolymitana Crucesignatorum, saec. XIIXIII: textus Latini cum versione Italica, 1980 vol. 2. Sabino de Sandoli, ed., Pubblicazioni dello Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, Collectio maior, Jerusalem. Fulcher Of Chartres, in Historia Hierosolymitana. Gesta Francorum Iherusalem peregrinantium. In Recueil des historiens des croisades - Historiens occidentaux, 1866, Tome 3. Paris. Gesta Francorum Expugnantium Iherusalem, in Recueil des historiens des croisades - Historiens occidentaux , 1866, Tome 3. Paris. Gilbert the Abbot, Gesta Dei per Francos, in Recueil des historiens des croisades - Historiens occidentaux, 1879, Tome 4, Paris. Harper, R. and Pringle, D. 1988. Belmont Castle: A Historical Notice and Preliminary Report of Excavations in 1986, Levant, XX. Hirschfeld, Y. 1992. The Judean Desert Monasteries in the Byzantine Period, New Haven and London. Historiae Hierosolymitanae pars secunda, in Recueil des historiens des croisades - Historiens occidentaux, 1866, Tome 3. Paris. Historia Nicaena vel Antiochena, in Recueil des historiens des croisades - Historiens occidentaux, Tome 5, 1895. Pa��� ris. Lindner, M. 1997. Petra und das Königreich der Nabatäer. 6. Auflage (first ed. 1970,. München . Lindner, M.. 2003. In einem Spinnennetz von Wegen, in Über Petra hinaus. Rahden/Westfalen. Lindner, M. 2003. Von Isis bis Aaron, in Über Petra hinaus. Archäologische Erkundungen im südlichen Jordanien, Rahden, Westfalen, 177-204. Kennedy, A., 1925. Petra, Its History and Monuments. London. Magister Thetmar,Iter ad Terram Sanctam - Il Maestro Tetmaro, Viaggio in Terra Santa. S. De Sandoli, transl., T. Tobler, ed. in Itinera Hierosolymitana Crucesignatorum, saec. XII-XIII: textus Latini cum versione Italica, vol. 3. Sabino de Sandoli, ed. Pubblicazioni dello Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, Collectio maior 24:3. Jerusalem. Mayer, H. 1990. Die Kreuzfahrerherrschaft Montréal (Shôbak). Jordanien im 12. Jahrhundert. Abhandlungen

der Deutschen Palästinavereins 14, Wiesbaden, 19-21. Milwright, M., 2006. Central and Southern Jordan in the Ayyubid Period: Historical and Archaeological Perspectives, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 16, 1, pp. 24-25. Musil, A. 1907. Arabia Petraea II: Edom, Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften. Wien. Palmer, E. H. 1871. The Desert of the Exodus, Cambridge. 365. Peake, F. G., 1958. A History of Jordan and Its Tribes by Peake Pasha. Coral Gables. Peterman, G. and Schick, R. 1996. The Monastery of Saint Aaron, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 40, 473-480. Pringle, D. 1998. The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. A Corpus II: L-Z (excluding Tyre), Cambridge Pringle, D. 1993. The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. A Corpus I: A-K (excluding Acre and Jerusalem). Cambridge. Quatremere, M., 1835. Mémoire sur Pétra et les Nabatéens, Paris. Rey, E. G. 1883. Les colonies franques de Syrie aux XIIme et XIIIme siècles, Paris. Robinson, G. L. 1930. The True Mt. Hor - Jabal Maderah, in The Sarcophagus of an Ancient Civilization. Petra, Edom and the Edomites. George Robinson (ed.). New York. Runciman, S. 1952. A History of the Crusades II. The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East 1100-1187. Cambridge, 71-72. Sartre, M., 1993. Inscriptions Grecques et latines de la Syrie XXI. Inscriptions de la Jordanie IV. Pétra et la Nabatène méridionale, Paris. Theodoricus, De locis sanctis - Teodorico, I luoghi santi. S. De Sandoli, transl., T. Tobler, ed. in Itinera Hierosolymitana Crucesignatorum, saec. XII-XIII: textus Latini cum versione Italica,1980. vol. 2. Sabino de Sandoli, ed. Pubblicazioni dello Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, Collectio maior 24:2. Jerusalem. Walmsley, A. 2001. Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Jordan and the Crusader Interlude, in The Archaeology of Jordan, B. MacDonald, R. Adams, P. Bienkowski (eds.). Sheffield. Wiegand, TH. 1920. Sinai. Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen des Deutsch-Türkischen Denkmalschutz-Kommandos, Heft 1. Berlin/Lepizig. Wilkinson, J. et al. 1988. Jerusalem Pilgrimage 10991185, London. Zayadine, F. 1985. Caravan Routes between Egypt and Nabataea and the Voyage of Sultan Baibars to Petra in 1276, in Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan II. A. Hadidi (ed.). Amman, pp. 172-173.

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Figure 1. The Jabal Haroun mountain. View from the northeast (by Simo Rista)

Figure 2. The plan of the monastery, following the 2005 fieldwork season (by Katri Koistinen and Vesa Putkonen)

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Figure 3. The FJHP site. View from the east (by Matti Mustonen)

Figure. 4. The Western Building. View from the southeast (by Matti Mustonen)

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

LA PRIMA ETÀ MAMELUCCA E IL CONSOLIDARSI DI UNA TRADIZIONE THE EARLY MAMLUK AGE AND THE STRENGTHENING OF A TRADITION TRANSJORDAN AS THE MAMLUK FRONTIER: IMPERIAL CONCEPTIONS OF AUTHORITY AND SPACE Bethany Walker Missouri State University A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011 Abstract (2008) Situated on the eastern border of the Mamluk empire, Transjordan is simultaneously presented in contemporary Arabic sources of the 13th century as a backwater and as the backbone of the state’s security system. It is true that Egyptian sources speak disparagingly of the region around Kerak, for example, as the most culturally and politically remote of the empire. Nonetheless, Transjordan as a whole was far from peripheral to the interests of the state, as the region brought sultans to power, unseated amirs, served as a bulwark against the Mongols, tied Syria to Egypt and Damascus to Mecca, and buttressed the imperial economy through sugar and grain production. Defining the region with respect to imperial interests is a difficult task, as its roles were everchanging and ambiguous. The administrative structure of Transjordan was fluid, frequently adjusted to the immediate geo-political needs of Cairo or Damascus. Imperial investment in the region, moreover, lacked long-term vision and tended toward distinctly localized patterns of agricultural development. Concurrently, new administrative centres were quickly built and declined with equal suddenness, as imperial interest in a district waned. Exacerbating the difficulty in defining the character of Transjordan for the Mamluk state is the very real cultural and political-administrative division between Kerak (the capital of its own province) and the rest of Jordan (collectively constituting the southernmost section of Damascus Province). There was, in essence, two ‘Jordans’, with the town of Kerak, and its hinterland, presenting an exceptional case in imperial-provincial relations and not representing the region as a whole. This presentation explores the concept of the imperial frontier, and this special ‘ambiguity’ of the character of Jordanian lands, from the perspective of the state itself. How did the Mamluk state conceive of ‘empire’? What was the ‘frontier’ and how did the Mamluks treat it (administratively, politically, economically, socially)? In an effort to reconstruct imperial perceptions on these issues, we will make use of a variety of 13th-century Arabic sources (primarily chronicles – both Syrian and Egyptian – and administrative manuals), as well as 14th-century sources (including legal and economic documents) that evaluate the evolving policies of the early Mamluks in Transjordan and their long-term impact. Special attention will focus, as well, on the ongoing excavations at Tall Hisban, where 13th century occupation on the summit of the tell attests to a transformation of formerly domestic and sacred space to militarized and economic functions.

The medieval Mediterranean was, in every sense, a contact zone between the Crusader and Islamic worlds. The ports of Syria, Egypt, and Cyprus functioned as vibrant conduits of trade and cultural exchange, where components of material culture and technology were selectively borrowed and adapted and the encounters between the two worlds produced far reaching changes in art, infrastructure, diplomacy, and political rhetoric and culture. Beyond the sea, Transjordan represented in the thirteenth century the furthest extent - the eastern frontier - of this contact zone. Although not a geographic part of it, the region always belonged culturally to the larger Mediterranean world. The Crusader frontier ran through Jordan in the twelfth century, and much of the administrative and political structure that developed there the following 200 years under the hegemony of Islamic states acknowledges this brief episode of Crusader occupation. Crusader material culture penetrated the Jordanian interior as late as the fourteenth century,

and this in spite of Jordan’s lack of direct access to the Mediterranean: ports were clearly not necessary for such exchanges. The legacy of the Crusader interlude, nonetheless, lies less in its artistic impact than in the development of Jordan as a ‘frontier’. The Mamluk Sultanate, a dynasty of former military slaves based in Cairo, had acquired Jordan piecemeal through conquest of the Ayyubid states by 1263. The following forty years were devoted to securing the region through renovations of formerly Crusader and Ayyubid castles, leveling of roads and the organization of a far-flung communications network, and renovation and construction of Muslim holy places. The Ayyubids’ administration and defensive system was largely incorporated intact and adopted to the needs of the Mamluk state, which feared less attacks by Crusader states on pilgrimage caravans than westward expansion of the Mongol state to its east, the Il Khanids of Persia. Jordanian agricultural land was distrib201

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean uted to Mamluk military officers as quasi-feudal tax grants (iqta‘at), and the region divided administratively between two provinces: the Province of Kerak (from roughly the Wadi Mujib south to Aqaba) and the Province of Damascus (the southernmost portion of which constituted the region between the Yarmouk River and Wadi Mujib). Everything about this administrative structure and the nature of imperial investment here in the thirteenth century suggests a concern for security and an attempt to physically project imperial power into the Syrian steppe. Nonetheless, the Mamluks’ hold over the lands of the Transjordan, its eastern frontier, was never secure or consistent. The thirteenth-century obsession with defense shifted the following century to imperial projects aimed at developing a ‘colonial economy’ in the region and co-opting the local tribal, social, and intellectual networks for political gain. As imperial objectives in the region changed, the distinctive cultural and geographic regionalism of the Transjordan challenged the state in its attempt to secure its eastern frontier, which it had to do region by region, tribe by tribe. This brief essay explores the concept of the imperial frontier in a general sense, and the particular ambiguity of Jordan as a medieval imperial frontier, from the perspective of the Mamluk state in the thirteenth century. How did the Mamluk state conceive of ‘empire’? What was the ‘frontier’ and how did the Mamluks treat it (administratively, politically, economically, socially)? In an effort to reconstruct imperial perceptions on these issues, we pull from a variety of thirteenth and fourteenth-century Arabic sources that evaluate the evolving policies of the early Mamluks in Transjordan and their long-term impact. Special attention will focus on the archaeological site of Tall Hisban, where ongoing excavations of the medieval Islamic citadel are raising important questions about the nature of Jordan as the Mamluk frontier.

nications networks (roads, postal stations). Although their existence attests to an attempt by the state to project its authority, they also bear witness to the inability of the state to secure and incorporate these regions: the use of military force is never as effective in securing the frontier as implementation of an effective administrative structure. There are, of course, other kinds of frontiers, apart from the geographical frontier, such as the economic, social, and political. All represent limits to state hegemony, and concurrently the strength of local identity and institutions. A frontier is not merely a place but also local people, economies, or political bodies that are not under full state control. It is ‘remote’ from the center, geographically, culturally, politically, or otherwise. Nonetheless, the frontier has something to offer the state, outside of defense and other strategic concerns. In an effort to gain access to natural resources, markets, and manpower, the state, when it is in its most dire economic and political need, will try to ‘open’ the frontier, by force or cooption. In a real sense, the state needs the frontier more than the frontier has any need of the state. Perceptions of ‘the other’ are extremely important in understanding relations of the imperial state with its frontiers. From the vantage point of the state, the rural frontier represents a threat, as it is not entirely under its control; rebellion and collaboration with an enemy are always a concern. The frontier generally coincides with the borders of the empire; it physically frames the state and represents its greatest diversity on every level. The frontier represents potential to the state. The local communities in a frontier, at the same time, have their own images of an imperial power that is as conceptually distant from them as they are from the imperial capital. Mamluk historians, for example, frequently attest to a dissatisfaction of local peoples with officials, who act as the ‘face of the state’ in rural areas: they are frequently inept or corrupt, they provide little to no public services but are quick to overtax, take far from the provinces local resources, and require the submission of local tribes and their elites. These medieval historians simultaneously describe the Egyptian state as a necessary evil in moderating tribal conflicts and a foreign, and usually unwelcome and exploitative, presence, whose ignorance about local resources and peoples cause damage on the long term. Nonetheless, the centers of imperial power (whether Cairo or Damascus, the effective ‘second’ capital of the Mamluk empire) seem far away, indeed, and are shadowy entities: at the best this means non-interference in local affairs, but at the worst financial and administrative neglect. Both perspectives betray an incomplete knowledge of the ‘other’ and real cultural differences. Nonetheless, from the perspective of the frontier, dominance by a foreign power does not last forever. In Jordan the imperial structures, like those of the Mamluks, have been temporary impositions; empires come and go, but it is the local, the ‘frontier’, that has survived. From these perspectives, Mamluk Jordan functioned in every sense as the imperial frontier, as it did in the Crusader period and for many of the same reasons. As a frontier region, the peoples of Jordan acted with a consider-

DEFINING THE ‘FRONTIER’ Recent borderland studies in the United States and the work of historians of southern Africa have developed the concept of ‘the frontier’, defining it as a ‘zone of interpenetration between two previously distinct societies’ or, alternatively, ‘socio-political orders distinct from the institutions of the Empire at large’ (Das and Poole 2004; Hansen and Stepputat 2005). The Jordanian frontier, in particular, can be understood as a contact zone between the state and tribal societies. The frontier represents the limits of state control: while formally part of the imperial domains, a frontier has not been fully incorporated into the state’s governing apparatus; it has not been completely subdued; it retains a significant degree of autonomy; it does not identify with the imperial body. It is, thus, part of the state, without being subsumed by it. A frontier is not ‘marginal’ to the interests of the state, however: quite the opposite, as the geographical frontier, in particular, represents a particular strategic concern. These ‘borderlands’, defined as the recognized spatial limits of imperial authority, have a landscape punctuated by defensive outposts (garrisons, guard towers) and commu202

B. Walker: Transjordan As The Mamluk Frontier. Imperial Conceptions Of Authority And Space able degree of autonomy; the region was incorporated to a limited degree through garrisons, roads, and way-stations; its administration by the state was fluid and changeable (Walker 2003); its relations with the state were constantly being negotiated, the local tribal structure ultimately forcing accommodations on both sides (Walker 2008); and the region had demonstrable economic, political, and strategic potential, which was inconsistently tapped by the state. Perhaps most importantly, Jordan functioned as a locus of experimentation on every level: various administrative, financial, and political reforms were first applied here before attempting them anywhere else in the empire (Walker 2007 and 2009 – for studies of the economic and legal documents of the period). A frontier is a place of testing and trying, where mutual transformations of the imperial body and local society are possible. This is arguably the most important legacy of late medieval Transjordan: in many ways the Mamluk state developed, in part, a self-concept of ‘empire’ through its relations with this geographical, cultural, and economic frontier.

of Cairo or Damascus. Imperial investment in the region, moreover, lacked long-term vision and tended toward distinctly localized patterns of agricultural development. Concurrently, new administrative centers were quickly built and declined with equal suddenness, as imperial interest in a district waned. Exacerbating the difficulty in defining the character of Transjordan for the Mamluk state is the very real cultural and political-administrative division between Kerak (the capital of its own province) and the rest of Jordan (collectively constituting the southernmost section of Damascus Province). There were, in essence, two ‘Jordans’, with the town of Kerak, and its hinterland, presenting an exceptional case in imperial-provincial relations and not representing the region as a whole. Kerak presented the Mamluks with unique challenges and opportunities that were not encountered elsewhere in Transjordan. Its ‘urban’ infrastructure and public services were the most developed in the region. Under the Ayyubids, for example, Kerak had the highest concentration of physicians and scholars in Jordan (Ghawanmeh 1980, 347-352). With the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Ahmad in the 1340s, there was a brief, and failed, attempt to make Kerak the imperial capital, replacing Cairo. The most violent battles of the fifteenth-century civil wars were fought in the vicinity of Kerak Castle. Imperial relations with other regions of Jordan, however, were quite different. We are concerned here with that ‘other Jordan’ – a geographically and culturally diverse region that in the thirteenth century was largely rural and entirely tribal, its villages and modest garrisons loosely connected to one another through a network of roads, pigeon routes, and fire signal towers that served pilgrims, merchants, spies, and armies alike. Socially and politically tied through tribal alliances, relations among villages in this region were reinforced through intellectual networks that pulled Jordanian territories north of Kerak into the scholarly orbit of Damascus. The Mamluk state had an ill-defined relationship with both ‘Jordans’. The Transjordan is simultaneously presented in contemporary Arabic sources as both a backwater and the backbone of the state’s security system. Egyptian sources frequently speak disparagingly of the region around Kerak, for example, as a place culturally and politically remote from Cairo. Nonetheless, the Jordanian territories were far from peripheral to the interests of the state, as the region brought sultans to power, unseated amirs, served as a bulwark against the Mongols, tied Syria to Egypt and Damascus to Mecca, buttressed the imperial economy through sugar and grain production, provided horses for the Mamluk army (which was primarily cavalry-based), and secured the hajj (Muslim pilgrimage) route between Damascus and Mecca. In the thirteenth century Jordan became a focus of imperial investment in a communications infrastructure, which simultaneously served the interests of defense, commerce (primarily transport and temporary storage of agricultural commodities), and religious pilgrimage. The single most important ‘investor’, in this regard, was Sultan Baybars, whose efforts in developing Jordan at the beginning of Mamluk rule suggests an aggressive and ambitious plan, from the start, for incorporat-

IMPERIAL PERCEPTIONS OF ITS FRONTIER Mamluk sources do not refer to these borderlands as ‘Jordan’: a place by this name, of course, did not exist then. Interestingly, neither is the region ever called by its various administrative names, except in specialized administrative manuals. Instead, Mamluk officials and historians refer to specific place names – towns such as Kerak, Ajlun, Hisban (where there were garrisons) or geographically distinct regions such as the Ghôr/Jordan Valley (where sultans owned farms). But, more often, the sources refer to tribal regions – such as the ‘Banu Mahdi’ or ‘Banu Sakhr’ (meaning the lands of tribes, including villages, where the state had no real authority). These latter were not necessarily desert or steppe; they simply stood for places where the state did not have a foothold. Jordan was, then, a region of territories where the state had differing levels of authority and control: it represented multiple ‘frontiers’. The Mamluks recognized Jordan’s distinctive cultural and geographic regionalism and dealt with it accordingly. Relations with the proudly independent southern Jordan, dominated by the powerful presence of Kerak Castle, for example, contrasts strongly with the more vulnerable Madaba Plains (the ‘bread basket’ of central Jordan) and the agricultural estates of the Jordan Valley; those with the northern hill country, which maintained a degree of economic autonomy during most of Mamluk rule, were channeled through Damascus, and are even more distinct (Walker 2004). The state had to deal with each of these regions on their own terms, in an effort to ‘open these frontiers’ politically, socially, and economically. In the process, each society – both imperial and local – were forced to compromise, to some degree, with the other, as power relations and governmental policies were negotiated. Defining the region with respect to imperial interests is a difficult task, as its roles were ever-changing and ambiguous. The administrative structure of Transjordan was fluid, frequently adjusted to the immediate geo-political needs 203

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean ing the ‘frontier’.

shrine of Ja‘far al-Tayyar in Muta – Ghawanmeh 1982a, 78); and made structural improvements to local mosques throughout the region, usually by adding a minaret (as he did with the Great Mosque in the town of Ajlun in 1263 and a smaller one in the nearby village of Raymun – Ghawanmeh 1986, 20-24, 48). Many of the renovated structures were those either built or reconstructed by al-Mu‘azzam ‘Isa. Baybars’ investments in Jordan were, like this Ayyubid prince before him, focused on defense and the desire to gain religious legitimacy with the local population as a protector of the pilgrimage.1

THE SULTANATE OF BAYBARS Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars (ruled 12601277), though not the founder of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt, was the first effective sultan of the empire, which, under his rule, absorbed Bilad al-Sham. Coming to power in Cairo in 1260, after an exile abroad spent, in part, in the Jordanian towns of Kerak and Ajlun, Baybars’ immediate concern upon taking the throne was security. Jordan thus acquired a particular importance: the subjugation of the independent Ayyubid Kingdom of Kerak and the securing of the Syrian hajj route made effective control over the Transjordanian territories a necessity for the security of the empire as a whole. To this end, he built a multi-service network of garrisons, roads, and caravanserais, which served as one component of the barid (postal) system he established throughout Syria (Walker 2003, 243-244). In addition, he invested in local places of religious visitation (ziyarah), arguably to win the support of local peoples and more fully incorporate the Jordan Valley (where many of these shrines were located) into his larger communications infrastructure, facilitating religious pilgrimage in the process. On the economic level, the agricultural lands of Jordan were distributed among his officers as tax grants; he claimed the extremely lucrative sugar-producing town of Quseir in the Jordan Valley as his own iqta‘ (Ghawanmeh 1982b, 74). The result was increased regional security, the revival of the rural economy, and the reincorporation of Jordan into a regional, Islamic state. Sultan Baybars’ plan for investment in Jordan was built on the framework established sixty years earlier by the Ayyubid prince al-Malik al-Mu‘azzam ‘Isa, the Nai’b (governor) of Kerak and Damascus and son of Sultan al‘Adil (Ghawanmeh 1980, 173-189). Jordan, as a whole, benefited by the capital improvements of al-Mu‘azzam ‘Isa, whose primary concerns were to secure the pilgrimage route to the Hijaz and to revive the rural economy, scarred by many years of wars with the Crusaders and among the rival Ayyubid princes. After traveling the length and breadth of his territory to evaluate its most pressing needs, he initially concentrated his efforts on the pilgrimage corridor that ran through Jordan, building new fortifications (such as the castles at Ajlun and Salt and possibly a watchtower on the Amman citadel); renovating derelict ones (Shobak, long in disrepair); and physically developing Muslim shrines (mazaras), such as the one at Mu’ta, along its route. The Jordanian castles, moreover, served also as treasuries, with cash, supplies, and arms distributed among these safe houses. In a similar way, the Mamluk Sultan Baybars leveled roads; built bridges (Jisr Daymiyya in 1266 to cross the Jordan River); renovated castles in a number of towns and villages (Ajlun, Salt, Shobak, the south tower at Kerak, and, perhaps, the southwest tower area at Hisban citadel); developed local shrines (such as providing an endowment for the tomb of the Companion Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah in ‘Amata in 1277 and enlarging, renovating, and expanding the endowment for the

THE CASE OF HISBAN There are no equivalent historical references to the village of Hisban during Sultan Baybars’ reign, from which to draw the same picture of development and imperial incorporation. For a history of the first fifty years of Mamluk rule here, one must turn to the results of forty years of (ongoing) archaeological fieldwork at Tall Hisban, which suggest many of the same terms of economic revival and political restructuring that characterize Sultan Baybars’ rule in the rest of Jordan. 2 Located in a modern village of the same name, approximately 25 kilometers south of Amman and with views of the northwest end of the Dead Sea, the old city of Jerusalem, and Jericho, Tall Hisban visually dominates the grain fields of the Madaba Plains in central Jordan (Figure 1). Although there are occasional references to the village in Abbasid and Ayyubid-era chronicles, it becomes most visible historically in the fourteenth century, when, under the active sponsorship of the Mamluk Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (third reign 1310-1341), it became the capital of the Balqa’ (wilayat al-Balqa’); was visited on three occasions by sultans (twice by al-Nasir Muhammad and at least once by Barquq); housed a moderately-sized garrison under the command of a middling general (amir of 10 horsemen); commanded some three hundred nearby villages and extensive farmland; and enjoyed all of the public services of a proper ‘town’ (madinah), such as a court, madrasah (Islamic law school), and marketplace (Walker 2003 and 2007). It was renowned in this period for its agriculture (grains, walnuts, and orchards) and intellectual achievements, as many local scholars went on to make successful academic careers in Damascus (Ghawanmeh 1982a, 169200). The site consists of the hill (a quasi-tell) itself, on the summit of which sits the medieval castle (Figure 2), and the village below, located on its slopes and around its base; its hinterland includes farmland, wadis, and springs at a distance of some two-three kilometers away, which have been surveyed systematically since the 1970s. The standing architecture on the western half of the summit includes the remains of a fourteenth-century residential complex (identified as the palace of the Governor of the Balqa), to which 1

For Baybars’ building projects in Jordan, see Walmsley 2001; Walker 2003. 2 The current excavations at Tall Hisban are sponsored by Andrews University under the Senior Direction of Øystein S. LaBianca. The author is Co-Director and Chief Archaeologist.

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B. Walker: Transjordan As The Mamluk Frontier. Imperial Conceptions Of Authority And Space is connected a small bathhouse (likely an early Islamic construction – Devries 1986 – for architectural description; Walker and La Bianca 2008 – for tentative Abbasid dating) (Figure 3). The remains of an Early Byzantine basilica, partially restored by Andrews University, is situated to its east. The summit in the Mamluk era was covered in stone, barrel-vaulted rooms and open courtyards with flagstone pavements, the entire area riddled by an extensive underground network of cisterns, caves, and passages. Previous to Mamluk, and possibly Ayyubid, occupation, the summit was used as a fortified residence during Umayyad and Abbasid times; a bishopric under the Byzantines; a Roman cultic center; and a square, fortified space with square corner towers during the Hellenistic period (or earlier), during which time the enclosure wall and the general contours of the summit were established. In comparison to the marked transformation of space and function that the summit of the tell experienced over time, the slopes, wadis, and fields below were consistently given over to domestic and agrarian use, with peaks of occupation occurring in the Roman, Byzantine, and Mamluk periods. Phase II excavations at the site began in 1998 with a renewed interest in the Islamic periods. In the four seasons of fieldwork since then (1998, 2001, 2004, and 2007), we have identified three phases of occupation and construction on both the summit of the tell and in Field C (remains of the medieval village on the western slopes and base of the tell).3 These phases of construction include two different periods of renovations to the fortifications, which seem to correspond to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Although at this point the chronology of the architectural phasing cannot be confirmed with confidence, the coin evidence supports an initial series of renovations to possible Ayyubid-era constructions on the summit at the beginning of Mamluk rule; a flurry of construction activity in the fourteenth century, which includes reorganization of interior space at the entrance to and the western half of the summit; destruction (arguably by earthquake) in mid-century and subsequent attempts at restoration; and squatter-like reuse of ruins in the late Mamluk period. The village, on the other hand, continued to be occupied until well into the fifteenth century. Excavations in 2001 and 2004 confirmed these phases of construction, renovation, and reuse for the storeroom located in the Governor’s Palace and along the inside face of the southern fortification wall. At some point at the beginning of Mamluk rule, the southwest corner of the citadel was reinforced by expanding its space to the north and east, building a series of passageways and rooms inside that corner, and adding courses to a derelict fortification wall. The result was the creation of a massive southwest corner tower that dominates the summit – twice the size of the other three – and resembling in many respects the south keep at Kerak Castle, built by Sultan Baybars over earlier ruins. Fieldwork in 2007, focused, in part, on the main gate to the citadel, located to the south. The results suggested a further militarization of the site at a later stage

in the Mamluk period, as formerly public and cultic, and then domestic and private, spaces were transformed into a formal citadel. One of the earliest uses of the entrance to the summit is related to a well-constructed flagstone pavement that seems to have led from the staircase directly to the basilica, continuing underneath the extant inside face of the southwest corner tower. This cobblestone entranceway to the church complex was replaced at a very early stage in the Umayyad period with a series of plastered floors, the entrance gate narrowed in the process. In the early Mamluk period the space to the west of and adjacent to the stairs was converted into a combination fortification/ storage space. In the fourteenth century, in a final stage of reorganization of space, these rooms were replaced with a poorly constructed, small and square tower, which occupied the easternmost end of the earlier southwestern tower, providing a kind of buttress. The construction consisted of extending the southwest tower further east and south, adding to the face adjacent to the stairs a haphazardly-built, small (2x5 meter), square tower filled in with rubble (Figure 4). This ‘buttress’ reduced again the width of the southern entrance and appears to be connected with restorations to the citadel following what we believe to be earthquake damage in the mid-late fourteenth century. Most of the Mamluk-era construction can be dated to the fourteenth century. What thirteenth-century building activity that can be identified at the site, at this preliminary stage of interpretation, includes the reinforcement of the southwest tower and reorganization of its internal space. Although there are no written records to confirm it, the work could be attributed to Sultan Baybars, who did similar restorations to Ayyubid castles throughout Jordan. The location alone of Hisban would have perfectly suited Baybars’ defensive program outlined above. The hill has an excellent view of the surrounding plain; sits at the intersection of two important communications corridors linking Jerusalem, Damascus, and the Hijaz; and already had well developed water capture and storage facilities, in addition to good farmland. The site did become, under Baybars, a stop on the barid route from Egypt, a node on the pigeon route he developed, and was located just off the Damascus hajj route to the Hijaz. The chronology of these developments pivots on the numismatic evidence. Nearly 400 coins were collected during the Phase I excavations in1968-1976 (Terian 1974, 40-46; Terian 1976, 136 and 141; Terian 1980, 178; Hendrix 1994, 180-182) and many fewer (several dozen) thus far during Phase II; only a fraction of these, however, are legible or otherwise datable. Nonetheless, the numismatic record allows us to make some preliminary statements about the scale of occupation and economic status of Hisban in the thirteenth century. There is a rich series of coins, although primarily fulus (copper coins, the lowest denomination), at the site for the Ayyubid period, from nearly all fields of excavation. For the Mamluk period, 68 coins bearing the name of Sultan Baybars – a remarkable quantity from a single reign - were recovered from both the citadel and the village below. Three of these were copper fulus, but the remaining 65 were recovered from a coin hoard, placed

3

For a summary of the results of recent excavations at Hisban and a bibliography of published reports, see La Bianca - Walker 2007, 118-120.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean DeVries, B. 1986. The Islamic Bath at Tell Hesban. in The Archaeology of Jordan and Other Studies, ed. L. T. Geraty and L. G. Herr. Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 223-235. Ghawanmeh, Y. 1980. Imarat al-Karak al-Ayyubi. Karak, Manshurat Baladiyyat al-Karak. al-Tarikh al-Hadari li-Sharqi al-Urdunn fi al-‘Asr alMamluki. Amman, Dar al-Fikr li-l-Nashr wa al-Tawzi‘, 1982a. al-Tarikh al-Siyasi li-Sharqi al-Urdunn fi al-‘Asr alMamluki al-Awwal. Amman, Dar al-Fikr li-l-Nashr wa alTawzi‘, 1982b. al-Masajid al-Islamiyyah al-Qadimah fi Mintiqat ‘Ajlun. Irbid, University of Yarmouk, 1986. Hansen, Th. Blom and Stepputat, F. 2005. Introduction, in Sovereign Bodies: Citizens, Migrants, and States in the Postcolonial World, ed. Thomas Blom Hansen and Finn Stepputat. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1-36. Hendrix, Ralph E. 1994. A Summary of Small Finds from Tell Hesban. in Hesban After 25 Years, ed. David Merling and Lawrence T. Geraty. Berrien Springs, MI, Andrews University Press, 176-186. LaBianca, Ø. S. and Walker, Bethany J. 2007. Tall Hisban: Palimpsest of Great and Little Traditions of Transjordan and the Ancient Near East, in Crossing Jordan – North American Contributions to the Archaeology of Jordan, ed. Thomas E. Levy, P.M. Michèle Daviau, Randall W. Younker, and May Shaer. Bedforshire, UK, Equinox Publishing, Ltd., 111-120. Parker, S. Th.. Heshbon 1976: Area C.4, 6, 8, 9, 10, Andrews University Seminary Studies 16.1 (1978): 71-105. Terian, A. 1974. Coins from the 1971 Excavations at Heshbon. Andrews University Seminary Studies 12.1, 35-46. Terian, A. 1976. Coins from the 1973 and 1974 Excavations at Heshbon, Andrews University Seminary Studies 14.1 (1976), 133-141. Terian, A., 1980. Coins from the 1976 Excavations at Hesbon. Andrews University Seminary Studies 18.2 (1980), 173-180. Walker, Bethany J. 2003. Mamluk Investment in Southern Bilad al-Sham in the Eighth/Fourteenth Century: The Case of Hisban. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 62.4, 241-261. Walker, Bethany J. 2004. Mamluk Investment in the Transjordan: A ‘Boom and Bust’ Economy, Mamluk Studies Review 8.2 (2004): 119-147. Walker, Bethany J. 2007. Sowing the Seeds of Rural Decline?: Agriculture as an Economic Barometer for Late Mamluk Jordan, Mamluk Studies Review 11.1, 173-199. Walker, Bethany J. 2008. The Tribal Dimension in Mamluk-Jordanian Relations, Mamluk Studies Review, 13.1, 82-105. Walker, Bethany J. 2009. Popular Responses to Mamluk Fiscal Reforms in Syria. Bulletin d’Études Orientales, 58, in print. Walker, Bethany J. and S. LaBianca, Ø. 2008. Tall Hisban. In Archaeology in Jordan, 2007 Season, ed. Stephen H. Savage, Donald R. Keller, and Christopher A. Tuttle. American Journal of Archaeology 112.3, 509-528.

in a Mamluk-era slipper-shaped ceramic lamp (Figure 5), which was in turn hidden in a niche of a wall of a late thirteenth-century house in the medieval village (Parker 1978, 76, 92-93). These were all silver dirhams (the second largest denomination of Islamic coinage), of varying weights and bearing variations on sultanic titles. Significantly, we have thus far not identified a single coin minted between the reigns of Sultans Baybars and al-Nasir Muhammad, but have more coins of the fourteenth century (and for the duration of the century) than any other Islamic period. The numismatic record, then, suggests that there was a flurry of investment in the citadel and the town during Baybars’ reign, not to be matched until that of al-Nasir Muhammad. Hisban, thus, grew in spurts in the mid-late thirteenth century, and then again throughout the fourteenth century. The ceramic record has, unfortunately, not been as informative about occupation of the site in the thirteenth century. The rich deposits and contents of the nearly complete storeroom mentioned above represent the range of locally produced and imported wares available in Syria in the fourteenth-century (Figure 6). It is an enviable assemblage for this period and one of the best in this respect in Jordan. However, it has been difficult to stratigraphically and stylistically separate thirteenth from fourteenth-century pottery. With the exception of isolated sherds of sgraffitos and possibly some local painted handmade ware (called HMGP – ‘Handmade Geometric Painted Ware’ – by archaeologists), the first generations of Mamluk rule have not been clearly represented ceramically at this site. Nonetheless, both the summit and village were clearly occupied, and experienced marked economic and demographic growth, as demonstrated by the numismatic evidence; the lacuna in the ceramic record may reflect more the state of knowledge about thirteenth-century pottery in Jordan than the nature of occupation at the site. CONCLUSIONS Tall Hisban is a rather exceptionally well preserved, but probably very typical, rural capital in Mamluk Transjordan. The citadel there illustrates ways in which the eastern frontier was incorporated at the beginning of Mamluk rule and suggests how other administrative centers of comparable size, such as Salt and Amman, were developed and functioned during the transition from Ayyubid to Mamluk rule. Fieldwork at Hisban also demonstrates the value of studying the ‘other Jordan’ and its smaller, rural centers in the writing of a history of imperial rule on the frontier during the later Islamic periods. It was largely through such modest, rural garrisons that the first Mamluk sultans were able to subdue the frontier, village by village and one tribal territory at a time. BIBLIOGRAPHY Das, V. and Poole D, 2004. State and Its Margins: Comparative Ethnographies. in Anthropology in the Margins of the State, ed. Veena Das and Deborah Poole. Sante Fe, School of American Research Press, 3-33. 206

B. Walker: Transjordan As The Mamluk Frontier. Imperial Conceptions Of Authority And Space

* Figure 1. View north of Madaba Plains and Tell Hisban in the 1970s

* Figure 2. The Mamluk Citadel at Hisban, southern entrance

* Figure 3. Mamluk ‘Governor’s Palace’, as it appeared in 1976 (with bathhouse to right)

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Figure 4. Staircase, 2007 season

Figure 5. Hoard of silver dirhams of Sultan Baybars’ reign, from a medieval house in Field C

Figure 6. Monumental glazed bowl from Mamluk storeroom (*These photos from project files at the Institute of Archaeoloy, Andrews University) (Photo for Figure 4 was taken by the author)

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

THE CASTLES OF AQABA Reem Al-Shqour1 University of Ghent Johnny De Meulemeester Islamic Aqaba Project A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011 Abtract (2008) The Castles of Aqaba Since the research started in 2000, the excavations at the castle of Aqaba show that before this Mamluk building was constructed in 1515 a fortified khan existed on the site. Occupation in the area started in relationship to the Islamic city of Ayla 1 km to the north and a continued exploitation of the oasis resources (agriculture based on local wells and irrigation) is proved from the Abassid period onwards. In the late 12th or early 13th century a rectangular enclosure was built which will take the function of a khan during the 13th century and of a gorvernor’s residence during the 14th century. The construction had to be rebuilt at several occasions probably due to eartquakes. In the 15th century it stayed abandonned for som while before being replaced by the actual fort. As for Crusaders presence no actual prove was found, but we consider the possibility that the Crusaders during their presende at the Gulf of Aqaba used perhaps the old Islamic town defences of Ayla, like they were used to do in north-western Europe at the same epoch.

INTRODUCTION--HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF AQABA

they decide to (some at least) move 1000 meters south and establish a new settlement and fortification at Aqaba? Did other Arab settlers move into the area to reestablish the population? The subsequent historic events that are known from literary sources provide little help to clarify the situation. For example, it is known that in 1116 King Baldwin I of Jerusalem and 200 knights arrived at Ayla and occupied the town. Some scholars suggest that since there is no record of a fight, the town was completely abandoned and the Crusaders simply marched in. Yet, there are accounts of Arab inhabitants who fled into the sea, indicating that the town was not completely abandoned. The accounts also suggest that the Crusaders left a small garrison at Elim or Helim (as they took the name from the Bible) while the rest returned to Jerusalem. Taken together, these accounts would suggest that some occupation continued at Ayla after the earthquake, both Arab and Crusader. But how substantial was the Arab occupation before the Crusaders arrived? And where precisely was the Crusader garrison of Elim (Helim) located— in Ayla, or at the new location of Aqabat-Ayla (Whitcomb 1997)—that is the area that would become the Aqaba Castle? Whatever the case, this initial incursion by the Crusader army apparently did not result in a long-term Crusader presence for in 1154 al-Idrisi’s reference to the small town of Ayla indicates that it was again populated by Arabs and under their control. A permanent military Frankish presence at or near Ayla was probably not established until the 1160s, virtually a hundred years after the earthquake. In fact, recent analysis of the historical documents by Denis Pringle (Pringle 2005) shows clearly that the location of the Crusader castle that Saladin captured in 1170 was actually on the island of Jazirat Fara‘un, in Egyptian terri-

The famous Castle at Aqaba is well-known to the world primarily because of its capture on the 6th of July 1917 by the Arab army—an event made even more famous to the western world because if its association with Col. T. E. Lawrence, commonly known as “Lawrence of Arabia.” Less well known, however, is the earlier history of this celebrated fort and the town it protected. The capture of Aqaba, probably the most significant military action of the Arab revolt against the Turks during WWI was only the most recent episode in a long and often not well understood history of this strategically located site that sits astride the intersection of two major travel routes of antiquity— the Egyptian pilgrim’s way and the Syrian pilgrims way. Until now, the actual origins of Aqaba have been somewhat of a mystery. It is generally agreed that its beginnings can be traced back to the 11th century when Ayla, the earlier Islamic town on the north shore of the Gulf of Aqaba, suffered a series of setbacks. One of these occurred in 1024 when Ayla was sacked during a Bedouin raid. Then, on 18 March 1068, the town and environs suffered considerable devastation in a massive earthquake. Some records suggest only 12 residents of Ayla survived because they were at sea. Archaeological excavations have shown that the quake displaced some structures by as much as a meter. Significantly, it also appears that the water table of this site rose at this time. Most scholars seem to agree that 1068 earthquake ultimately led to the abandonment of the town. However, there is still considerable uncertainty as to what precisely happened to Ayla after the earthquake. Was the town immediately and completely abandoned, or did some folks (the dozen survivors?) continue to occupy Ayla? Or did 1

This article is dedicated to the memory of my professor and colleague in directing the excavations at Aqaba, Prof. Dr Johnny De Meulemeester. He passed away before completing this article for publication. The results and interpretations generally follow what we had worked out together; however, I did not have the opportunity to share my ideas concerning the water wells with Prof De Meulemeester before he died.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean tory. Nevertheless, they were able to maintain control – at least during clear weather – because the town of Aqaba (or Ayla), was only 15 km to the north. Despite these historical references, excavations carried out on the island during the Israeli military occupation of Sinai, revealed no certain trace of the Frankish occupation. As well be shown below, the earliest architectural remains associated with the castle at Aqaba appear to date from the Ayyubid occupation in the late 12th and 13th centuries; and the visible standing remains, despite being now largely rebuilt, also appear to date from after Saladin’s capture of Ayla in 1170 when it became the principal Ayyubid stronghold in the region. The Crusaders returned to Ayla in 1181, when Reynald of Châtillon, lord of Karak, was able to briefly occupy the town. According to al-Maqrizi the Egyptian historian, Reynald arrived in Ayla in November 1181. However, he was soon forced to withdraw when Saladin’s nephew undertook a raid against Karak. Al-Maqrizi also adds that following Reynald’s incursion, the rain at Ayla was so heavy that its fortress collapsed. It is not clear whether the fortress that collapsed in 1181 was located on the shore of Aqaba or on Jazirat Fara‘un. It seems more likely that de Châtillon stayed in a stronghold on the shore as it seems improbable that he would have captured the Jazirat castle and immediately withdrawn. While the texts are vague about this action, they provide a more detailed account of the events of the following year, when Reynald raided Muslim shipping in the Red Sea, blocking the principal Ayyubid fortress on Jazirat Fara‘un. This, the most ambitious Frankish raid to date, was apparently intended as a prelude to an attack on the Holy Places. The raid was launched towards the end of 1182 when Reynald brought five prefabricated ships to Ayla which had been under Saladin’s control almost continually since 1171. It is evident that Reynald must have taken Ayla. However, Saladin’s troops still occupied the castle at Jazirat Fara‘un, so Reynald sent two ships to blockade the island castle. The other ships were sent down the Red Sea to ‘Aydhāb on the coast of modern Sudan. Reynald did not join these ships, apparently remaining at Ayla to direct the campaign (Facey 2005, 93; Mallett 2008, 148, 151-152). Again, it seems unlikely that the Crusaders did not use a stronghold on the shore at least as back up for their expedition against the castle on Jazirat Fara‘un and for their other ships in the Red Sea. Although the Franks looted and sacked ‘Aydhāb, Reynald decided to suspend his southern expansion. Ultimately he and most of his troops would be killed at the battle of the Horns of Hattin in 1187. With the final ending of Frankish control in Transjordan and southern Palestine in 1189, the need for an Islamic fort on the Gulf of Aqaba to protect the overland traffic between Cairo and Damascus receded. In Sinai, Saladin constructed another fortress, the castle of Sadr or Qal’at alGindi to protect this main communication route between Egypt and Syria. The Crusader attack and occupation of Ayla apparently was the final blow to the early Islamic town; it does not seem to have been reoccupied (Whitcomb 1997, 359).

Subsequently, in Mamluk times a new settlement, called al-‘Aqaba (or Aqabat-Ayla), developed in the vicinity of the present castle. It has been suggested that the decision to relocate the settlement there was because of the possibility that an earlier fortification may have been located there and the inhabitants were drawn to this area to be closer to this source of protection. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES OF THE “ISLAMIC AQABA PROJECT”1 As is evident from the historical survey given above, there are several outstanding questions concerning the history of Aqaba. Many of these questions exist because the extant documentary evidence has gaps or is incomplete. Fortunately, when the written sources are silent, archaeology can help. Specifically, the present standing structure of Aqaba Castle is, of course, late Mamluk in origin, but our excavations have revealed that earlier structures underlie the present castle. These earlier remains might include the fortification to which, according to Abû’l-Fida, the Mamluk governor of Ayla, transferred his residence around 1320 when the castle at Jazirat Fara‘un was finally abandoned. However, specific documentary evidence to prove this transfer are lacking. 1

The “Islamic Aqaba Project” is a research program whose goal has been to link the former American excavations of the town of Ayla (19861993) to the Belgo-British and Franco-Belgian excavations of the Aqaba Castle Project (2000-2008). From 2000-2003 the project was under the general direction of Johnny De Meulemeester & Denys Pringle; from 2005 onwards it was directed by Johnny De Meulemeester and Reem al-Shqour. Sponsors for the project include Ghent University (principle sponsor), and the UMR 5648 du CNRS, Archaeologia Mediaevalis. For reports for 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 submitted to the DoA: Johnny De Meulemeester, Andrew Petersen & Denys Pringle, The Aqaba Castle Project. Report 2000, Archaeologia Mediaevalis (Belgium), Ministère de la Région wallonne/Division du Patrimoine (Belgium), Cardiff University (Great-Britain) & Department of Antiquities (Jordan), Cardiff-Namur, 84 pp; Johnny De Meulemeester, Sawsan alFakhri, Denys Pringle, Aqaba Castle Project 2001. Preliminary Report, Archaeologia Mediaevalis (Belgium), Ministère de la Région wallonne/ Division du Patrimoine (Belgium), Cardiff University (Great-Britain) & Department of Antiquities (Jordan), Aqaba, 2001, 154 pp; Johnny De Meulemeester, Saté Ahed Massadeh, Denys Pringle & Inneke Daghelet, Magalie Dartus, Joke Dewulf, Katie Johnson, Rana Mikati, Matthew Pease and Reem Shqour, The Aqaba Castle Project. Field Report 2003, Archaeologia Mediaevalis (Belgium), Ministère de la Région wallonne/ Division du Patrimoine (Belgium), Cardiff University (Great-Britain) & Department of Antiquities (Jordan), Cardiff-Namur, 19 pp; Johnny De Meulemeester, Joke Dewulf, Nele Eggermont, Anton Ervynck & Reem Shqour and with the collaboration of Jacques Debie & Moussa Malkewi, The Aqaba Castle Project. Field Report 2005, Archaeologia Mediaevalis (Belgium), Ministère de la Région wallonne/Division du Patrimoine (Belgium), Cardiff University (Great-Britain) & Department of Antiquities (Jordan), Cardiff-Namur, 23 pp; De Meulemeester Johnny, Foran Debra & Shqour Reem (with the collaboration of Berkers Maarten, Clement Cateline, Herremans Davy) 2006, The Aqaba Castle Project. Field Report 2006, Archaeologia Mediaevalis (Belgium), Ministère de la Région wallonne/Division du Patrimoine (Belgium), Cardiff University (Great-Britain) & Department of Antiquities (Jordan), Cardiff-Namur, 22 pp.; Johnny De Meulemeester & Reem Shqour (with the collaboration of Bart Bartholomieux, Maarten Berkers, Cateline Clement, Kristoffer Damgaard, Magalie Dartus, Jacques Debie, Nele Eggermont, Sawsan alFakhri, Debra Foran, Davy Herremans & Katrien Rutten) 2007, The Aqaba Castle Project. Field Report 2007, Archaeologia Mediaevalis (Belgium), Ministère de la Région wallonne/Division du Patrimoine (Belgium), Cardiff University (Great-Britain) & Department of Antiquities (Jordan), Cardiff-Namur, 18 pp.

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J. De Meulemeester, R. Al-Shqour : The Castles of Aqaba In this same vein, questions about even earlier phases of Aqaba can likewise be explored. For example, what was the precise nature and extent of Crusader control in and around the Gulf of Aqaba? When and why did inhabitation of the Islamic city of Ayla cease, and why did the inhabitants relocate at a site only 1000 m south where the Castle of Aqaba is now located. On this latter issue, one important point must be taken into consideration: even if the chief Crusader and Ayyubid/Mamluk stronghold was located on Fara’un Island as indicated by documentary sources, an effective control of the mainland routes and of Aqaba itself seems most unlikely without at least a bridgehead on the mainland. As will be shown below, the archaeology evidence will provide insight on this question. From these foundational historical questions one can move onto other questions concerning the socio-political and economic aspects of Aqaba’s history. These historical questions, therefore, became the focus of the initial phase of our current archaeological research project.

red with sand. A new wall was constructed along the same line; the wall of the well was heightened at the same time. A similar wall was constructed that led from the well off to the west. The number of wells and their combined water capacity would seem to exceed the needs of mere drinking water for the inhabitants and their animals; indeed, there would have been sufficient sweet water to support a significant amount of gardening and agricultural activity. Indeed, the presence of water canals strategically placed in conjunction with possible terrace walls suggests that the area had been purposely divided up into agricultural fields. One might infer from this that a division of fields system existed at this time. Associated with the wells, irrigation canals and terrace walls were the remains of the earliest buildings to be found at Aqaba with traces of hearths, tabūn or bread oven, and floors. One of the structures was defined by two circular column bases enclosing two tiles; a Fatimid glazed sherd was uncovered directly under one of the tiles providing a date for the tile floor. In one of the walls of the first khan was a sherd build into it from an Abbasid jar that doubtlessly comes from a nearby habitation. Significantly, the orientation of the structures is along a NW-SE or SW-NE axis. This is different from the later khans which were constructed on a N-S and E-W axis. Again, the layout points to a certain level of foresight, organization and planning. When all the evidence for Phase 1 is taken together, one can reasonably assume that the earliest activity at the site began in the Umayyad period with the construction of a well. However, the earliest occupation seems to have taken place during the late 11th or early 12th century when an agriculture settlement was established at the site. Probably this kind of activity still continued on the site itself until the first substantial structures were built in the 12th/13th centuries (below).

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESULTS After eight seasons of excavation, we have been able to isolate and identify ten activity or occupational phases at Aqaba Castle. In the following section we will briefly summarize the findings from each phase beginning with the earliest, lowest phase. Phase 1 Pre-Khan Occupation (8th to 12th centuries) Phase 1a. Based on the ceramic evidence, the earliest occupational phase at Aqaba dates from the 8th to the 12th centuries (Figure 1), corresponding to the Abbasid period. Perhaps the most significant features of this earliest phase are the wells. Several wells of varying size had been sunk in fairly close proximity to each other, indicating that the earliest inhabitants were attracted to the site by a plentiful supply of sweet water not too far below the surface. The earliest or oldest well contained Umayyad ceramics exclusively (Figure 2), suggesting that the Aqabat/Ayla location was utilized as a source for water, even though most inhabitants still occupied Ayla, 1000 m to the north. This well might be considered Phase 1a. Phase 1b. Additional wells were sunk (Figures 1 and 3) at least four have been found so far, apparently sometime after the first well. The precise dates for the later wells is uncertain, but one well was found to contain charcoal that was C14 dated to 1075-1160 (3%) and 1160-1290 (93%). These dates would suggest that the wells were constructed sometime after the great earthquake of 1068 (or the smaller one of 1071) - events that may have contributed to the eventual abandonment of the older Islamic town (below). The wells at Aqabat/Ayla varied in size. One well with a diameter of 2 m was partially excavated under the west wing of the north part of the later castle. It had a stepping stone to facilitate drawing water out of it; a canal exited the well in a north-eastern direction. Yet another well, with a diameter of 3 meters was located in what would become the central courtyard. A thin wall runs from the well to the northeast. This wall would become abandoned and cove-

Phase 2 Ayyubid/Crusader Fortification? (c. 1180-1220) Phase 2a. Phase 2, which is dated by ceramics to the Ayyubid period, consists of two sub-phases, Phase 2a and Phase 2b. As noted above, although literary sources indicate the presence of a castle on the island of Jazirat Fara’un and a fortification on the shore of Aqaba, archaeological excavation has produced no evidence of these structures so far. The earliest khan to be constructed on the site (under the current castle) dates to the late 12th –early 13th century, after the Crusader incursion. This first khan (Figures 4 and 8) possessed a rectangular enclosure wall (56m by 40m). Against the west wall, a series of square rooms of more or less 2,80m a side were constructed forming the west wing of the khan. The corner rooms were rectangular and had a length of 4m. The west and south walls lay on the same line as the current standing castle. Investigation of its four corners did not reveal any trace of corner towers. Perhaps the larger corner rooms functioned as (watch) towers. Although the area has not been excavated yet, it would not be surprising to find the entrance in the north wall built inwards towards the courtyard – this can be reasonably inferred from the position of some of the later rooms in the 211

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean central part of the north wing, which possibly used older walls as their foundation. At present it is not known if this first khan possessed a mosque. If it did, it is not unlikely that the reorientation of the building was linked to the position of the qibla wall (outer south wall) of the mosque2; excavations of that building are needed to confirm this idea. Later destruction and rebuilding make it impossible to know if, in its primitive stage, the enclosure stood empty of any buildings and if the row of square cells against the western wall were built as a secondary stage. Finds associated with these structures and the C-14 dating3 are consistent with a date in the late 12th or early 13th century for the construction of the enclosure wall and the first west wing cells. Phase 2b. In the northern half of the west wing there are clear indications that a number of rooms were reconstructed (Figure 5) - possibly after suffering from earthquake damage. The reconstruction more or less maintained the original size of the earlier cell rooms, as some of the preserved pavements and a latrine pit are overbuilt by the new cell walls. Probably at this same time, additional cells were built against the east wall providing the building with the more traditional appearance and function of a khan. Outside the presently standing castle wall and entrance, but also in the transition zone from the north to the west wing inside the castle, a significant number of postholes were excavated (Figure 6). For the moment the best explanation would seem to be that these postholes are the residue of tent posts. Support for this supposition can be derived from the de Laborde watercolor where one can see how in the 19th century tents were still erected in front of the castle. The debris layers linked to the postholes all belong to the Mamluk period. So it can be reasonably assumed that the tents were erected in front of the first khan. The postholes found inside the khan probably belonged to tents set up in the courtyard. From the historical point of view it is difficult to attribute the construction of the rectangular enclosure (khan) to a specific person, but based on the C14 results this first khan can be dated to the Ayyubid period. It was probably initially constructed as a simple enclosure. The cells were likely added against the western outer wall at a later stage. Although the interior might be different, this first enclosure/ khan can be compared with another Ayyubid khan—specifically, the Khan al-‘Arus located north of Damascus. This latter khan is a rectangular structure measuring 41m by 47m. It lacks corner towers and has a non-protruding gatehouse. It was built (according to an inscription that was originally placed above the entrance) in 1181/82 by Saladin (Sauvaget 1939, 49-55 , fig.19). Reynald de Châtillon’s action around the Red Sea somehow dishonored Saladin in Muslim eyes, since the latter was perceived as not being

able to protect the pilgrim routes to the Holy Cities. Could the construction of the enclosure be the materialization of Saladin’s will to protect the pilgrims and also gain control of Aqaba shore? Within the C-14 dating range there is also the other possibility that the khan was built by Al-Mu’azzam ‘Isa in 1213 (Milwright 2008, 76). Or could this refer to the building of new cells in the west wing and those against the east wall giving the structure the function of a real khan? Or must the reconstruction of the new cells be attributed to the Mamluk Sultan Baybars or his immediate successors. Linked to their involvement in providing protection and support for the annual Egyptian pilgrimage to the holy cities, Aqaba needed a fortification to accommodate the pilgrims. Whatever the case, from 1266 onwards, the Egyptian pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina came under official Mamluk sponsorship. Phase 3: Reorganization of the 1st “Khan” (14th century) Phase 3a. In the 14th century the interior of the khan was reorganized (Figure 7). The cells of the west wing were removed and new rooms were built on a larger, more rectangular plan measuring approximately 3.50m by 4.50m. The general layout was similar to the present castle. This time cells were also built against the south wall. (It is possible that cells were also added to the inside of the north wall, but that area has not been excavated yet). In the southwest corner, the defence system was strengthened with a tower that was round in the interior. We have no idea about its outer look as later tower building erased the structure.4 During this time period, an earthquake destroyed the castle at Jazirat Fara‘un. It is known that at least two significant earthquakes occurred in the region during the early 14th century - one in 1303 and a second in 1312. The latter is known to have caused considerable damage to the monastery at St. Catherine’s and might be the one that damaged Jazirat Fara‘un as well. Whatever, the case, the latter castle experienced such extensive damage that the governor eventually felt compelled to abandon it c. 1320 in favor of a fortification on the Aqaba shore. This naturally raises the question as to whether he occupied the existing khan. The failure to find any other significant structures in the area suggests that he probably did. Although the extant texts are not explicit, it is clear that a fortified khan did indeed exist on the shore of ‘Aqaba during the early years of the 14th century and that no new construction is mentioned or existed. Some authors attribute the origins of the ‘Aqaba castle to sultan Nasir Muhammad. This may be so, but the archaeological evidence would suggest that if he was the first to build a castle at the site, he did not build it de novo. Rather it would appear that he remodeled and expanded the existing khan during the first quarter of the 14th century, probably in conjunction with the arrival of the Mamluk garrison from Jazirat Fara‘un around 1320. Since it would not be surprising that

2

The Mamluks were able to define the more or less exact direction of Mecca: excavations of a late Mamluk rural mosque in Lehun showed that the qibla/mihrab orientation differed less than 4 degrees (De Meulemeester 2008); maybe their Ayyubid predecessors had already the necessary knowledge too. 3 For the moment the results of a series of C14 analysis’s on charcoal samples date the enclosure to the late 12th or early 13th century most probably between 1165 and 1220.

4 As

stratigraphy is not quite clear in this area, it is not impossible that this construction belongs to the next phase, the late Mamluk castle, and was replaced by the actual tower in the late 16th century (cfr infra).

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J. De Meulemeester, R. Al-Shqour : The Castles of Aqaba earthquake destruction on the island would also cause destruction of any structures on the Aqaba shore, this might explain the enlargement of the cells of the first khan and completion of rooms in the other wings. The construction of more spacious rooms and the increase of their number might point to an expansion or modification of the functions of the complex. It was no longer merely a khan, but now served as the governor’s residence and a major fortified garrison for the region. The intriguing historical question is for how long did it function in this new capacity? Of course, further research is needed to determine if the reorganization of the complex was limited to the building of similar cells in the west wing or if, indeed, more residential units were constructed (against the north and south wings). Phase 3b. This phase was represented by the rebuilding of at least some of the rooms in the west wing--apparently after suffering earthquake damage. For example, a pavement belonging to a room of Phase 3a disappeared under some new walls that were clearly built with less care. Does this post-earthquake reconstruction activity mark a return in the building’s primary function as a real khan?

khan. Its foundations clearly cut through the earlier wall built by the Mamluk sultan. Most likely this rebuilding should be linked with sultan Murad‘s activities. The most impressive feature of the new khan is the gatehouse, which projects from the middle of the north wall. The design of this is curiously skewed towards the northeast, while the western of the two rounded turrets that enclose the gate is larger than the other. The reason for this design feature seems to have been to create a false perspective, making the gatehouse appear symmetrical when seen from the principal direction of approach from the north-east. Phase 5: Rebuilding (17th–18th centuries) Investigation of the internal parts of the standing structures suggests a complicated sequence of construction and reconstruction, extending over the many centuries during which the building served both as a fortress and a khan used by Egyptian pilgrims travelling to and from Mecca. The rebuilding extends not only to the range of cells, used by Muslim pilgrims, and at certain times troops, which line the inside face of the walls, but also to the mosque in the south range, which, although Mamluk in origin, appears to have undergone at least three phases of rebuilding, during which its floor level was raised by more than a meter. Various structural alterations were made to the castle in the 17th and 18th centuries. These included the rebuilding of the south face of the north range and alterations to the west range. Also, latrines were built, altered, repaired or rebuilt. The result was the castle as we see it in the illustrations made by Léon de Laborde, who drew a plan and a front view c. 1827, and by David Roberts c.1843. The “de Laborde plan”, shows a regular khan with cells all around the central courtyard. So, when de Laborde passed through Aqaba, the building might still have fulfilled its original function as a khan for pilgrims, although de Laborde’s watercolor shows a canon pointing from the north-east polygonal tower.

Phase 4: The second khan or ‘Castle’ (c.1515 – 17th/18th century) The recent excavations make it clear that the khan was abandoned, fell into ruin and disappeared under the sand for a long period before it was rebuilt in the early 16th century. This was evident from the fact that tombs were dug into the east wall. Probably an earthquake was again the reason for the destruction and abandonment. In 1515, the last Mamluk sultan started the construction of a new khan at Aqaba. In preparation for the new construction of Phase 4 the site was leveled. Then the third khan, the present castle, was constructed on a larger plan. The plan of the new khan/castle consisted of a rectangular enclosure (56.5m by 58m) with corner towers. The corner-towers all seem originally to have been polygonal externally and rounded internally. Later, the north-east and south-east towers were partially reconstructed with a rounded external form. Later still, the upper floors and vaults of the towers were rebuilt for the installation of cannons. Excavation of the south-east corner and tower suggest that the building of the new khan was interrupted. Perhaps the death of al-Gawhri and the takeover of the Mamluk empire by the Ottomans was responsible for the interruption. It is more than probable that the Ottoman Sultan Murad III restarted and finished the work in the year 1587/8. Whatever the case, it is evident that after the abandonment/destruction of the earlier khan and the start of the work on the second castle, there occurred a long period of time during which the pilgrims passing trough Aqaba lacked a functioning khan. Later building work, including that associated with the Ottoman Sultan Murad III in 1588, which is also dated by inscriptions, was first thought to represent little more than renovations. A detailed excavation of the still polygonal southwest tower makes it clear that it was rebuilt after the construction of the early 16th century

Phase 6: Rebuilding after c. 1830 From 1831 to 1840, Egypt occupied Palestine and Syria. In 1841 the border of Mohammad Ali’s Egypt were fixed by the convention of London after what is known as ‘the ‘Aqaba incident’. Egypt was left in possession of the Sinai Peninsula and of a number of Red Sea garrison towns, including ‘Aqaba, in order to protect the Egyptian pilgrim route to Mecca. It seems that during this Egyptian occupation the reconstruction of the stronghold in its present form was undertaken, losing some of its khan cells in favor of a place adapted to the needs of a military garrison. Sometime after de Laborde’s visit, a number of changes were made to the castle, including the partial rebuilding of the north-east and south-east towers with rounded as opposed to polygonal exteriors, and the demolition of the northern part of the west range to create an enclosed yard, with a gate on the east. This reorganization left a different west range, with buildings as we now know them after the different 20th century reconstructions. Under Egyptian occupation, the khan became the military fort that would be 213

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peatedly destroyed, but there was the more serious danger of being crushed by the falling stones in the dilapidated town. This impression would have only been reinforced by the nature of the quakes at Ayla. Its location near the north shore of the Gulf provided an unstable foundation that actually undergoes a process of soil liquefaction and differential subsidence (Mansoor, Neimi, Misra 2004; AlTarazi And Korjenkov 2007, 51). One would not have the normal experience of a sudden sharp jerk or shake—rather, it would be like standing on wobbly gelatin. It has been suggested that this process resulted in the subsidence of Ayla by as much as a meter (Ghawanmeh 1992; Whitcomb 199). The occurrence of the earthquake suggests another possible factor that may have contributed to the abandonment of Ayla - one that we would introduce here as a working hypothesis—a water problem. Specifically, its possible, if not probable, that the earthquake resulted in the subsidence of Ayla—perhaps by as much as a meter subsidence (water table fluctuations can accompany liquefaction) (Mansoor, Neimi, Misra 2004, 301). It is not inconceivable that such a submergence so close to the northern shore of the gulf of Aqaba could have created a saltwater inversion that would have made the groundwater under Ayla less desirable, if not outright unsuitable for drinking.5 Ayla’s ancient water supply was provided by groundwater that flowed south from the Wadi Araba - a subterranean flow that ran under the town and was reached by various wells in the town. Today, the water at Ayla is considered potable, but it is still “somewhat brackish” (Whitcomb 2007) and would not be preferred if better water was available. (It is not impossible that the water quality was worse in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake than it is now - this is certainly something that would be worth investigating). In the aftermath of the 1068 earthquake, a better water source, indeed, was available nearby. A major fault line separates Ayla from Aqabat-Ayla (Al-Tarazi And Korgenkov 2007, 4, Figure 3), and the latter receives its groundwater from the Wadi Shallala to the east, rather than Wadi Araba to the north (Woolley And Lawrence 1914; Whitcomb 2007). Its water supply was apparently not adversely affected by the earthquake (the liquefaction potential at Aqabat/Ayla is slightly less than at Ayla (Mansoor, Neimi, Misra 2004). Its continued sweetness motivated the digging of several other wells (at least four have been found so far) its immediate vicinity. An abundant water supply of better quality water would certainly be a strong motivation for people to move from Ayla to Aqabat-Ayla (Aqaba Castle site). Thus, the destruction of Ayla, continuing geological instability, and a souring water supply would be strong motivators for local inhabitants to seek out another settlement site. If a better water supply was a motivating factor for some folks to move south 1000 meters, why did others chose to remain in Ayla? A couple of reasons can be suggested: (1) even though the town suffered extensive damage from the quake, some buildings likely survived intact or needed only minimal repair—and there was plenty of building ma-

Phase 7: First World War destruction and 20th century use During the Italo-Turkish war (1911-2) and the First World War (1915-17), the castle was bombarded from the sea. Much of the west wall and west range was destroyed, and the remains of the latter were filled with earth and rubble to create an elevated platform, possibly for mounting artillery. After the conquest of the fort by the Arab army, the courtyard was cleared and a rectangular building, most likely a stable, was constructed in its eastern half. After the war, the castle was largely rebuilt. Since 1980, reconstruction of the castle has been undertaken by the Department of Antiquities. DISCUSSION How do these finds fit into the literary and archaeological history of Ayla—as it is presently understood? Especially with regards to the ultimate abandonment of Ayla and the establishment of Aqabat-Ayla? Most scholars acknowledge that a key event in the decline of Ayla during the latter part of the 11th century was the 1068 earthquake (Al-Tarazi And Korjenkov 2007). Indeed, in the past, some have assumed that this event led to the immediate abandonment of the town. It was thought that when the Crusaders first arrived they established a new fortification 1000 meters south at what is now Aqaba Castle. However, there are a couple of serious problems with this proposal. First, various literary sources indicate that both Arabs and Crusaders continued to (alternately) occupy Ayla for sometime after the earthquake - indeed, well into the 12th and 13th century. Moreover, the results of our recent excavations at Aqaba Castle show that there was no Crusader Castle. Rather, there was a gap of more than a century between the earthquake of 1068 that devastated Ayla and the establishment of the first khan or fortification in the late 12th or early 13th century at Aqabat-Ayla by the Mamluks. During this time only an agricultural village existed at the site. Both literary sources and archaeological investigation indicate that the destruction at Ayla was quite substantial. Moreover, the literary sources suggest that while occupation continued at Ayla, it was not substantial - only a handful of Arabs remained. Why would occupation at Ayla be discontinued? This question is perhaps the easier to answer—the earthquake of 1068 (and the smaller quakes that followed) certainly did extensive damage. As some have suggested, it may have been less expensive and labor intensive to simply move to another location and start over “from scratch.” Moreover, it is likely that Ayla continued to be struck by earthquakes—there were likely aftershocks that continued for weeks and months after the “big one.” In fact a second major quake was known to have struck just two years later in 1071. This certainly would have impressed many that Ayla was no longer a desirable place to live and rebuild. Not only was there the likelihood of one’s work being re-

5

For recent examples of this problem at Aqaba see Hegazin 1988; Agnew And Anderson 1992

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J. De Meulemeester, R. Al-Shqour : The Castles of Aqaba terial around—so a few survivors probably found it easier to continue living at Ayla and decided to take the risk of reoccurring earthquake. Moreover, the fortification walls would have continued to provide a level of security. As for the water, they may have tolerated the slightly brackish water of Ayla, or went to the trouble of obtaining sweeter water from the wells at Aqabat-Ayla. As for Crusader presence in the area, analysis of the extent historical sources shows clearly that the main castle for controlling the ‘Aqaba Gulf was situated on Jazirat Fara‘un. It is unclear if the buildings there had a predecessor of Byzantine origin or not, although that is not impossible. Whatever the case, there was definitely occupation on the island in the Fatimid period – as shown by the ruined walls of a 10th century mosque. Only new excavations can help to elucidate the matter further. If there was a Crusader garrison post on the ‘Aqaba shore at any time, it does not appear to have been at the site of the present Castle of ‘Aqaba, as building activity only started there after the conquest of the area by Saladin (1170). On the other hand, if we had to rely on archaeology alone, there would be no evidence of a Crusader presence on Jazirat Fara‘un either. As an additional working hypothesis we might consider that Crusader’s military mission would make the surviving fortifications at Ayla a primary consideration as they determined where to locate their base of operations during their short-lived forays into the region—even if a small agricultural village with better water was located nearby. Parallels for this strategy can be found in England, Wales and Flanders where they also used old late Roman “Saxon Shore” forts in the same way in the same period and built their castles within the Roman fortification. As for the question of water, the Crusaders probably took advantage of the sweeter wells at Aqaba to replenish their own drinking supplies or to water their animals. This makes sense, since their primary short-term mission was military in nature, not the establishment of a city. Once the threat of the Crusaders was finally removed by Saladin’s capture of in 1170, the new Arab settlers decided not to return to the dilapidated Ayla, preferring to establish a modest agricultural settlement neat the sweet water well at Aqabat-Ayla. Additional wells were sunk, modest dwellings were built and agricultural fields were laid out and planted. As trade and travelers increased, it was decided to construct the first khan. This may have happened as early as the Ayyubid period, but certainly by the 13th century when the Mamluks became responsible for the safety of pilgrims travelling to Mecca. This first khan would then be replaced by the current building mainly constructed c. 1515. It would be interesting to explore the possibility of geological and hydrological studies of the ancient water systems of both Ayla (where ancient wells have been reported) and Aqaba to see precisely what impact the earthquake of 1068 may have had on these systems. One advantage of this hypothesis is that it explains why the transition from Ayla to Aqaba was gradual, rather than immediate after the earthquake.

CONCLUSIONS The precise history and relationship of Ayla and Aqaba Castle has recently become the focus of scholar attention. In the past, it has been assumed that Aqaba’s founding was directly related to Ayla’s abandonment, either due to the earthquake of 1068 or the invasion of the Crusaders. It has also been assumed that Aqaba Castle was founded by the Crusaders when they made their initial incursions into this region. However, both recent archaeological excavation at Aqaba and new analysis of historical sources make this interpretation problematic--the reality appears to be more complicated. It now appears that Ayla was not completely abandoned after the 1068 earthquake. Sources indicate that both Arabs and Crusaders continued to alternately occupy Ayla into the 12th century. These sources also suggest that the Crusaders actually occupied either Jazirat Fara‘un or a place on the north shore - we suspect it was probably within the fortifications of Ayla. Moreover, the first Khan and later castle - is now known to have been founded only after the Crusaders left the area in 1166. Ayla would be eventually abandoned after the Crusader’s departure, but rather than a sudden abandonment, it appears to have been a gradual move. The move might well have been motivated by a combination of continuing aftershocks and additional earthquakes at Ayla (e.g. 1071 and 1212) and, perhaps more important, the existence of a superior water supply at the nearby Aqaba Castle site. This latter would encouraged local Arabs to eventually abandon the former site for the latter - by the early 12th century the growing settlement finally established a khan—this would eventually be converted to a castle by the 13th century. This khan would be remodeled in the 14th century. The castle was completely rebuilt in the around 1515 and remodeled during the 17th/18th centurie - this was the second khan/castle. The Castle was again rebuilt ca. 1830. This was followed by the damage caused during First World War attacks and the repairs brought to the castle by the Arab occupation as the Castle became part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. BIBLIOGRAPHY Agnew, C. and Anderson, E. W. 1992, Water Resources in the Arid Realm, New York, Routledge. Facey, W. 2005. Crusaders in the Red Sea : Renaud de Châtillon’s Raids od AD 1182-1183. In People of the Red Sea. Proceedings of the Red Sea Project II held in the British Museum October 2004 (Janet Starkey, ed.). BAR International Series 1395, Oxford. Ghawanmeh, Y. H. 1992. Earthquake Effects on Bilad Ash-Sham Settlements, in Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan, IV (S. Tell, ed.), Annuals of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, Amman, Jordan, 53-59. Hegazin, S. 1988. Groundwater monitoring near Aqaba wastewater plant, in Biswas, in A.K and Arar, A. (editors) , Treatment and reuse of Wastewater, London, Butterworth, 180-2. Mallett, A. 2008. A trip down the Red Sea with Reynald of Châtillon, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 18 (2), 141-153. 215

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Mansoor, N. M., Neimi, T. M., Midra, A. 2004. A GISBased Assessment of Liquefaction Potential of the City of Aqaba, Jordan. Environmental and Engineering Geoscience, November 2004, v. 10, no. 4, 297-320. De Meulemeester, J. 2008. Rural Settlement from the Byzantine to the Mamluk Times at Lehun (District of Madaba, Jordan), in K. D’Hulster & J. Van Steenbergen (eds), Continuity and Change in the Realms of Islam. Studies in Honour of Professor Urbain Vermeulen, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, Leuven, Peeters, 159-168. Milwright, M. 2008. The fortress of the Raven. Karak in the Middle Islamic Period (1100-1650), Leiden/Boston, Brill. Pringle, D. 2005. The Castles of Ayla (Al-Aqaba) in the Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk Periods, in Vermeulen Urbain & Van Steenbergen Jo (eds), Egypte and Syria in the

Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras IV, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 140, Leuven, Peeters Publishers, 333-353. Sauvaget, J. 1939. Caravansèrais Syriens du Moyen Âge, Ars Islamica, 6. Al-Tarazi, E. A., Korjenkov, A. M. 2007. Archaeoseismological investigation of the ancient Ayla site in the city of Aqaba, Jordan. Natural Hazards 42/1. Woolley, C. L., Lawrence, T. E. 1914. The Wilderness of Zin. Annual of the Palestine Exploration Fund 1914-15. (republished in 2003 by Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, Indiana). Whitcomb, D. 1997. The Town and Name of ‘Aqaba : An Inquiry into the Settlement History from an Archaeological Perspective, in Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan VI, Amman, 359-363. Whitcomb, D. 2007. The Aqaba Project. The Annual Report of the Oriental Institute. Chicago, Illinois.

Figura 1. Phase 1: Pre-khan structures.

Figura 2. Small pre-khan well (Umayyad).

Figura 3. Phase 1b: Pre khan well with stone steps and canal

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Figura 5. Phase 2b: 13th c. reorganisation of the 1st khan.

Figura 4. Phase 2a: First khan (dotted lines represent supposed/not excavated walls).

Figura 7. Phase 3: 14th c. reorganisation of the 1st khan.

Figura 6. Phase 2b: Postholes outside the Castle

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Figura 8. Location of the first khan under the actual late Mamluk castle as shown in aerial photo.

Figura 9. Well (1) and canal supporting walls (2a and 2b) from the pre-khan phase; east wall of the 1st khan (3); north and south walls (4) of the cells of the east wing of the 1st khan.

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Figura 10. North part of the west wing: 1st khan cell walls (2/2b); rebuilding of the west wing (phase 3a) and reconstruction of the east wall (phase 3b); late Mamluk castle (4/5); 19th c. officers quarter wall (6); 20th c. reconstructions (7).

Figura 11. Southwest corner of the Mamluk Castle.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

THE CULTURAL ROLE OF SHOUBAK CASTLE DURING THE MEDIEVAL PERIODS Hani A. Al-Falahat Department of Antiquities of Jordan

A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011 Abstract (2008) Shoubak is located between Kerak and Petra, and is approximately 210km from Amman. It has many villages scattering over a vast geographical area. Shoubak played a major role in the protection of the pilgrim caravan road though ages. It’s said that: “when Shoubak is stable the pilgrim road is safety”. The location of the castle was selected to control the military movements in the medieval time. Struggle between Crusaders and Muslims gave Shoubak special importance and authority value for both. It was considered the central of the cultural circle of the Islamic word which was spread in Baghdad, Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo and Holly Mecca. The Castle played an important role in the cultural and social achievements both in Shoubak and Kerak during the medieval periods and even afterwards, and history recorded many names of imminent scholars who graduated in the Castle which was considered as a real scientific institution. My paper will focus on those imminent scholars who graduated in Shoubak and participated in publishing culture in deferent scientific aspects. Many judges, Hadith narrators, historians and high rank officials who participated in the development of Syrian and Egyptian governmental institutions gained their fundamental education and knowledge from this school. They were all known as “al-shoubaki”, which means: who’s from Shoubak.

Shoubak is located between Kerak and Petra, and is approximately 210km from Amman. It has many villages scattering over a vast geographical area. Shoubak played a major role in the protection of the pilgrim caravan road through ages. It used to be said that: “when Shoubak is stable the pilgrim road is safety”. The location of the castle was selected because of its resources, and to control the military movements in the medieval time. Struggle between Crusaders and Muslims gave Shoubak special importance and authority value for both. It was considered the central of the cultural circle of the Islamic word which was spread in Baghdad, Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo and Holly Mecca. The Castle played an important role in the cultural and social achievements both in Shoubak and Kerak during the medieval periods and even afterwards, and history (Arabic historians) recorded many names of imminent scholars who graduated in the Castle which was considered as a real scientific institution. Shoubak was and still pure from any ethnic, demographic and political attitude that may create sensitivity. Therefore, Shoubakis` were welcomed all over the Islamic world. My paper will focus on those imminent scholars who graduated in Shoubak and participated in publishing culture in different scientific aspects. Many judges, Hadith narrators, historians and high rank officials who contributed in the development of Syrian and Egyptian governmental institutions gained their fundamental education and knowledge from this school. They were all known as “al-shoubaki”, which means: who’s from Shoubak.

It was considered a referendum place from which Baghdad, Damascus, Jerusalem, and Cairo were exposed (Ghawanmeh 1984, 11-12). After Islamic conquest to Syria as a result of Yarmouk battle1. Damascus became a knowledge destination. It was declared as Umayyad capital in A.D635 – A.D762. Jordanian scientists joined the new center for more education. Therefore, many names were recorded who were related to Jordanian cities; Amman, Salt, Aylah (Aqaba), Kerak, Ajlun, Shoubak, and many others. There are several records referring to scientific and education families from Jordan like: the family of Younes al Ayli (Abu al Falah, vol: 1, p404), Abd al Hakam al Ayli (Al Bukhari, vol: 1, p 345), and Aqeel al Ayli (Al Sam`ani, vol: 1, p 405) who were emerged from Aylah (Aqaba). Abbasid khalef (AD 750 - AD 1258) made Baghdad as new cultural attraction. Innovators aimed Baghdad and Cordoba to win the rewards of the Abbasid and Umayyed Khalefs. The cultural movement witnessed a real competition with Andalusia under the Umayyad role (AD 756 - AD 1492). This competition made a big progression in different scientific aspects. Fatimi Khalef in Cairo (AD 909 - 1171) supported science and scientists. Jordan interacted positively with all cultural movements all over the Islamic world. (Decline Period) In the middle of the 10th century the political situation became unstable in Baghdad. This situation affected directly the cultural life all over the main centers. Political conflicts spread in Syria and Egypt. Generally, the crusader wars made an end for any scientific uplift. The Islamic world was busy for holy struggle. In such political climate, science and scientists declined. This situation continued until the Aubbid/Mamlouk time. Thenceforward, science was given more attention by Muslim leaders (Sultans). In the new circumstances, Shoubak rises as active scientific radiation center because of its strategic location in the meeting point between the Islamic cultural capitals; Mecca, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Damascus and Cairo.

GENERAL VIEW AT SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL LIFE IN JORDAN DURING THE EARLY ISLAMIC ERA (Golden Period) Islamic religious sciences were born in Hejaz in Arabia. Prophet Mohammad (may God bless him) taught his followers the instructions of Islam. He asked them to teach their brothers in religion what they have had from him. During his life and after his death several star names spread in the Islamic partisan areas. Cosmologists, rhetoric, Hadith narrators, Koran memorizers, circulated in the new Islamic territories. Jordan become one of the first radiation centers.

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Yarmouk battle between Byzantines and Muslims took place nearby Yarmouk River in north Jordan in H 15/AD 635.

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skilled writer. He was modest, chaste and sociable. Died in H 885/AD 1480 Ahmad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Mousa al-Tawzari al-Shoubaki. He was born in Shoubak in H 746/ AD 1345, learned Islamic jurisprudence and language sciences and mastered the readings of the Holy Quran. He moved to Mecca and was interested in Quran readings and sciences and taught many students. He was vegetarian died in Mecca in H 800 /AD 1397 and was buried in Madinah. He had two daughters: Sa’idah and Zainab and they gained their reputation in the field of Hadeeth scholarship and preached in Mecca. Zainab Bint Ahmad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Mousa al-Shoubaki, Umm Habiybah. She resided with her father in Mecca. She moved to Egypt to study there and returned then to Mecca. She was honest, well-behaved, donor and freehanded. She was always performing fasting and circumambulation. She Died in H 886/AD 1481. Sa’idah Bint Ahmad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Mousa al-Shoubaki. She is known as Ibnat Al-Matariyah. She resided with her father in Mecca. She was honest, well-behaved, donor and freehanded. She was always performing fasting and circumambulation. She died in H 882/AD 1477. Ali Ibn Ibrahim Ibn Abi al-Haija’ al-Shoubaki. He studied with Ibn Katheer in al-Kuttab. He grew up in a religious and pious environment, heared Quran readings from al-Sheik Bader-aldin Ibn Sulaiman and studied the methodology of Imaam an-Nawawi. He was a professional reciter of the Quran, sincere worshipper and highly appreciated by scientists. He died in Damascus in H 766/ AD 1364. Ala-aldin Abu Al-Hasan Ali Ibn Ahmad Ibn Mousa Ibn Mohammad al-Shafi’I. He was born in Shoubak in H 857/ AD 1453, grew up and studied in Damascus and worked as a Muazzen (one who calls out for prayer at mosques) at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. He was described as a pious and poet. He worked in commerce in Damascus and died there in H 937/AD 1530. Mohammad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Mousa al-Tawzari alShoubaki. He was the brother of al-Sheikh Shihab-aldin Ahmad Ibn al-Tawzari. He was well-behaved, polite, respected, and humble. He resided in Mecca many years to gain more knowledge and understanding of Islam until he died there in H 824/AD 1421 and was buried in al-Mu’allah. He was the uncle of Sa’idah and Zainab, the daughters of Ahmad al-Tawzari.

The history has recorded several scholars in different scientific fields born, grew up and educated in this fort. Shoubak castle never remained outside the events frame. It was events maker and history former. Therefore, Shoubak scientists participated in publishing knowledge and literature in Damascus, Cairo, Hebron, Kerak, Jerusalem and Mecca. As Shoubak castle was constructed to offer safety and security along the crossing roads in the Islamic word during medieval times, it became more secure and safe, while other places however, were unstable. The location of the castle was selected to control the military movements in the medieval period. Struggle between Crusaders and Muslims gave Shoubak special importance and authority value for both. It was considered the central of the cultural circle of the Islamic word. Shoubak became attractive for scholars, scientists, and inventors. Therefore, many of them received their primary education at Shoubak. In this paper 12 Shoubaki characters will be presented. They were specialists in different aspects: Alam ad Deen Toma Bin Ibraheem al Shoubaki the physician: he studied and grew up at Shoubak. He was a distinguished physician who knows medicine professionally. He published in medicine and became very famous. He was selected as a close private physician for the King al Naser Bin Qallawoon. He died in Cairo in AD 1323. Abu al-Fatha’el Daniel Ibn Mankli al-Turkmani al-Shafi’i al-Shoubaki He was a judge and Muslim clerk. He moved to Damascus to study Islamic religious knowledge and preached this thought in Shoubak, Kerak and Damascus. Additionally, he was a judge in Kerak and Shoubak. He was an eminent Islamic scholar and Quran reciter. He died in Shoubak in H 696/AD 1296. Yousef Ibn Daniel Ibn Mankli Ibn Sarfa al-Shoubaki the Judge. He was born and educated in Shoubak and had gained his knowledge solely through his father. He moved to Damascus and learned the Islamic knowledge under a number of prominent scholars exactly as his father did. He preached in Damascus, Kerak, Shoubak. He was a judge at Shoubak until he died in his birthplace in H 730/AD 1329. Jamal al_din Ibn Yousef al-Shoubaki the physician. This physician was born in Shoubak. He learned Medicine and became an expert physician and moved then to Cairo and was a well-known physician in Egypt. He died and was buried in Cairo in H 772 H/AD 1370. Haroun Ibn Issa Ibn Mousa al-Shoubaki. He was born and educated in Shoubak and moved then to live in Hebron where he became interested in the Science of Hadeeth (Prophet’s Sayings). He was an honest worshipper and a reciter of the Holy Quran. He was venerable, abstinent and intellectual. He is mentioned by Ibn Rajab in his Dictionary. He died in Hebron in H 849/AD 1446. Mohammad Ibn Sulaiman Ibn Dawood Ibn Badr-aldin Ibn ‘Alam-aldin al-Shoubaki the clerk. He was born and educated in Shoubak, moved to live in Cairo where he trained by one of his relatives called Ibn al-Khwaiz and he became a

BIBLIOGRAPHY Gawanmeh, Y.. Al-Hayatu El-’Ilmiyyah wath-Thaqafiyyah fy Al-Ordon, fy al-’Asr al-Islami, al-Matba’ah al-Ordoniayyah, al-Ordon (in Arabic). Abu al-Falah, ‘Abd al-Hai bin Al-Emad al-Hanbali, Shatharaat adh-Dhahab fy Akhbar men Dhahab, Dar al-Afaq, Beirut, undated (in Arabic). Al Bukhari, Ismail bin Ibrahim, At-Tarick al-Kabeer 1978. Dar al-kutub al-Elmeiah, Beirut, 9 volumes, (in Arabic). As-Sam’ani, Abd al-Kareem Mohammad bin Mansour AtTamimi, 1980. Al-Ansab, Beirut, (in Arabic).

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Figure 1. Alam ad Deen Toma Bin Ibraheem al Shoubaki

Figure 2. Abu al-Fatha’el Daniel Ibn Mankli al-Turkmani al-Shafi’i al-Shoubaki

Figure 3. Yousef Ibn Daniel Ibn Mankli Ibn Sarfa al-Shoubaki the Judge

Figure 4. Jamal al_din Ibn Yousef al-Shoubaki the physician

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Figure 5. Haroun Ibn Issa Ibn Mousa al-Shoubaki

Figure 6. Mohammad Ibn Sulaiman Ibn Dawood Ibn Badr-aldin Ibn ‘Alam-aldin al-Shoubaki the clerk

Figure 7. Ahmad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Mousa al-Tawzari al-Shoubaki

Figure 8. Sa’idah Bint Ahmad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Mousa al-Shoubaki

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Figure 9. Zainab Bint Ahmad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Mousa alShoubaki, Umm Habiybah

Figure 10. Ali Ibn Ibrahim Ibn Abi al-Haija’ al-Shoubaki

Figure 11. Ala-aldin Abu Al-Hasan Ali Ibn Ahmad Ibn Mousa Ibn Mohammad al-Shafi’I

Figure 12. Mohammad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Mousa al-Tawzari al-Shoubaki

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QAL’AT AL-SHAWBAK: STUDIO DEI DATI EPIGRAFICI DI EPOCA ISLAMICA Francesca Dotti École Pratique Des Hautes Études, Paris A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011 Abstract (2008) Qal’ at al-Shawbak: studio dei documenti epigrafici di epoca islamica Il sito di Qal’at al-Shawbak fondato in epoca crociata (1115-1116), ha mantenuto rilevanza politica ed amministrativa anche in epoche successive, come attesta l’importante corpus di iscrizioni di epoca islamica, preservato nella cittadella (3 fasce epigrafiche, 1 placca, blocchi di piccole dimensioni provvisti di frammenti di iscrizioni in giacitura primaria e secondaria e 15 frammenti fuori contesto). Le ricerche archeologiche condotte in situ hanno contribuito a identificare la sequenza occupazionale e costruttiva della fortificazione (Crociati, Ayyubidi, Mamelucchi e Ottomani). Le indagini epigrafiche condotte da chi scrive hanno messo in evidenza che le iscrizioni sono principalmente datate o attribuibili ai periodi occupazionali islamici ayyubide e mamelucco e, principalmente, al secolo XIII. I testi sono stati pubblicati solo parzialmente (3 fasce epigrafiche, 1 placca sola trascrizione e traduzione, 5 frammenti di iscrizioni sola trascrizione) e non sono mai stati oggetto di studi epigrafici specificatamente orientati (analisi delle formule e dei protocolli dei regnanti e contestualizzazione storica, archeologica ed epigrafica). La classificazione e l’analisi delle iscrizioni ha messo in evidenza che disponiamo per la maggior parte di testi scolpiti a rilievo, nel tipico corsivo ayyubide e mamelucco dell’epoca, di natura costruttiva/ricostruttiva e funeraria. L’analisi delle formule dei testi e dei protocolli sovrani ha consentito di tracciare gli schemi del formulario impiegato. L’analisi dettagliata delle informazioni fornite dai testi ha consentito di ricostruire la natura, il patrocinio e le date dei diversi interventi operati nella cittadella. I dati emersi dall’analisi dello studio dei documenti epigrafici preservati in situ sono stati contestualizzati nell’ambito dei risultati dalla ricerca condotta in occasione della nostra tesi di Master II – Catalogue des inscriptions des fortifications d’époque islamique du Bilad al-Sham du 11e au 14e sièclès, Master II, Paris, juin 2007 -. Questo ha consentito di circoscrivere la cittadella tra i siti fortificati -urbani e suburbani- della Grande Siria che presentano il corpus epigrafico attualmente quantitativamente e qualitativamente meglio conservato, anche per rapporto anche alle fasi costruttive e occupazionali menzionate nelle fonti e/o circoscritte dall’archeologia. L’obiettivo del presente paper è di fornire una sintesi preliminare del nostro studio, condotto nell’ambito della Missione Archeologica dell’Università di Firenze (campagne archeologiche 2003, 2007) e inquadrato, a partire dal 2007, nel nostro presente progetto di ricerca, che ha come oggetto lo studio della totalità dei materiali epigrafici rilevati sulle fortificazioni della Grande Siria -dottorato di ricerca in corso, Les fortifications d’époque islamique dans le bassin de la Méditerranée orientale entre les siècles 11e et 14e: étude des données épigraphiques et archéologiques, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris. Qal’ at al-Shawbak: Studies of Islamic-Age epigraphic data The site of Qal’ at al-Shawbak was founded during the Crusader Age (1115-1116) and had also a considerable political and administrative role in the following period, as attested to by the important corpus of inscriptions of Islamic Age, which has survived in the citadel (3 epigraphic bands, 1 plate, 18 small blocks with fragments of inscriptions, in their original position or moved out of the original place, whilst other 15 are stray finds). The archaeological survey carried out in situ has allowed to ascertain the settlement and building sequence of the fortification (Crusader, Ayyubid, Mameluk and Ottoman). The epigraphic study carried out by the writer has pointed out that the inscriptions can mainly be dated or ascribed to Islamic - Ayyubid and Mamluk - epoch, and mostly to the 13th century. These texts have only partially been published (3 epigraphic bands, the sole transcription and translation of 1 plate and the sole transcription of 5 fragments), and never been the purpose of specific epigraphical studies (analysis of sovereigns’ formulas and protocols, and historical, archaeological and epigraphical context). The classification and analysis of the inscriptions have shown that most of them are relief-carved texts, with the typical –Ayyubid and Mamluk- italics of the time, from building/restoration and funerary contexts. The analysis of the royal texts and formulas has allowed the used formulary mould to be outlined. The detailed analysis of information from the texts has allowed to figure out the nature, patronage and dating of the different undertakings occurred in the citadel. The collected data from the study of the epigraphic documents, which have been preserved in situ, have become part of the results of the research carried out by the writer for her Master II thesis - Catalogue des inscriptions des fortifications d’époque islamique du Bilad al-Sham du 11e au 14e sièclès, Master II, Paris, June 2007-. This has allowed to reckon the citadel among Great Syria’s urban and sub-urban fortified sites with the existing best preserved epigraphic corpus, in terms of quantity and quality, also considering its relation with the building and settlement phases mentioned in the literary sources and/or evidenced by archaeology. This paper intends to give a preliminary summary of the study carried out by the writer within the Archaeological Mission of the University of Florence (archaeological campaigns 2003, 2007), that is from 2007 part of her current research project on the study of the whole of epigraphic material recorded in the fortifications of the Great Syria – Phd underway: Les fortifications d’époque islamiquedans le bassin de la Méditerranée orientale entre les siècles 11e et 14e: étude des données épigraphiques et archéologiques, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris – .

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TROISCAMPAGNES DE PROSPECTIONS DANS L’HINTERLAND DE SHAWBAK DE LA MISSION ARCHÈOLOGIQUE DE LE L’INSTITUT FRANÇAIS DE PROCHE ORIENT (IFPO) Cedric Devais, Ludovic Decock, Sylvain Vondra Institut Français de Proche Orient (IFPO) A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011 Abstract (2008) De 2003 à 2006, une mission de prospection, conduite par l’Institut Français du Proche-orient, a dressé un premier état des lieux de l’implantation franque liée à la construction de la forteresse du Crac de Montréal. Bâti en 1115 sur ordre de Baudoin Ier, la forteresse de Montréal/Shawbak, devint rapidement un pôle de colonisation franc à l’est du Jourdain. Les sources, orientales et occidentales révèlent que cet établissement, pourtant situé en périphérie du royaume, constitua le noyau d’une véritable ville établie en contrebas du château. Cette «  ville basse » comprenait trois faubourgs selon les sources, auxquels il est nécessaire d’adjoindre plusieurs ensembles agricoles situés dans les environs immédiats de la forteresse. Les résultats de trois campagnes de prospections démontrent un ensemble cohérent formé d’un maillage agricole et artisanal, articulé autour du centre urbain et relié à l’ensemble Pétra/wadi Mousa par un système de fortins édifiés sur la lèvre du plateau d’Idumée (une autre chaîne devait relier Montréal à Kérak via Tafilèh). Par ailleurs, cet ensemble, qui au regard des prospections, apparaissant avec l’implantation franque, a poursuivi son développement aux périodes ultérieures. Les missions de prospections conduites dans l’hinterland ne répondent pas à l’ensemble de la problématique de peuplement de l’espace de Montréal. Toutefois, l’identification d’ensembles comportant des structures spécifiques permet aujourd’hui de dresser un premier bilan de la répartition géographique des activités artisanales et agricoles et religieuses/funéraires associées à la forteresse. En outre la mise au jour de tours de guets, constitue un élément majeur dans la compréhension du schéma d’occupation de l’Outrejourdain par les Francs. Three survey campaigns of Ifpo in Shawbak hinterland An example of castle settlement upon the frontiers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: the hinterland of the fortress of Montreal/Shawbak in the 12th century. From 2003 to 2006, a survey mission (landscape analysis), carried out by the French Institute of the Near East, has ascertained the situation of the places of Frankish settlements relevant to the building of the fortress of the Crac de Montréal. Ordered and erected in 1115 by Baldwin I, the fortress of Montréal/Shawbak became very soon a centre of Frankish colonization to the east of the River Jordan. Eastern and western literary sources tell that such settlement, although located in the periphery of the kingdom, originated the nucleus of a real town arisen below the castle. This ‘low town’ consisted, according to documents, of three boroughs, to which several agricultural complexes must be added, located in the outskirts of the fortress. The results of the three surveying campaigns show a unitary context, formed by an agriculture and manufacture network, set around the urban centre and connected with the context Petra/Wadi Mousa by means of a system of strong points, erected on the brink of the plateau d’Idumèe (another chain must have connected Montreal with Kerak, via Tafileh). On the other hand, this settlement, that, according to investigations, seems to have been a Frankish establishment, has kept on developing in next times. Missions carried out in the hinterland have yielded no real answers to the problems concerning the population around Montréal. However, a complex with specific structures has been detected, which now allows to realize a first outline of the geographical subdivision of manufacturing and agricultural, besides religious and funerary, activities associated with the fortress. Moreover, the evidence of watch towers seems to be a further element for understanding the settling plan carried out by the Franks in the Outrejord

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NOTE SUL MAUSOLEO DI ABU SULAIMAN AL DARANI Mohammad Al-Marahleh, DoA A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011

I mausolei sono presenti in Giordania, come in molti altri paesi arabo-musulmani, e generalmente sono rappresentati da un edificio con funzione di luogo di preghiera sulla tomba di un profeta o di un imam. Il mausoleo di Abu Sulaiman nel villaggio di Abu Makhtub nella municipalità di Shawbak è considerato da tempo un importante luogo religioso, estremamente visitato dagli abitanti della regione. Prima di parlare del mausoleo diamo una breve nota sulla zona di Shawbak, che si trova nella parte nord ovest del governotorato di Ma’an su una catena montuosa (che va da 1120m a 1651m) che fa parte delle montagne di Al Sherah e dista 220km a sud dalla capital Amman e 35km a nord da Petra. Il castello di Shawbak, attualmente il sito più importante dell’intera area, si trova ad un’altitudine di 1330m , circondato da valli e sorgenti da tutti i lati, elemento che gli ha conferito un’invidiabile posizione strategica1. Di certo la posizione strategica del sito lungo le vie commerciali tra la Siria e la Penisola Arabica e le terre del Nilo e del Mar Rosso ha favorito il rilievo del mausoleo di Abu Sulaiman Al Darani, che si trova nel villaggio di Abu Makhtub, 2km a est del castello (Figura 1). Si tratta di un edificio probabilmente di epoca ayyubide con al suo interno una tomba attribuita ad Abu Sulaiman Al Darani. Le fonti scritte poco ci riferiscono di questo personaggio, di cui peraltro è conosciuto un secondo nel villaggio di Daria a ovest di Damasco. Ma l’edificio religioso nei pressi di Shawbak ha avuto grande importanza nella devozione popolare. Scendendo maggiormente nel particolare, l’edificio ha una forma rettangolare, 17m di lunghezza e 8.20m di larghezza, l’ingresso principale si trova al centro della parete nord. All’interno, sulla destra, si trova una nicchia alta 2.5m (Figura 2). E tra la nicchia e l’ingresso è collocata una tomba in con pietra bianca (Figura 3), ornata da con decorazioni floreali e geometriche, oltre che con iscrizioni arabe di alcune sure del Corano (Figura 4). L’edificio si suddivide in due parti, la prima con un soffitto a volta a botte lunga 9.5 e larga 5.5m, con una nicchia in mezzo alla parete interna sud fatta con pietre regolari (Figura 5), la seconda invece è una stanza lunga 6m e larga 3.5m con dentro la sepoltura del santo. La stanza ha quattro archi e una nicchia; gli archi sorreggono una cupola di 3.5m di raggio che poggia su una base ottagonale con quattro piccolo finestre, gli angoli della cupola sono decorati (Figura 6). Nella parte superiore della tomba a dx dell’ingresso principale si trovano decorazioni geometriche ed iscrizioni, alcune decorazioni sono a forma di palma, (Figura 3) e la parte inferiore è decorata con archetti intrecciati (Figura 7). Sul fronte nord sono incise la data e il nome della per-

sona sepolta : “Il Principe Mohammad Nasser Eddin figlio del grande Emiro Ezzeddin legato del Re a Shawbak morto il venerdi del mese Rabii Al Akhar (Aprile)”, (Figura 3) mentre sulla parte frontale si legge una sura del Corano (Figura 4). Un’altra iscrizione è quella ritrovata all’interno del mausoleo, anche se forse la sua posizione originale potrebbe essere stata nella porta principale: 1- col nome di Dio Clememete e Misericordioso questo cio’ che e’ stato costruito ai giorni del nostro signore 2- il Re buono e giusto Re Nagem Eddin Ayyub 3- costruito per contributo dell’Emiro Sharaf Eddin figlio di 4- Issa figlio di Khalil figlio di Muqatel che Dio perdoni lui e la sua famiglia 6- nei mesi dell’anno seicento e quaranta sei (attualmente l’iscrizione si trova al Museo Re Abdullah in Amman). Vi sono anche altri frammenti di decorazioni architettoniche di forma geometrica, floreali e con nomi di Emiri del periodo Ayyubide e Mamelucco. Il Dipartimento di Antichità ha portato a termine alcuni lavori come: - Scavi archeologici nel 1973 nella parte est del memoriale (Figura 8), con ritrovamento di sepolture e con manufatti ceramici come le numerose lucerne di terra cotta, alcune fatte a mano e altre a stampo con decorazioni floreali e geometriche di periodo Ayyubide- Mamelucco (Figure 9), e lastre lapidee decorate e iscritte. - Nel 2006 sono stati consolidati e restaurati i muri esterni, interni, le tombe, la nicchia esterna (Fig 2,11), la nicchia interna, oltre che lavori di consolidamento e restauro della cupola (Fig 11). Vista la vicinanza del memoriale di Abu Sulaiman al Castello di Shawbak ed ad altri memoriali religiosi nella stessa zone come quello di Al Yasa’ (Yusha’) e il palazzo di Al Dawsaq o Al Dawshaq, che potrebbe essere del periodo Ayyubide, visto l’uso dello stesso tipo di pietra ed il modo di costruire, si può ritenere che vi sia un rapporto tra questi edifici. Infatti il memoriale di Abu Sulaiman contiene iscrizioni che portano nomi di Re, Principi e Sultani dei periodi Ayyubide e Mamelucco e molti dei quali si compaiono anche nelle epigrafi del Castello di Shawbak. Il sito, che si presenta molto interessante anche per le connessioni con il castello di Shawbak in epoca ayyubide-mamelucca necessiterebbe di ulteriori indagini, sia archeologiche che sulle fonti scritte. Tradizioni sociali. La visita di tombe e memoriali, più rivolte ad una venerazione per personalità di spicco che a costituire un vero e peroprio fenomeno religioso, è una tradizione presente da secoli, con abitudini che spesso

1

Per le informazioni storico-archeologiche sul castello di Shawbak si rimanda ai numerosi interventi di questo volume e a Vannini 2007.

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si svlogevano così: si entrava nella stanza della tomba in silenzio, pregando, bruciando incense, accendendo lucerne o candele e leggendo la Sura del Corano ‘Al Fatiha’; si portava una stoffa nuova di color verde per coprire la tomba e alcuni pezzi per essere benedetti. Si pregava per guarire i malati, per chiedere fortuna e altro; le donne si tingevano i capelli e le mani con l’Henne e chiedevano di realizzare un desiderio, passare una difficoltà, di sposarsi, di avere figli maschi, il ritorno di un loro caro lontano. La gente portava pecore nel cortile per benedirle; poi il padrone offriva in sacrificio la migliore e la cucinava: a questo punto portava il gregge a pascolare senza timore. Si usava anche fare giuramenti per dirimere controversie vicino alla tomba: chi giurava il falso avrà disgrazie entro tre giorni.

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UN MEDITERRANEO ‘MEDIEVALE’ A‘MEDIEVAL’ MEDITERRANEAN ARCHEOLOGIA DEI CASTELLI DELL’ORIENTE MEDITERRANEO ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE CASTLES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN ORIENT

MONTFORT CASTLE PROJECT: A NEW RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION PROJECT AT THE SITE OF THE TEUTONIC CASTLE IN THE WESTERN GALILEE Adrian J. Boas University of Haifa

A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011 Abstract (2008) Montfort Castle Project: Developments and Future Objectives Since 2006 a team from the University of Haifa (Zinman Institute of Archaeology) has been involved in a pilot project at Montfort Castle, a major 13th century Crusader castle built by the Teutonic Order in the early thirteenth century in the western Galilee. The aim of this project which is financed by the Israel Science Foundation for a period of three years, is to study the chronological development of the castle and to prepare for this purpose a detailed plan of all parts of the castle and its related buildings. This phase of the project includes a study of masonry techniques, drawing of architectural elements, a survey of all material finds from the castle, a survey of all written material (contemporary material and later descriptions) and of previous work carried out, most notably the 1926 expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of New York. A major part of the project is the preparation of a paper of proposals for conservation of the site and its natural surroundings. Also underway is the preparation of a master plan for the development of the site taking into account the need for a careful balance between conservation, site development and management. Proposals are being prepared for future excavations, restoration work and for the integration of requirements for improved access, nature preservation and community involvement in the project. The long term aims of the Montfort Research Project are to carry out excavations, conservation, restorations and development according to the recommendations now being prepared.

At the end of the twelfth century a German military order, the Ordo fratrum hospitalis S. Mariae Teutonicorum in Jerusalem, was established following the Third Crusade and the successful Siege of Acre (1189-1191). The German knights who had set up a field hospital outside the city walls during the siege, received land in the eastern part of the city and founded there a hospitaller confraternity, and in March, 1198 the confraternity became a full-scale military order modelled on the two long-established military orders, the Templars and the Hospitallers of Saint John. It was perhaps political pressure in the volatile coastal city that lay behind the decision of the Germans to move at least part of their administrative activities to a new and more isolated location in lands that they subsequently purchased in the hills to the north-east where in 1226 they commenced the construction of a large new fortress;

Montfort, or, in German, Starkenberg. Montfort Castle was the most important of the small number of castles that were built by the Teutonic knights in the Latin East.1 It occupied the western end of a mountain spur extending south-east between Nahal Kziv (Wadi Qurain) to the north and a tributary to the south named Khallet Khzam. It stood about 180m above Nahal Kziv and the steep decent to the valleys on the north, south and west provided excellent natural defences. However, Montfort was unusually placed for a Crusader castle, being on a low part of the spur which was surrounded by higher mountain ranges to the north and south and the higher extension of 1

The other castles are Judin located a few kilometres to the south-west of Montfort and Harunia and Amouda, Teutonic castles located in the north of the Aremenian kingom in Cilicia. The ordrer also purchased the twelfth century castle, Castellum Regis, located in the modern village of Mi’ilya south-west of Montfort.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean the spur to the east which made it particularly vulnerable to an enemy attacking on the east and also of very little strategic value.2 The main buildings of the castle were cut off from the spur by two moats. They consisted of an enormous and massively constructed keep, a central, twostorey domestic ward and a large three story structure on the west built which had a double barrel-vaulted basement above which was the castle’s Great Hall and an upper domestic level, probably the Grand Master’s residence. Surrounding these structures at a lower level on the hill were various lines of fortification including an outer defensive wall with towers and gates extending from the north side of the keep down the slope, then west and south around the western part of the castle. Montfort Castle survived in its isolated location for a mere forty-five years. In 1266 it was unsuccessfully besieged by two Mamluk emirs and five years later in the summer of 1271 it fell to sultan Baybars who, after releasing the garrison to Acre, systematically dismantled the castle and left it in the ruinous state in which it exists today. Since its destruction various travellers visited the castle through the centuries. In 1877 a detailed study of the ruins was made by Horatio Kitchener on behalf of the British Survey of Western Palestine (Conder and Kitchener 1881). The published report included a detailed but not entirely accurate plan (Frankel 1998) and an engraving based on a photograph showing the ruins from a position to the south. The only excavations carried out on the site took place nearly five decades later when an expedition was organised by Bashford Dean, the curator of the arms and armour department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Dean was looking for a suit of thirteenth century armour for the museum collection and believed that the excavation of a Crusader castle might uncover one. He organised a small team under William Calver, an expert on American Revolutionary War sites with no previous experience at excavating medieval castles. Calver arrived in the East in the spring of 1926 and spent four weeks excavating most of the main structure of the castle and uncovering many remarkable finds (but practically no armour). The excavation and its finds were briefly published by Dean in the museum bulletin in 1927 (Dean 1927). In the years following to the American expedition very little exploratory work has taken place. Over the past few decades occasional surveys were carried out at Montfort and occasional efforts in conservation work, but there have been no subsequent excavations. In 2006 a team from the University of Haifa set up the Montfort Castle Project and commenced survey work on the castle and its surroundings.3 The preliminary survey of this project which is now in its fourth year.4 The aims of the project have expanded since its commencement and include planned excavations, restoration of parts of the

structure, large scale conservation of the remains and the surroundings and the development of the castle and its setting into an organized heritage site. During the survey and the preparation of a new detailed plan of the castle, a number of important discoveries have been made. Examining the construction techniques used in the various parts of the castle has enabled the identification of a number of different types of masonry. It is hoped that a careful examination of variations in masonry techniques employed by the castle builders and recording of the numerous masons’ marks, will aid in establishing the chronology of construction of the various components in the castle. It is clear from the initial examinations, that Montfort developed and underwent numerous and substantial structural changes in the very short period (45 years) of its existence. Examination of many surviving architectural elements; both those found during the 1926 excavations and now located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem, and those still located at the site; have enabled us to attempt a theoretical reconstruction of the missing parts of the castle such as the superstructure of the main buildings which was completely destroyed by the Mamluks in 1271. Future excavations, particularly of the accumulation of rubble from the collapsed north wall of the central ward that is piled up against the outer enceinte below, are likely to substantially increase our knowledge in this regard. Montfort Castle presents an exceptional opportunity to instigate a full-scale programme of research, excavations, conservation and site development. It has the additional value of being an archaeological site located within a nature reserve, a fact which on the one hand greatly enhances the beauty of the site and preserves the original setting, but on the other presents us with major difficulties regarding the methods used in carrying out excavations (employing heavy equipment required in excavations and restoration work, disposing with removed rubble from the excavations) and aslo with regard to the nature and extent of site development. These issues require careful planning in order to preserve the unique nature of the castle as a ruin within a natural setting. It is desirable, indeed essential to preserve both architectural and natural aspects while developing the site as an informative educational experience for the growing number of local and foreign visitors. A number of programs for the preservation and enhancement of this site have been raised over the years but none of these proposals have been followed up. The present lack of infrastructure and the difficult access inhibits the development of the castle as a major heritage site. Consequently, comparatively few tourists from overseas visit the castle and no real attempt has been made to inform the visiting public of the importance of this site, both with regard to the history of the region and as a remarkable example of medieval European, specifically German, medieval architecture in the Near East. A team from the Zinman Institute of Haifa University has carried out a survey of the castle, the mill/guesthouse and the quarry at Khirbet Nahat.5 The principal aim of this sur-

2

It is generally believed that the site was chosen for its isolation rather than for a strategic, defensive or administrative role. 3 The project is carried out by the Zinman Instittute of Archaeology and is sponsored by the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East (SSCLE). 4 This survey is funded by the Israel Science Foundation (grant no. 1161/06).

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This survey was funded for the three years by the Israel Science

Adrian J. Boas: Montfort Castle Project: A New Research and Conservation Project vey has been to uncover the chronology of the architectural development of the castle a complex development entailing numerous substantial constructional alterations and additions over a very brief period (45 years). The survey, or rather series of surveys have resulted in the preparation of the first detailed plans and section drawings of the castle and have enabled us to proposed theoretical reconstructions of the missig part of the castle. The survey included the recording of masonry techniques, and an indepth examination of evidence for the castle’s dismantling in 1271 as well as a detailed recording of the present condition of the remains the later carried out with the aim of drawing up a proposal for future conservation and restoration work. In addition, all documentary evidence for the history of the castle and for the past research of the castle, in particular that of the American expedition of 1926, has been collected and examined. The preliminary publication now underway will incorporate a regional study of Teutonic possessions in the Nahal Kziv region, a comprehensive history of the castle, comparative studies of contemporary castles, detailed discussions on architectural elements, construction techniques and materials and a broad examination of the many masterial finds.

conservation. The danger of collapse is immediate and the possibility of irreparable damage and permanent loss of this beautiful and unique structure, not to mention the present danger to visitors to the site, cannot be ignored. It requires far more substantial efforts than have been carried out to date, in order to prevent further collapse. The most effective way of doing this is to excavate the fill within the first floor hall down to the original floor level, which contains most of the collapsed vaulting, and then to reconstruct; firstly those parts of the outer walls and standing bay which are in danger of collapse. This would remove the considerable pressure on the outer walls which threatens the stability of the structure. Subseuently the vaulting could be largely or entirely restored. This would have a double benefit; on the one hand the danger caused by the present ruinous state of the building would be resolved and on the other, through the restoration of the mill and reconstruction of the upper storey (and tower) with its fine gothic rib-vaulting, a beautiful and important structure would be saved and could be utilized for research or tourist purposes such as a study centre, a visitors’ centre and museum. LONG-TERM CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION

PROPOSED NEW EXCAVATIONS

One of the most important aspects of the Montfort Castle Project is the conservation and preservation of the ruins and their natural setting. Deterioration caused by the growth of vegetation withing the wall fabric and weathering as well as damage caused by human intervention, poses a serious threat to the continued survival of Montfort Castle. Considerable damage is caused by the winter rains and wind, Poor drainage threatens the disintegration and collapse of the interior vaults of the north-western gate tower where much of the masonry forming the lower vault of the tower is, in spite of recent efforts, in an extreme state of decay, with the masonry turning to powder. Human intervention is perhaps a lesser threat. Because of its isolated location stone robbing is not considerable, but much superficial damage is caused for example by camp fires against walls (both within the castle and in the guesthouse some walls and vaults have suffered by this type of vandalism), the use of fallen ashlars for fire places, graffiti and the senseless destruction of elements exposed by the 1926 excavations, such as the recent shattering of ceramic drainage pipes. Long-term conservation requirements include the need to prevent intentional acts of vandalism by visitors to the castle which not only affect the external appearance of the structures but are sometimes a major threat to their stability and indeed to the survival of certain parts of the structures. Graffiti, if not a likely to cause major structural damage, nonetheless disfigures several parts of the castle. In its present state as an open and uncared-for site, there is no effective means of preventing such acts. This is a reason for arguing for the conversion of the site into a regulated tourist site with paid entrance and a permanent staff on location. Goren Park to the north and Montfort national park including the valley and stream of Nahal Kziv is a rich habitat of

The excavations carried out in 1926 by the team from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, exposed most of the remains of the main castle buildings including the keep, the central domestic ward and the western ceremonial hall and possible apartments of the Grand Master. There are nonetheless extensive areas in the castle that still require excavation. These include the vaulted cistern to the west of the western hall, the northern inner wall, the vaults of a possible latrine area located outside the southern wall, the area of the outer ward that aparently was located along the interior of the outer fortification line and the upper level of the mill-guesthouse in Wadi Kziv. The building tentatively identified as the castle mill and guesthouse which is located on the north some 200 metres below the castle, appears to have been inadvertently destroyed by Baybars in 1271 when he dismantled the keep and upper castle. The huge ashlars from the keep which are scattered in the castle moat and down the slopes of the valleys to the north and south are also found within and around the the mill/guesthouse and apparently tumbled all the way down the slopes and onto the roof of the first-floor hall causing its collapse.6 This mill first-floor hall and tower is in urgent need of Foundation (ISF) grant no 1161/06. 6 The presence of these large stones at the base of the hills on either side of the castle is informative of the condition of the vegetation around Montfort in the thirteenth century suggesting that there were few trees on the slope. The presence of a dense mass of small native trees as is the case today, would have hindered their fall and would have been likely to have caused a pileup of masonry rather than permitted the stones to reach the mill and the base of the slopes to the south. Thick vegetation around the castle, such as there is today, would have enabled an enemy to approach the castle walls undetected and consequently it is logical to assume that the knights would have cleared the forest at the time the castle was constructed.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean local flora and fauna. Many of the native trees and species of wildlife that typify Mediterranean forests are found in these woodlands and there are several indigenous animals and plants which are rare or are found only at this location some possibly introduced by the Germa brthers in the thirteenth century. Today many visitors come to Montfort, not through a specific interest in the castle and its history, but because of the natural beauty at the location. By placing well-designed informative signs in appropriate locations along the pathways through and around the castle, a visit to the site can be greatly enhanced as an educational experience. The development of the castle site needs to be combined with a major effort at protection, development and enhancement of the natural habitat.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Conder, C. and Kitchener, H.H. 1881. Survey of Western Palestine, vol. I ., London, 186-90. Dean, B. 1927., A Crusaders’ Fortress in Palestine. A Report of Explorations Made by the Museum 1926, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Part II. Frankel, R. 1998. Some Notes on the Work of the Survey of Western Palestine in Western Galilee, Palestine Exploration Quarterly 130, 99-105.

La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

BORDERS, FRONTIERS AND MEDIEVAL DEFENSE Ronnie Ellenblum The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Abstract (2008) Borders, Frontiers and Medieval Defense Many studies dealing with the political geography of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem accepted the ‘borders’ of the Crusader ‘state’ as an indisputable fact. This overwhelming consensus led to the assumption that there was of a strategy aimed at defending these borders or passage along the road networks which connected the cities of the Frankish realm. The paper will stress the fact that such borders and such a strategy are not even hinted at in the written sources of the time. Moreover, the location of castles is used to draw the borders of the kingdom. Thus was a circular argumentation was created: the castles were proof of the existence of a system of border defence of which they were supposed to be part. The idea of borderline will be presented as less relevant, and the idea of medieval frontier will be examined, basing the argumentation on the examination the development of the eastern frontier and the significance it had over the architecture of castles in this area.

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HARIM: UN CASTELLO DI FRONTIERA TRA CROCIATI E MUSULMANI Sauro Gelichi Università Ca’ Foscari – Venezia

A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011 Abstract (2008) Harim: frontier castle between Crusaders and muslims Harim Castle, which is today located in the North of Syria upon the boundary with Turkey, was in the past, for a short time, a frontier castle. It was in existence as early as Byzantine epoch, then under the Muslims and later, in 1097-98, under the Crusaders, becoming an important strategic strong point of the Princedom Antiochia. During the 12th century, Crusaders and Muslims long contended for it until 1164, when Nur-ad-Din finally and definitely conquered it. From that moment on, it has slowly slipped out of Western historians’ interest, nonetheless, its fortifications and structures are still mentioned in the Ayyubid and Mamluk time, when important activities are known to have rearranged some areas to functioning. Between 1999 and 2002, a joint Italian and Syrian mission investigated the castle. Although this survey cannot be conclusive, the archaeological data, which were acquired at that time, are enough to realize a first general settlement sequence, which has been discussed and published elsewhere. As the castle of Harim was, within few years, a frontier place and, at the same time, a settlement under the control of different social groups, such site may also well be analysed from other points of view, which I will deal with in this paper. The first point is to check if and the extent archaeological data are able to let us realize such a ‘frontier’ situation, as regards the time when Crusaders and Muslims contended for it. The second prospect, i would like to apply to the analysis of Harim, is social, also considering the diverse functions, which this site evolved throughout the centuries, until the Ottoman epoch. The main tools, i will use in order to figure out the ‘markers’ of such different identities, are the sequence of pottery assemblages, building techniques and room planning. I will then discuss these data also in the light of more general prospects of post-Antique archaeology in the Levant land.

fase strutturale riconoscibile sul sito.4 Ma si tratta di una proposta che meriterebbe una riflessione e un’analisi più approfondita sulle strutture che, in quegli anni, mea culpa, non è stato possibile compiere. L’invito a parlare in questo contesto dove si discute di castelli (in particolare del Medio Oriente) e di frontiera, non poteva , tuttavia, per parte mia, essere disatteso, rientrando Harim proprio in questa categoria. Poiché i risultati siano stati presentati già in altre sedi (e non ci siano più attività di ricerca sul sito dal 2002), in questa circostanza vorrei aggiungere, ai dati relativi alla sequenza, anche alcune considerazioni sul rapporto contesti-consumi ceramici, che mi pare forniscano una prospettiva di lettura interessante per comprendere la cifra dei comportamenti sociali delle comunità che hanno vissuto sul sito.

1. ARCHEOLOGIA E CASTELLI IN AREA SIRO-PALESTINESE: LA SFORTUNA DELLA FRONTIERA Ho lavorato ad un progetto archeologico su Harim per tre anni non consecutivi, dal 1999 al 2002 (Figura 1). 1 Del castello non si conoscevano, fino a quel momento, che sommarie planimetrie (Figura 2), 2qualche foto (ad esempio di Gertrude Bell) e qualche riferimento incidentale in testi sulle architetture crociate.3 Il fatto di essere stato un castello di frontiera, definitivamente passato ai musulmani nel 1174, ne ha indiscutibilmente segnato la fortuna, in negativo, nell’ambito degli studi. Per un’archeologia, e una storia, votate essenzialmente ad analizzare la presenza occidentale in queste regioni, il castello di Harim non è sembrato rappresentare un’opportunità di ricerca di un qualche interesse per chi mi ha preceduto, con poche locali eccezioni: il grado di conservazione delle sue strutture e la sua patina poco ‘crociata’ ne hanno definitivamente decretato l’insuccesso nell’ambito degli studi. Le ricerche non possono dirsi, ovviamente, concluse (ma quali lo sono realmente?); tuttavia nel tempo abbiamo pubblicato una serie di contributi sul castello, nei quali si è cercato di profilare una prima sequenza insediativa basata sui dati archeologici, una prima sequenza delle strutture architettoniche (e degli spazi funzionali) e infine alcune riflessioni sulle ceramiche. Dichiarare che si tratta di proposte preliminari è vezzo al quale mi sottrarrei molto volentieri, se non rispecchiasse la verità. Tuttavia niente di più e di meglio saprei oggi aggiungere a quanto già scritto in quelle sedi, se non forse per dichiarare una più spiccata propensione verso una cronologia alta (bizantina?) della prima

2. PRIMA DELL’ARCHEOLOGIA Il sito di Harim, anche oggi su una frontiera, quella con la Turchia, si presenta ad una grado di conservazione che potremmo definire medio (Figura 3): non un rudere coperto da vegetazione, ma neppure un monumento della grandiosità dei castelli più famosi dell’area siro-palestinese5. La lettura archeologica di questo contesto è stata tuttavia facilitata dagli interventi siriani degli anni’ 80 del secolo scorso, che hanno svuotato alcuni ambienti, consentendo dunque una prima interpretazione funzionale di alcuni spazi (non tutti) e favorendo la leggibilità anche di talune strutture in alzato6. Ciò ha aiutato la comprensione di alcune fasi, ma 4

In particolare ci si riferisce alla prima cinta di mura individuata nel sito, che sembra peraltro documentare almeno due fasi costruttive differenti, la prima delle quali potrebbe anche essere assegnabile, in via ipotetica, alla prima fortificazione documentata nelle fonti scritte (un castello esisteva già nel 1084, quando questi territori furono strappati dai Selgiuchidi ai Bizantini). Vd. comunque infra. 5 L’elenco sarebbe piuttosto nutrito; per una casistica si vd. l’ancora utile Kennedy 1994 o il più recente Piana 2008. 6 Harim fu riconosciuto sito di interesse nazionale nel 1959 e, da quel momento in poi, il castello è stato oggetto di ripetuti interventi di restauro

1 Sugli scavi di Harim vd. Gelichi 2000; 2002; 2003a; 2003b; 2006; 2008;

2009. Sulle ceramiche, nello specifico Gelichi e Nepoti 2007. Notizie sulle fasi più antiche del tell sono in Mazzoni 2001, 44. 2 Una di queste si deve al van Berchem (in van Berchem e Fatio 1914, 237-238); un’altra al Lawrence, che visitò il castello nel 1909 (Lawrence 1936, p. 57, Figura 19: la pianta si deve al Pirie-Gordon). 3 Ne parla, ad esempio, il Deschamps nella sua monumentale opera sulle architetture crociate di Terra Santa (Deschamps 1973, 100-101).

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean ha inevitabilmente, e definitivamente, compromesso l’interpretazione di altre. Così, dopo una ricognizione del sito e la lettura delle sezioni a vista (Figura 4), si è potuto costruire una mappa dei depositi sepolti, che ci ha consentito di cogliere con immediatezza che cosa è conservato sotto il profilo cronologico, quantitativo e qualitativo. Tutto ciò ha contribuito a produrre una carta che ha rappresentato una base orientativa nell’indirizzare le strategie di ricerca sul sito (Figura 5). 7 Dirò subito che buona parte delle fasi post-mamelucche è stata ampiamente compromessa. Ce ne siamo accorti, ad esempio, durante lo scavo di una moschea dove, invece e fortunatamente, erano rimasti conservati i livelli tardo-mamelucchi ed ottomani.

occuparono Harim proprio all’inizio della prima Crociata durante l’assedio di Antiochia (1097-8), ha lasciato, ancora una volta, tracce molto labili, sia nella sequenza architettonica sia in quella dei materiali. Se la prima cinta di mura è, almeno in parte, opera dei Bizantini,8 non possiamo che attribuire ai Crociati la costruzione (o la ricostruzione) solo di una parte di essa (quella settentrionale che ha caratteri costruttivi simili, ma non identici, così come la forma delle torrette). Ancora una volta i Crociati di prima generazione sembrano, sul piano delle espressioni della ‘cultura materiale’, una realtà ben poco caratterizzata anche in questo sito. La fase ayyubbide (dopo che il castello venne definitivamente conquistato da Nur-ed Din nel 1164) coincide con una vera e propria rivoluzione strutturale (Figura 10). È al figlio del Saladino, al-Zahir Gazi, che una serie di fonti epigrafiche ed archeologiche (una volta tanto coincidenti) sembrano attribuire le intraprese più consistenti verso gli inizi del XIII secolo, tra cui si annoverano la realizzazione di una seconda cerchia di mura (che incamicia la prima, come avviene nella Cittadella di Damasco) (Berthier 2002 ; Berthier 2006.) e di una zona residenziale, finalmente chiara nella sua struttura planimetrica e funzionale, nella parte più alta del tell. Spazi militari, pubblici (un hammam e una moschea) e residenziali scandiscono ora chiaramente la Cittadella di Harim. Anche la sequenza dei materiali comincia a farsi più chiara: le ceramiche di questo periodo, in particolare Fritware di II tipo, paiono costituire una sorta di fossile guida proprio della prima fase ayyubbide. Dopo l’ultima Crociata, la Cittadella di Harim vede lentamente assottigliare le sue funzioni, che erano state essenzialmente militari e residenziali. Nel frattempo, continua e si espande l’abitato che si era formato intorno al castello. Indipendentemente dai danneggiamenti che la tradizione attribuisce all’assedio dei Mongoli (tra il 1260 e il 1271), la frontiera appare sempre più lontana e con essa sembra scemare l’interesse di recuperare le funzioni militari del sito. Così, nonostante i restauri documentati in epoca mamelucca (1307-8), verso la seconda metà del XIV secolo alcuni ambienti appaiono sempre meno strutturati sul piano funzionale. Può non essere un caso il ritrovamento di un vero e proprio deposito di rifiuti all’interno di spazi in origine di destinazione militare. Ma la defunzionalizzazione non interessa solo questo tipo di ambienti: la moschea, che abbiamo scavato, diventa prima uno spazio abitato, poi una bottega artigiana. Tra la tarda età mamelucca e l’epoca ottomana il tell viene trasformato in quello che potremmo definire un villaggio. Gli ambienti vengono in parte abbandonati (e si riempiono con il collassamento delle strutture voltate e delle murature, anche a seguito di pesanti danneggiamenti da terremoti), ma in parte vengono riciclati per funzioni abitative: il villaggio entra dentro il castello e ne prende possesso.

3. NELL’ORMA DELLA TRADIZIONE: ARCHEOLOGIA COME SEQUENZA DELL’INSEDIAMENTO E COME SEQUENZA DEI MATERIALI L’intervento archeologico si è mosso essenzialmente su due livelli: quello di costruire la sequenza insediativa (mettendo a confronto quella delle architetture superstiti con quella delle stratificazioni riconosciute nei saggi di scavo) e contestualmente vedere di associare a questa quella dei materiali (che, qui come altrove, significa essenzialmente la sequenza delle ceramiche). Sono stati aperti ed indagati, più o meno estensivamente, dieci settori di scavo (Figura 6). Al momento la sequenza individuata si compone di 9 Periodi (Figura 7): di questi, però, solo quelli dal 7 all’1 riguardano le fasi post-classiche e cioè la bizantina (forse il 7), crociata (7-6), ayyubbide (5), mamelucca (4-3), ottomana (2) e moderna (1). Questi Periodi hanno lasciato evidenze al momento di diseguale valore qualitativo e quantitativo. I Periodi 7-6 vedono la realizzazione, sul sito, di un primo impianto di natura militare-difensiva, che corrisponde alla realizzazione di una prima cerchia di mura su un tell di origine molto più antica (Mazzoni 2001, 44) (Figura 8 e Figura 9). Questa cinta muraria è al momento visibile solo sui lati nord, ovest e sud: si tratta di una struttura lineare che segue, dove conservata, l’orografia della sommità del tell ed è caratterizzata da una serie di torrette aperte all’interno. Su questo circuito di mura si apriva una semplice porta con arco ogivale, recuperata funzionalmente ed inglobata in una seconda cerchia. La tecnica costruttiva è relativamente omogenea, anche se, ad esempio, lo spessore non è costante. Assumiamo l’ipotesi che non appartenga ad un impianto unitario (anche se questo è elemento da sottoporre a verifica). Siccome nelle fonti di parte musulmana si ricorda la conquista del castello di Harim nel 1084, è abbastanza chiaro che un sito fortificato fosse esistente già in epoca bizantina: l’ipotesi che sia stato realizzato durante i regni di Niceforo II Foca (963-9) e Giovanni I Zimisce (969-976), quando cioè questi territori furono recuperati da Bisanzio, resta ancora la più probabile. Allora, in questo caso, almeno una parte della prima cerchia potrebbe essere di quel periodo. La fase successiva, che vede la presenza dei Crociati, che

4. DIETRO LE PORTE DEL CASTELLO: CERAMICHE 8

In linea teorica si potrebbe ipotizzare che almeno una parte di questa cinta possa essere stata costruita sotto il breve periodo dell’occupazione selgiuchide (1084-1097) ma, appunto, il lasso di tempo è forse troppo breve per rendere plausibile una congettura del genere.

e ricostruzione , Kosara 1988. 7 Per una sommaria valutazione della risorsa archeologica sopravvissuta vd. Gelichi 2009, Figura 5.

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formati con l’utilizzo degli ambienti (attraverso modesti riporti oppure una loro semplice frequentazione). Si tratta in genere di poco materiale e in condizioni molto frammentarie, peraltro di difficile utilizzo sul piano tipologico. Tuttavia queste ceramiche offrono il vantaggio che possono essere collegate con gli ambienti da cui provengono, si riferiscono ad un range cronologico molto ristretto e, di converso, sono raramente residuali. In questi Periodi non sono state rinvenute fosse di scarico: dunque si può supporre che le comunità che vivevano nel castello esercitavano un buon controllo sul sistema dei rifiuti, tenendoli a debita distanza dalle aree insediate. Il Periodo 5, che corrisponde alla fase ayyubbide (XII-XIII secolo) e che ancora si riferisce ad un sito con caratteristiche militari/residenziali, è testimoniato da depositi dello stesso carattere dei precedenti. Comunque è in questo Periodo che Fritware diventa il prodotto più comune tra le ceramiche da tavola (Figura 20). Non compaiono invece importazioni dall’Occidente che, in questi anni, raggiungono e qualificano gli ultimi siti crociati della costa, confermando come protomaiolica, RMR e ceramiche veneziane rimangano prodotti utilizzati in una forma sociale molto selettiva (considerando la non eccessiva distanza di Harim dalla costa e da luoghi come il porto di Antiochia)10. In questo Periodo fanno la loro comparsa alcune fosse di scarico. Questo tipo di evidenza archeologica accentua i caratteri qualitativi del record: buona conservazione delle ceramiche e ad un apprezzabile livello di integrità (dunque più funzionali ad una analisi tipologica), brevità del range cronologico, scarsa (se non inesistente) residualità, chiara definizione del contesto sociale che utilizzava quei materiali e delle funzioni dell’ambiente/i dove sono stati trovati. Ad esempio la fossa 1235, che conteneva quasi solo recipienti da cucina in associazione con abbondanti resti di pasto, può riferirsi ad un uso specifico di quell’ambiente da parte probabilmente di una guarnigione (Figura 13). La presenza di queste fosse di scarico mostra ancora un controllo sul sistema dei rifiuti da parte delle comunità che vivevano sul castello, ma un minore interesse ad allontanarli dalle aree abitate/insediate. Nel Periodo successivo, quello cioè mamelucco (XIII XVI secolo), si passa da una struttura che mantiene ancora funzioni di carattere residenziale-militare ad uno spazio utilizzato come villaggio. Questo lungo periodo di tempo deve essere tuttavia suddiviso in due momenti piuttosto diversi, come abbiamo visto anche attraverso l’analisi della sequenza insediativa. Nel primo, dove le funzioni militari sono ancora attive, si documenta ancora la presenza di ceramiche di buona qualità, prodotte sia localmente (intendendo con questo l’area nord siriana, come nel caso delle graffite policrome)11 oppure importate dalla costa o da altri centri siriani (Fritware forse da Damasco) o, ancora da più lontano, come nel caso del celadon (Figura 22).

Questa, dunque, la sequenza insediativa: ma cosa c’è dietro le porte del castello, per riprendere metaforicamente il titolo di un libro di Matthew Johnson (Johnson 2002)? Cioè, dobbiamo accontentarci solo di questo oppure possiamo sperare che l’archeologia sia anche in grado di farci, se non capire, almeno percepire il senso e il significato delle ‘cose’? Un primo tentativo è possibile esperirlo con la sequenza dei materiali ceramici che, pur con qualche incertezza cronologica, costituisce comunque l’unica chiara evidenza materiale che, senza soluzione di continuità, sia in grado di farci percepire attitudini e comportamenti da parte dei vari gruppi sociali che si sono succeduti sul sito. Un primo aspetto di valutazione riguarda il rapporto tra materiali e contesti, cioè si è cercato di vedere quali fossero le associazioni prevalenti tra depositi archeologici scavati, principali categorie funzionali dei luoghi e gruppi sociali (Figura 11 e Figura 12): fosse di scarico (esempio del Periodo ayyubbide) (Figura 13), accumulazione volontaria di materiali (e ceramiche) in stanze (esempio del Periodo mamelucco) (Figura 14), dispersione di materiale in stanze (es. ancora mamelucco) (Figura 15), livelli d’uso (esempio del Periodo crociato) (Figura 16). Diversità di contesti forniscono associazioni qualitativamente (e quantitativamente) diverse e dunque producono un’evidenza archeologica (nel caso specifico ceramica) di valore differenziato, di cui sarà opportuno tenere conto quando si vanno ad istituire comparazioni. Questo tipo di analisi è poi utile anche per individuare e spiegare cambiamenti funzionali di ambienti. Un secondo aspetto di valutazione riguarda la provenienza dei materiali, che è in relazione con i caratteri dell’ambiente tecnico all’interno del quale collochiamo il sito indagato (che cosa si produceva nelle vicinanze? quali tecniche erano utilizzate?) (Figura 17) e con la sua cifra socio-economica nel corso del tempo. Cerchiamo dunque di inserire sull’asse Periodizzazione – Sequenza cronotipologica dei materiali anche questo tipo di parametri (Figura 18). I Periodi 7-6 (X - prima metà XII secolo), legati ad una funzione militare-residenziale del sito, sembrano caratterizzati da ceramiche quasi esclusivamente di tipo funzionale (Figura19). Tuttavia, durante questo periodo fa la comparsa di un tipo abbastanza peculiare di ceramica da mensa, caratterizzato da un rivestimento vetrificato a base stannifera. In assoluto, questa ceramica non pare di grande qualità, ma il fatto di utilizzare una tecnica piuttosto rara in quel periodo in questa zona, e il fatto di essere, forse, di produzione locale (come indicherebbero le analisi minero-petrografiche), suggerisce l’ipotesi che si tratti di un marcatore abbastanza specifico di questa zona e, non è da escludere, riferibile ad una determinata categoria sociale. Inoltre dobbiamo segnalare come, in questo periodo, sia scarsa la presenza di Fritware di tipo I, documentato invece ed ampiamente nei siti della Siria più interna.9 Le ceramiche di questi Periodi provengono esclusivamente da livelli d’uso, dunque appartengono a depositi che si sono

10

Sulle ceramiche nel porto di Antiochia vd. Lane 1937. Più in generale sull’uso sociale delle ceramiche italiane in questo periodo nel Levante vd. Pringle 1982 ; Pringle 1986. 11 Sulle graffite rinvenute a Qalat Jabar (e dunque più in generale sulle graffite di area musulmana) vd. alcune osservazioni in Tonghini 2003. Più in generale sulle graffite definite ‘Port St Symeon Ware’, riferite al periodo crociato ma con alcune analogie con queste graffite di epoca mamelucca, vd. Riavez 2001.

9

Su Fritware e su una sua classificazione tipologica vd. Tonghini 1996 , Tonghini 1998.

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Nel contempo, insieme ai primi cenni di cedimento delle funzioni di alcuni spazi, si assiste anche ad una lenta introduzione di prodotti che sembrano più caratteristici delle aree rurali, come Hand-Made Geometrically-Painted Ware (HMGPW)12 (Figura 22). Insieme ai livelli d’uso, compaiono in questo Periodo anche accumuli/dispersioni di materiali in ambienti. Questo tipo di contesti cambia ancora la cifra delle restituzioni e del loro significato. Il materiale è ad un grado di frammentazione media, ma non è strettamente collegabile con l’ambiente nel quale si trova, dunque non ne spiega le funzioni se non per la fase terminale d’uso. La presenza di contesti di questo genere indica un diverso atteggiamento nel controllo del sistema dei rifiuti, che vengono ora funzionalmente utilizzati all’interno delle aree insediate. Il Periodo finale, quello cioè ottomano (XVI -età moderna), vede, nell’accentuazione dei caratteri rurali dell’uso di questi spazi, un corrispettivo nelle ceramiche utilizzate. Aumentano infatti le HMGPW e, nel caso delle ceramiche da tavola invetriate, quelle che possiamo al momento attribuire a produzioni locali. Tuttavia questa fase viene contrassegnata anche da altri nuovi marcatori, come le pipe e tazzine da caffè, alcune, anche di importazione da aree abbastanza lontane, come da Küthaya (Vroom 2005, 168-171) (Figura 23). Tali marcatori contraddistinguono questo luogo da un duplice punto di vista: più specificamente sociale (cioè si dichiarano nel loro livello socioeconomico), ma anche culturale, cioè ne riferiscono attitudini generalizzate del mondo ottomano (pipe/tazzine da caffè) (Baram 1999; Carroll 1999). I contesti di questi Periodi sono preferibilmente riferibili a depositi/accumuli all’interno di strutture più antiche. Questo tipo di contesti produce un’evidenza di lungo arco temporale e con un’alta residualità, con molte ceramiche ma quasi sempre ad un livello piuttosto alto di frammentazione. Gli oggetti, poi, non si riferiscono quasi mai all’ambiente in cui si trovano, ma genericamente all’intero sito. Le comunità che vivono nel castello non sembrano esercitare più nessun tipo di controllo sui rifiuti, se non quello di utilizzarli, alla bisogna, per riempire e colmare ambienti; comunque non c’è più nessun interesse a tenerli distanti dalle aree insediate.

BIBLIOGRAFIA Baram, U. 1999. Clay Tobacco Pipes and Coffee Cup Sherds in the Archaeology of the Middle East: Artifacts of Social Tensions from the Ottoman Past, “International Journal of Historical Archaeology”3, 137-151. Berchem van, M. e Fatio, E. 1914. Voyage en Syrie. Le Caire. Berthier, S. 2002. Introduction, in S. Berthier (ed), Études et travaux à la Citadelle de Damas. 2000-2001: un premier bilan, (Bulletin d’Études Orientales 2001-2002. LIIILIV. Supplément. Citadelle de Damas), 29-44. Damas. Berthier, S. 2006. La citadelle de Damas: Les apports d’une étude archéologique, in H. Kennedy (ed), Muslim Military Architecture in Greater Syria. From the Coming of Islam to the Ottoman Empire, 151-164. Leiden. Bianca, S. (ed) 2007. Syria. Medieval Citadels Between East and West. Turin. Boas, A. 1999. Crusader Archaeology. The Material Culture of the Latin West. London-New York. Carroll, L. 1999. Could’ve Been a Contender: The Making and Breaking of “China” in The Ottoman Empire, “International Journal of Historical Archaeology” 3, 177-190. Deschamps, P.1973. Les Chateaux des Croisés en Terre Sainte. III. Le dèfense du Comté de Tripoli et de la principauté d’Antioche. Paris. Faucherre, N., Mesqui J. e Prouteau, N. 2004. La Fortification au temps des Croisades. Rennes. Gelichi, S. 2000. Indagini preliminari nel castello di Harim (Idlib - Siria) 1999, in Le missioni archeologiche dell’Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, 15- 19.Venezia. Gelichi, S. 2002. Il castello di Harim (Idlib – Siria). Aggiornamenti sulla missione archeologica: la campagna di

5. OLTRE LE MURA DEL CASTELLO L’archeologia degli insediamenti fortificati di questi territori ha avuto accenti diversi a seconda del trascorrere del tempo, ma si è preferibilmente caratterizzata per due componenti principali: la monumentalità delle attestazioni, che hanno ovviamente attratto gli interessi dei ricercatori, e la loro relazione con la presenza Crociata. Un interesse sopratutto maturato all’interno della cultura occidentale non poteva che produrre un’archeologia (e una storia) che guardava processi e contesti da una prospettiva fortemente orientata e selettiva. Negli ultimi anni, anche le fasi più tarde di questi contesti sono state prese in considerazione e, in generale, anche un’archeologia dei castelli/cittadelle non crociate sta lentamente sviluppandosi, con buoni pro12

13

Mi riferisco ad esempio alle recenti ricerche su Qalat Shayzar (Tonghini et al., 2003; Tonghini e Montevecchi 2006) o su Shawbak (Vannini 2007). 14 Nel 2002 è stato organizzato ad Aleppo un importante incontro sulle cittadelle musulmane e una parte dei contributi presentati in quella circostanza sono poi confluiti in un volume miscellaneo (Kennedy 2006). Un altro libro miscellaneo, sempre dedicato alle Cittadelle siriane, è Bianca 2007. Sulle fortifcazioni ai tempi dei Crociati vd. anche Faucherre e Mesqui, e Prouteau 2004. 15 Vd. ad esempio Boas 1999.

Su questa categoria di prodotti vd. Johns 1998.

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S. Gelichi: Harim: un castello di frontiera tra Crociati e Musulmani scavo 2000, in Le missioni archeologiche dell’Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia. III giornata di Studio, 76-85. Venezia. Gelichi, S. 2003a. The Harim Castle (Northern Syria) – Preliminary Report on the Archaeological Project, “Al – ‘Usur Al-Wusta. The Bulletin of Middle East Medievalists” 15, 2, 41-43. Gelichi, S. 2003b. Il castello di Harim: un sito fortificato tra musulmani e crociati nella Siria del Nord, “Archeologia Medievale”, XXX , 431-452. Gelichi, S. 2006. The Citadel of Harim, in H. Kennedy (ed), Muslim Military Architecture in Greater Syria. From the Coming of Islam to the Ottoman Empire, 184-200. Leiden. Gelichi, S. 2008. Die Burg Hārim, in M. Piana (Hrsg), Burgen und Städte der Kreuzzugszeit, Petersberg, 211-220. Gelichi, S. 2009. Hārim: A Crusader-Muslim Castle of the Northern Syria. An Archaeological Approach, “Burgen und Schlösser” 4, 224-232. Gelichi, S. e Nepoti, S. 2007. Pottery from Harim Castle (Northern Syria): Crusader and Muslim Period, in B. Böhlendorgf-Arslan, A.Osman Uysal and J.Witte-Orr (eds), Çanak. Late Antique and Medieval Pottery and Tiles in Mediterranean Archaeological Contexts (Byzax 7), 457468. Istanbul Johns, J. 1998. The Rise of Middle Islamic Hand-Made Geometrically-Painted Ware in Bilad al Sham, in R. P. Gayraud (ed.), Colloque International d’archéologie islamique, Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 65-93. Le Caire. Johnson, M. 2002. Behind the Castle Gate. From Medieval to Renaissance. Abington. Kennedy, H. 1994. Crusader castles. Cambridge. Kennedy, H. (ed) 2006. Muslim Military Architecture, in Greater Syria. From the Coming of Islam to the Ottoman Empire. Leiden. Kosara, F. 1988. Harim Dimasq Alsogra (Harim. La petite Damas). Idlib. Lane, A. 1937. Medieval Finds from Al-Mina in North Syria, “Archeologia” 87, 19-87. Lawrenvce, T. E. 1936. Crusader Castles. London.

Mazzoni, S. 2001. Millenni nel tell, “Archeologia Viva” 89, 44. Piana, M. (Hrsg) 2008. Burgen und Städte der Kreuzzugszeit. Petersberg. Pringle, D. 1982. Some more Proto-maiolica from’Athlit (Pilgrims’ Castle) and a Discussion of its Distribution in the Levant, “Levant” XIV, 104-117. Pringle, D. 1986. Pottery as evidence from Trade in the Crusader States, in G. Airaldi e B. Z. Kedar (eds.), I Comuni italiani nel Regno Crociato di Gerusalemme, 449475. Genova Riavez, P. 2001. ‘Atlit – ceramica Port St Symeon, 12171291, graffite “crociate” del Mediterraneo orientale, “Archeologia Medievale”, XXVIII, 505-532. Tonghini, C. 1996. Recent Excavation at Qal’at Ja’bar: new Data for Classifying Syrian Fritware, in K. Bartl e S. R. Hauser (eds.), Continuity and Change in Northern Mesopotamia from Hellenistic to the Early Islamic Period, 287-300. Berlin. Tonghini, C. 1998. Qal’at Ja’bar Pottery. A study of a Syrian fortified site of the late 11th – 14th centuries. London. Tonghini, C. 2003. La graffita policroma nel mediterraneo Orientale islamico : il caso di Qal’at Ja’bar (Siria), in VIIe Congrès International sur la Céramique Médièvale en Medéditerranée, 605-612. Atene. Tonghini, C. et alii 2003. The Evolution of Masonry Technique in Islamic Military Architecture: the Evidence from Shayzar, “Levant”, 35,179-212. Tonghini, C.����������������������������������������� , Montevecchi, N. 2006. The Castle of Shayzar: the Fortificaton of the Access System, in H. Kennedy (ed), Muslim Military Architecture in Greater Syria. From the Coming of Islam to the Ottoman Empire, 201224. Leiden. Vannini, G. (ed) 2007. Archeologia dell’insediamento crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania. Il progetto Shawbak. Firenze. Vroom, J. 2005. Byzantine to Modern Pottery in the Aegean. An Introduction and Field Guide, Utrecht.

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Figura 1. Ubicazione di Harim

Figura 2. 1-2. Pianta e sezione di Harim (da van Berchem, Fatio 1914). 3. Pianta di Harim del Pierie-Gordon (da Lawrence 1936).

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Figura 3. La cittadella di Harim ripresa da sud-est.

Figura 4. 1-2. Harim, sezioni esposte lungo il corridoio che porta alla sommità del tell.

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Figura 5. Harim, i depositi archeologici conservati.

Figura 6. Harim, i settori di scavo indagati (UTS)

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Figura 7. Harim, la sequenza periodizzata.

Figura 8. Harim, Periodi 7-6. La cinta muraria più antica.

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Figura 9. Harim, Peirodi 7-6, caratterizzazione della muratura della prima cinta muraria individuata sul sito.

Figura 10. Harim, Periodo 5. Strutture murarie e contesti di scavo.

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Figura 11. Harim, planimetria del castello con indicati i principali spazi e funzioni individuate

Figura 12. Harim, pianta del castello con indicati le principali caratteristiche dei depositi scavati

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Figura 13. Harim, caratteri deidepositi: buche di scarico

Figura 14. Harim, caratteri deidepositi: accumulazione di materiale in stanze

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Figura 15. Harim, caratteri deidepositi: dispersioni di materiali in stanze

Figura 16. Harim, caratteri deidepositi: livelli d’uso

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Figura 17. Harim, tipologie e tecniche ceramiche documentate nel sito

Figura 18. Harim, tipologie ceramiche e tempo.

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Figura 19. Harim, principali tipi ceramici documentati nei Periodi 7/6

Figura 20. Harim, Fritware II dal Periodo 5.

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Figura 21. Harim, principali tipi ceramici nei Periodi 4/3

Figura 22. Harim, principali tipi ceramici nei Periodi 4/3

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Figura 23. Harim, principali tipi ceramici nei Periodi 2/1

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IL CASO DI SHAYZAR, SIRIA: ‘CASTELLO’ O CITTÀ FORTIFICATA Cristina Tonghini Università Ca’ Foscari- Venezia Abstract (2008) Il caso di Shayzar, Siria: ‘castello’ o città fortificata Il presente contributo intende esaminare il ruolo delle fortificazione nell’ambito dell’insediamento nel Bilad al-Sham. La discussione verterà sulla documentazione archeologica raccolta nell’ambito del Progetto Shayzar: studio e valorizzazione di una fortificazione musulmana del Medio Oronte ed in considerazione di una serie di elementi derivati dalla documentazione scritta. In particolar modo si cercherà di interpretare una serie di elementi relativi al complesso palatino del sito di Shayzar, e in merito alla funzione del sito stesso, e di integrarli con una serie di considerazioni derivanti dalla percezione del sito da parte dei contemporanei. The question of Shayzar (Syria): “castle” or fortified town. This paper intends to investigate the role of the fortifications within the settlement in the Bilad al-Sham. Discussion will concern the archaeological evidence recorded within the Shayzar Project: study and valorization of a Muslim fortification of the Middle Oronte region, also in the light of some data, coming from literary sources. In particular, we will try to figure out some elements relevant to the palace complex of the site of Shayzar, the function of the site itself, and integrate them with considerations about the perspective of that place among its contemporaries.

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I CASTELLI SUL CONFINE SETTENTRIONALE DEL PRINCIPATO DI ANTIOCHIA IN RAPPORTO ALLA VIABILITÀ Stella Patitucci Uggeri Università di Cassino

A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011 Abstract (2008) The frontier between the Princedom Antiochia and the Kingdom of Armenia. The Princedom Antiochia, set up in 1098 and lasted until 1268, when it was destroyed by the Mamluks led by Baybars, was featured by very complex and unstable boundaries: it bordered to the north-west on the Byzantine Empire and then on the Kingdom of Little Armenia, to the north-east on the County of Edessa, to the south on the County of Tripoli, to the east on the Abbasidid Caliphate of Baghdad and then on the Ayyubidid Sultanate of Damascus. This paper intends to deal with the frontier, which characterised to the north the border on the Kingdom of Little Armenia. Conflicts with this Christian Kingdom arose quite soon, as early as 1135 with the baron Leo I of Armenia, and became more marked in 1154, when Thorus II, in order to oppose the Selgiukid invasion, occupied some Antiochian castles, which were taken again in 1170-75. Later, new conflicts were brought about by the succession struggles after Bohemond III’s death in 1201, whilst an agreement was achieved by the marriage of Bohemond VI with the Armenian princess Sybilla in 1254. However, the Armenians took advantage of the Mongolian invasion of 1260 to occupy the castles of Bagras and Trapezak, but these were conquered in 1266 by the Mamluks, who so flanked Antiochia, and destroyed it two years later. The frontier between the Kingdom of Little Armenia and the Princedom Antiochia is the mountain range of Amanus or Antitaurus, which slopes toward the sea, leaving a narrow pass on the east, through which the road for Edessa goes, and a very narrow passage on the south, where the road towards Antiochia and Syria runs alongside of the coast. The frontier is based on some castles watching over the main road network. The most important among them is that of Toprak, as it controls the main crossing of the Flat Cilicia, between the important north-south road from the Cappadocia to Anazarbo and Antiochia and the ancient west-east road of Anatolia, from Tharsus to Edessa. The castle of Savranda was built on this route towards east. The coastal road was defended by a complex barrage that from the Portella, which blocked the road and was closely above towered by Sari Seki Castle, extended to the castle of Cialan on the top and that of Trapezak on the opposite versant, dominating the parallel inland road. The castle of Bagras was established in order to control the southernmost pass of the Amanus, watching over the Plain of Antiochia. The strategic, topographic and architectonic characteristics of these castles will be investigated.

Le ricerche topografiche che da oltre un decennio conduciamo in Turchia nei territori già facenti parte del Principato d’Antiochia si sono concentrate soprattutto sui castelli e sulla viabilità da essi sottesa. Infatti in passato era stato soprattutto l’aspetto architettonico dei castelli a polarizzare l’interesse degli studiosi, mentre ne veniva trascurata l’interpretazione strategica, come accadeva del resto anche in Italia. Da un ventennio ho voluto concentrare le ricerche sul rapporto tra castelli e viabilità, per cui il castello risulta il ganglio di un più vasto sistema difensivo, che si appoggia su più capisaldi e dove ogni elemento non ha significato solo di per sé, ma è potenziato dagli altri nella sua funzione strategica. Anche per il Principato di Antiochia le recenti indagini ci consentono ora di prospettare un modello interpretativo della dislocazione delle fortificazioni del Principato lungo i suoi confini in funzione della particolare configurazione orografica dell’area e delle conseguenti esigenze strategiche di controllo della viabilità e dei passi montani (Patitucci 1998). Il Principato di Antiochia (Figura 2), situato all’estremità nord-occidentale della Siria, ebbe confini molto articolati ed instabili. Ma, in linea di massima, possiamo osservare che con­finava in gran parte con stati cristiani che hanno contribuito a proteggerlo. Esso era delimitato in­fatti a Ovest dal mare Mediterraneo, che non costituì mai una minaccia, e a Nord-Ovest dapprima dall’impero bizantino e dopo pochi anni dai Baroni della Piccola Armenia. Da questo lato il confine naturale era segnato dalla catena dell’Amanus o Antitauro, che scendeva a sud fino al mare lasciando solo uno stretto valico verso est dove passava la strada per Edessa e uno strettissimo passaggio a sud sulla

costa dove passa la strada per Antiochia e la Siria. Fecero da cuscinetto a Nord-Est la Contea di Edessa, per un breve periodo (dal 1099 al 1144), a Sud la Contea di Tripoli (dal 1103). Invece a Est il Principato era più debole sul piano geomorfologico e confinava con il califfato abbaside di Baghdad e poi con il Sultanato ajubida di Damasco; da questo lato si trovava inoltre esposto agli eventuali attacchi turchi e mongoli. Qui il confine era costituito dalla catena del Gebel Seman (che prendeva nome dal famoso santuario di san Simeone Stilita il Grande, Qal’at Sam’an), ma la vera frontiera era data dall’Oronte con il controllo dei passaggi fortificati di Gisr Hadid (Ponte di Ferro e castello di Harim), Derkush (Sarmeda, castello di Qastun sulla via per Apamea) e Gisr esh Shoghur (Chastel Ruge) (Deschamps 1973). Il Principato era interessato da tre fondamentali arterie viarie. Anzitutto la grande strada cosiddetta persiana proveniente da nord, dall’altopiano anatolico di Kayseri, e che attraversata la pianura cilicia piegava a est per attraversare la catena dell’Amano all’altezza di Savranda. Questa antica direttrice restò di fondamentale importanza in età crociata, costituendo l’asse sul quale si articolò a levante la contea di Edessa fin quasi a Nisibis. Ad occidente un fondamentale asse di comunicazione era quello che dalla zona oltre i monti del Tauro scendeva in direzione nord-sud a Tarso per poi attraversare da ovest a est la piana della Cilicia, incrociando a Toprak la strada precedente o piegando verso meridione in direzione della Siria. Su quest’ultima direttrice il punto di passaggio obbligato tra il Regno della Piccola Armenia e il Principato d’Antiochia era costituito dalle cosiddette Porte di Cilicia o Porte di Siria (Ainsworth 1838, 185; Bauzou 1989), che erano situate 253

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean ai piedi dell’Antitauro ed avevano costituito un confine già ai tempi dei Seleucidi e per un certo periodo servirono di confine tra il Regno d’Armenia e il Principato d’Antiochia. Nel medioevo questo punto era detto la Portella, Porta di Marmo, Synkra­ton; poi fu detta Pilastro di Giona e ora Kiz kulesi. Era situata 11km a N di Isken­derun, a solo 60 metri dal mare, dove passa la ferrovia, al di sotto della strada e circa mezzo chilometro a SW del castello di Sari Seki. Si trattava di un arco trionfale romano, eretto sulla sommità di una modesta altura ed era ancora con­servato nel secolo scorso (Oldenburg). Resta tut­tora il pilastro occidentale, detto Pilastro di Giona, costruito in tecnica isodomi­ca con blocchi di marmo con anatyrosis, a struttura piena (H. Kaehler, Triumphbogen, RE, s.v., c. 459 s.; Boase 1978, 167). Al di sotto passava la strada lastricata, che era stata allargata da Giustiniano con una lunga tagliata della parete roccio­sa ancora visibile ed utilizzata dalla ferrovia. In età crociata il breve tratto di costa da Alessandretta a Sari Seki, dove termina l’estremità occidentale del Monte Amanus, prese il nome di Portella, che spesso è stato usato in senso ristretto per indicare il Pilastro di Giona (Edwards 1987, 204-06, nota 2). Si trattava infatti di un punto di passaggio obbligato, sia nell’antichità che nel medioevo, quando la costruzione del castello di Sari Seki risolse diversamente l’esigenza di difesa di questo passaggio. La Portella è ricordata spesso nelle cronache dei Crociati come importante punto di riferimento geografico e sito di una postazione fortificata. Nel 1154 i Templari aiutarono qui Stefano, fratello di Thoros Il d’Armenia, a respingere i Selgiuchidi. Sebbene controllata soprattutto dai Templari, vi furono dei periodi tra XII e XIII secolo in cui questo punto fu controllato alternativamente dai Bizantini e dagli Armeni (Edwards 1987, 204-6; Langlois 1863). Nella zona di Antiochia già prima della fondazione ellenistica giungeva da est la pista carovaniera proveniente via Aleppo dall’area siro-mesopotamica. Questo asse continuò ad essere di fondamentale importanza anche nel corso del medioevo in direzione di Damasco e Baghdad. Verso sud si raggiungeva Lattakia, meglio collegata per via di mare. Su questi assi si dislocarono le difese con una serie di castelli, rioccupati o costruiti in questo periodo e che ne custodirono i punti nodali. Subito a sud e alle spalle di Antiochia, Kursat è l’unico castello che abbia perpetuato nel nome il ricordo dei Crociati, sorse a guardia della strada antica che da Antiochia, attraverso il sobborgo di Daphne, portava a Laodicea e quindi verso la parte meridionale del Principato e la Terrasanta. Infine, il castello di Harim rappresenta sul piano itinerario e strategico l’equivalente del castello di Toprak. Come questo, si erge isolato nella pianura su uno sperone roccioso e guarda un percorso stradale essenziale, quello dell’antica via carovaniera che muovendo da Antiochia porta verso Aleppo e la Siria, potenziata dai Romani con un’imponente massicciata stradale e il ponte sull’Oronte (il cosiddetto Ponte di Ferro, Demir köprü). Il controllo del ponte era essenziale per questa direttrice e il castello, essendo situato a est, ne impe­diva l’accesso facendo sistema con la città fortificata di Artesia (Artàh).

Un’analoga serie di castelli sorgeva a guardia dei più travagliati confini orientali, continuamente minacciati da Aleppo, e perfino su quelli meridionali del principato, anche se questi erano meno minacciati, confinando con la contea franca di Tripoli, ma dovendo temere dalle tribù degli Assassini. Nel corso della prima Crociata, Boemondo di Taranto, dopo l’assedio e la conquista di Antiochia (20 ottobre 1097 - 3 giugno 1098) (Asbridge 2000; Grousset 1992, 195, 203), riuscì a costituirsi un principato, grazie all’aiuto dei cristiani armeni deportati in Cilicia tra il X e l’XI secolo e finalmente organizzatisi con capitale a Anavarza già dal 1078 sotto la dinastia dei Rupenidi. Subito dopo, lo stesso Boemondo con il nipote Tancredi si diresse verso nordest e prese il castello di Savranda, che sorge a controllo del passo dell’Amanus. Dal 1101 con l’attività militare di Tancredi divenuto reggente di Antiochia e poi anche di Edessa il Principato si espande rapidamente. Tancredi si spinse verso oriente nella Gezira o alta pianura mesopotamica, ma fu vinto dall’emiro seljukide di Damasco a Carre (odierna Harran) nel maggio 1104 e rinunciò definitivamente ad ampliare i possessi in quella direzione. Più fortunata fu la spedizione dell’anno successivo, quando Tancredi riuscì a conquistare l’Oltre Oronte e si spinse più a sud, giungendo a occupare Laodicea nel 1109. L’adesione alla nuova situazione è tale che conia monete sulle quali si fa raffigurare con il turbante e con una le­genda in greco, che lo celebra come “il grande emiro Tankridos”. Anche la pianura della Cilicia con Mamistra (Mopsuestia), Adana e Tarso fu tolta da Tancredi ai Seljucchi. Ma dal 1110 Toro I organizzava la Piccola Armenia a spese della momentanea conquista crociata. A Tancredi, morto nel 1112, succede Ruggero di Salerno, che però viene ucciso dai Turchi Ortoqidi di Aleppo (1119), per cui Baldovino II re di Gerusalemme assume la reggenza del Principato fino al 1126; è questo il periodo di massima floridezza del Principato, che riesce a sfruttare la contingenza favorevole della disunione tra i musul­mani circostanti. Negli anni 1126-30 regna Boemondo II. Nel 1135 il barone Leone I d’Armenia occupa i castelli settentrionali del Principato, ma l’anno successivo è catturato da Raimondo di Poitiers, nuovo principe per avere sposato Costanza, e li deve restituire, mentre quest’ultimo tenta di occupare la Cilicia. Approfitta dei dissensi tra Armeni e Crociati Costantinopoli, che cerca di riconquistare gli antichi territori e nel 1137 l’imperatore Giovanni II Comneno assedia Antiochia e Rai­mondo di Poitiers è costretto a fare atto di sottomissione (Chalandon 1912). Intanto cade nel 1144 la Contea di Edessa nelle mani dell’atabeg turco Zangì, esponendo così il principato direttamente agli attacchi esterni. Nel 1147 il Principato è privato di Artesia (Artah), importante sede episcopale sulla strada di Aleppo verso il confine orientale e altri castelli (Richard e Birrell 1999, 50); nel 1149 Raimondo muore nella battaglia di Inab vinto dal turco zengide Nur ad-Din. La pressione armena con Thoros II si spinge fino all’altezza della Portella, ma nel 1154 Reginaldo di Chatillon riesce a riprendere il castello di Sari Seki e a ristabilire 254

S. Patitucci Uggeri: i castelli sul confine settentrionale del Principato di Antiochia in rapporto alla viabilità i confini settentrionali. Anche i confini sud-orientali sono minacciati nel 1164 da Nur ad-Din, tanto che si forma una coalizione degli stati cristiani per cui è costretto ad abbandonare l’assedio di Harim, ma nella successiva battaglia cattura Boemondo III e gli altri capi crociati; il fiume Oronte diventa allora la frontiera permanente tra Antiochia e Aleppo. Tra il 1170 e il 1175 gli Armeni rioccupano diversi castelli di confine del Principato. Una nuova fase critica per il Principato si apre con le conquiste di Saladino (1169-1193), che sopprime il califfato fatimida, prende Da­masco, Aleppo e Mossul e dopo la vittoria di Hattin nel 1187 circonda i Franchi con un forte stato unitario, il sultanato ayyubide (Imad 1972). Antiochia annette la contea di Tripoli, ai confini meridionali, ma nel 1188 il porto di Laodicea (Latakia) è conquistato da Saladino. Tuttavia il sultanato si disgrega alla morte di Saladino e tra il 1193 e il 1260 si veri­ficano tali dissensi tra i principi ayyubidi che il Principato può godere di un lungo periodo di sicurezza e di tran­quillità. Alla morte di Boemondo III, nel 1201, gli succede Boemondo IV: si ha così la fusione dinastica con la Contea di Tripoli. Ma nel 1216 il re d’Armenia im­pone Raimondo IV Roupen. Comincia così il breve periodo del protettorato Armeno, che termina nel 1219, quando Boemondo IV riprende il Principato. Di conse­guenza, si acuiscono i dissensi tra Armeni, Crociati e Bizantini; questi sollecita­no l’intervento di Turchi e Mongoli e difatti due invasioni si susseguono nel 1260, quando i Mongoli vengono fermati a Ain Jalut e nel 1271. Intorno al 1260 ritorna dopo un secolo da nord la pressione degli Armeni, che minacciano addirittura il castello di Gaston-Bagras, sopra la piana di Antiochia, difeso strenuamente dai Templari, e riescono ad occupare il castello di Trapesak; è questo il prodromo della fine. Sotto il principato di Boemondo VI il Bello, il sultano mamelucco Baibars (1260-77) muovendo dall’Egitto annette la Siria e quindi approfitta degli inter­venti armeni, bizantini e mongoli nel Principato per annientarlo: nel 1266 pren­de i castelli di Trapesac e Bagras, neutralizza la Cilicia armena, prende Antio­chia e la distrugge (1268). Solo nel castello di Kursat i Crociati riuscirono a resistere fino al 1275. Le difese del Principato di Antiochia non sono continue, ma si appoggiano a piazzeforti, castelli e torri per cui l’espansione dei suoi confini viene condizionata dalla conquista o dalla perdita di castelli. Vedremo ora singolarmente i castelli che custodiscono i punti chiave, con riferimento specifico al confine settentrionale.

va verso il passo dell’Amanus e l’estremo Oriente, e la grande strada persiana e romana di direzione nord-sud che da Co­stantinopoli attraverso la Cappadocia scende ad Alessandretta e alla vallata dell’Oronte.2 Sorge ancora imponente su un’altura di basalto nero, poco rilevata (a quota 65m), ma che risalta nettamente rispetti alla vasta pianura circostante, lambita a sud dal fiume Kara Suyu, per cui gode di una vasta visibilità con tutti i castelli circostanti.3 L’altura fu sede di un insediamento già nell’antichità, come documentano le tombe dell’età del Bronzo scavate all’intorno, indice dell’importanza del sito già in età protostorica. Resti del villaggio medievale si osservano sul fianco ovest della collina. Il castello ricorre in numero­se cronache, dalle quali si possono estrapolare alcune vicende salienti. Nel secolo XI era sede episcopale giacobita quando entrò a far parte del Principato. Nel 1137 fu preso dall’imperatore Giovanni II Comneno durante la sua fortunata campa­gna d’Armenia (Chalandon 1912, 420, 431 s., 442). Nel 1151 fu occupato da Toro II d’Armenia. Nel 1154 l’imperatore invi­ta il sultano di Konya ad attaccarlo, ma questi non riesce a toglierlo agli Armeni, aiutati dai Franchi. Tuttavia nel 1158 Manuele Comneno riesce a riprenderlo. Ma prima del 1170 era tornato di nuovo in mano armena. Nel 1185 è cedu­to ad Antiochia e soggetto a Boemondo III, ma per poco, perché nel 1194 è di nuovo armeno. Nel 1198-99 risulta soggetto a un franco, certo Robert. Nel 1266 viene preso da Baibars; ma è occupato stabilmente dai Mamelucchi d’Egitto solo dal 1337. Dal 1491 fu definitivamente ottomano. In sostanza questo punto chiave fu sempre aspramente contesto tra bizantini, armeni e il Principato di Antiochia, che riuscì a esercitarne il controllo solo nel periodo iniziale e tra il 1185 e il 1194. La fortificazione si articola in tre settori: un vasto recinto inferiore, un piccolo baglio trian­golare intermedio e il castello vero e proprio su un’alta scarpata. Il recinto inferiore può essere raggiunto da una strada che risale il pendio sud e passa sotto il muro ovest prima di entrare da una supposta porta nord (V). Il lato est del recinto inferiore è costituito da una massiccia scarpata al di sotto della parte occidentale del castello. Un passaggio (nel punto T) mette in comuni­cazione con il cortile superiore tramite il recinto triangolare. Il recinto inferiore è rinforzato da dodici torri perimetrali diverse per posizione e per forma: tre sono quadrate, cinque pentagonali e tre semicircolari (una è incerta). Lungo il perimetro meridionale le torri sono solo pentagonali e collocate a stretti intervalli; mentre a nord le torri sono semicircolari e assai distanziate. Inoltre la muratura di questo recinto è assai disuguale. Consideran­do la varietà delle murature, si possono individuare almeno tre periodi costrut­tivi: l’uso di torri circolari distanti, delle torri poligonali ravvicinate e di un sa­liente quadrangolare; rappresentano tre tipiche soluzioni, che vanno riferite a tre contrastanti teorie militari. Il castello presenta una massiccia scarpata, al disotto della

IL CASTELLO DI TOPRAK (Figura 3) La denominazione medievale era T’il Hamtun nelle fonti armene e Thil Hamdoun o soltanto T’il durante l’occupazione crociata. Nel 1211 viene detto Castrum Regis Nigrum, o Thila.1 Il castello sorgeva all’interno della pianura del fiume Ceyhan (l’antico Pyramos), a controllo dell’incrocio di cinque strade, tra cui la grande strada di direzione ovest-est, che viene da Tarso con due tracciati paralleli e

2 Bauzou 1989;

Sinclair 1987, 342. Interessante notare che un vicino paese moderno ha preso il nome Dörtyol, ossia quattro strade o quadrivio. 3 Ossia Tumlu, Anavarza, Amuda, Bodrum, Yilan e Çardak: Edwards 1987, 244.

Il nome è di origine araba, da tell = collina; quello attuale deriva dal turco toprak = terra scura. 1

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean quale furono costruite delle case­matte, tra E ed I, lunghe e strette, coperte a volta (ora crollata): incerto è il loro numero. La scarpata fu costruita prima del recinto inferiore. Nel castello una serie di ambienti si distribuisce attorno ad un vasto cortile sub-rettangolare. A nord abbiamo la sala d’ingresso (A) con copertura a volta e in­gresso guardato da due torri semicircolari all’esterno; in quella superstite all’angolo nord-est si nota un ricorso di due filari di pietre bianche, una bicro­mia caratteristica dell’architettura bizantina o abbaside; questa sembra essere la sola entrata al castello.4 Segue un vano B a due crociere con due ca­ sematte a nord e due porte nella parete sud aperte sul cortile. Abbiamo poi un vano al­lungato (C), preceduto verso l’interno da un ambiente quadrangolare con porta a est, che immette nel vano. Al centro del lato nord aggetta all’esterno una possente torre semi­circolare (D), della quale si conserva anche il piano superiore con tre grandi fi­nestre. Sullo spigolo nord-ovest una torre a saliente (E) sporge per tre quarti rinforzando l’angolo del castello; è la maggiore del complesso ed ha un vano sotterraneo rivestito di malta e adibito a cisterna, secondo l’uso bizantino,5 e un vano superiore, che era coperto a volta. Sotto la scarpata del lato ovest si di­slocavano lunghe casematte (F-J), che si aprono all’interno con numerose porte. Aggettano dal lato ovest tre torri semicircolari (G, H, I), delle quali la settentrio­ nale era probabilmente quadrangolare nella prima fase; essa presenta nella volta l’uso dei mattoni, che ricorrono anche in altre parti del castello. Sia Müller-Wiener che Hellenkemper ritengono che sia una costruzione bizantina, mentre l’Edwards la retrodata a protobizantina o araba di VIII secolo (Edwards 1987, 244-53; Gottwald 1940; Hellenkemper 1976; Müller-Wiener 1966). Nell’angolo sudovest del castello sorge l’edificio residenziale, un complesso a due piani; l’inferiore è adibito a cisterna, mentre il piano superiore è un salone con finestre aperte a nord e a sud; una porta si apre ad est e ad ovest; una porta fu aperta anche per collegarlo alla torre I. Sembra riferibile alla fase mamelucca. Il resto del lato sud-est consiste in casematte, che presentano due cortine, quella interna con torri semicircolari, l’esterna con torri semicircolari a feritoie, collegate da un muro con feritoie. Gli studi di Gottwald, Müller-Wiener ed Hellenkemper hanno permesso di individuare molte fasi nell’architettura di questo castello (Edwards 1987, 244-53; Gottwald 1940; Hellenkemper 1976; Müller-Wiener 1966), anche se solo uno scavo potrebbe stabilire la cronologia delle diverse fasi evidenziate. Si tratta di un’architettura peculiare; infatti i tratti dominanti sono rappre­sentati dalla torre rotonda E, dalla massiccia scarpata, dalle gallerie continue, dalla pianta rettangolare, dai salienti pentagonali e quadrangolari del recinto inferiore, dalle cisterne negli ambienti inferiori delle torri e dalle pecu­liari casematte.6 E’ probabile che si debbano distinguere almeno due fasi principali: alla prima sarebbe da ascrivere il castello originario a pianta subrettangolare, di fondazione araba7 o bi­zantina; alla se-

conda fase va riferito il complesso più ampio, con ulteriori aggiunte di età mamelucca. IL CASTELLO DI SAVRANDA (Figura 4) Sorge su uno sperone che domina dal lato sud il passo dell’Amanus, che metteva in comunicazione la Cilicia con la Mesopotamia. Forse di fondazione bizantina, fu occupato dai Franchi e nel 1102 Tancredi d’Antiochia vi fece prigioniero Raimondo IV di St Gilles. Nel 1135 fu preso dal barone Leone I della Piccola Armenia, che però l’anno dopo dovette cederlo a Raimondo di Poitiers. Fu ripreso ancora dagli Armeni verso il 1172-75; ma nel 1185 ritornò al Principato d’Antiochia. Nel 1198-99 era in mano al barone Het’umida Smbat ed i suoi successori lo tennero nel corso del XIII secolo. Nel 1298 fu preso momentaneamente dai Mamelucchi, che lo occuparono definiti­vamente dal 1337. In conclusione, il castello fu controllato dal Principato per quasi tutto il XII secolo, mentre dopo restò in mano armena. Il castello sorge su un lungo sperone calcareo a fianchi dirupati, di forma triangolare di circa metri 150 x 80, declive verso nord e con vertice a sud nella stretta sella che ne poteva permettere l’accesso, ma che fu sbarrata con un poderoso bastione, che prolun­ga lo scoscendimento delle rupi con due grosse torri e due minori alle spalle. Il circuito delle mura seguiva il ciglio tattico della collina, anche se a nord e ad ovest in molte parti mancava, perché era reso inutile dagli strapiombi. Si distin­guono due recinti, dei quali il superiore abbraccia il vertice sud, ulteriormente difeso da un sbarramento interno, che sfrutta un gradino naturale della roccia. L’ingresso al recinto inferiore era a nord-est (A), preceduto da due torri rotonde: si accede a un ambiente coperto a crociera, forse su fondazioni bizantine, come gran parte della muraglia sul fianco orientale e alcune porzioni a ovest. A sud dell’ingresso sorgeva una cappella (C), la cui abside aggettante fungeva da torre delle mura, simile alla successiva. All’interno del recinto inferiore sorgevano edifici ormai irriconoscibili e presso l’accesso al terrazzo superiore si distinguono un pozzo rotondo e un contiguo ambiente pentagonale, forse un bacino (E). Attraverso la rampa F si sale al recinto superiore e subito all’interno si notano due cisterne, una sotterranea e voltata, l’altra coperta a cupo­ la (G-H). Segue un lungo corridoio, che collega due torri aggettanti ad oriente (I-J), delle quali quella più massiccia a sud-est potrebbe essere di origine bizantina o fran­ ca. Tutta la sistemazione del bastione triangolare al vertice del castello, diviso in tre ambienti, è sicuramente di epoca armena. Dall’analisi delle murature si possono individuare differenti fasi edilizie, che sono da riferire in ordine cronologico ai Bizantini, ai Franchi, agli Armeni, a un restauro dopo il ter­remoto del 1269 e infine a tardi rimaneggiamenti mamelucchi (Edwards 1987, 216-21; Sinclair 1987, 342).

4

Secondo alcuni studiosi l’entrata al recinto superiore poteva essere Q o L: Hellenkemper 1976, 151; Müller-Wiener 1966, 76. 5 Cfr. le torri delle mura giustinianee di Antiochia, Uggeri 1998. 6 Edwards 1987, 99, nota che non ha caratteristiche armene. 7 Edwards 1987, che confronta la pianta quadrata dei castelli degli

Umayyadi, con torri rotonde ravvicinate.

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S. Patitucci Uggeri: i castelli sul confine settentrionale del Principato di Antiochia in rapporto alla viabilità 3.IL CASTELLO DI SARI SAKI (Figura 5)

tenuto conto della storia del castello e della sua posizione, è probabile che gli interventi armeni siano stati scarsi e che la struttura sia per lo più una ricostruzione ottomana su una pianta dei Templari (Edwards 1987, 215-16). In sostanza, la struttura risalirebbe all’età franca con ampi rifacimenti di età ottomana, quando fu anche apposta un’iscrizione sopra l’ingresso (Otto-Dohrn 1952, 116 ss.). Ai piedi del castello il Jacquot segnalò le tracce di un muro che arrivava alla Portella e al mare sbarrando il passo (Jacquot 1931); un secondo muro a filari alternati di basalto e laterizi, forse bizantino, correva quasi un chilometro più a nord, al di là del torrente Merkez Su (Sinclair 1990, IV, 311).

Ora è chiamato Sari Seki, ma non ne è sicura l’identificazione con uno dei tanti castelli ricordati nelle cronache dei Crociati: secondo il Niebuhr potrebbe trattarsi del castello di Merkez (così pensa dubitativamente anche l’Edwards), secondo de Lortet del castello di Godefroy, certo non si tratta di Gastin, a cui pensava il Jacquot,8 né del Castrum Puellarum, a cui pensava il Cahen (Cahen 1940, 149). Il castello controllava la via costiera della Portella tra la Cilicia e la Siria, ma anche l’accesso all’importante via montana di arroccamento che dal mare saliva in vetta al Mons Amanus fino a Çalan-Kalè e al valico di Aylan per poi discendere alla vallata del Kara Su e alla pianura alle spalle di Antiochia nel punto guardato dal castello di Darb Sak (Trapesak) (Bauzou 1989; Dussaud 1927, tavola XI). Niceforo Foca occupò questo passo della Portella nel 926 all’inizio della rapida campagna per Aleppo. Per la sua posizione strategica, fu conteso ripetutamente da Crociati, Armeni e Bizantini. Intorno al 1135 fu occupato da Leone I re d’Armenia e poi dai Bizantini, ai quali lo sottrasse Thoros II d’Armenia, intorno al 1150. L’imperatore Manuele cercò di riprenderlo, ser­vendosi prima dei Turchi Seljuchidi e poi assoldando Rinaldo di Chatillon: lo scontro avvenne alla «Porta di Marmo» detta Synkraton e Rinaldo ebbe la peg­gio. Ma con la morte di Rinaldo nel 1160 Thoros II, di sua iniziativa, restituì il castello ai Templari, da quel momento suoi alleati. Essi lo tennero per oltre un secolo, finché nel 1265 furono attaccati dal mamelucco Malik al-Mansur, che s’impadronì del castello e li massacrò, riuscendo così a penetrare profondamente in Cilicia (Jacquot 1931, 150). Il castello sorge sullo sperone collinare che scende a sbarrare la strettoia sul mare, dal quale dista circa 600 metri; è a circa 200 dalla strada sottostante, mentre l’autostrada passa ora molto più in alto. L’importanza di questa postazione ne fa tuttora una base milita­re, per cui il castello non è esplorabile (Jacquot 1931, 153). Possiamo basarci soltanto su quanto è stato descritto dal Jacquot e dal Sinclair. Il castello presenta una sola cerchia muraria a pianta subrettangolare con poche torri. Il Jacquot ri­corda la presenza di muri antichi nelle fondazioni del castello sul lato nord (Brocquière 1892, 888; Jacquot 1931, 150). La porta è a sud, ricostruita in muratura isodomica e fiancheggiata da due torrioni rettangolari all’esterno; a est c’è una tor­re angolare rotonda di conci più piccoli, con feritoia e merli. La torre rotonda che si protende con un an­golo netto all’estremità sud sembra presentare due tipi di muratura: la parte superiore è di pietre piccole con spessi strati di malta per l’altezza di 2/3 (come nei castelli crociati di Bagras e Trapesak); mentre la parte inferiore ha una muratura di conci regolari a margini sbozzati; negli interstizi sembra esserci poca malta. Subito all’interno una torre, secondo il Boase, presenta una muratura tipica dell’architettura dei Crociati. E’ incerto se si tratti di una costruzione bizantina riattata o se il ca­stello sia stato costruito dai Templari. Il Cahen ed il Boase pensano che le strutture visibili siano soprattutto ottomane (Boase 1978; Cahen 1940). Secondo l’Edwards, 8

4.ÇALAN KALE (Figura 6) Il castello sorge isolato in un sito alpestre a circa un’ora dal villaggio di Dermen Deresi (Déguirmen Déré, q. 850m) e a nord-ovest del villaggio di çinar. Ora è detto Şalen, Şivlan o Çivlan Kalè, ar. Hadjar çoghlan -Hagar Sug’làn, Çuylan Kab. Situato a quota 1258m, il castello si presenta come un vero nido d’aquila, ar­roccato su uno sperone calcareo oblungo, che domina una delle più importanti piste montane dell’Amanus (Nur Dağlari) tra il Golfo di Iskènderun e la valle del Kara-Su e cioè in definitiva tra le pianure della Cilicia e della Siria. I castelli di Sari Seki e di Trapesak segnano le estremità ovest ed est di questa strada d’arroccamento che attraversa il valico di Aylan. L’identificazione con uno dei castelli ricordati dai documenti medievali è incerta. Secondo il Dechamps sarebbe La Roche Guil­laume (Deschamps 1973); mentre secondo il Cahen corrisponderebbe a La Roche de Roissol (Cahen 1940). Comunque, il castello fu costruito dai Templari e fu al centro delle lotte del XII e XIII secolo; dovette essere occupato per breve tem­po da Leone I d’Armenia e infine fu abbandonato all’arrivo di Baibars, forse nel 1266. Fu allora occupato dagli Armeni e nel 1298 dai Mamelucchi (Edwards 1987, 99-102; Jacquot 1931, 120 ; Sinclair 1990, IV, 315 ss.). Il castello occupa un terrazzo di circa metri 80 x 130, che sale verso levante. Sul pendio settentrionale si aprono delle grotte e si nota in superficie ceramica invetriata e ceramica bizantina graffita a stecca. Si tratta probabilmente della discarica del castello. All’interno della fortificazione si distinguono un baglio inferiore molto esteso e uno superiore stretto e allungato sulla sommità est, che forma un gradone relativamente piano. L’accesso al baglio inferiore era da sud, dove il terreno è più agevole; si entrava con una passerella su barbacani sotto la torre E. Il baglio inferiore si presenta coperto dalle rovine delle costruzioni. Tutto il pianoro doveva essere cinto da un muro, di cui restano solo poche tracce, meglio conservate a sud e a nord-ovest (A e D). A sud-est, presso l’entrata, su uno sperone aggettante sorge una torre (E) con due finestre a pareti diritte aperte sul lato sud e una feritoia strombata ad est. All’estremità sud-ovest si nota un ambiente (B), forse una cisterna, perché situato nel punto più basso; al cen­ tro resta un ambiente rettangolare con muri conservati per

Per le varie identificazioni Edwards 1987, 215.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean un’altezza di 5 metri (C); altri due ambienti, forse cisterne, si riconoscono all’estremità nord. Incerto è il punto d’accesso al baglio superiore, ma doveva essere da ovest, forse all’estremità nord del vano F; questo è un ambiente a due piani, l’inferiore con soffitto a travi, il superiore a volta. Re­sta solo il muro ovest, che nella parte inferiore presenta una grande finestra strombata, ad arco all’interno, mentre all’esterno è coperta con architrave mo­nolitico. Questa grande finestra costituisce una caratteristica dell’architettura dei castelli dei Templari della zona (come a Bagras e a Trapesak). Due finestre strombate più piccole si aprono al piano superiore: poiché una è centrata sull’inferiore, è probabile che in origine fossero tre. A sud si identifica un altro vano (G), che fu ritenuto una cisterna dal Jacquot e forse lo era nel livello inferiore. La parete sud presenta in alto due finestre sovrapposte: quella inferiore è una feritoia strombata; quella supe­riore è a pareti diritte. Un’altra finestra analoga si apre sulla parete est. Il vano era coperto a volta. Se ne evince che la residenza signorile sorgeva all’estremità sud-ovest del terrazzo, comprendendo almeno i due ambienti F-G. Ad est del palazzo si sviluppa la cappella (H), ben conservata e coperta a volta. Vi si accedeva soltanto da un’entrata a nord, con portico antistante. Una finestra si apriva all’estremità est della parete nord. Al centro del pavimento si intravede un am­biente sottostante, coperto a volta, forse la cripta o la sepoltura di un personaggio di rango. L’abside semicircolare aggetta all’esterno assolvendo la funzione di torre. Procedendo verso nord, si intravedono resti di altri ambienti: una parte di torre crollata (I), che doveva essere legata al muro di cinta superstite più a nord (L). Cisterne, coperte a volta (J-K). Infine nell’angolo nord-est del castello, su un saliente, sorgeva una forte torre rettangola­re (M), un tempo coperta a volta. Quanto alla tecnica muraria, si osserva che sia la faccia interna, che quella esterna dei muri sono formate da piccole pietre, tagliate poveramente e legate con malta abbondante e schegge di pietra. Tale struttura è simile a quella dei castelli crociati di Bagras e Trapesak.9 In particolare, nell’angolo sud-ovest del vano G si può osservare alla base una muratura di pietre squadrate con poca malta; mentre la parte superiore e il muro sud sono di piccole pietre con molta malta. Sono perciò riconoscibili due fasi edilizie come a Sari Seki. Pur non potendo identificare con certezza il castello di Çalan con nessuna fortezza ricordata dalle fonti medievali, per l’impianto, le soluzioni architettoniche e le tipologie della muratura dobbiamo riconoscervi l’opera dei Templari, che più di tutti avevano interesse a fortificare la parte meridionale dell’Antitauro per difendere il Principato di Antiochia.

quale si possono attribuire ruderi di muri in tecnica isodomico. E’ forse identificabile con La Roche Guillaume dei documenti medievali. Sorge sopra e a nord del villaggio di Ala Beyli e circa quattro km a nord di Kirik khan. E’ separato dal castello di Çalan dal valico di Aylan e costituiva la punta avanzata del sistema difensivo dell’Amanus per chi proveniva da Aleppo e per Gunduzli voleva passare verso Alessandretta e la Cilicia. Era anche sulla strada S-N che collegava Antiochia con Nicopolis. Dovette servire da baluardo del Principato d’Antiochia solo nei primi decenni; infatti intorno al 1135 fu probabilmente occupato dal barone Leone I d’Armenia. Il ca­stello della Roche Guillaume compare nelle fonti dal 1171, perché dal 1171 al 1175 - come Bagras - fu occupato da un barone armeno ribelle, Mleh. Poi fu ripreso dai Templari. Nel 1188 Saladino lo assediò per 14 giorni e lo prese. Gli Armeni cercarono invano di impossessarsene nel 1205, ma nel 1237 era già in mano ai musulmani di Aleppo e i Crociati cercarono invano di riprenderlo. Nel periodo 1261-68 fu occupato dagli Armeni; quindi dai Mamelucchi di Baibars. Infine nel 1280 fu distrutto dai Mongoli. In conclusione, il castello, fu aspramente conteso ai crociati prima dagli armeni poi da Saladino. Ce ne ha lasciato una descrizione Abulfeda all’inizio del Trecento: «è una fortezza possente, elevata in mezzo ad una regione fertile, con sorgenti, giardini e una moschea cattedrale. Ad est si stendono delle praterie attraversate dal Nahr el Aswad (Kara Su). Darb Sak è situato dieci miglia a NNE di Bagras. Circa una giornata ad est di Darb Sak si trova Yaghra, un borgo di cristiani dediti alla pe­sca. La strada che esce dalla Siria per Bagras e Darb Sak passa per Yagra (Abu’l-Fida’ 1883, II, 2.). Sorgeva in piano su un grosso roccione oblungo grigio separato dalla montagna. At­tualmente del castello rimangono rovine imponenti, ma inghiottite dall’invadenza del villaggio di Beyazil Bostan, già Ala Beyli, e in cima dalla sepoltura di un santo musulmano attorno al quale si è sviluppato un culto, per cui non ne è più possibile una lettura organica. Di particolare interesse i resti di un acquedotto proveniente da ovest, del periodo crociato, come a Bagras. Si può ipotizzare che il castello sia stato costruito dai Templari, proprio a giudicare dal fatto che è simile al castello di Bagras (Edwards 1987, 253, figure 246-8). 6. BAĞRAS (Figura 7) Questo castello, detto ora Bakras, perpetua il nome dell’antica Pagrai, una fortezza ellenistica ricordata da Strabone, da Plinio e da Tolemeo, che la colloca nella Pieria (Strabone XVI, 2, 8; Plinio N.H. V, 82; Ptol. V 14, 9). Corrisponde forse al medievale Castrum puerorum. I Crociati lo avrebbero chiamato anche castello di San Luca, oppure Gaston (Guaston, Ga­stin) (Edwards 1987, 215; Lawrence, in Boase 1978, 35 ss.; Jacquot 1931, 97). Dominava il passaggio delle Porte Sirie, ossia il valico di Belen, che già in età ellenistica e romana controllava la strada da Alexandria ad Issum (Iskenderun) ad Antiochia (Antakya), ossia dalla Cilicia alla Siria, e che anche nel medioevo costituì il passaggio obbligato per la Terrasanta per pellegrini e cro-

5. IL CASTELLO DI TRAPESAK Già Terbezec, Trapezak, Trapesac kalesi. Poi Darb Sak, ora Darbisark, in parte invaso dal villaggio di Ala Beyli. Corrisponde all’antica Sochoi di Alessandro Magno, alla 9

Edwards 1987, 99 (le murature dei castelli armeni sono diverse: pietre ben squadrate per la faccia esterna e muratura povera all’interno).

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S. Patitucci Uggeri: i castelli sul confine settentrionale del Principato di Antiochia in rapporto alla viabilità ciati. quando il passo prese nome dalla chiesa di Betlemme (Belen) che vi sorgeva e che come di norma nella viabilità medievale richiamava la meta finale (Patitucci 2004). Accresceva l’importanza del sito il fatto che qui (bivio di Topbo­ğaz) diramava la via che portava in età romana a Nicopolis e nel medioevo a Trapesak. Abbiamo notizie del castello dal 968, quando fu conquistato da Niceforo Foca, stanco di assediare Antiochia. Fu affidato a Michele Burzes con il compi­to di bloccare Antiochia con 1500 cavalieri e mille fanti. Michele però prese Antiochia di sua iniziativa, soccorso da Pietro Foca, e perciò fu punito dall’imperatore Niceforo per non averlo atteso. Dopo l’assassinio di Niceforo, l’usurpatore nominò Michele duca d’Antiochia. Il kastron fu allora ricostruito da maestranze di Membidj. Fu la chiave dell’Amanus meridionale anche per i Franchi, che lo restaurarono. Fu oc­cupato insieme a Trapesak per breve tempo dal Leone I d’Armenia e di nuovo nel 1171-72 da Mlek, un barone armeno. Fu ripreso dai Principi d’Antiochia nel 1175. Nel 1188 fu assediato da Saladino, che lo conquistò, ma ne fu ricacciato da Leone II d’Armenia. Questi restaurò il castello e non lo voleva più rendere al Principato, ma minacciato di rappresaglie dai Crociati, intorno al 1212 lo restituì ai Templari, che dovettero difenderlo ancora dagli armeni nel 1260. Nel 1268 fu occupato dal sultano mamelucco Baibars, che non lo distrusse, ma anzi lo fece restaurare. Restò alle dipendenze d’Aleppo, controllando il territorio fino ad Arsuz sul mare. Nel 1347 risulta avere ancora un ruolo importante come stazione di posta mamelucca sulla strada per la Cilicia e in basso fu costruito il Han Karamurt. In sostanza il castello per il suo fondamentale valore strategico è stato sempre mantenuto con cura e restaurato da bizantini, crociati, armeni e mamelucchi. Il castello, ben studiato (Edwards 1983; Sinclair 1990, IV, 266-271), sorge sopra il villaggio di Bakras e si presenta imponente e con due cortine distinte, che si fondono con la montagna, che a nord-ovest ha un ciglio dirupato sul burrone e non richiedeva fortificazioni. L’accesso fu ulteriormente rinforzato dagli Armeni con la costruzione del recinto inferiore difeso da tre torri, la centrale più massiccia. Si entrava da quella settentrionale, coperta a volta (D), che immetteva in una rampa coperta da volte a crociera che portava fin sotto la torre centrale, dove si entrava nel baglio inferiore. Alla stessa fase armena si riferisce una galleria con casematte e feritoie che avvolge l’angolo sudovest del livello intermedio. Al castello si accedeva da sud-est, dove la porta (F) è sovrastata dalla possente torre U e guardata dall’antistante ambiente I. All’interno si affollano grandi ambienti di servizio coperti a volta e aggettanti con tre torrioni. Sulla cima a nord-ovest si innalza un terzo livello dove sorge il palazzo residenziale affacciato su una corte subrettangolare centrale. Sul lato nord si affaccia un grande salone rettangolare ampiamente finestrato e coperto a volta (AA), attorno al quale si sviluppa a nord e a ovest un corridoio e si dispongono quattro ambienti. Sul lato meridionale della corte si affacciavano un altro salone voltato e finestrato (S) e un lungo ambiente coperto a volta e desinente a sud in una torre semicircolare aggettante (cappella?).

Abbiamo in definitiva una struttura piramidale che asseconda lo spuntone roccioso ricavandovi quattro piani. La muratura è per lo più in blocchetti di pietra quadrangolari con sottili strati di malta, le volte sono in pietrame minuto. Le membrature architettoniche sono in pietra da taglio. Il sito godeva di un ottimo approvvigionamento idrico. Ad ovest si osserva un magnifico acquedotto ben conservato, che scende dalle sorgenti della mon­tagna; un’altra sorgente scaturisce ai piedi del castello, quella detta nel medioe­ vo la Fontana di Gastin (Jacquot 1931). CONCLUSIONI La breve disamina che abbiamo condotto ci permette di mettere in evidenza come la politica del Principato di Antiochia poté avere solo all’inizio una fase di espansione nella pianura della Cilicia per un periodo piuttosto breve, finché il costituirsi di un forte stato armeno in quest’area obbligò i crociati ad su posizioni più arretrate. In particolare, i crociati cercarono di mantenere la posizione chiave di Toprak, che infatti controllarono dall’inizio fino al 1137 e poi ancora dal 1185 al 1194. Posto al di là della catena dell’Amanus il castello di Toprak, isolato in mezzo alla pianura, rappresentò infatti in tutte le epoche un ganglio essenziale delle comunicazioni tra la Cilicia e l’Oriente in un senso e tra l’interno dell’Anatolia e la Siria nell’ altro. Per il principato di Antiochia era essenziale occupare questa testa di ponte oltre i confini per prevenire gli attacchi da parte armena e le invasioni da nord; il castello infatti sorge nel punto d’incrocio della via romana che congiunge l’Anatolia all’Oriente, con l’altro asse romano che collegava Costantinopoli con la Siria. Parallelamente all’avamposto di Toprak il Principato cercò di mantenere saldamente il possesso del castello di Savranda (Edwards 1987, 216-21), almeno fino al 1198 quando passò agli Armeni. Questo castello era indispensabile per controllare il passo dell’Amanus. Infatti sorgeva subito ad est della pia­nura della Cilicia, sul fianco meridionale del passaggio obbligato della via verso la contea di Edessa e l’Oriente. Dalla metà del XII secolo si assiste ad una progressiva contrazione dei confini del Principato sia a est, dove nel 1147 è perduta Artesia e nel 1164 cade il castello di Harim, che a sud, dove nel 1188 viene perduto il porto di Lattakia; ma anche a nord dove la frontiera arretra dalla linea Toprak-Savranda allo sbarramento montano dell’Amanus attendasi sulla linea trasversale rappresentata dalla strada di arroccamento guardata dai castelli di Sariseki, Çalan e Trapesak. Il castello di Sari Seki sorge sull’estremo sperone occidentale della catena dell’Amanus a ridosso del golfo di Alessandretta e a guardia del passaggio obbligato, la Portella, che costituisce il punto nodale delle comunicazioni tra il Principato d’Antiochia e il regno della Piccola Armenia. Sul valico dell’Amanus il castello di Çalan domina dall’alto la principale pista montana che collega la Cilicia alla Siria attraverso il passo di Aylan. Il castello di Trapezak segna l’estremità sud-­est di questa direttrice, al suo sbocco 259

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Brocquière, B. de la 1892. Le voyage d’outremer. Paris, ed. Ch. Schefer. Cahen, C. 1940. La Syrie du nord à l’époque des croisades et la principauté franque d’Antioch. Paris. Chalandon, F. 1912. Jean II Comnène et Manuel Comnène. Paris. Deschamps, P. 1973. Les châteaux des Croisés en Terre Sainte, ll, La défense du comté de Tripoli et de la principauté d’Antioche. Paris. Dussaud, R. 1927. Topographie historique de la Syrie antique et médiévale. Paris. Edwards, R.W. 1983. Bagras and Armenian Cilicia: A Reassessment, REArm, n.s. 17. Edwards, R.W. 1987. The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia. Washington. Gottwald, J. 1940. Die Burg Til im südòstlichen Kilikien, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 40. Grousset, R. 1949, 1979, 1992. L’Empire du Levant. Paris. Grousset, R. 1984, 1991. Histoire des Croisades. Paris. Hamilton, B. 1980. The Latin Church in the Crusader States. The secular Church. London. Hartmann, R. 1916 Politische Geographie des Mamlukenreichs. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 70, 33 ss. Hellenkemper, H. 1976. Burgen der Kreuzritterzeit in der Grafschaft Edessa und im Königreich Kleinarmenien. Bonn. Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani 1972. Conquête de la Syrie et de la Palestine par Saladin. trad. H. Massé, 141 ss. Paris. Jacquot, P. 1931. Antioche, I. Antakya. Langlois, V. 1863. Le trésor des chartes d’Arménie ou cartulaire de la chancellerie royale des Roupéniens. Venezia. Mayer, H.E. 1993. Varia Antiochena. Hannover. Müller-Wiener, W. 1996. Castles of the Crusaders, trans. 1. Brownjohn. London. Otto-Dohrn, K. 1952. Islamische Denkmäler Kilikiens. Jahrb. f. kleinasiatische For­schung II, 2, 116 ss. Patitucci, S. 1998. I castelli del Principato d’Antiochia. in Atti VI Simposio Tarso 1997, 331-56. Roma. Patitucci, S. 2004. La via Francigena. Firenze. Richard, J. e Birrell, J. 1999. The Crusades, c. 1071- c. 1291. Cambridge. Rüdt von Collenberg, W.H. 1963. The Rupenides, Heth�� umides and Lusignans. Paris. Sinclair, T. A. 1987. Eastern Turkey: An Architectural and Archaeological Survey‎, 342. Uggeri, G. 1998. L’urbanistica di Antiochia sull’Oronte. Journal of Ancient Topography VIII, 179-222.

nella pianura dell’Oronte, ma assolve anche alla funzione di controllo della strada nord-sud e soprattutto di quella da Aleppo e dall’Oriente, da dove provenivano le invasioni. Una volta perduto il castello di Toprak, le scorrerie armene riescono ad incunearsi lungo la costa fino alla Portella e al castello di Sariseki, che tengono dal 1135 al 1160, anche se dopo esso torna in mano dei Crociati, che comunque mantengono sempre il soprastante castello alpestre di Çalan. Allo stesso modo dopo la perdita del castello di Harim e del castello di Savranda anche il castello di Trapesak diventa oggetto degli attacchi degli Armeni e di Saladino e solo per un breve periodo torna in mano ai Crociati (117588). La via che portava dal nord dell’Anatolia ad Antiochia, oltre alla strettoia già ricordata della Portella, incontrava, come oggi, un secondo passo obbligato al valico di Belen. A sud di questo punto stra­tegico i crociati riuscirono a mantenere saldamente nelle loro mani per quasi tutta la durata del Principato il castello di Bagras, dove del resto una fortezza ellenistica, Pa­grai, aveva svolto in antico la stessa funzione. Anche la continuità del toponimo dimostra la persistenza della funzione strategica del sito e quindi dell’insediamento dall’età ellenistica a tempi recenti, perpetuata dal sottostante villaggio di Pakras, che ne è l’attuale erede. Era la vera chiave per il possesso della piana d’Antiochia e perciò a più riprese gli Armeni cercarono di impossessarsene, occupandolo brevemente, come fecero Leone I e Mlek, mentre Leone secondo lo trattenne per circa un ventennio. I mamelucchi riuscirono ad impadronirsene solo nel 1268 al momento della caduta di Antiochia; solo Kursat, Koz kalesi, tra le colline del Kosseir alle spalle di Antiochia avrebbe resistito ancora fino al 1275. BIBLIOGRAFIA Abù’l-Fidà’, Aboulféda, 1883. Géographie d’Aboulféda, trad. S. Guyard. Paris. Ainsworth, W. 1838. Notes on the Comparative Geography of the Cilician and Syrian Gates. Joumal of the Royal Geographic Society of London 8, 185 ss. Asbridge, Th. S. 2000. The Creation of the Principality of Antioch, 1098-1130. New York, Woodbridge. Bauzou, Th. 1989. Les routes romaines de Syrie. Archéolo��������� gie et histoire de la Syrie, II, 205-22l. Saarbrucken. Binyamin da Tudela, 1988. Sefer massa’ot, Itinerario, trad. G. Busi. Rimini. Boase, T.S.R. 1978. The Cilician Kingdom of Armenia. Edinburgh.

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S. Patitucci Uggeri: i castelli sul confine settentrionale del Principato di Antiochia in rapporto alla viabilità

Figura 1 – Localizzazione dell’area studiata nell’ambito del Levante.

Figura 2 – Viabilità e castelli del Principato di Antiochia: 1 Toprak; 2 Savranda; 3 Sari Seki; 4 Çalan; 5 Trapesak; 6 Bağras.

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Figura 3 – Toprak. Planimetria del castello (da Edwards 1987).

Figura 4 – Savranda. Planimetria del castello (da Edwards 1987).

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S. Patitucci Uggeri: i castelli sul confine settentrionale del Principato di Antiochia in rapporto alla viabilità

Figura 5 – Sari Seki. Particolare della torre (da Jacquot 1931).

Figura 6 – Çalan. Planimetria del castello (da Edwards 1987).

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Figura 7 - Bağras. Planimetria del castello (da Edwards 1987).

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

LINES OF RESEARCH FOR THE SITE OF MONTFORT WESTERN GALILEE – ISRAEL Prof. Maria Roberta Cecilia Luschi, Researcher Dipartimento di Architettura: disegno storia progetto.

Dott. Laura Aiello, PhD

Scuola nazionale di Rilievo e rappresentazione dell’architettura e dell’ambiente A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011

THE CASTLE OF MONTFORT The impact from west to east of the castle of Montfort is particularly emphatic. Seems to be a ship with bow once to the high seas and soaring bridge to the east, almost a boat sailing in the rock and is defended from the waves of lush foliage of the windy forest. Often, during a search, you indulge in thoughts that help focus the unique architecture contemplated. We are located within the territory of Galilee, located west towards the border with Lebanon and in front of the northern Gulf of Haifa. The fascination of this enigmatic place drives us to seek the reasons and the need felt by people who wanted a thousand years ago and built a similar magnificence. Known as the Teutonic Castle, is identified in the documents with the name of Stakenberg1, which appears to be a literal translation of Montfort, meaning “strong or fortified hill.” Though some texts identify him with the name “mons feret” that seems to repeat the same meaning but may relate to ferio Latin declination which would result from passive gouged mount2 Not easy reading, various texts that delineate the origin, the four main sources3, already known to historians, a work must be done for comparison and interpretation in order to dispel some doubts as to the owners. The study was organized along two separate strands: reading the territory that the Teutonic castle chairs, and more precisely, the analysis of outstanding building of the castle and the Guest House or a hospital4 as defined, site in the valley at the foot of the castle itself, on the north side of the slope. So this is a building complex consisting basically of two groups of architectural structures put in relation to one another in the first place position, secondary for the tasks assigned. The castle itself, is a fortified structure with large

escarpments that occupies the summit of a rocky place in the valley of Keziv dam, the river water flow constant sizeable lead after fifteen Km in the Bay of Haifa, was under the structure of the Teutonic fortress of Casal Imbert (figure 1). The organization of the Montfort seems to obey the classical model of the tower at the top spot, the domain of subsequent plans degrading until you reach the natural cliff overlooking the valley, setting a massive perimeter wall on the last terrace. To clarify the description let’s split the site into five portions built relatively homogeneous levels (figure 2). The first, far east, consists of the keep; the second from the foot of the first, rectangular and arranged in planes slightly degrading: this is achieved through the third, consisting of one room where they are polygonal pillars with octagonal ends today where the upper structure of the castle (figure 3); The fourth area includes the tower that stands next to the large room but standing out from a lower floor of at least thirteen meters and is welded to a semicircular wall drawing a large clearing zone considered as input to the castle so that the structure towered gate tower is called5 . A fifth part is represented by an area between a ring of fortifications and rocky ridge where they are located different production environments and residential. The whole place seems halfway not be part of the first phase of installation. The keep turned upstream consists of squared blocks of stone smoothed by the considerable size of about 88 cm high and 115 cm in length (figure 4); thicknesses are not fully appreciated unless the far east side, where for a significant fall, we can see some in their stereotomy. The summit area of the building presents a construction technique almost separate from the rest of the fort, because the shape of the stone elements ensures a vertical joint by creating wedges are easily seen from the collapse, indicating that the structure work for static gravity. At the foot of the keep, with a sharp drop at least 10 meters, there is now a free area, which is the entrance. In this area there is evidence of structures collapsed or totally dismantled, yet distinguishable tracks for residual paving, foundations, walls and gutters. We are in effect on the plan of the kitchen, located on the south side along with latrines. This functional dislocation raises us some doubts and we find particularly puzzling about the original location of latrines, referred to another

1 Kurt Forsteuter, Der Deutsche Orden am Mittelmeer, Bonn 1963. 2 “Mons Fortis, alias mons feret, castrum fratrum teutonicorum, versus boream a Ptolemaide quattuor, contra africum vero a sastro Thoron totidiem miliaribus distans“ Marinus Sanutus dictus Torsellus, Patricius Venetus, Liber secretorum Fidelium Crucis super Terrae Sanctar, Copia fotoanastatica, Massada pess Jerusalem 1611. 3 Strehlke, Tabulae; Rohricht, Regesta; Tomaspoeg, Teutonique en

Sicilie; Huillard-Breholles. 4 R.D.Pringle, A Thirteent Century Hall at Montfort Castle in Western

5 Den-R.D.Pringle, 66 (1986), pag 55 see below, pp 108-11 Op. Cit.

Galilee, The Antiquaries Journal, 66 (1986), pag 58.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean there is today no decisive evidence. Instead of against you may notice some faint traces of a possible cover ogival that it took directly to the foot of the wall of the donjon. From here you enter the central area where internal distribution, is characterized by two aisles each consisting of six equal bays, up to cover a distance of 45 meters and a height of 5 meters. In this space so divided shall be read at least three phases that were added by overcoming the structure of the first plant (figure 5). The third portion includes the only north-south cross-wall, covering a height of about 10 meters to reach the level of the second floor (figure 6). It closes the central portion and enter through any openings in a room particularly enigmatic, ennobled by the presence of an octagonal pillar and three pillars leaning against the wall, all retain their crown and the first capital plan that identifies the strings start from time. Thanks to this particular one can easily understand the level of the floor covering and calculate the proportion of vault keystone. The tower was identified as a tower door is hollow, or compartments that compose it are open from the inside. It is reached trough a winding path partially equipped with steps, which starts at the third bay from the west on the southern front, and covers an altitude difference of about 17 meters, where the tower appears to lean semicircular area was identified as a square guard, culminating with a spur of the wall also indicates a strengthened element (figure 7). Reached the ground floor of the tower we see that the trapezoidal room rests on the rock for its entirety pillars, but throughout its development is governed by two large galleries ogival placed transversely upon warping the top. The road, which departs from here, faces a basement tunnel structure and a masonry pointed arch just inside the bag read, in both cases is not defined, neither the function nor the connection with other adjacent rooms. One could say that actually what is readable in the room not just reading trapezoidal complicates the castle as a whole and even from this position is reached the bridge site on a tributary of Keziv, we have the distinct feeling that we are not traveling the original access road. The work done on the castle has mainly focused on surveying with the identification of strong and basic geometry. Parallel has made a direct survey of the decorative details, openings and significant functional elements that could be uniquely identifiable indicators of specialized construction techniques. The analysis of materials and mortars, with the identification of where they were found and with the careful stratigraphic record, concluded the first phase of work. Observations can now be structured with regard to the fortification of Montfort subject to two fundamental principles; the first formal function, the second structuraltechnological-constructive. Formally as specified in the description, we are in the presence of a donjon, on a moat and chemise with slope that define at least the main system of the settlement. There is not also uniformity in construction technology that makes we think that architectural plant be contemporary. The dungeon and the slope perimeter consisting of ashlar stone size consistent counted in

the Roman foot 29, 576. Knowing that the literature on an opinion different from the classical setting suggested here, we bring attention to the construction technique of the donjon which is to obey the principles of gravity exuberant relying on size of building elements which do not find an analogy in the structures assigned to the Teutonic order, usually consist of masonry lot. Continuing the possible sequence of events that involved the fortification of Montfort, we assume that the perimeter wall, like a crown along the last terrace, has been implemented in the last phase medieval therefore based directly on classical slope structures. The central area which branches off from the donjon and reaches the wall provided the only north south still visible is of particular interest to present clearly a first implant resting on pillars with cross-shaped section (figure 8), then varied with buffering action and partial elimination of this structure to adapt functionally the area which occurred requirements. The structure then surely ogival resting on cross pillars can be traced back to the first Crusader system. I suggest also marks cutters found in the third bay on the only portal still intact, which in turn is enriched by a decorative strip made up, stick and throat that moves in a zig zag to link the leading arc. This first medieval phase, for decorative and constructive analogy, it could date back to Baldwin II era, and be attributed to the work of the Templar Knights7 (figure 9). The number of collisions, acts to redistribute the central area, have different bills and appear to have been made with quarry material less oxidized the previous stage or perhaps this difference is due to a more light weathering on these faces. Regarding the implementation that construction is carried out, this is a match in the so-called hollow tower gate and a possible date around the end of 1100 early 1200 century. This date is attributed to the acquisition of the castle by the Teutonic they actually are used to create hollow towers along a defensive circuit8. There are elements that appear problematic and that there are at this stage because of a malfunction within the complex. So we try to focus on these points to be able to verify their solution placing them in a more coherent overall framework. The first element is the structure of the donjon that metric and structural reasons for not presenting a wall bag plant as seems likely to belong to a period of late antiquity. Another problem is the pillar in the octagon room which concludes the high castle. It is an octagonal pillar for size and material of the plant seems to be coeval donjon, this pillar has the hardware (nut, shaft and capital) consisting of two pieces assembled with a white lime9 and 6 A. Segrè Metrologia e circolazione monetaria degli antichi, N. Zanichelli, Bologna 1928. 7 Malcolm Barber, Processo ai Templari, una questione politica, ECIG, Genova 1998. 8 They remember the fortified complex on the Danube experience

Teutonic castle building in the Balkans to northern crusades against the Mongol invasion. For further information see Antonio Cassi Ramelli, Dalle caverne ai rifugi blindati, Mario Adda Editore, Bari 1946. 9 The lime was analyzed and classified as slaked with residual chart.

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M. Luschi, L Aiello:ì Lines of Research for the Site of Montfort - Western Galilee - Israel measures the overall element not are consistent with the classic form (figure 3). The thought turns to a possible remodelling of the pillar took place in the second stage, when it determines reused, but being out of context metric for restructuring called for by new owners, is reduced and a new location. This could be explained not only for finding an item originally monolithic and later adapted and recomposed, but also for having found a mark on the capital stonecutter which is identical to another placed on a dung that was erratic instead belong to the ribbed portion of ‘system pertaining to the third stage. Only the pillars elements are reused while the shafts of columns are placed in the brickwork in the previous room there are drums column visible function shrinking bag. Another anomaly is the mark found on a dung erratic in the fifth bay in the south aisle; it in composition, methods used and the proportions are similar to a mark found inside Castle Maniace in Syracuse10, built in the first half of the thirteenth century11. This may suggest that specialized work in the service of the Swabian court have moved from Sicily and Cyprus to the site of Montfort and vice versa. This conjecture would be of great spy organization that followed the political work of Frederick II and that, shortly before, the organized outposts (figure 10). There is no doubt that Hermann von Salza was, during the cross-Frederick, Frederick II’s right hand in dealing with orders of chivalry and Pope Gregory IX12. Such evidence can only be built on to redefine the role of site Montfort during the crusade of Frederick II of Swabia. The analysis shows that the structure of the territory so well fortified actually located outside the main lines of defense and is the heart of fortified positions that barring the two main entrances: one from Mount consists of the castle Chateau de Roi; the second, pursuing the waterway, is controlled and barred from the castle at the mouth of the harbor Kzive. In both cases we must note that the monitoring sites had been reorganized in order Templar Crusader period. You can not avoid thinking that the site of Montfort was concerned from the templars at least in its early stages. There are similar structures in Italy, which are as Montfort remote location, away and with access roads controlled by other forts13. This is usually fortified territorial structures dedicated to the production, or to strategic locations to process materials economically and militarily relevant such as iron and its processing. It is obvious that extract and process a resource that means being placed in a sensitive site and unable to attack a defence. Must therefo-

re make possible “invisible” for both the fortified many workers who had settled along both department stores for home storage of the finished product. A castle of this type was to have in case of attack a single solution for defence: the abandonment. The site of Montfort is in this precise situation. The presence of iron is widespread even in the building structure, because the segments that constituted the great hall of the octagon pillar present in internal joints iron clamps, also Kzive the river is full of “mills” with millstones around the cliffs overlooking the castle are characterized by large arched openings as if they were organized quarries. The mortar, we talked about previously, appears to have a color characteristic substantially white and reddish many impurities that suggest residual hematite; Not least the square in front of the gate tower is actually a circular vaulted room where they found residues of earthenware with traces of molten iron (figure 11). All this may mean that in reality we are witnessing an oven for the extraction of iron derived from crushed rock and that the circular plaza is actually lower in the main factory fitted with air bellows. In fact, the semi-cylindrical structure has at its summit an unusual and unique opening perfectly oriented in the direction of sea winds (figure 12). The site, in addition, is rich in flint, as well as being close to the river Belus, famous for its sand glass already known in classical14 and equally famous Crusader period15. What Montfort then really was? A castle-archive-oriented thinking as most of the literature on the merits, or a site of great strategic military importance for supporting the Crusades? In questa seconda veste potremmo pensare a Montfort come un centro estrattivo siderurgico di primo piano. La ricerca fin ora effettuata inizia a delineare alcuni caratteri peculiari del sito. The first is that the structure combined Montfort - Guest House has a reciprocal relationship in the building phases, another character is that the two structures are functionally subordinated to the other one o’clock, and that the processing undergone in the Teutonic phase does not alter the predominant function of the site, including the fact and you can venture the hypothesis that residential facilities and media production costs, placed in the fifth level of the castle, have been added by the Teutonic to encourage the export of iron using the river link for directly to the door of their castle on the mouth of Kzive. How curious that we add the magnetic deviation used for topographic stopped working on some specific points of Montfort perhaps because of the proximity to large concentrations of ferrous material. There remains only one question that once the castle fell into the hands of this Baibars not know what to do to the point that in 1271 destroyed it and then, as some

10 Vladimir Zoric, Marchi di Lapicidi. Il caso di Castel Maniace di Siracusa in Carmela Angela Di Stefano, Antonio Cadei, a cura di, Federico e la Sicilia, dalla terra alla corona, Arnaldo Lombardi Editore 2000 (prima edizione. 1995) Vol I, pag 411. 11 Arturo Alberti Siracusa, Il Castel Maniace, in Di Stefano, Cadei,

14 C. Plinii Secundi, Naturalis Historiae, apud Hackios, 1669, libro XXXVI 15 Fulcherio Carnotensis, Gesta Francorum Iherusalem

Op.Cit. Vol I,pag 377. 12 Ernst Kantorowicz, Federico II Imperatore, Edizioni Garzanti,

peregrinantium, in S. De Sandoli, Itinera Ierosolumitana cruce signatorum, Gerusalemmme Franciscan Printing Press Jerusalem 1978, Vol I pag 129.

Milano 2000. 13 Cfr. the site of Rocca San Silvestro in Tuscany.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean authors say, was no longer inhabited16. Actually found traces of coarse earthenware paste that organizes the water pipes on the floor original, certainly subsequent to the permanence of the crusaders. It is assumed that the cabling of surface water is attributable to the intervention Arabic. The fact that the Teutonic have required a time of truce to leave the Montfort in Arab hands by the need of such a request to transfer that held in the archive site, suggests a different purpose: namely to dismantle the structures of production and iron working well to evacuate or hide the finished product that they could carry. The feeling that the castle was dismantled in some parts is strong, despite having to deal with the numerous earthquakes, and the most recent war.(C.M.R.L)

struction that saw the creation of separate original nucleus subsequently expanded in keeping with the usual technological principles. While the times of the first two rooms are built with stones hewn and fitted with a knife, the third has a finer time to be well equipped with stones cut and polished in steps, also emplaced knife. Openings and connections deserve special attention: the first room is served by three high windows nails, two on the left and right of entry, all traceable to a single type ; in the second room is the only window orthogonal to the barrel, but now technology and internal consistency similar to those of the first room. The space coincides with the protruded portion is illuminated by a single window showing the first four different construction types: even if engaged on the barrel, it intersects with the typical nail nucleus, but following the sweep of the barrel has an lintel surmounted by an arc discharge created in blocks. The walls to the ridge are made up to one third of the tax once the rock outcropping, properly modeled (figure 16). On this wall there are some steps: the first, opposite the entrance, we can observe, among the crashes that block an entrance with steps with curved walk that would lead to the upper floor; Almost completely blocked by collapses inside glimpse of a vertical shaft of arrival, and four possible directions of horizontal connection, including the room where you can access it. A first analysis seems to be air ducts. The only tunnel yet inspected visually, has an almost square section of the order of 50-60 cm per side and measured to a depth of 14 meters (figure 17). two surveys allow us to say that this led physically passes just below the entrance of the staircase shortly before described, and results in the second room of the first block, connecting a third opening, also the square and, like the previous one, with a well with vertical movement. The modern room has finally opened up between the collapses that suggests the start of a ladder. Consistent with bill compartment, the scale is well incorporated in the base of the canton. Blocks carved ad hoc design a wellmaintained access to which is grafted with 90 ° curved and then continued by a straight parallel to the long side of the compartment. The first floor shows at the original nucleus, three bays with ribbed vault in one almost intact. Among the fallen rocks can be seen on the upstream side, the top of an ancient port ogival that a compartment with a sort of chimney draw-backing floor up. On the last room you can imagine even a fourth bay with ribbed vault almost totally collapsed, with decoration similar to previous (figure 18). From this environment, different pieces of residual wall make us imagine the possibility that the structure continues to the west (figure 19). An opening is still intact, at the foot of the excavation of the wall, still on the upstream side, placing it on a scale that straight, going up to level curve and the last section leads to a sort of landing. From here was to start a second flight, witnessed by a nearby access stylistically similar to the entry and still pick up

THE SO-CALLED GUEST HOUSE. Built close to the cliff face north, below the castle of Montfort, the Guest House impresses with its unique size and grandeur. The interest in this property is often passed in the background, a bit ‘for the lack of documents that legitimize the authorship, a little’ to the proximity of the most imposing and magnificent Castle of Montfort17 in addition to being identified as a more small mill, the mill, then transformed into a Guest House18 (figure 13). It is a dilapidated building, almost millennial, positioned slightly higher than the river bed that runs at a distance of 30 meters and has nearly a rectangular plan, developed on two levels, with a tower protruded on the main facade. The failure of the material and eliminations have undermined much of the static structure and several collapses and vegetation cover that prevents an immediate reading of the architectural (figure 14). The ground floor is currently inspected thanks to access the original, partly compromised by subsequent revisions, which leads into three rooms with a barrel vaulted ogive parallel evolution of the mountainside. The whole floor is covered with a large amount of debris that is not possible to determine the original pavement. The first two environments, should be part of one original block, while the third, coinciding with the everted body seems to have been added at a later stage (figure 15). Act as spies two long walls that divide the classrooms, one within the first block, consisting of a rough stone and unsophisticated, denounces his posterior to the compartment is located in the non-attack time, a second diaphragm, comprising a bag having the chance to appreciate again the compartment of a window, the last spy environment during the time. We, therefore, in the presence of two major phases of con16 Den-R.D.Pringle, A Thirteent Century Hall at Montfort Castle in Western Galilee, in Fortification and settlement in Crusader Palestine, The Antiquaries Journal, 66 (1986), Pag 54 17 Adrian J. Boas, Archaeology of the Military Orders, Routledge 2006; Kurt Forstreuter, Der Deutsche Orden am Mittelmeer, Verlag Wissenschaftliches archiv Bonn (1967). 18 Den-R.D.Pringle, 66 (1986), Pag 54 Op. Cit.

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M. Luschi, L Aiello:ì Lines of Research for the Site of Montfort - Western Galilee - Israel a few tens of centimetres. We are not yet able to say whether the first three bays and fourth were built simultaneously with the necessary precautions for the exchange of plant or if all the protruded part is a later addition. However, we believe the existence of a nucleus formed by the constructive rooms on the first block in which perhaps had already provided the floor The doubts stem from two conflicting elements: the square openings that the spaced the brain of the barrel on the ground floor and suggests an additional overhead lighting, and scales well embedded in the primitive structure that we hardly seem to have been completed at a later time. From what you described so far makes it easy mind that, at a time unspecified, the structure due to instability of the mountain must have suffered a collapse of the upper and soaring collapsing that has left few traces. Reaching the top surface of the last existing field, it is still possible to appreciate the stereotomy of a quoin, likely dropped from Montfort (figure 20). Along the development of the vertical connection is still viable is a loophole now blocked by landslides that faces south, or directly to the mountain ridge; This may be the clue to an ancient path along the south side of the Guest House led to the castle of Montfort. A wealth of information we receive from the observation of every detail. We are not yet able to deduce with certainty more information by reading the prospectus of the wall. The construction of the facade courses homogeneous and degrading about four floors of retreat, while changing the implementation in at least three servings of masonry construction phases complaint not particularly far apart. Vestments made it look as though the same work with different techniques for the function to which the septal wall was performed. The first band blanks made with courses and wedges, which suggest that it is faced with a device that, once, had to be coated with a stone or even a more refined grading. A string course well shaped and finished second place on the exchange floor facade seems to bear witness that there is a coating. A low-end, intermediate between the two rows of openings, suggesting a change of angle of any slope, while the two highest vestments of the prospectus, divided by a final string course, which are more refined as part exposed terminal. the hypothesis is more convincing than watching the left side of the tower protruded where we found a break with the pattern facing slope (figure 21). Only the windows of the second order are rearranged and tidied up for the addition of a squaring decorated with segments that would perhaps have given a more noble to the prospectus. It thus adds a third construction phase. The general idea is that we are in the presence of a single project lasted over the years and changed during construction, in a very short time, from the foundation work to the end. Another subject of investigation is represented by what was commonly identified as the dam. A barrage of-way

along the river from Chateau de Roi arises in a system of walls of which now remains only the alignment on both sides of Kzive (figure 22). We must emphasize that the thick vegetation, extensive size of the object, and the few findings explorable , make it more than ever difficult to read. A first fragment of a wall on the right side of the river, nestled among the scrub a hint of shoe orthogonal to the current direction and leaves room for the hypothesis that was topped by a sort of lookout point. The argument, rather than proven by existing findings, based on analysis of the potential of the site. An exceptional acoustic communication is easily put in the Guest House, situated on the opposite side, the castle of Montfort. The narrow gorge of Kzive it works exceptionally as a sounding board, allowing the voice to be amplified and reach a height of 200 meters as a perfect ear of Dionysius. The argument is strengthened if we look at the window watching the gate tower of the above Montfort, targets exactly the place we are discussing. A second wall fragment comes much more dense orthogonally to lean to the left of the main façade of the Guest House. The double face of the wall survivor gives us a more than rich literary and crosses between stone-cutters. It is well marked incisions, placed in full view in the face of the main segments and occupying up to one third of the block on which are engraved. Recall that the cross power was the one adopted by Godfrey of Bouillon for the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem which were added four Greek crosses inside the four quadrants (figure 23). Are thus signs that reveal a precise paternity: Templar Knights. Among other cuts also recognize symbologies more typical of work already seen in the European medieval castles and especially in Frederick’s castles. A wall more than three feet deep that has the front to the east-oriented path from Chateau de Roi, consists of a vertical hanging made of large square blocks and polished, mounted in horizontal courses at times staggered to change the size of the blocks (figure 24); the home front is composed of a first section with hanging vertical like the outside, which continues north toward the river, and a second currently covered by thick vegetation. The upper part of this wall had some room to accommodate a small size or location. The vegetation and finds it still recognize the plans finished and in some sections of earthenware covered with a fine texture. An opening on the main facade, totally blocked by landslides, was to give access to the first room of the floor. Again the assumptions are many and all yet to be assessed. A final factor not yet considered but it deserves at least a note of attention is represented by something entirely unique: each window on the ground floor, including the inside between the two blocs, and the window on the stairs between the first and second floors , facing south towards the mountains outside of the architrave have holes that clearly denounce the ‘existence of a grating closing. This particular though seemingly insignificant it was ac269

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean tually the subject of lengthy consideration, it was not usual in the Middle Ages used the iron in construction, especially as the construction technologies were structured so as to avoid the use of resources difficult to find locally. But it was good use, especially in wartime, save for the production of iron weapons and armor. The assumptions may appear to only two: either the structure was reused in later times as a prison or iron in this area was a primary resource.

now make us rule out being in the presence of a mill or a Guest House. The hypothesis of the existence of a dam, as proposed by the majority23, makes us skeptical for various reasons technology-constructive and not be the place for the design of an artifact like that. The water level would rise and would have jeopardized the mills upstream and downstream of this structure, given the reins of the various plans, but especially the gore. Place so that is not our belief in the presence of an old mill, the question becomes complicated when the we left the ground to the first floor, where, as we have seen, pillars, open at times pointed arch support with ribs setback. The rooms have a Gothic convincing but still “archaic”. Decorations very classical but essential and geometric. We would say almost dry decorations in their elegance. This contrasts well with the front rather rough and coarse or finishing holes. The collapse does not enable us to understand in depth the overall volume. The present level is almost once a strong and significantly reduces the vertical emphasis instead should have had the four bays that make up the most representative part of the first floor. The analysis shows how the proposal is still far from the truth the interpretation of the role that this structure acquitted in the history of time. Today we sense that the name of hospitality must be derived not so much from its original function, as erroneously believed, but as a transposition of the last owner of the attribute: the Hospital of the Teutonic Order. There is as yet simplistic to place the Guest House in order functional as a gateway to the castle because we are still investigating other possibilities that this structure lies in its architectural design: a steel center of primary strategic importance in close relationship with the fortified site of Montfort, and he then assumed the particular value of the structures, the role of a real imperial palace. (L.A)

In light of the observed and trying to give a reading of the Guest House, Hospital, divorced from preconceptions derived from a sort of “taken for granted,” it points out the uniqueness of the position immediately assume that a structure that performs a function of great social importance. As is known, a guest is usually located on major roads and beaten by the pilgrims. In this case the building at the foot of the Montfort is particularly sheltered, and deeply wedged in the valley of Kzive, so as to be not visible until you pass. Further observe the many travel diaries written by various personalities from the most educated19 and sent in time of war, to develop the logistics of the Crusaders20, no mention shelter for pilgrims on this site, and there is no word in the documents the Teutonic21. This could be due to two main causes: a loss of evidence that they have the original function, the other is that the settlement had not quite such a role. We read texts among some experts that this site could be home in a mill, later converted into a guesthouse22. In a functional reading of the article, including a proposal that puzzles us not to recognize any trace in the structure of the building elements and technological features that should have a mill, including reins of the barrier, gore, intake and exhaust channels, rooms arranged in a central distribution in the structure are not reflected in any case. Also the exposure that puts the entire structure directly to the north slope of the hill of Montfort is found to be in the shade all day, both summer and winter. This clearly clashes with the attention that is traditionally given to the action of natural daylight and heating, which is considered valuable and healthy. Even mills directly places to touch the river, and there are at least five along the Kzive are all located on the right bank, not to be covered by the shadow of the mountain, so as to get a bit ‘too sunny d ‘winter. Only the building in question is positioned away from the shore and located on the left side, indicating a focus on creating fresh environments. These simple observations

BIBiLIOGRAPHY Bacci, A., Bini, M. and Luschi, C.M.R. 2005. Il Castello di Prato, Strategie per un insediamento Medioevale. Firenze, Alinea. Barber, M.1998. Processo ai Templari, una questione politica. Genova, ECIG. Bini, M. and Luschi, C.M.R. (eds.) 2009. Castelli e Cattedrali. Sulle tracce del Regno Crociato di Gerusalemme, Resoconti di viaggio in Israele. Firenze, Alinea. Boas, A.2006. Archaeology of the Military Order. Routledge Cassi-Ramelli, A.1996, Dalle caverne ai rifugi blindati, trenta secoli di architettura militare. Bari, Mario Adda editore. Di Stefano, C.A. and Cadei, A. (eds.) 1995. Federico e la Sicilia, dalla terra alla corona. Arnaldo Lombardi Editore. Enlart, C. 1925-1929. Les Monuments des Croisés dans le Royaume de Jérusalem. Prefazione di Paul Léon. Paris, 2 vol. Forsteuter, K. 1963. Der Deutsche Orden am Mittelmeer. Bon.

19 Guglielmo di Tiro, Historia della guerra sacra di Gerusalemme. Della terra di promissione e quasi di tutta la storia ricuperata da’ cristiani: raccolta in 23 libri, tradotta in italiano da M. Giuseppe Horologgi, In Venetia: appresso Antonio Pinelli, 1610 20 S. De Sandoli, Itinera Ierosolumitana cruce signatorum,

Gerusalemmme Franciscan Printing Press Jerusalem 1978, Vol I-II-IIIIV 21 Tabulae ordinis teutonici ex tabularii regii berolinensis codice potissimum,edit Ernest Gottfried Wilhelm Strehlke, Berolini apud Weidmannos, MDCCCLXIX. 22 Den-R.D.Pringle, 66 (1986) Op. Cit.

23 Den-R.D.Pringle, 66 (1986) Op. Cit.

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Guilelmus Tyrensis 1610 ( 1183 c.a.). Historia della guerra sacra di Gerusalemme. Della terra di promissione e quasi di tutta la storia ricuperata da’ christiani: raccolta in 23 libri, da Guglielmo arciuescouo di Tiro. Tradotta in italiano da m. Giuseppe Horologgi. In Venetia: appresso Antonio Pinelli, Ed. orig. Historia rerum transmarinarum, manoscritto, Tiro, c.a 1183. Kantorowicz, E. 2000 (1929). Federico II, imperatore. Traduzione dal Tedesco di Gianni Pilone e Colombo Garzanti. Cernusco, Milano (ed. orig. Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite. Berlino). Laurent, J. C. M. and , Hinrichs Bibliopola, J.C. (eds) 1864. Peregrinatores: Brochardus de Monte Sion, Ricoldus de Monte Crucis, Odoricus de Foro Julii, Wilbrandus de Oldenborg, Peregrinatores medii aevi quatuor, quorum duos nunc primum edidit, duos ad fidem libro rum. Lipsiae. Mariti, G. 1769. Viaggi per l’isola di Cipro e per la Sorìa e Palestina fatti da Giovanni Matiti, accademico Fiorentino dall’anno MDCCLX al MDCCLXVIII, Tomo II, Firenze, translated from the italian, 1792, Travels through Cyprus, Syria, and Palestine: with a general History of the Levant, Vol I, Dublin. Pacciaudi, P.M. 178., Memorie de’ gran maestri dell’ ordine gerosolimitano, Tomo I. Parma. Plini Secundi, C., 1669. Naturalis Historiae, apud Hackios, libro XXXVI. Pococke, R. 1754. A description of the East and some other countries. London. Pringle, D. 1986. A Thirteent Century Hall at Montfort Castle in Western Galilee. n The Antiquaries Journal, 66.1. London. Prutz, H. 1877. Die Besitzungen des DeutschenOrdens im Heiligen Lande:ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte der Fran-

ken in Syrien. Leipzig. Rei, G. 1871. Etude sur les monuments de l’architecture militaire des croisès. Paris. Renan, E. 1864. Mission De Phénicie, Imprimerie Impériale. Paris. Ritter, C. 1858. Die Erdkunde im Verhältniss zur Natur und zur Geschichte des Menschen. Berlin. Rohricht, R. 1893. Regesta Regni hierosolymitani (MXCVII-MCCXCI), Libraria Academica Wagneriana Sandoli, S. d. 1978. Itinera hierosolymitana crucesignatorum sec XII-XIII, vol. I Tempore Primi Belli Sacri, Textus Latini cum versione Italica. Jerusalem. Sandoli, S. d. 1980. Itinera hierosolymitana crucesignatorum sec XII-XIII, vol. II Tempore Regum Francorum (1100-1187), Textus Latini cum versione Italica. Jerusalem. Sandoli, S.d. 1983. Itinera hierosolymitana crucesignatorum sec XII-XIII, vol. III Tempore recuperationis terrae Sanctae (1187-1244), Textus Latini cum versione Italica. Jerusalem. Sandoli, S. d. 1984. Itinera hierosolymitana crucesignatorum sec XII-XIII, vol. IV Tempore Regni Latini Extremo (1245-1291), Textus Latini cum versione Italica. Jerusalem. Sanutus, M. 1611. Liber secretorum fidelium Crucis super Terrae Sanctae recuperatione et conservatione qui et terrae Sanctae Histori ab Origine & eiusdem vicinarumque Provinciarum Geographica descriptio continetur. Jerusalem. Strehlke, E.G.W. 1869. Tabulae ordinis theutonici (1869), ex tabularii regii berolinensis codice potissimum. Berolini. Tomaspoeg , K. 2003. Les Teutoniques en Sicile (11971492). Collection de l’Ecole Française de Rome/321. Rome. Van der Velde, C. W. M. 1855,. Reise derch Syrien und Palästina in den jahren 1851 und 1852, T. O. Weigel.

Fig. 1 - View from north-east of the site of Montfort.

Fig. 2 - Montfort: general planimetry

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Fig 3 - Montfort poligonal hall.

Fig 4 - Montfort: wall of the keep.

Fig 5 - Montfort: graphic of three building phases.

Fig 6 - Montfort: view from east of the north-south wall.

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Fig 7 - Montfort: view of the square call of the gate tower.

Fig 8 - Montfort: cross pillar.

Fig 9 - Montfort: possible Templar stonecutter marks

Fig 10 - Montfort: marks found in Castel Maniace in Syracuse already published in “Federico II e la Sicilia” (Op. Cit.)

Fig 11 - Montfort: iron waste founded in gate tower area.

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Fig 12 -View from west of Montfort castle, note the opening front along the lower end of the apparatus wall.

Fig 13 - Guest House: principal facade of the gothic building in the valley.

Fig 14 - Guest house: ground floor map.

Fig 15 - Guest house: ground floor west view. (first room)

Fig 16 - Guest house: ground floor, detail of the rock wall wich set the vault.

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Fig 17 - Guest house: ground floor, pipe in the rock wall of the first room. Fig 18 - Guest house: first floor, view from west to the only cross vault still exist.

Fig 19 - Guest house: first floor, entrance detail to the stairs that link the second collapsed floor.

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Fig 20 - Detail of an ashlar with almond-shaped ribs found on the top of the last vault.

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Fig 22 - Wall fragment on the right side of the river.

Fig 21 - Guest house: detail of hanging between the nucleus and the enlargment.

Fig 23 - Detail of a stonecutter mark with potent cross

Fig 24 - View and design of the east side of the dam.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

CASTELLI E FRONTIERE MEDITERRANEE: ARCHEOLOGIA, STORIA, ARCHITETTURA MEDITERRANEAN CASTLES AND MEDITERRANEAN FRONTIERS: ARCHAEOLOGY, HISTORY, ARCHITECTURE BARBARIANS OF DÂR AL-ISLÂM: THE UPPER MARCH OF AL-ANDALUS AND THE WESTERN PYRENEES IN THE EIGHTH AND NINTH CENTURIES1 Juan José Larrea Jesús Lorenzo Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea - University of the Basque Country A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011

Abstract (2008) Des barbares de Dar al-Islam: le rôle d’al-Andalus dans la structuration des sociétés chrétiennes périphériques (VIIIe-Xe siècles) The discoveries that have been made recently in funerary archaeology, as well as the overall analysis of the Arab sources and the absence of a satisfactory explanation for the emergence of the kingdom of Pamplona, lead us to propose the idea that its peripheral position relative to Islam is the key to understanding the history of this region in Early Middle Ages. During the ninth century the political structures, Christian or Muslim, of the Western Pyrenees function as a peripheral part of the Emirate, with each individual or group’s position determined by their role in the different alliances, conflicts or processes of wealth redistribution that connected them with al-Andalus. From the point of view of Córdoba, the Navarrese were not regarded as foreigners, but rather as barbarians, ‘ulûj that inhabited dâr al-Islâm. That, however, is but one side of the coin. In contrast to the rulers of Pamplona, and with a power base in the Pyrenean monasteries, there was a section of society that embraced militant Christianity as an internal political instrument within a society at risk of breaking up. The clearest manifestation of this is the earliest anti-Muslim pamphlet in Western Europe, the Life of Mohammed which originates in the Navarrese monastery of Leire. When the fitna shook al-Andalus, the main muwalladûn families of the Upper March devoted themselves to internecine wars of conquest. The collapse of the Emirate brought about the downfall of the rulers of Pamplona, supplanted in 905 by a family who asumed the discourse of the monasteries and began a policy of attacking Islam head on.

* This work forms part of the Research Project financed by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, “The appropriation of territory: community logic and conflict between the VIII and X centuries”” (hum 2007-62038/hist). The in-depth study of the Arab sources and of the history of the Middle Valley of the Ebro in times of the emirs is found in Lorenzo, under press; that of the Christian sources and the genesis of the kingdom of Pamplona, in Larrea, under press. In this essay we present a collaboration effected from both sides of the frontier – if indeed there is a frontier.

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1989; Chalmeta, 1994; Collins 1994; Manzano 2006). It seems clear that the rulers of Pamplona formed part of the band that summoned the Muslims. This probably helped the pact for which Pamplona, like many other cities, surrendered to the conquerors, before 718. In exchange for a tribute and political and military subordination to Córdoba, the capitulation gave the people of Pamplona the guarantee of a wide margin of autonomy in matters of government and justice, in religious practices and in social and economic life. Apart from occasional ruptures, while the first independent Christian entity was coming to light in Asturias, the people of Pamplona remained loyal to the submission agreement throughout the two generations that followed the conquest. In 778 the show of force of Charlemagne’s army led to the beginning of a period of pressure and influence on the part of the Franks, in spite of the initial fiasco in Zaragoza and Roncesvalles. There may also have been an ephemeral Frank county of Pamplona between 812 and 816. After this was dispelled, the city and the territory returned to the sphere of al-Andalus, which again contrasts strongly with the emergence of the kingdom of Asturias and the Carolingian counties that would be Catalonia in the future. Before the decade of the 40s in the ninth century, the government of Pamplona remained in the hands of the Iñigo family, the Banû Wannaquh we find in the Arab sources. Traditionally, these have been seen as the first dynasty of the kingdom of Pamplona, but present-day historiography tends not to consider them real kings because of their subordination to al-Andalus and the meagre extension of their lands. In 905 another family, the Jimenos, took the place of the Iñigos. With them, Pamplona began to expand in territory and to consolidate itself, this time without any doubt, as the second Christian kingdom arising in the north of the peninsula after that of Asturias.1 To the south, the valley of the Ebro was extraordinarily dynamic. The submission of the autochthonous population was effected through the formalizing of walâ’ links between the possessores and the conquerors. These pacts allowed the conquerors to keep their social position and their patrimony in exchange for the right to become representatives of the new power and to embrace the new religion «at the hands (bi-yaday)» of a Muslim, which in their case was no less than the Umayyad caliph of Damascus, al-Walîd. In the following decades, the geography of power in the region, converted in the Upper March, changed with the founding of new cities –Tudela – and the eclipse of others – Tarazona and Calahorra. Disputes followed one after the other between the families of converts (muwalladûn) who had been building up their power with the support of various emirs. The Banû Qasî family, the protagonists of the March incidents during a good part of the ninth century, would emerge victorious in these rivalries: revolts alternated with periods of subjugation to the emir of Córdoba, becoming short-term rebellions that would end with the intervention of the emir’s army and the restitution of their prerogatives to the Banû Qasî family. To counteract the

It is hardly necessary to remind ourselves that Medieval Spain is one of the most exceptional places for the study of the frontiers between the Christian and Islamic societies. Research carried out in the last few decades has shown the complexity of the frontier phenomenon, two of whose basic characteristics are permeability and asymmetry: in a wide area with constant contacts, the Christian frontier would be one of colonization, American, as opposed to a static and defensive concept of frontier characteristic of the Muslims (Bazzana et al 1992, 55-59). These ideas are undoubtedly relevant for long periods of history. However, we would like to suggest in this article that in regard to the Early Middle Ages – that is, the period of the overwhelming political superiority of al-Andalus – a different approach is preferable in certain territories, an approach that does away with the very idea of frontiers. We are thinking of the idea of periphery, clearly understood as a system rather than as a mere geographical designation. At least some of the Christian societies in the north of the peninsula can thus be studied from a comparative perspective within the more general question of the periphery of Islam (������������������������������������������������������� Gervers & Bikhazi�������������������������������������� 1990)�������������������������������� . But certainly, with a noteworthy particularity: unlike others, in Africa or the East, we are dealing with societies that have the whole of Western Christianity behind them. Before we introduce our views, it will be useful�������� to provide a brief explanation of the territorial and chronological framework, as well as the keys to the interpretation of this period in present-day historiography. At the foot of the Western Pyrenees, Pamplona lies on one of the great routes that had connected Hispania and Gaul since ancient times. It was the principal city in the area in Roman times, even though its dimensions were quite modest. The episcopal see since unknown times – it was recorded for the first time in 589, at the Council in which the Visigoths renounced Arianism– Pamplona was involved in the explosive mixture that characterized Vasconia in the Visigoth era, composed of regional aristocratic manoeuvres, impoverishment, banditry, the strengthening of local powers and repressive royal campaigns. More to the south, the plains of the Ebro were a prosperous area during the Roman epoch, the home of early Christian communities and the base of high-ranking families – such as the family of Prudentius of Calahorra. After the collapse of the Empire and until its definitive incorporation into the kingdom of Toledo, the area was under the control of a class of local possessores deep-rooted since late Roman times. The ancient territorial organization was maintained until the Muslims arrived, as much in small agglomérations secondaires as in episcopal cities such as Tarazona and Calahorra. The social and economic panorama was less turbulent than in the area of Pamplona (Fontaine, 1980; Larrea 1996, 1998; Castellanos, 1999; Espinosa & Castellanos 2006). As we know, the Arab conquest cannot be separated from the last civil war in the kingdom of Toledo (Dhanûn Tâha,

1

The essential synthesis of political history is still provided by Lacarra 1972. See also Martín Duque 1999b.

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J. J. Larrea, J. Lorenzo: Barbarians of Dâr Al-Islâm excessive power that these families occasionally acquired, the emir sought help from rival powers, favouring the ascent of other families, such as those of Banû Shabrît and Banû Tujîb. In short, the weakening of the emirate during the last quarter of the ninth century would increase the confrontations between the various families of the region. These conquering wars brought about the unusual building of castles (husûn) that are reflected in the sources. The result was a new distribution of the territory, with the rise of the Banû Tujîb family and the eclipse of the Banû Qasî. When in 920 the emir ‘Abd al-Rahmân III imposed the authority of Córdoba once again in the valley of the Ebro, after subduing all the rebels of al-Andalus, the Banû Qasî family became only a shadow from the past. From the point of view of sociopolitical history, presentday interpretation is based on two fundamental ideas. On the one hand, Pamplona would be a kind of deep-rooted and ancient Christian time-capsule, protected from Islamic influence by the tribute of submission and destined to hatch out when circumstances were favourable, which would be at the beginning of the tenth century. To a certain extent, the historical function of the pact, and then the effect of the government of the Iñigos, would be to keep a Hispano-Christian society intact until the time was right for the establishing of a true Christian monarchy (Martín Duque 1999 a, b). On the other hand, rather than participating in the building of a Muslim society, the Banû Qasî family were to play a historical role in delaying the integration of the region into al-Andalus. Linked by blood ties and political interest to the people of the Pyrenees and reluctant to accept any foreign power, they provided a kind of cushion for the Christian groups that isolated them from Islamic influence (Lacarra 1949; Sánchez-Albornoz 1985; Lévi-Provençal & García Gómez 1954). We believe that alternative explanations can and should be developed. The main reasons that lead us to this conclusion are the following, in the order in which we will deal with them: firstly, the very important discoveries that have been made recently in funerary archaeology before and immediately after the Arab conquest; secondly, the overall analysis of the Arab sources, the revision of their editions and translations and the study of their internal logic; thirdly, the need to tackle once again the problem of certain evidence, such as the Life of Mohammad coming from the monastery of Leire, writings which until now have been lying in a grey area as far as historical analysis is concerned; lastly, but no less important, the absence of a satisfactory explanation, on a sociopoltical level, for the process that springs from one of the most destructured areas of Visigoth Hispania to develop into a kingdom.

more perplexity than certainty. In effect, a cemetery of late Roman and Germanic times was dug up in 1895, but was later destroyed (Mezquíriz 2004). It was called ‘The Frank Cemetery of Pamplona’, a term that reflects the abundance of weapons and adornments originating from the North Pyrenees, which for decades have caused surprise for their very special nature with regard to the Visigothic funerary panorama. In the 70s, J. Navascués pointed out the presence of some materials of Islamic origin among those found in Argarai (Navascués 1976). He identified some signet-rings and remains of rings with the inscription “In the Name of Allâh (bi-ismi Allâh)” in Kufic characters, as well as a copper coin which seems, in accordance with its description, to belong to the period of the governors (cf. Manzano 2006, 68). But this find received little attention. In 1987, the discovery and study of the necropolis of Aldaieta (Álava) by A. Azkarate, as well as other later discoveries in Navarre, Álava and Biscay (Azkarate 1992, 1993, 2004, 2007a, b; García Camino 2002; Beguiristáin 2007), gave a new turn to the reality summed up by E. James. An archaeological facies characteristic of peninsular Vasconia in the sixth and seventh centuries was identified. This is a facies characterized among other things by the profusion of funerary deposits of Merovingian arms and items of adornment and ostentation of Aquitaine origin. The necropolis of Argarai thus ceased to be an isolated and puzzling case and became proof of the presence of such regional archaeological facies in Pamplona. Much more recently, between 2001 and 2006, two more necropoleis have been discovered in the city, one Christian and the other Islamic. They not only confirm the integration of their populations in the funerary culture described, but are also enormously valuable for throwing light on their evolution after the arrival of the Muslims. Of course, we still have only the first reports published by the teams of archaeologists involved, so that our views must remain strictly cautious for the moment. The three necropoleis of Pamplona form an almost straight line south-east to north-west in the accessible part of the city, as the opposite side falls steeply to a bend in the river Arga. The Islamic necropolis of the Plaza del Castillo lies in the centre. That of Argarai was excavated about 380 metres south-east of this necropolis, and that of the Casa del Condestable about 330 metres north-west. The necropolis of Argarai is the farthest away from the city walls, which in any case is not more than 350 metres’ distance. It has been possible to excavate only 4000 square metres of the Islamic cemetery of Pamplona, so that the overall dimensions are unknown. Perhaps the necropolis stretched as far as the foot of the ramparts. There are no indications of saturation. One hundred and ninety graves were found, belonging to a stable community, with normal mortality, who used the cemetery over several generations, as revealed by the distribution by sex and age of the exhumed individuals. The skeletons with combat injuries are dispersed, as witnesses of military activity extended over some time, and not arising from one specific war episode. Only one C14 dating has been published for the moment, which has produced a chronological range of 650-770.

THE FIRST GENERATIONS (C. 715-778): RINGS IN THE TOMBS “The Basques themselves have no archaeology” (James 1977, 209). This definite statement sums up the situation in early medieval archaeology in Vasconia until twenty years ago. On this desert, the suburban necropolis of Argarai in Pamplona was for a long time an oasis, but one that led to 279

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean This discovery makes the cemetery of Pamplona the oldest Muslim necropolis – of proven chronology – in the Iberian Peninsula. The presence in the maqbara of Pamplona of almost the same number of men as of women raises the question of their origin and of possible mixed marriages. As we still do not have the results of the genetic studies underway, the only available clue is the ritual manipulation of teeth pertaining to an adult female, which would be a characteristic of certain Berber groups (De Miguel 2007, 193). As this is one isolated case, few conclusions can be reached. In short, as usually happens in Muslim necropoleis, no burial goods were found, with the exception of a ring (Faro, García-Barberena & Unzu 2007; De Miguel 2007; Faro, García-Barberena, Unzu & De Miguel, 2007). One hundred and fifty-three graves have been located in the necropolis of the Casa del Condestable (����������������� Faro, García-Barberena & Unzu 2007; Faro & Unzu 2007). This necropolis was first put in use long before the Muslim invasion. Numerous tombs follow the pattern of those in the peninsular Vasconia of the sixth and seventh centuries, which we already discussed above. The necropolis of Argarai belongs to this same model, as does that of Buzaga, outside the city but at a distance of only thirteen kilometres. Having said that, what makes this necropolis extraordinarily valuable is the fact that it continued in use after the arrival of Islam. There is a series of graves that carry on with the previous type of tombs, but they change in regard to the nature and origin of the burial goods. Frank weapons disappear, and Aquitaine items of adornment, and up to seven rings with archaic Kufic characters make their appearance. The grave of one female in particular presents a quantity of artifacts that stand out above all others. She has a small ceramic jug at her feet, earrings, a necklace with numerous beads and a ring on every finger. Four of these ten rings bear inscriptions in Kufic writing. The archaeologists have not yet presented definitive datings, but it is perfectly clear that the necropolis was still in use throughout the eighth century, which means that it coexisted with the Islamic necropolis of the Plaza del Castillo. As we can see, the findings at the Casa del Condestable, in regard to the type of tombs, the funerary deposits and their evolution following the Arab conquest, have provided an exact archaeological context to what was, in the old excavation of Argarai, only a store of materials and a few superficial clues regarding the disposition of the necropolis. In particular, it provides a background to the Arab signetrings that J. Navascués managed to identify. In the Navarrese rural environment, archaeological evidence related to this period is almost non-existent. For that reason it is perhaps worthwhile pointing out that, in the only necropolis of the eighth and ninth centuries that has been excavated, we find once again characteristics similar to those we have just seen (Ramos 2006, 2007). About twenty kilometres south-west of Pamplona, the small necropolis of Saratsua (Muruzabal) en plein champ seems to be a little later than that of the Casa del Condestable. The type of tombs is similar, as well as the grave goods. Again we see the regular presence of rings, one of bronze and two of silver, as well as some earrings, recovered from

four of the graves. The bronze ring is identical to the three from Argarai that bear Kufic inscriptions, even though in this case there is an incised cross on the surface. According to the archaeologist responsible for this study, in the Museum of Navarre there is a signet-ring with apparently Kufic signs that most probably came from Saratsua. To summarize. In an area such as funerary ritual, directly affected by the mechanisms and symbols of superiority and social integration, the arrival of an Islamic population and Islamic authorities did not signify a break in the Christian necropoleis, but their presence was very quickly felt. On the one hand, the deposit of weapons was abandoned, which matches the general evolution of western Europe. On the other hand, at almost the very same time as the stable presence of an Islamic population, at least in Pamplona and certainly linked to a garrison, we find included among the markers of status in the Christian tombs pieces clearly connected with the people and images of Muslim power. Later, there are indications that these practices spread throughout the rural area – or among the ruling groups. It is hardly too daring to suspect that contact with the Muslim culture, and a growing closeness, on the part of at least some sectors of the Navarrese society, were more intense and more consequential than was previously believed, going beyond the mere payment of tributes and military control. THE EPHEMERAL CAROLINGIAN EPISODE (778816) In the light of these facts, the destiny of Pamplona is more readily understood when we consider the first overwhelming entrance of the Frank army in 778. Whether the city capitulated when confronted by the imposing close column which entered Roncesvalles, or whether the Arab leaders of the garrison were already involved in the plot that brought the Franks to that area, is a question that we cannot answer. In any case, after the fiasco of Zaragoza, it seems clear that there was no way Pamplona could be preserved and Charlemagne opted to destroy the walls. The Annals of Einhard (778, mgh ss I) describe it as a city or oppidum of the Navarrese people, who were subjugated, but whose rebellion could be foreseen as soon as the last Frank warrior disappeared beyond the mountains. The picture of a Muslim garrison alongside a Christian population reluctant to accept Carolingian rule, as well as the reaction of the Franks, clearly bring to mind similar events that had taken place four decades before in Gallia Narbonensis: in 738, faced with a population more in favour of remaining under Islamic protection than submitting to the Franks, the troops of Carlos Martel flattened Nimes, Agde and Beziers and tore down their ramparts (cf. Acién 1999, 61 ss). Later on, Carolingian policies became more cautious and efficient, appropriately combining the attraction of the Christian leaders and military force. They achieved only a short-lived success in Pamplona due to the unfolding of vigorous diplomatic and war activity after the success of Barcelona. In 806 Navarre and Pamplona were taken under Carolingian protection (Einhardi Annales, mgh ss I). It 280

J. J. Larrea, J. Lorenzo: Barbarians of Dâr Al-Islâm was also during these years, in the central Pyrenees, that a certain count Oriol, who died in 809, held forts on the Huesca route in the name of Charlemagne, and still in 811 there was a Frank attack on the same city. In 812, after a truce had been signed between the emir and the emperor, Louis the Pious appeared personally in Pamplona, and it is very probable that he established a county. But the very story of his expedition shows the fragility of the thread that joined this last outpost to the Empire: before crossing the Pyrenees, Louis the Pious had to crush a rebellion in Gascony manu militari and only by taking Gascon women and children as hostages was he able to ensure the return journey from Pamplona. The Carolingian count of Pamplona could expect little military help from his king. And indeed, one of the emir’s armies crushed the Navarrese and their Asturian allies in 816, the same year that a new rebellion would break out in Gascony. This was most probably the end of the Carolingian episode. A weak and frustrated attempt on the part of the Franks to regain control over Pamplona in 824 served only to confirm the fact that for the moment this city had returned to the sphere of al-Andalus (Lacarra 1972, 52-56; Martín Duque 1999b, 95-97).

715 (JAA, 500). At the beginning of the ninth century, both families were involved in conflicts in the region, the first with the backing of the emir in his role as governor and the second forming part of a coalition with the Christians of Pamplona, Amaya, sirtaniyûn, etc (MQ II-1, 96v). After a time during which the sources are silent, matters took a turn, and in 839 we find a member of the Banû Qasî, Mûsà ibn Mûsà, governor of Tudela, which had now become a madîna, and was participating in the aceifas organized by the emir. What happened in these decades? The policy of the emirs in the region depended on the muwalladûn families, constantly searching for equilibrium in the area. This equilibrium was achieved through favouring, as each moment required, the different families that were in constant rivalry, which would explain the decline – though temporary, it must be said - of the Banû ‘Amrûs family. To achieve this balance, it was fundamental for the emir to have an efficient army. For the favoured family, the approval of the emir meant two important sources of revenue: on the one hand, the family governed from the cities, thus becoming tax-collectors on behalf of the emir; on the other hand, they participated in the periodic looting campaigns carried out on enemy territory (ard al-‘adûw) alongside the emir’s powerful army (jays). The government of the cities was enormously important: in 822 the emir ‘Abd al-Rahmân II took over the government of al-Andalus, and he has been credited with a policy of ‘abbâsîzation in the Cordovan emirate. This led to the systematic organization of the administration and tax-collecting, based on an efficient urban system. Due to this reorganization of the area, Tudela, from being a simple hisn or castle, became a madîna. In regard to the family’s participation in the aceifas (al-sawâ’if) or military sacking campaigns, the social ascent of the family is reflected in the sources in terms of proximity to the qâ’id, who was the leader of the expedition, often the emir himself or one of his sons. There was, however, a risk in this policy: the family in favour acquired wealth, and with it resources and power which, when the situation allowed, enabled them to disconnect themselves from obedience to the emir – that is, to rebel. In these circumstances, the family could be neutralized only when the emir could count on an efficient military contingent capable of bringing the rebels back to the fold or, as the case required, removing them. This is what happened with the above-mentioned Mûsà ibn Mûsà, who, between the years 840 and 863, alternated periods of obedience with periods of rebellion, which were always resolved when the emir’s army appeared. The family often acted alone in these uprisings, but on other occasions they were accompanied by their neighbours from Pamplona, in whose territory, after the submission of Mûsà, the troops from Córdoba sought to compensate the expenses of the expedition through sacking. On the death of Mûsà, occasioned by an affaire with another Andalusian sâhib in the year 863, the family of Banû Qasî was once again overshadowed until the following decade, when Mûsà’s sons were the instigators of a rebellion that would extend throughout the whole western val-

THE NINTH CENTURY: THE PERIPHERY OF AL-ANDALUS AS A SYSTEM Our intention to apply the notion of periphery is based on two consecutive levels of analysis: firstly, we will consider more closely the political logic of the Upper March of alAndalus. Secondly, we will show how the dynamics of confrontation, stemming from this political logic, would generate, through war and the redistributioin of wealth, mechanisms of internal coordination in the neighbouring Christian communities. The Political Logic�������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� of the Upper March of al-Andalus during the Emirate The situation in the Valley of the Ebro in the eighth and ninth centuries was much more dynamic than had been previously thought. The first point to emphasize is the existence of a significant number of families of muwalladûn in constant competition. In al-Andalus the autochthonous element never had the relevance that it reached in Iraq under the control of ‘Abassî, where a great number of the posts in the administration were given to individuals of Persian origin. The exception was indeed the Upper March (al-thaghr al-a’là) of al-Andalus, where the main posts in government were given to the muwalladûn, at least from the last years of the eighth century and after a period of Arab preeminence. Two of these muwalladûn families hold special interest for us: those of the Banû ‘Amrûs and those of the Banû Qasî, which appeared in conflict in the first years of the ninth century. We do not know the name of the predecessor of this ’Amrûs ibn Yûsuf who in the year 802 held the post of governor in Zaragoza, capital of the Upper March. As for the Banû Qasî, the sources tell us that it was a certain Casius, count in the time of the Goths (qûmis fî ayâm al-qut), who became the mawlà of the caliph al-Walîd between 712 and 281

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean until the fitna of the caliphate, with interest, in tributes, booty and – perhaps most of all – in captives. At certain times, the lands of the infidels to the north were seen as immense hunting grounds for slaves, who flocked into Córdoba in their thousands during the glorious years of Almanzor (Bariani 2003, 225). But that was part of the game. If we now focus on the region of most interest to us, we see that the political logic that we have described above indicates the accumulation and considerable movement of wealth, well verified by the sources. In 898, Lubb ibn Muhammad, of the Banû Qasî family, liberated al-Tawîl, his prisoner, and allowed him to hold onto the government of the city of Huesca in return for the sum of 100,000 dinars, half of which was immediately put into “coins, bridles, saddles, swords and other goods” (TA, 65). In 875, for the transfer of Zaragoza to the emir, Lubb’s father had managed to get 15,000 dinars in compensation (TA p. 35). This gives us an idea of the magnitude of the fortunes accumulated by the main March families during the fitna of the emirate, to a considerable extent thanks to the blocking of the tributes that should have ended up in Córdoba. In 859/60, in another case, the rescue of the Navarrese García Íñiguez from the hands of the Normans was also brought to an end through the handing-over of hostages to guarantee the payment of an enormous number of coins, which, according to Ibn Hayyân (MQ II/2, 307-309), reached 70,000, a figure hard to believe.. In regard to coins of the emirate, one of the most important treasures in Christian Spain comes from Navarre, from San Andrés de Ordoiz in Estella (Canto 2001, 77-78). It consists of 205 dirhams – that is, silver coins – belonging to a century of issues from the independent emirate (from 782-3 to 883-4 or perhaps 893), even though three quarters correspond to the governments of Abd al-Rahmân II (822-852) and Muhammad I (852-886). The Christians of the Pyrenees tended to go to war in all the regional conflicts they could, in an asymmetric fashion: it seems there was no problem recruiting Christians in the disagreements between the main families of the Upper March (Lacarra 1949, 1972, 42; CA 26; TUA, 915, 1318; BM, 29), but not until the tenth century are there any reports of Muslim intervention aimed at settling disputes among Christians. On the other hand, as we will see later on, combatants of recognized prestige appear, as well as well-united military clienteles. In any case, it is very probable that the great events recorded by the chroniclers took place against a background of cavalcades, pillaging, and aggressions of lesser intensity, but relatively constant.

ley of the Ebro. This uprising would be short-lived, but the consequences would still be felt during the following decades and would signify the beginning of the end of the Banû Qasî family in the midst of the general crisis in the emirate. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH AND WAR ACTIVITY In the medieval West, luxury goods, their possession, their hoarding and their disposal had a decisive function as elements that defined aristocratic status (Le Jan 1999). Their connection with war is clear, which in turn generated methods of transferring wealth, and therefore transferring cohesion and hierarchical organization among all the social strata that supplied combatants (Devroey 2008). In the majority of the societies of that time, the participation in this flow of goods depended on the position that each group held in the Carolingian political structure. Christian Spain, however, was part of a system whose centre lay in Umayyad power (Manzano 2006, 445 ss.). Far from coming to a halt at the northern frontiers, the spreading of Andalusian luxury, in particular textiles and precious metals, reached the Christian societies. The abundance of precious objects and quality materials of Muslim origin in Christian fortunes, as well as the common use of words borrowed from the Arabs to refer to them, are well known (Serrano-Piedecasas 1986). When al-Andalus was seen to be weakened, pillage and hostage-taking turned out to be very productive: examples are the booty seized by Alfonso II in Lisbon, part of which he offered to Charlemagne; the 4000 captives that Ordoño II uprooted from Évora; the spectacular number of gold coins – the equivalent of 100,000 solidi, according to the Albeldense Chronicle – which Alfonso III pocketed as ransom for the release of Hâsim ibn ‘Abd al-Azîz, the emir’s favourite; the women and children, and the immense auri et argenti sericorum ornamentorum pondere that Ordoño II obtained in Alhange (Grassotti 1964). When al-Andalus was seen to be strong, such opportunities disappeared, but there was still the possibility of acquiring payments and booty through collaboration with some band involved in the internal conflicts of al-Andalus, or simply through serving as auxiliaries in the army of Córdoba (Ruiz Asencio 1968; Bariani 2003). The redistribution of these properties turned out to be a basic attribute of political power. This ties in with the fact that the Christian political formations did not issue coins until well into the eleventh century. With the exception of Catalonia, as in the rest of post-Carolingian Europe, coins were used, but not minted, in Christian Spain. Andalusian dirhems were in circulation, as demonstrated by written reports and – though rare – the findings of hoards (SánchezAlbornoz 1976, 864; Canto 2001). The most plausible explanation is that, in regard to the rulers, the control and redistribution of the currency that came from the emirate satisfactorily fulfilled functions similar to those found in other areas that minted their own coins. Of course, none of this occurred without compensation: al-Andalus claimed everything it transferred and, possibly

WAR AND TRIBUTES AS MEANS OF TERRITORIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN THE C����� ������ HRISTIAN SOCIETIES The Arab sources trace a political architecture in the Christian societies of the Pyrenees with two major characteristics. One is their dependence on al-Andalus: the Christian groups formed their hierarchies in accordance with their proximity to a Muslim power, whether the purpose was to go to war with this power against another Andalusian 282

J. J. Larrea, J. Lorenzo: Barbarians of Dâr Al-Islâm opponent, or whether it was to channel the tribute. The other characteristic was organization on three levels. The first and most extensive of these levels was coalition, only of Christians or of Christians united with some particular rebel or important Muslim: from Pamplona, from Alava, sirtaniyûn, Gascons, Banû Qasî, or ‘Amrûs ibn Yûsuf of Huesca. The second relates to each one of these components of the coalitions. The term ahl (ahl Banbalûna, ahl Alaba wa-l-Qilâ’) was used to refer to this level, the same term that was used to refer to the city people in internal Muslim conflicts, ahl al-madîna, which means groups that were organized and classified in hierarchies, of changeable political and military autonomy. The third level relates to the internal organization of each ahl, and the key word is sâhib: this was a matter of warriors’ clienteles led by notables. Needless to say, the political power could not be separated from the place occupied on each of these levels, of necessity variable in this structure in accordance with the agreements of war and peace. On a regional scale, we must remember that the northwest corner of the Upper March was surrounded by a circle of Christian territories and groups which stretched from Álava and Castille, under Asturian sovereignty, as far as the sirtaniyûn of the Central Pyrenees – undoubtedly the Aragonese – naturally passing through Pamplona – whose people were called Basques by the Arabs and Navarrese by the Carolingians – and even through the Gascon area on the other side of the Pyrenees. From very early on, it seems that Pamplona enjoyed a key position as a link between the Christian communities and their Muslim allies. In the confrontations between the governor ‘Amrûs and the coalition composed of people from Castille and Álava, sirtaniyûn and people from Pamplona, with the Banû Qasî, it is significant that in 804 it would be in the Navarrese fortresss of Sajrat Qays that ‘Amrûs’ son would be held in custrody after his capture. During the particularly violent years between 841 and 844, the expeditions led by Abd al-Rahmân II systematically attacked the territory of Pamplona, which shows us that during this period the Navarrese were the main allies of the Banû Qasî family, and sirtaniyûn, Gascons, and people from Álava and Castille grouped themselves around them. Within the ahl Banbalûna, the Iñigos, in their turn, appeared without doubt to be the chiefs from the 40s on in the ninth century, clearly seen in both the Arab sources and the scarce Christian texts. Their control over a vital line that united al-Andalus with the last sâhib of the Pyrenees, by means of war and the distribution of the profits of the war, is without any doubt one of the most important components in a leadership that was as much internal as regional. We must think in terms of tension and struggles ������������������� for equilibrium���������������������������������������������������� , rather than thinking of a well-established hierarchy. In regard to the Christian coalitions, it is not difficult to see that the preeminence of Pamplona was very uneven. Their ascent over the sirtaniyûn, which only appear in the sources fighting alongside Pamplona, could not be the same as their ascent over Álava and Castille, whose counts depended on the kings of Oviedo, and whose capacity for

military intervention in the Ebro was considerable from the middle of the ninth century on. Likewise, the control of the military clients had a lot to do with the results of the war. In July of 843, the emir ‘Abd al-Rahmân II led his army into land belonging to Pamplona and crushed the Navarrese and Banû Qasî, as well as the sirtaniyûn, Gascons, and groups from Álava and Castille who had joined forces with them. The account given by Ibn Hayyân is of great interest: In this year the emir ‘Abd al-Rahmân carried out his second attack against Banbalûna (…) and going far in, devastated it. Mûsà ibn Mûsà and his assistant Garsiya ibn Wannaquh, amîr of the bashkunish, faced up to their advance cavalry. It is said that, in fact, the person who was with Mûsà was Furtûn ibn Wannaquh, who was his half-brother from his mother’s side. They tried to assemble an army of the banbalûniyûn, sirtâníyûn, jilliqíyûn and people (ahl) from Alava and al-Qilâ’ and the others, which they joined in great groups. They met until the end of shawwâl (…) until God granted them victory [the Muslims], inflicting a bloody defeat on their enemies. Many of them fell, such as Furtûn ibn Wannaquh, brother of the Barbarian (‘ilj) and horseman (fâris) of Banbalûna, difficult to dominate, which caused great damage to the Muslims, together with a group of their supporters (ashâb), of the supporters (ashâb) of their ally Mûsà ibn Mûsà and of the most important and brave among them, approximately one hundred and fifteen horsemen. Mûsà ibn Mûsà was knocked off his horse and hid, escaping on foot, while the Barbarian (‘ilj) ibn Wannaquh and his son Galind fled, wounded. The emir ‘Abd al-Rahmân sent the heads of Furtûn and the other well-known individuals to Córdoba. A group of dignitaries of Banbalûna went to the emir Abd al-Rahman asking for amân, among them B.l.s.k. ibn Garsiya with 60 men from among their supporters (ashâb) (…) They obtained a great booty and returned victorious and honoured (MQ II-1, 184v-185r). Under an emir of the Basques, prestigious military chiefs recognized by both sides led combatants in the battle and in the defeat. This is the picture of the Navarrese troops offered by Ibn Hayyân. The request for a separate peace made by Velasco Garcés with sixty men from among his ashâb reveals the respectable dimensions that these clienteles could reach, but especially shows us that the balancing game could be shattered when any one of the components was too strong or too weak. And it shows us that when the internal cohesion broke up, all eyes turned towards the Andalusian side. Not in vain, pacts and tributes are the other side of war. Pamplona signed the capitulation agreement before 718. Not without various ruptures and Muslim campaigns of submission, the written sources and the recent discovery of the Islamic necropolis demonstrate that for long periods there was a stable equilibrium between the Muslim presence and the sphere of self-government, which the Pamplona rulers necessarily had to enjoy so that this equilibrium would be maintained. A symptom of this, as we saw 283

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean above, was the feeling which seems to stem from Charlemagne’s attitude towards Pamplona on his return from Zaragoza. It is hardly too daring to say that in these conditions the governing groups of Pamplona played a linking role between al-Andalus and other groups of the region. In the ninth century, the tribute continued to serve as a coordinating force in the area. Thus we see that in the peace agreed on by the emir with the Navarrese Íñigo Arista in 843, once the former’s authority had been re-established by force in the area, there are indications that a leader of the sirtaniyûn, Garsiya al-Sirtân, also joined in this peace agreement. So, a hierarchy was established with respect to the pact, in which the Pamplona groups acted as the main delegates, and, it can be assumed, they were responsible later on for the payment of the tribute, to which the sirtaniyûn had to contribute their share.

think about the image held by the governors of al-Andalus regarding the Christians of the Pyrenees – the Barbarians are������������������������������������������������������� , by definition,��������������������������������������� from �������������������������������������� outside defined: ignorant, uncultured and wretched, mistaken in their faith; under the orders of chiefs hungry for silver, who looked at al-Andalus with a mixture of avarice and fear. These were chiefs and people easily used as cannon fodder, easy to manage with promises of booty and with gifts that they exhibited with ostentation, easy to punish if they caused trouble and easy to loot if expenses had to be balanced. Chiefs that could be played with by favouring one over another, depending on their usefulness and loyalty. Is this not the very definition of the Barbarians of the Roman limes, for example?

BARBARIANS OF DÂR AL-ISLÂM

Allow us to extend the parallel in order to introduce the following point. In an article bearing the suggestive title “The Late Roman Art of Client Management”, P. Heather (2001, 26-27) explains how Roman gifts and support were basic attributes of power among the Barbarian kings, but they also carried the risk of undermining their authority in as much as they revealed subordination to Rome. The game did not create problems of internal legitimacy for Romans or for the governors of the Upper March of alAndalus. But the “Barbarian” leaders were obliged to walk a difficult tightrope. The imposing of the jizya on the Navarrese was highly valuable symbolically, but it was also a turn-around that could not escape anyone. To begin with, the quantity was derisory: the 700 dinars in 843 was hardly enough to pay a couple of months’ salary for a high post in the Córdoba administration (Manzano 2006, 306-307). In addition, it was not long before the agreements ended up as scrap paper. The Andalusian power, like all, had limits that expanded and contracted between effective domination and legal fiction. Consequently, to consolidate a Christian political formation, it was not enough to situate oneself advantageously on the mechanisms of the periphery of al-Andalus. A discourse of internal legitimacy was also necessary. That said, we believe that this discourse was not forged as a declaration of national resistance to the Muslims, but as an internal political instrument within a society constantly at risk of breaking up. The most ancient anti-Mohammedan text written in Latin comes from Navarre. It is the Life of Mohammad that Eulogius of Córdoba found in the monastery of Leire in the Pyrenees in 848 (Eulogius Cordubensis, Apologeticus Martyrum, 16, CSM 475-495).���������������������������� It was written not long after the end of the eighth century and it is related to the polemicist tradition of the school of John of Damascus. Thus we find the view of Islam as a sect of Christianity; the ten years of the principality of Mohammad between the Hegira and his death; his previous knowledge of Christianity; the appearance of the spirit of error in the form of a vulture with a golden mouth trying to pass himself off as the Archangel Gabriel; preaching to the ignorant Arab population to make them worship a corporeal god; the holy

COMBAT CHRISTIANITY AND DUAL LEGITIMACY IN PAMPLONA

Every pact has a formalizing vocation reflected in a precise terminology and precise political categories. That which we have just mentioned took form in the annual handingover of 700 dinars as jizya, which was the tax paid by all Christians living in dâr al-islâm while dhimmíes or protected groups, which in the case of Pamplona indicated recognition of Islamic sovereignty over their territory, the same as it had been in the eighth century. In effect, from the point of view of Córdoba, the Navarrese were seen as being in an intermediary position between the insurgents – that is, the Banû Qasî – rebelling members of the Islamic community, and the foreigners, from Álava and Castille, who depended on another sovereign. The Navarrese rulers were considered Barbarians,‘ulûj, which meant members of communities that inhabited areas on the edge of dâr alislâm, but were not sufficiently civilized to profess Islam, even having the opportunity to do so. The systematic study of the denominations used – for example, by Ibn Hayyân in the Muqtabas II-1 – to refer to the Christian rulers is extremely eloquent: the emperor of Byzantium, Charlemagne, Louis the Pious and the kings of Oviedo were, but for rare and always minoritary exceptions, called mulûk, kings, or the equivalent pejorative term, tâgiya, for tyrant, was used. On the other hand, the ruler of Pamplona was, apart from one exception, classified as ‘ilj, “Barbarian” as we have just seen, sâhib or amîr, these categories indicating a rank lower than malik, sovereign. We must note a very eloquent contrast: the term ashâb was applied not only to the Christian war clients, but also to the Banû Qasî – in their case, ashâb al-Taghr – and to other families, both muwalladûn, as in the case of the Banû ‘Amrûs, and Arabs, as in the case of the Banû Tujîb. However, none of these families were ever called ‘ulûj, “Barbarians”, clearly because of their status as Muslims. It may seem that we are tempted to play with words and give absolute values to terms that naturally have sense only within a certain conceptual system. We do believe, however, that the notion of “Barbarian” leads to interesting channels of comparison. Let us pause for a moment to 284

J. J. Larrea, J. Lorenzo: Barbarians of Dâr Al-Islâm war; the composition of psalms dedicated to animals; the lechery and malice of Mohammad revealed in his adultery with Zaid’s wife (Franke, 1958; Díaz y Díaz 1969, 1970; Benedicto, 1970; Wolf, 1990; Wasilewski, 2008). So this little work owes something to the eastern polemicist tradition, but it is crude and especially aggressive. As Franke observed, the author of this Vita does not seem to have had experience of a real controversy with Muslims (Franke 1958, 44-45). Nobody living alongside Muslims would come to use something so hurtful against the figure of Mohammad as the story that closes the Vita, when, after showing the absurdity of Mohammad’s attempt to come back to life on the third day, the writer tells how the Prophet’s body was devoured by dogs. As J. Goñi suggested some time ago in an isolated comment (Goñi 1979, 67), the text was most probably aimed at Christian groups among which the pull of Islam was beginning to be felt. We historians have left the Life of Mohammad in the same obscure area as the Islamic pieces identified by Navascués in the necropolis of Argarai. For specialists in early medieval culture, the presence of a combat text of this kind in the Pyrenees of Navarre was enigmatic (Díaz y Díaz 1969, 229). Nevertheless, the evolution of funerary archaeology, which shows the introduction and the exhibition on the part of Christians of status symbols of an unmistakeably Islamic character, does make us believe in an anti-Mohammedan reaction or, perhaps better said, an attitude contrary to too much closeness on the part of some sectors of the population with regard to the new masters of the peninsula. This reaction must have taken shape, or at least endowed itself with symbols and discourse, in the monasteries of the Pyrenees east of Pamplona. There is no doubt about the ties between these abbeys and the most radical Christian circles of al-Andalus. We also have well-grounded indications of their relationship with other ideological sources, such as Carolingian or Asturian (Díaz y Díaz 1980, 1991, p. 46-47, 114-115, 218-222; Silva 1994; Freeman 2004, p. 284-285). If the news of the Navarrese origins of the Life of Mohammad is due to Eulogius of Córdoba, the most important source for knowledge of the Navarrese and Aragonese Church in the ninth century also comes from the pen of the leader of the most combative sector of the Christians in al-Andalus. It is not by any means a question of chance. We are referring to the letter he wrote from prison in 851 to Willesind, bishop of Pamplona (Eulogius Cordubensis, Epistula III ad Wiliesindum (CSM, 489-503). Three years before writing this letter, during his frustrated attempt to cross the Pyrenees, Eulogius availed himself of the hospitality of the bishop of Pamplona. After his stay, Eulogius told him about his fervent desire to visit the monastery of Siresa, in the valley of Hecho, which he would do prior to staying in other monasteries in the Pyrenees that Willesind directed him to. The most outstanding of these was Leire, where he found the Life of Mohammad that we have already discussed. From prison, Eulogius remembered with passion the warm reception he received from the bishop, as well as the libraries and the spiritual life in the monasteries. All the monasteries that Eulogius visited were

between the last eastern outpost of Navarre and the first valleys of Aragon. Through contrast, this draws a vacuum around Pamplona. Either Eulogius did not seek to go to Pamplona, or, if he was there, it did not interest him at all. To visit the loca sanctorum, the fascinating libraries, the flowering communities, to enjoy conversations that went on until dawn, so that the most bellicose of the Mozarabs felt as though he were in an ideal setting, one had to stay away from Pamplona. There are other indications that come to confirm the picture of the separation of the centre of political power from the world of the sacred. In the first place, we have the geography of the relics connected to the Mozarab environment, and in particular those related to the movement of the voluntary martyrs that Eulogius promoted. In 851, in the area of Huesca, the execution of the sisters Nunilo and Alodia, ����������������������������������������� daughters of a mixed marriage, Muslim father and Christian mother, was immediately assimilated by the Christian leaders into the executions of the voluntary martyrs of Córdoba. Around 880 the relics of Nunilo and Alodia were solemnly transported to the monastery of Leire (Fortún 1993, p. 82 sq), confirming the relationship between this focus of the Pyrenees and the Christian communities of al-Andalus. In Leire, these relics became the principal advocation after that of the Holy Saviour. But their worship did not extend to Pamplona, in whose surrounding area there is no knowledge of even one church dedicated to Nunilo and Alodia; nor is there any report of relics that came from the south (Nieto & Gallego 1986; Jimeno 2003). Nor are there monasteries of any importance in the area of Pamplona; not even when documents began to appear in abundance do we find later accounts that imply their existence. None of the monasteries that Eulogius visited – not even Leire – at a distance of less than thirty kilometres from Pamplona, had the least patrimony until the end of the tenth century. The activity of the bishops, when they have left records, was systematically centred in the eastern regions (CSJP 4 and 8; DML 3; Lacarra 1945, 263; CDC 1 and 2). Even in the accounts of the campaign of ‘Abd al-Rahmân III in 924, ’Arîb ibn Sa’îd points out the magnificence of the church of the Sajrat Qays fortress, while he does not employ any adjective to refer to that of Pamplona (BM/ AIS, 200; MQ V, 125). The contrast – without thinking of Aachen this time, but of Oviedo – is quite remarkable. So, everything took place in such a way that the world of the rulers and that of the church were partially but visibly disconnected, which corresponds with the dual legitimacy that the former had to maintain: for al-Andalus they were emirs, while for the interior they were Christian princes. Naturally, we are not trying to say that there was an abyss between the rulers of Pamplona and the church circles. But we do say that the relationship between them was tense – here was a church armed with discourse and the symbols of the most militant Mozarabs, and a governing group that often married their daughters to Muslims, sometimes collected the jizya for the emir, and was undoubtedly fascinated by more than one aspect of al-Andalus, not only the silks and the coins. It happened that each sector needed 285

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean the other. Unless there was an alternative, abbots, bishops and families linked to them could not afford open hostility. And the Iñigos knew that they needed these means to provide themselves with a discourse of internal recognition, to draw closer to a kind of sacred charisma which would raise them above the other influential families in the country, and to ensure their family’s memory. Perhaps the relationship between the Íñigos and the monastery of Leire provide the most important evidence of these contradictions: without any doubt, the patrimony of Leire in the ninth century was the most meagre among those of the monasteries linked to families of kings or counts in the entire west (Fortún 1993, 209-220).

the infidels. And the earlier existence of the Íñigos was silenced. The paradox is that this Christian kingdom of Pamplona was only possible thanks to the building-up of internal hierarchies closely linked to the periphery of alAndalus, as well as to the construction of a discourse of actively anti-Mohammedan monarchy, springing from the tensions inherent in a political power of dual legitimacy. The ancient territory of the balad Banbalûna was made into a kingdom: its governors no longer received the title of umarâ’ or ashâb, but tâgiya, and from then on the emir would give up any claims over that territory. From being dâr al-islâm it would come to belong to all intents and purposes to dâr al-harb – the land of war.

THE CRISIS OF THE EMIRATE AND THE END OF AN ERA

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The dynastic crisis that toppled the Íñigos from power in Pamplona occurred at the same time as the crisis in the emirate – that is, the fitna or widespread rebellion that shook al-Andalus during the times of the emirs al-Mundhir (886-888) and ‘Abd Allâh (888-912). This was not just a chance coincidence. It was all a political structure, in the centre and on the periphery, that was falling down. The game of rivalries on the Upper March never reached the point of endangering internal stability as the emir of Córdoba was always able to assert his authority by sending his army to support one candidate or another. When the emir’s army found itself unable to abandon the Guadalquivir valley as a consequence of the fitna, the various families devoted themselves to a prolonged war with each other. A war for booty (ghânima) became a conquering war with the intention of taking over (malaka) land and peoples, whether Muslim or Christian. The Upper March became dotted with castles (husûn) built by the ashâb. The family of Banû Qasî, which in 885 still enjoyed a preeminent position, found itself seriously weakened by both the aggression coming from their neighbours and by internal division. So it was that in 920, when the Córdoba army reappeared in the region, under the command of the emir and future caliph ‘Abd al-Rahmân III, the Banû Qasî family was on the point of disappearing from the history of alAndalus. Above all, the way of relating with the Christians changed. A true frontier arose. In effect, the contradictions that caused tension in political power in Pamplona were resolved when the collapse of the emirs’ political structure brought about the downfall of the Íñigos. Victims of the spiral of violence that shook the Valley of the Ebro, the Íñigos were supplanted by the Jimenos in 905, a family originating from the east of the kingdom – that is, from the region of Leire and the other monasteries. The Jimenos fully assumed the discourse of Christian monarchy that had raised the monasteries of the Pyrenees when confronted with the Íñigos and began a policy of gathering Christian forces together and attacking Islam straight on. In the first chronicle of the kingdom, composed in the last quarter of the tenth century, the first king from the Jimeno family, Sancho Garcés I, was presented, above all, as the champion of the battle against 286

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Ramos, M. 2007, Necrópolis de Saratsua (Muruzábal) , in La tierra te sea leve. Arqueología de la muerte en Navarra, Pamplona, 199-202. Ruiz Asencio, J.M. 1968, Campañas de Almanzor contra el reino de León (981-986), Anuario de Estudios Medievales, 5, 31-64. Sánchez Albornoz, C. 1976, Moneda de cambio y moneda de cuenta en el reino asturleonés, in Id., Viejos y nuevos estudios sobre las instituciones medievales españolas, Madrid, t. 2, 855-883. Sánchez Albornoz, C. 1985, Orígenes del Reino de Pamplona. Su vinculación con el Valle del Ebro, Pamplona. Serrano-Piedecasas, L. 1986, Elementos para una historia de la manufactura textil andalusí (siglos IX-XII), Studia Historica. Historia Medieval, 4, 205-227. Silva, S. 1994, Los beatos en La Rioja, Príncipe de Viana, 55, 249-272. TA: Al-’Udrî, Nusûs ‘an al-Andalus min kitâb tarsî’ alakhbâr, ‘A. Al-Ahwânî (ed.). Madrid, 1965. TUA: Al-Faradî, Ta’rîj ‘ulamâ’ al-Andalus, Beyrut, 1997. Wasilewski, J. 2008, The Life of Muhammad in Eulogius of Córdoba: some evidence for the transmission of Greek polemic to the Latin west, “Early Medieval Europe”, 16, 333-353. Wolf, K.B. 1990, The Earliest Latin Lives of Mohammad, in Gervers, M. & Bikhazi, R.J. (eds), Conversion and Continuity: Indigenous Christian Communities in Islamic lands, Eighth to Eighteenth Centuries, Toronto, 89-102.

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THE FRONTIER IN MEDIEVAL SPAIN: A CULTURAL HISTORY José Enrique Ruiz-Domènec Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011 Abstract (2008) Considerazioni sulla frontiera nella Spagna medievale Algunos aspetos de la frontera en la España medieval, con especial referencia a hombres-frontera y situaciones que marcan el devenir de esta realidad social, política y cultural. Considerations on frontier in Medieval Spain Aspects of the frontier in Medieval Spain, with particular attention to the relationship between man and frontier, and situations which mark the evolving of such social, political and cultural context.

and objective in itself. If the fact of being the centre of an expansive cosmos provides a sensation of relief, becoming the subject of a vast historical process which begins in the remote mountains of Asturias in the Covadonga cave in the times of Pelayo, determines what is the vital Spanish style dominated by the mystical effect of vivir desviviéndose (living yearning to please) (Castro 1962). If we dig deeply into the past we discover that the sources which feed the border myth are limitless. Was it not suggested that the lands of al-Andalus were leafy orchards and populous trading cities such as Valencia, Denia, Murcia, Cordoba and Seville? Happiness and prosperity was identified with the South but only after crossing the gateway of death which the use of weapons represented. In the representation of the lands on the other side of the border, beyond the great river (the Guadalquivir), there was a palpable melancholy which never left Spanish literature, whether written in Castilian, Galician or Catalan. Leaving one’s home almost always involves a feeling of loss, even if this is with the intention of improving one’s lot in the new surroundings. Parallel to the desire to occupy the lands of the South, arose a way of writing history which culminated in the monumental work undertaken in the court of Alfonso X the Wise (Linehan 1993). The first “Spanish” colonies after the great conquests of al-Andalus were mainly experiments of new kingdoms, founded upon their own laws (termed fueros) and representing the attempt to introduce more egalitarian ways of life, which sometimes involved recognising the practices of the vanquished as regards agricultural measurements, taxes, irrigation systems, and trading mechanisms (Powers 1988). In this same vein, in Valencia Jaime I founded a kingdom of a feudal nature organised around his own fueros, in the hope of maintaining the balance between the kingdom of Aragon, the county of Barcelona and the estate of Montpellier, his three inherited lands. In Cordoba and Seville, cities taken from the Almohads, the new owner, King Fernando III of Castile, introduced a system of nobility, dominated by primogeniture which, over time, made it possible to create large-scale agricultural units in the hands of powerful landowners with illustrious surnames and coats of arms on the facades of their

Medieval Spain was politically complex in structure but confident of its own superiority, despite the fact that over the course of its early history it had been forced to recognise the military supremacy of the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba, as well as its superior cultural richness (RuizDomènec 2009). Its unique identity would not have come to be without the existence of a number of well-accepted myths concerning borders, or - to use a contemporary term - of powerfully rhetorical meta-narrative related with a place where the Muslim world of al-Andalus was so near and yet so far (Ruiz-Domènec 2003). Depending on the period, the threads of these stories differ in details and at some points appear contradictory, however all evoke open spaces and a Nature generous in pasture and land for pioneers devoted to rainfed agriculture to settle there; they talked about the opportunity of freedom for these pioneers lacked in their homelands of Castile, León, Galicia, Catalonia or Aragon; and above all the idea of the manifest fate of a people; a people who, since the time of Alfonso VIII of Castile, described itself as “Spanish”, as can be borne out in Archbishop Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada’s De rebus Hispaniae. In its purest version the border is the myth of the soldier of fortune who forms part of the popular fiction and epic poems in which an unusual hero - for instance Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar - el Cid Campeador, after having saved the day at the expense of confronting the King, sets off for exile and becomes a charismatic leader. Between the battle of Alarcos in 1186 and the battle of Navas de Tolosa in 1212 a number of stories of epic content circulated through Spain, turning Rodrigo Díaz into a national myth, these stories crystallising into El Cantar de Mío Cid. Pere Abbat completed the copying (or writing) in 1209. The work’s main character left the following political image of the period during which he supposedly lived: the Crown of Castile under Alfonso VI was a civilization based on ecclesiastical values, sophisticated but corrupt, where the barons remaining at the foot of the throne aspire to the king’s favours (Flecher 2002). Embedded within the general consciousness of the people at the start of the 13th century, the figure of el Cid points to the way to give impetus to the dynamic image of the border as a direction 289

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean ancestral homes. The societies which came into being in the border lands were a common feature of the landscape of medieval Spain. Many created significant imagery thanks to the effort of a number of nobles to maintain the production of border stories, such as the ingenious Castilian novel the Libro del Cavallero Zifar which offers us an image of the border’s social profiles, moulded to major changes in the Mediterranean world around 1300, and at the same time the epiphany of a new period in the history of Spain. The best example of that new period can be seen in the figure of Don Juan Manuel (1282-1348), nephew of Alfonso X el Sabio (the Wise). This character exhibited the title of Adelantado Mayor del Reino i.e. lord of the border to the south-west of the kingdom of Murcia, the lands bordering the Nasrid kingdom of Granada (Jiménez Soler 1932). I feel it necessary to sum up the key features of the life and work of this significant character, since they illustrate Spanish border imagery in the 14th century in the best possible way from the standpoint of the culture of neighbours on the other side of the border. Count Lucanor does this in his famous work; a set of short stories or exempla, 51 in total. Another feature is pride. In the Libro de los Estados, Don Juan Manuel refuses to adapt to the dizzying speed of change in the world of the 17th century advocated by the powerful Italian merchants, in particular the Genoese; the intentioned proclamations in favour of each remaining within his own sphere of society show his desire to take things at an easy pace and experience more at first hand the land which, in this particular case, was the border. Pride brings serenity as a reward, based - when all is said and done - on an idea which is perhaps inherited from the mystical Mallorcan writer, Ramon Llull, who Don Juan Manuel read avidly in his early years. Don Juan Manuel enjoys the warmth of human relations, both family and community, kept up through the requirements of a border only a few kilometres away from his native home; the parades and processions as rituals of initiation, or the profits from trading horses and other goods. A positive attitude towards his neighbours on the other side of the border, the Nasrids of Granada, who he admired in combat, was a quality which was taken for granted and demonstrated through both actions and words. For that reason Don Juan Manuel acts as both knight and writer, sword and pen united, not separated: a Spanish dream forged upon the border, which becomes fully visible in the tomb of the Young Nobleman (la tumba del Doncel) in Sigüenza. The world of Don Juan Manuel, although very small in scale, nevertheless made its mark upon the Castilian literary imagination as regards the border world. During the 15th century under the kings of the house of Trastámara, the fiction of the Romancero (collections of ballads) acted as a counterpoint to that of the Cancioneros (collections of songs and poems) which revealed the routines of court life and society (Gumprecht 1991). Historically, this legacy can be seen in the so-called Romances fronterizos (border romances), an extremely interesting variety of the Romances históricos (historical romances), the first example of

which goes back to the year 1368 and relates an episode on the border (the siege of Baeza), taking as a backdrop the civil war between Pedro I and his brother Enrique II. These border romances, mostly in the 15th century, relate the border stories with as much psychological tension as historical (Torres Fontes 1972; Mackay 1976); i.e. they are conceived as the expression of the nobleman’s lifestyle, the continuation of which would be endangered should the kingdom of Granada be conquered. In sum, the heroic exploits exalted by the border romances offered an exceptional backdrop for the search for a beautiful life, in harmony with the chivalrous ideals of the twilight years of the Middle Ages. Let us take, for example, the series of border romances referring to the conquest of Antequera, the great feat of Fernando of Castile who, since then, was known as Fernando of Antequera (a feat which enabled him to aspire to the throne of Aragón with more than enough guarantees, finally achieving this in Caspe). The attitude of the Castilian and Andalusian nobles towards the land on the other side of the border - the Kingdom of Granada - was curiously ambivalent during the entire 15th century (Harvey 1990). On the one hand, the nobles strove to conserve their status of independent kingdom under the protection of the King of Castile and the merchants of Genoa; to recreate their own pleasant world of chivalrous societies and meetings in the Plaza de las Armas within Granada’s Alhambra. On the other hand, however, right from the outset the nobles recognised that they would be conquering the kingdom of Granada whenever circumstances required this. There was therefore a consciousness that this was a much broader and more generous world in relation to which it seemed appropriate to adopt certain commitments. Proof of this is the border romance Abenámar, Abenámar moro de la morería (Abenámar, Abenámar moor of the Moorish Quarter), on whose day of birth “the moon was waxing”; a legendary character who the arabist, Luis Seco de Lucena, chose to identify with the Nasrid prince, Yûsuf ibn al-Mawl, named Abenalmao (Seco de Lucena, 1958). Obviously not all the nobles on the border exhibited the same desire to maintain the existence of the Muslim kingdom of Granada, and therefore the border culture. As a general rule, the closer the link with the court, the further divorced from border values. Those who had recently arrived in Andalusia in the mid 15th century were more willing to put an end to the border world than the noble knights of old Castile. Even the most fervent defenders of the border as the source of wealth did not appear to agree on the usefulness of maintaining this way of life of permanent friction into which some members of their families had lapsed. An influential sector of the court in times of Juan II, and particularly of his son Enrique IV, questioned the need for the border, which was tantamount to declaring oneself in favour of conquering the Muslim kingdom. The romance ¡Ay de mi Alhama! may be seen as the beginning of the end of the frontier culture. This began with a complaint about an action by the Nasrid king, Abû-l Hasan ‘Alî, the Muley Hacén from the chronicles: “You killed the Abencerrages who were the flower of Granada” (Menén290

J. E. Ruiz-Domènec: The Frontier In Medieval Spain: A Cultural History dez Pidal 1938): from here he launches into a long and legendary narrative on the vicissitudes of that dynasty of Moorish knights (Seco de Lucena 1960); a communicative device which served to lend legitimacy to the decision adopted by Isabel of Castile and Fernando of Aragón, the Catholic monarchs, to conquer Granada. In 1551 the publication of El Abencerraje by Antonio de Villegas and in 1561 of Diana by Jorge de Montemayor concur – by no accident – over three events of particular importance in the history of Spain: firstly, the debate over the “new frontier” in America, after the controversial exploits of Hernán Cortés in México or Francisco Pizarro in Peru; secondly, the war of the Alpujarras to stop the rebellion of the Granada moriscos1;_ and thirdly, the development of an admiration for the Moors and Moorish culture (maurofilia) in Spanish literature (Cirot 1938, Goytisolo 1982). This last aspect argues that literary works asserted themselves over and above the memory of historical events. From that moment on literature adapted to the nostalgia of the end of the border era in Europe, as reflected in the novels of the court of Luis XIV, written principally by women (Ruiz-Domènec 2008). The cultural effects of the 14th and 15th century border just described constitute a significant element of the landscape and memory of Spain; they are the true builders of their history, at times in terms of enigma (Sánchez-Albornoz 1962). Most were the product of the fascination produced by the culture of the Muslim bazaar. The nobles who listened to the border romances lived mainly in a rural, peasant environment, in fortified squares, castles, as mayors, or in command of fortresses. To the frugality of sumptuary possessions and the lack of luxury one could add other disadvantages such as language (they did not speak Arabic), religion (they never understood the value of Islam) and race (they looked askance at the world of the Berbers and other nomads who were nevertheless literary heroes such as the Abencerrages). Of course this is the established history of the military border which gave rise to individuals such as Constable Miguel Lucas de Iranzo, whose chronicle is a magnificent example of the frontier world. Retrospectively, in the Spain of the last third of the 16th century and the first decades of the 17th century (let us say between 1580-1630, when the great collections of the Romancero were made) border life in the 14th and 15th centuries is reminisced over with pleasure, obviating the fact that this was a limited world created in part under exceptional circumstances such as, for example, the desire of the Genoese to maintain the Granada “colony”. It could be questioned what it is that authors such as Luís Mármol Carvajal or Ginés Pérez de Hita really wanted to transmit. The Historia de los vandos, de los segries y abencerrajes cavalleros moros by Pérez de Hita expresses the nostalgia of a broad and generous world which had been lost for ever with the advance of Felipe II’s monarchy. These writers dreamed of the world of borders, and they did so through exaggerated stories which were an invitation to the imagination; something that Romantic tra-

vellers understood when they made them the material of their morisco stories, the most famous of which was Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra. But there is more; stretching from El último Abencerraje by Chateaubriand and Doña Isabel de Solís by Martínez de la Rosa to Leila or the siege of Granada by E. G. Bulwer-Lytton, or Zorrilla’s Leyenda de Alhamar (Fernández Almagro, 1991). The memory of the border culture came through the acquisition of a splendid and unequalled past which served to compensate for the evils which cast a shadow upon the history and culture of Spain in the 19th century. And in this way the “national” political view, which culminated in the conception of Spain as a nation possessing a manifest destiny, was made patent in the times of Isabel II and particularly those of her son Alfonso XII - that of having striven during the entire Middle Ages to reconquer a land which had been lost in 711. This daring view touched a nerve in Spaniards, undoubtedly in part because they were incapable of understanding the violent drifting of their political and social action at the start of the 20th century without a past of continuous war forged from their conduct and morals. This viewpoint was very often formulated by the politicians and propagandists of the Restoration, as if the future of the country were linked in some way to the significance of the frontier in medieval Spain. BIBLIOGRAPHY Castro, A. 1966. La realidad histórica de España, México, Porrúa, (1ª ed. Buenos Aires, 1948) Cirot, G. 1938-1944. La Maurophilia litteraire en Espagne au XVI siècle, en “Bulletin Hispanique”, 1938-1944. Fernández, A. 1991. Melchor, Granada en la literatura romántica española (1951), ed. Cristina Viñes. Madrid, Rueda. Flecher, R. 2001. The Cross and the Crescent, London, Penguin. Jiménez Soler, A. 1932. Don Juan Manuel. Biografía y estudio crítico, Zaragoza. Goytisolo, J. 1982. Cara y cruz del moro en nuestra literatura, en Cronicas sarracinas. Barcelona. Gumprecht, H. U. 1991. Intertextuality and Autum/Autum and the Modern Reception of the Middle Ages, en M. S. Browlee, et alii, The New Medievalism. Baltimore and London, The Johns Hopkins University Press. Harvey, L.P. 1990. Islamic Spain 1250 to 1500, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press. Lewis, D. L. 2008. God’s Crucible. Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215, New York, W.W. Norton. Linehan, P. 1993. History and the Historians of Medieval Spain, Oxford, Clarendon Press. Mackay, A. 1976. The ballad and the frontier in late medieval Spain, “Bulletin of Hispanic Studies”, vol. LIII, 1533. Mármol Carvajal, L. del 1573. Primera parte de la descripción general de África, Granada, René Rabut. Menéndez Pidal, R. 1938. Flor de romances viejos, Buenos Aires, Espasa.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

MASTIO, MOTTA E CINTA, ARCHETIPI DEI CASTELLI CROCIATI Marco Bini Cecilia Luschi Università degli studi di Firenze A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011 Abstract (2008) Motta and Chemise. Two Archetypes of Cruser Castles Several years of research on Cruser castles have allowed very reliable data to be recorded, resulted then in surveying large parts of the fortified buildings. The plan hasdealt with the span between the 10th and 13th century , with the purpose of investigating thedevelopment of fortified structures, tracing the main steps of their evolution. A great opportunity for this project has come from the profitable co-operation with Prof. Vanniniat his excavations in Jordan. The collected data have allowed a wider comparative study interms of morphology, which is still under way. Our attention has been turned to therecognizability of masonries, which may derive from the European trition, questioningtherefore the common and followed theory that Arabic styles eventually influenced the new military solutions of 12th and 13th century . Sharing the idea that one cannot speak of ascattered Cruser phenomenon, without taking systematically into account what hhappened in Europe immediately before the Cruses, we have selected some interesting structures, founded in a frontier zone, which might have conclusively given some cluesabout the architectural development of medieval military settlements. Within the Jordanmission, the castles of Shoubak, Wu’ Ayra and Habis have been investigated as functionalunits, and some constant factors, in terms of building typologies and components, seem to have been focused on to estimating the territorial role of each fortified settlement. The building unit has been divided on the basis of standard topics; in principle, we have stressed on: access system, tower system, specific constructions like churches, and water supply system. The comparative study of dimensional analysis and geometric characteristics of those architectural frames has let some considerations arise to new perspectives still under way of verification. As regards the European experience, we have selected some buildings, which were well famous among their contemporaries themselves for their imposing construction and, at the same time, may have indicated models that were opted and evolved during the first Cruser epoch. Our particular interest has been turned to the scattered building pattern of the motta, which can well be assumed as original element of Middle Ages rather than tritional military structures of Classical Age, at least considering the building meaning, that is with regard to the erected architectural element rather than landscape morphological feature. Deep studies in this sense have turned to the European context, both in France and Italy: respectively at Gisors and San Marco Argentano; these two fortifications are upon a motta and characterised byan encircling chemise and a central keep. These three elements appear as connected witheach others and attest to the first stone-built construction during the early Normanexpansion, which forerun garrison’s attack and defence military solutions, that willthereafter have been evolved in the castles of the first Cruses. Their access systemspresent a sequence of towered structures, which have definitely met with success in theHoly Land. Moreover, the tower system indicates building technologies, which may beregarded as standard factors in terms of general dimension and masonry morphology. Asfar as this brief paper concern, in conclusion, some Jordanian sites may be put forward asfortified structures, but not castles stricto sensu, whilst the increase of their role may haveextended over the territory in different ways than assumed hitherto.

in Europa, abbiamo scelto alcune strutture significative in ambito delle fondazioni di frontiera, che potevano aiutarci a ricucire in maniera organica lo sviluppo architettonico degli insediamenti militari medievali. Lo stile, la funzione, la distribuzione, la composizione e gli accorgimenti tecnologici, sono tutti aspetti che connotano un qual si voglia manufatto edilizio. All’interno della tipologia delle strutture fortificate, si può attuare una scomposizione di vario tipo: una strutturale, una funzionale ed una basata su scelte tecnologiche. Le relative aggettivazioni fra quelle stilistiche e quelle compositive, sono veicolatrici del pensiero progettuale. La questione importante è quella di focalizzare l’attenzione sui principi progettuali, e sulla possibilità di renderli facilmente comunicabili in cantiere. Si deve quindi riflette sul modo di comunicare un progetto, sul modo di progettare e su come renderlo esecutivo in fase d’opera. Se il sistema individuato giustifica una linea evolutiva coerente, si può ragionevolmente fissare un processo di derivazione delle forme più innovative; occorrerà dunque cercare di porre più tasselli per individuare possibili influenze ed innesti esterni alla cultura produttrice dei principi regolatori. Il mondo classico consegna al Medio Evo un profilo dell’architetto complesso che riassume in sé sapienza tecnica, accortezza strutturale e conoscenza del linguaggio

Molti anni di ricerche sui castelli Crociati, hanno permesso di raccogliere dati ad alto livello di affidabilità, che si sono concretizzati in rilevi metrici di porzioni significative degli impianti fortificati. Il programma di studio ha inteso affrontare un arco di tempo compreso fra il X e XIII secolo, ponendosi come obiettivo la tematica di sviluppo delle strutture fortificate, tracciando le tappe fondamentali della loro evoluzione. Il lavoro ha avuto una significativa opportunità nell’affiancare, in modo proficuo, gli scavi giordani condotti da Guido Vannini.1 Il punto di vista che più ci appartiene, si concentra sulla riconoscibilità dei manufatti edilizi secondo la trizione Europea, mettendo in discussione la più ampia e praticata teoria riguardo il possibile innesto di stilemi arabi per le nuove soluzioni militari del XII e XIII secolo. Condividendo il fatto che non si possa parlare di fenomeno castellare crociato senza prendere atto, in maniera sistemica, di che cosa accadesse immediatamente prima delle crociate 1

Missione archeologica dell’Università di Firenze “Petra Medievale Archeologia degli insediamneti di epoca crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania”. Direttore del progetto: Guido Vannini (Dipartimento di Studi Storici e Geografici dell’Università degli studi di Firenze; Analisi architettoniche e rilievi: Marco Bini, Stefano Bertocci (Dipartimento di Progettazione dell’Architettura dell’Università degli studi di Firenze). Per i crediti relativi Bini Bertocci 2004; Vannini 2007.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean architettonico come prodotto della cultura egemone. La visione olistica coinvolge pienamente la figura dell’architetto e le profonde convinzioni filosofiche, politiche e religiose che hanno condizionato, ancor prima della necessità, l’impiego di importanti risorse economiche e d’uomini; tutto ciò ha portato a delle accelerazioni in termini di progresso della tecnologia edilizia e nella progettazione architettonica stessa. Riguardo ai castelli, spesso, ci troviamo di fronte a soluzioni singolari ma che superano brillantemente problematiche morfologiche o problemi strutturali; ed ancora, la volontà progettuale soggiace totalmente al pensiero filosofico per aderire integralmente alla volontà politico culturale attrice in primis dell’azione architettonica. Lo studio svolto sui castelli del periodo crociato si è sviluppato su una linea funzionale e compositiva che è andata a ricercare precedenti europei per poter enucleare elementi autonomi che, aggregati ed evoluti, potessero essere i postulati dei castelli crociati di Terra Santa. Metodologicamente le indagini si sono orientate verso un confronto dimensionale, valutando le caratteristiche geometriche delle strutture architettoniche tese a individuare permanenze importanti per individuare lo sviluppo del pensiero progettuale stesso. Riguardo al confronto con l’esperienza Europea, abbiamo scelto alcune costruzioni già famose fra i contemporanei per la loro possente struttura e che, al contempo, proponessero stilemi adottati ed amplificati durante la stagione delle prime crociate: dalla presa alla perdita di Gerusalemme. Di particolare interesse è la struttura castellare imperniata sulla motta, che nel medioevo si configura come elemento fondamentale in continuità con la trizione militare classica. É un elemento architettonico costruito, e coglie appieno le opportunità morfologiche del territorio. La motta è stata, da noi, indagata in ambiente europeo, sia nella Francia che nell’Italia Normanna, a Gisors2 e a San Marco Argentano.3 Queste due fortificazioni sono entram-

be costituite da una motta, una cinta muraria di coronamento ed un torrione centrale. Tre elementi interconnessi fra di loro che si pongono come primi riferimenti edilizi realizzati in pietra, durante la prima espansione normanna, e che, a nostro giudizio, anticipano le soluzioni militari sviluppate nel primo periodo crociato. I rispettivi sistemi di accesso, propongono successioni di elementi turriti che hanno avuto molta fortuna in Terrasanta. Il sistema turrito, inoltre, ha rivelato tecnologie costruttive che possono assurgere a costanti in ordine di dimensioni generali e di trama muraria. Le strutture europee così studiate sono state messe in relazione con i castelli giordani di Schoubak,4 Wu ‘Ayra5 e Al-Habis (Bini - Bertocci 2004; Pringle 1998), secondo unità funzionali, che ci hanno permesso di focalizzare alcune costanti edilizie e compositive al fine di valutare il ruolo territoriale dell’insediamento fortificato. LA MOTTA La struttura della motta intesa come elemento costruito e rivestito in conci, ovvero con glacis, è presente a Gisors, a San Marco Argentano, a Shoubak, in parte Al-Habis ma assente a Wu’Ayra. (Figura1 e Figura 2) Dall’analisi comparativa emerge che molto spesso la motta contiene, nella sua sezione interna, delle cisterne, dimostrando di essere un accorgimento difensivo che ha avuto un notevole successo. Evoluzione della motta classica, può essere considerata quella costruita tramite la creazione di valli artificiali particolarmente profondi e di ampia sezione; là dove non vi è una disponibilità d’acqua, ed il terreno non offre occasioni morfologiche sufficienti, la motta viene predisposta artificialmente. Nell’esperienza crociata trova più ampia applicazione, con la forma più efficace alla difesa, cioè munita di cinta muraria parzialmente crollata. Il territorio, controllato dal castello, è posto nella così detta Calabria Citra, esattamente a metà tra fra il Mar Ionio ed il Mar Tirreno. All’interno di esso si trovano due grandi abbazie, la Sambucina di fondazione cistercense, e la Santa Maria della Matina di fondazione benedettina; nel territorio è inoltre presente una comunità giovannita testimoniata dalla chiesa di San Giovanni degli Amalfitani. San Marco è la prima sede reale del Normanno Guiscardo d’Altavilla che quivi si insedia attorno al 1042, allorquando viene seguito dall’abate benedettino Robert de Granmesnill con altri dieci monaci che si insediano alla Matina e poi a Melfi insieme alla corte. Il castello di epoca normanna risale al 1046, con implementazioni successive databili intorno ai primissimi anni del XII secolo. La torre circolare che costituisce il mastio è una delle prime testimonianze di fortificazione in conci di pietra del XI secolo, anteriore anche a Gisors. I rilievi sono stati effettuati nel ottobre 2006 da una equipe del Dipartimento di progettazione dell’Architettura di Firenze; nei dieci giorni di missione si è realizzato un rilievo integrato con strumentazione scanner laser 3D. Del gruppo di ricerca hanno fatto parte: Marco Bini, Barbara Aterini Giorgio Verdiani, Mauro Giannini, Cecilia Luschi, Francesco Tioli, Nicola Niccolai, Laura Aiello e il laureando Renato Canonico. 4 (Bini e Bertocci 2004; Itinera Hierosolymitana Crucesignatorum 1978; Pringle 1998; Vannini 2007). Conosciuto dai crociati con il nome di Montreal, il castello viene spesso descritto dai pellegrini che si recavano sulla via dell’esodo, trovandosi in prossimità della valle di Mosè. Il castello fu sede della signoria di Transgiordania sotto il controllo dello stesso Baldovino, primo fautore della rifondazione della struttura fortificata, avvenuta intorno al 1111\1118. 5 (Burckhardt 1822). Le rovine del castello di Wu’Ayra vengono segnalate anche da successivi resoconti:( Palmer 1871; Robinson 1841).

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(Bini 2005; Mesqui 1998). Gisors fortificazione sull’Epté realizzata per volontà di Enrico I, aveva principalmente funzione di presidio territoriale, ed è fra i primi castelli essere costruito in pietra, nel nord Europa. Si distingue in questa area geografica per essere un castello reale, su cui si impernia anche la strategia di controllo di Enrico II il Plantageneto ed ospita all’interno delle sue mura lo stesso Riccardo Cuor di Leone di ritorno dalla crociata, dopo la sua prigionia. La sua data di fondazione è stata individuata intorno al 1089, con un primo intervento di riassetto strutturale effettuato nel 1123/1124. All’inizio del XI secolo il duca normanno Riccardo II, chiama in Normandia l’abate benedettino lombardo Guglielmo da Volpiano, a testimoniare il legame consolidato fra la gerarchia Normanna, futura protagonista della scena europea, ed i benedettini provenienti dalla penisola italiana. Gisors, una formidabile architettura con tecnologie attuate con il solo materiale lapideo, è testimonianza di un potere in ascesa, quello normanno, che si affida totalmente all’apparato monastico benedettino, come gli storici ci insegnano. I rilievi sono stati effettuati nel settembre 2004 da una equipe del Dipartimento di progettazione dell’Architettura di Firenze; nei dieci giorni di missione si è realizzato un rilievo integrato con strumentazione scanner laser 3D. Del gruppo di ricerca hanno fatto parte: Marco Bini, Stefeno Bertocci, Mauro Giannini, Cecilia Luschi, Francesco Tioli, Giorgio Verdiani, Andrea Bacci ed il laureando Nicola Niccolai. 3 (Occhiato 1987); San Marco Argentano si trova in Calabria, nell’Italia meridionale, ed è un borgo fortificato di cui oggi si può ammirare la spendila torre circolare posta sulla sommità del paese, a coronamento di una motta

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M. Bini, C. Luschi: mastio, motta e cinta, archetipi dei castelli crociati che caratterizzano l’architettura fortificata del Medioevo.6 Anche a Gisors, entrano in gioco aree quadrate di diverso valore ma concatenate fra loro secondo relazioni pitagoriche precise: una dimensione pari a cinque moduli ed una seconda pari a sette. Con le sole relazioni geometriche dei quadrati 5 e 7, si può comporre l’intero organismo applicando un unico schema geometrico. (Figura 3) L’inclinazione della motta è data, usando il modulo unitario, dal rapporto 3 e 4. Questo sistema fa si che man mano che si proceda nell’alzato la struttura si rastrema secondo quantità costanti. L’errore in fase di cantiere è minimo e le azioni sono ripetitive sino al punto di imposta della sommità. È chiaro che il cantiere può essere controllato in ogni momento nella sua crescita, procedendo per referenziazione dei piani; le dimensioni planimetriche della piazza alta sono determinate a priori in modo da avere la nozione precisa di quando cessare la rastremazione. Una tale procedura sembra essere confermata anche a San Marco Argentano, dove le dimensioni delle varie aree si basano su una misura composta da sei moduli; questa determina una rastremazione con moduli unitari in ragione di 1 e 2, dando origine ad una motta con un angolo di circa sessanta gradi. La costruzione dell’elevato appare ancora una volta semplice e controllabile sino al raggiungimento della misura voluta per la piazza alta. Sia a Gisors che a San Marco si riscontra una volontà progettuale che fa della motta il primo elemento della ridotta di un sistema difensivo; è la parte strutturale di fondazione e presenta al suo interno vani di tipo infrastrutturale quali cisterne e pozzi. Non si può escludere vi siano anche percorsi ipogei di connessione con l’esterno. In entrambi i casi è presente sulla superficie troncoconica un rivestimento lapideo che si oppone con efficacia alla salita: il glacis. Questa tipologia di motta differisce per aspetto costruttivo e per la sua enfasi verticale dai piani di imposta dei castelli realizzati con valli perimetrali. Il principio di questi ultimi si rifà alla morfologia del terreno e ne sfrutta le potenzialità inserendo elementi funzionali alla difesa, isolando parti elevate per mezzo della creazione di fossati scavati nel terreno o di tagli nella roccia . Wu ‘Ayra ne è un esempio: la motta non compare, ma il piano di imposta delle strutture fortificate è delimitato da valli, approfittando anche di falesie leggermente rimodellate, secondo una tecnica molto classica che mira al risparmio del materiale da costruzione ed al suo facile reperimento, estraendolo dal vallo stesso, (Figura 4) in una sorta di atteggiamento autarchico del cantiere che in condizioni estreme di difficoltà economica o di lontananza dai poli di approvvigionamento, viene attuato. Da notare che, questo tipo di cantierizzazione, era in uso per la realizzazione di particolari strutture lontane dai centri e dalle vie di comunicazione più battute; in Italia, fra l’altro, vi sono molti centri monastici realizzati secondo questa economia di cantiere.

quella tronco-conica. Le dimensioni ridotte della motta nei siti europei studiati ha permesso di valutare quale fosse la relazione con ciò che la sormonta. Il rilievo tridimensionale ha fornito dati di analisi da cui è emersa una significativa proporzionalità fra l’altezza della motta, l’angolo di rastremazione, il keep o mastio e la dimensione della piazza alta delimitata dalla chemise. La proporzionalità fra i vari elementi della struttura fortificata è sicuramente un fatto intuibile; vanno comunque escluse casualità nell’organizzazione della struttura per avere, esse stesse, un obbligo statico che veniva, controllato geometricamente. Le considerazioni statiche e la gestione compositiva esercitati attraverso la geometria ha due effetti significativi sulle strutture: il primo é quello di realizzare approssimazioni dimensionali che generano errori trascurabili; le quantità incommensurabili, di fatto, in architettura non esistono, avendo l’esigenza di approssimare relazioni irrazionali a quantità intere. Per essere più chiari, l’utilizzazione della diagonale di un qurato, implicherebbe l’introduzione della radice di due, che invece viene rapportata al lato del quadrato stesso per mezzo di numeri interi. Il secondo è quello di far emergere significative analogie nelle soluzioni strutturali; nella loro ripetitività, si possono osservare varianti geometriche derivanti dalla possibilità compositiva che lo stesso schema geometrico permette, senza tradire la funzione statica. Oggi possiamo spingerci verso l’ipotesi di un rapporto geometrico preciso che consentirebbe di capire l’evoluzione progettuale di questi organismi architettonici. La motta dunque è analizzata confrontando le caratteristiche geometriche in modo da apprezzare le diverse composizioni. In pratica sia l’angolo della direttrice sia lo sviluppo della generatrice della motta sono dimensionati proporzionalmente secondo lo spiccato della torre; non importa quanto poi la sommità debba essere ampia. La quota di imposta della piazza alta, è progettata secondo lo schema proporzionale dei diversi elementi architettonici. La struttura del castello di Gisors, presenta una cinta poligonale esterna scandita ai suoi vertici da torri; il centro dell’area così circoscritta è occupata dalla motta la cui generatrice, computabile al livello terra, è organizzata secondo aree quadrate legate fra loro in ragione delle quantità numeriche 5 e 7. Questo tipo di analisi merita una spiegazione più estesa, per far comprendere cosa in architettura conti sia durante la fase progettuale che quella realizzativa. Atteso che tutti abbiamo presente cosa sia una operazione di centuriazione del territorio, trasportiamo il solito concetto alla scala architettonica; ci accorgeremo che con semplici principi geometrici di relazione di qurati e con terne pitagoriche, è possibile comporre uno schema geometrico proporzionato che si ritrova nel costruito legando pianta ed alzato. La famosa affermazione ‘ quadratum, riassume in sé un quantità infinita di aggregazioni di aree quadrate che possno diventare genesi di aree poligonali o aree circolari che generano volumi netti, parallelepipedi o cilindrici,

6 Senza volerci dilungare eccessivamente con descrizioni tecniche, pensiamo al gioco degli scacchi e alle infinite partite che vi si possono giocare eseguendo le stesse mosse in combinazioni diverse. Forse non è un caso che il gioco degli scacchi fosse molto amato e di grande successo proprio nel periodo Medievale.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean IL MASTIO O KEEP O DONJON

Il rilievo tridimensionale tramite scanner laser 3D, che permette di rendere misurabili anche punti della costruzione non accessibili direttamente, ha evidenziato un particolare significativo. Sempre sul lato Nord, al penultimo livello del donjon, si trova una porta che è allineata ad una arcata mozza, che volge verso l’esterno. La sottostante arcata e la superiore porta sono allineate con l’interno dei muri la cui posizione è suggerita dagli spiccati di fondazione sopra descritti. All’interno la stessa apertura non ha una corrispondente in asse ma risulta spostata. Ciò ha fatto dire agli studiosi che, per questa anomalia, si potesse essere in presenza di una latrina.9 La ricostruzione del rilievo tridimensionale, ha evidenziato che le due porte, non in asse, davano entrambe in un corridoio, di circa 90 cm, ricavato nello spessore murario, e che tale corridoio disegnava un percorso a ‘zig zag’. Questa connessione, con cambio rapido di direzione a novanta gradi, obbedisce un principio difensivo, e, se letta dall’esterno verso l’interno, risulta essere destrorsa. Va detto inoltre che la torre scalare estradossata, è stata realizzata in una seconda fase, coeva all’inserimento del sistema a tenaglia del torrione circolare templare posto sul lato sud est della cinta bassa. Per ricapitolare: siamo in presenza di un accesso ben sagomato e inquadrato con accennato uno spicco di volta che probabilmente fungeva da corridore aereo. Nella sezione muraria corrispondente si è scoperto un breve percorso a zig zag, che interfaccia l’accesso esterno con uno interno. Per quanto appena descritto si può ipotizzare l’esistenza di un probabile sistema turrito di avanporta, con accesso al torrione in quota. La soluzione appare di buon senso e si allineerebbe al principio base di molti casi analoghi. Il torrione Circolare di San Marco Argentano ha il suo accesso un livello superiore rispetto al piano della piazza alta; esso si articola secondo un doppio passaggio con una torre di avamporta ed un ponte ligneo, oggi passerella. Il sistema di accesso che possiamo studiare è in parte alterato e male interpretato dai restauri. In realtà il sistema di accesso era assicurato da una unica rampa che dall’esterno arrivava al donjon passando dentro la torre di avamporta, come accade ad Aleppo, tanto per avere un esemplificazione molto conosciuta. Per quanto concerne Gisors il collegamento verticale all’interno del mastio, era assicurato da scale lignee passanti nelle aule, e, successivamente, da una torre scalare, dossata, costruita all’epoca del primo ammodernamento, allorquando, come appena detto, venne posizionato in basso un cassero con torre circolare. Un altro esempio significativo di torrione circolare di epoca normanna legato a Gisors e facente parte della stessa linea difensiva impostata sull’Eptè, è sicuramente San Martino, che per dimensioni, per caratteristiche dell’organizzazione della sezione muraria e per la presenza dalla motta, sembra essere molto vicino alle intenzioni progettuali di San Marco Argentano. (Figure 6 e 7) Come in San Martino, in San Marco le scale si sviluppano all’interno dello spessore murario: sembra questa una

Il mastio7 è un corpo turrito imponente per altezza e per massa, di ragguardevoli dimensioni e con possenti muri, necessari per avere una adeguata risposta statica. La struttura quindi deve scaricare le forze del proprio peso e le sollecitazioni dovute un attacco esclusivamente all’interno della sezione dei muri, riducendo al minimo le discontinuità, rappresentate dalle aperture. Questa tipologia di strutture, ha un accesso unico ed è priva di una back door, ovvero una via d’uscita, almeno per quanto possiamo vedere oggi. Il principio funzionale punta sulla loro inespugnabilità: in genere spiccano dalla piazza d’armi alta, posta in cima alla motta dove si apre l’accesso per raggiungere i vari livelli che li compongono. Il sistema di accesso, dei masti di Gisors e di San Marco risultano essere diversi; non vi è un vero e proprio keep a Shoubak, mentre lo rileviamo Al-Habis. A nostro parere non compare a Wu’Ayra8 a meno di non considerare come mastio, tutta l’area compresa nel perimetro delle mura turrite. Non sembra inoltre corretto poter definire come donjon la torre sud, come affermato da Hugh Kennedy (Kennedy 2001, 24) sia per le modeste dimensioni planimetriche della torre stessa che per la sua sezione muraria. Dal punto di vista prettamente architettonico, si dovrebbe invece parlare, in questo caso, di una torre estroflessa per la difesa di fiancheggiamento dell’entrata verso il nartece della chiesa dell’insediamento stesso. É altrettanto poco convincente, seppur suggestivo, definire Mastio tutta l’area interna alla cinta muraria meglio definibile come perimetro munito, con torri angolari, e non rompitratta. Di una siffatta caratteristica ne parleremo più avanti, confrontando la chemise dei castelli. A conferma che per Wu’Ayra non si possa parlare di vero e proprio donjon, in ragione della morfologia architettonica e della struttura portante discordanti con le caratteristiche sopra individuate, occorre una ulteriore riflessione in merito agli accessi, che riprenderemo in seguito. Osserviamo che a Gisors l’accesso al donjon, è a livello della piazza alta. Per quanto attiene agli studi svolti, sembra in realtà che l’attuale accesso al mastio, quasi in asse con quello della chemise, non fosse il sistema originale. Il principio per cui man mano che ci si avvicina al torione centrale si debba essere obbligati ad un percorso a spirale ed in salita, per poter accedere all’interno, a Gisors viene, nello stato di fatto, completamente smentito. Nella parte Nord direttamente incassato nella motta, è visibile un sistema di fondazioni allineato con la geometria planimetrica del donjon, che fa pensare ad una elisione di un corpo costruito, con esuberanti sezioni murarie, a giudicare dallo spiccato di fondazione, presumibilmente, quindi, piuttosto alto. (Figura 5) 7

Per quanto concerne la terminologia, si preferisce definire questa unità funzionale architettonica con il termine di mastio, per essere quella originale derivante da magister, ovvero “che presiede”. Per ragioni formali, al fine di evitare ripetizioni useremo i termini keep e donjon come sinonimi, pur riferendosi, questi, più alle qualità formali che funzionali. 8 Fino oggi la letteratura di merito ha considerato Wu’Ayra come Castello a tutti gli effetti, individuando le tipiche componenti funzionali all’interno dell’area.(Bini e Bertocci 2004; Kennedy 2001; Marino 2001; Pringle 1993; Vannini 2007).

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Per un primo lavoro approfondito M 1963, 253 e segg.

M. Bini, C. Luschi: mastio, motta e cinta, archetipi dei castelli crociati castellare, che spesso, già in periodo tardo antico,10 sono la piattaforma sperimentale di soluzioni sia statiche che distributive dei castelli stessi. Rileggendo dunque il percorso degli arcieri di Montreal e quello presente nella cinta muraria esterna di Gisors, troveremo molti punti in comune, a partire da come essi vengono strutturati, con il percorso dei conversi nelle varie abbazie europee11(Figura 9). San Marco Argentano ha un interessante camminamento nella sezione del muro, occupato come già descritto dalla scala, ma ha anche un percorso, oggi solo parzialmente accessibile, all’interno della chemise che si snoda oltre la motta; analogamente a Gisors si sono rinvenute alcune tracce di un corridoio nella sezione muraria all’interno della chemise, ed anzi, per anticipare un tema suscettibile di futuri approfondimenti in merito a questo argomento, si sospetta che la muratura ospiti due livelli di percorsi anulari posti nella sua sezione. Gisors inoltre offre l’occasione, di effettuare un paragone fra il concetto difensivo ed architettonico del donjon e la struttura turrita a tenaglia che successivamente viene incardinata a sud est nell’angolo del perimetro murario. Il nuovo sistema difensivo è dominato da un torrione circolare nominato ‘torre dei prigionieri’, che, se pur non coeva, sembrerebbe una convincente riproposizione in chiave più raffinata ed elegante di San Marco Argentano, compreso il sistema di accesso.12 A nostro modesto avviso, proprio questa nuova porzione della fortificazione di Gisors, potrebbe essere attribuita, in toto, alla progettazione templare. La torre dei prigionieri è circolare e si sviluppa su tre livelli; presenta due accessi che sfruttano entrambi la sommità delle mura del castello con un percorso in quota che corre verso nord. Le scale sono ricavate nello spessore del muro, e sempre nello spessore sono ricavati degli anditi tra cui una latrina. Questa particolarità è proposta dal torrione normanno di San Marco Argentano dove lo spessore del muro è sfruttato oltre che per i vani finestra, anche per il posizionamento dei camini, delle latrine e delle bocche per attingere l’acqua dalla cisterna. Il keep dunque, anche nella sua forma più arcaica, era organizzato internamente secondo specifiche funzioni dove i singoli spazi sincopati possono

soluzione assolutamente più frequente e praticata negli insediamenti crociati successivi. La soluzione di incassare le scale nello spessore murario, ha due valenze dal punto di vista architettonico; durante il cantiere queste crescono con la struttura e sono utilizzate come scale di cantiere, favorendo il risparmio di impalcature lignee e contribuendo fortemente alla sicurezza cantieristica; l’altro aspetto è da ricercarsi in ambito statico; infatti oltre alla classica rastremazione dei muri all’interno, la scala alleggerisce la struttura, contribuendo incatenare la muratura interna con l’esterna fungendo anche da ‘ammortizzatore’ in caso di colpi esterni. Nelle torri angolari scalari, e nei percorsi anulari interni allo spessore murario dei castelli di epoca successiva, ritroveremo le solite caratteristiche, in una sorta di amplificazione del principio generale. (Figura 8) Le aperture, lungo la scala sono regolate in modo da consentire al pianerottolo di raccordarsi col piano delle aule interne del torrione, oltre a prolungarsi nel vano della finestra. Sia per Gisors che per San Marco, vale la relazione geometrica secondo cui l’altezza delle torri è pari allo spiccato della motta. Ciò significa che le problematiche statiche vengono affrontate e risolte nel loro complesso al momento della costruzione della motta e parte dei vani, nonché le fondazioni del keep, sono organizzati durante la costruzione della motta stessa. Per quanto concerne l’analisi architettonica siamo convinti che non si possa prescindere da un progetto complessivo e che questo venga controllato, a varie scale, concordemente col procedere dell’alzato. Se analizziamo il castello di Shoubak, Montreal, non troviamo un keep semplice ma un’area fortificata, in posizione più elevata rispetto alla quota di accesso, dove, dal centro verso il perimetro esterno, si procede per strutture concentriche. Le zone specialistiche e i percorsi sono ricavati fra le giustapposizioni delle cinte murarie, che si articolano su vari livelli. Montreal offre un elemento aggiuntivo rispetto ai castelli di Gisors e di San Marco, costituito da ambienti connettivi interni, non più ricavati nello spessore del muro, o meglio non solo ricavati all’interno della sezione, ma portati fuori ed affiancati al muro in modo da potenziarne la funzionalità. Si tratta del così detto percorso degli arcieri. Le scale esterne al mastio, ovvero la torre scalare, sono una sorta di disimpegno che non ingombra la sezione del torrione e liberano il passaggio da introspezioni non volute; Gisors denuncia nel suo ammodernamento l’esigenza di disimpegnare le aule dal percorso di collegamento. La scala entro lo spessore murario, funge già da disimpegno e libera le varie camere da passaggi indesiderati. Nella struttura polifunzionale del Castello questi spazi sono necessari e la rete di connessione che assicurano diventa determinante per l’efficacia della difesa. Nel periodo precedente alle crociate ci sono solo alcuni tipi di strutture che ripropongono questa efficace soluzione di percorribilità interna, in modo così complesso e completo: i monasteri benedettini e le abbazie cistercensi. In entrambi i casi siamo in presenza di strutture fortificate in materiale lapideo che sembrano anticipare le soluzioni del mondo

10

Per quanto riguarda la cronologia del periodo tardo antico e sullo sviluppo dei principi classici nell’alto Medio Evo (Perkins 1996). 11 I corridoi sono ambienti connettivi, ricavati all’interno del sistema di contrafforte che ciascun muro portante compie nei confronti del suo omologo più interno e posto, spesso, ad un livello diverso. Si tratta di un principio di bilanciamento delle spinte dove una mezza arcata che si dossa al muro più interno scarica la componente delle forze di quello interno sulla struttura più esterna. Al di sotto di questa arcata leggermente a sesto rialzato, si snodano appunto i corridoi. La soluzione architettonica, particolarmente affascinante per i molti vantaggi che ottiene a più livelli, è concepita e realizzata in numerose abbazie e la ritroviamo nei castelli crociati come a Montreal. 12 (Mesqui 1963, Bini 2005); la Torre dei Prigionieri, è un manufatto edilizio cilindrico munito di scarpa. È posizionato al vertice dell’angolo che compie il tracciato del muro perimetrale esterno del castello. Proprio il muro permette l’ingresso in quota alla torre, secondo due accessi, che si dipartono dall’aula principale: il primo con direzione ovest, ovvero l’ingresso, il secondo con direzione nord, via di fuga. Le camere sovrapposte, in numero di quattro, sono collegate da una scala interna allo spessore del muro.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean rappresentare un programma edilizio completo e multifunzionale. Lo studio condotto in questi anni così descrive l’insediamento fortificato di Wu ‘Ayra: …. L’analisi dell’impianto urbanistico, soprattutto per quanto riguarda l’area del cassero mostra evidenti intenti pianificatori, presenti nella realizzazione della fortificazione;…. Abbiamo individuato l’intero sviluppo del circuito difensivo crociato che comprendeva al proprio interno una superficie di circa 17.330 mq, con un perimetro pari a ml 1.100, difeso da torrette di avvistamento e postazioni di guardia, con il cassero sul lato sud orientale ed una area urbanizzata, probabilmente un borgo, sviluppata sul pianoro nella porzione sud dell’area (Bini e Bertocci 2004, 83). Il castello di Wu’Ayra non presenta in realtà, come abbiamo detto, né una motta, come gli altri insediamenti, né un keep con caratteristiche di unità edilizia. Se a Shoubak il keep è rappresentato da un nucleo edilizio compreso fra il corridoio degli arceri e la posizione del così detto palazzo Ayyubide, e ad Habis vi è proprio il torrione in posizione più elevata, a Wu’Ayra formalmente manca; vi è però una cinta muraria particolarmente estesa con torri angolari da poter considerare come una chemise.

feriscono alla produzione edilizia dei monasteri fortificati. La chemise coronando la motta nasconde il mastio e accentua i dislivelli; ha sezione muraria proporzionata come risulta a Gisors, e San Marco; si tratta comunque sempre di murature a sacco con rivestimento in conci di sezione ragguardevole, considerando che spesso viene ricavato al suo interno un percorso, o la sua sommità è interessata da strutture lignee con camminamenti apicali. La chemise di Wu’Ayra, è costituita da un muro di cinta perimetrale che ha sezione ridotta, mediamente un metro e mezzo, rapportata ai due metri della muratura alla base delle torri; il perimetro murario inoltre è munito di feritoie e si fortifica negli angoli, dove il tracciato compie un cambio di direzione, organizzandosi con torri qurangolari di circa quattro metri e venti; non vi sono evidenze di torri rompitratta. Per quanto sommariamente detto, nell’intenzione di concludere un ragionamento sulla tipologia e sulla funzionalità dell’architettura specialistica dei castelli di primo periodo crociato, potremmo dire che il progetto dei castelli normanni studiati in questa sede sembra appartenere ad un’unica scuola tecnologica e di filosofia difensiva; lo suggerisce il modo di aggregazione delle aree di progetto che, ricordiamo, sono regolatrici sia del cantiere, sia delle tempistiche e della quantità dei materiali. Diremmo ancora che per quanto riguarda la torre del Guiscardo, in Calabria, si ha anche contezza di chi avrebbe potuto farsi carico del progetto del mastio o almeno da quale scuola provenisse l’artefice. Nel periodo di espansione normanna in sud Italia, infatti, scende anche un nucleo di dieci abati architetti, della cerchia del Granmesnil, ed il Granmesnil13 in persona. Uno di essi, Adelardo, diviene abate della Matina, antica abbazia, prossima al castello di San Marco. Di contro a Gisors, si ha notizia che le cave di Caen, sotto il controllo benedettino, forniscono materiale per munire il fronte dell’Eptè.14 Potremmo azzardare l’ipotesi che in ambo i casi, i progettisti siano da ricercarsi in ambito benedettino, e che le conoscenze classiche filtrate ed aggiornate, siano maturate in ambito abbaziale e trasferite direttamente nella costruzione di castelli. La capacità edilizia degli abati in fondo è ampiamente testimoniata, sino almeno a Federico II,15 per non parlare dell’attività conclamata di studio e di perfezionamento successivi. In ragione di ciò può succedere che un castello od una struttura fortificata presentino similitudini strutturali proprie anche degli organismi abbaziali o di villaggi rurali afferenti una abbazia: pensiamo alle grange o alle bastides francesi.

LA CHEMISE La chemise, posta alla sommità della motta, in continuità con il glacis, è una muraglia alta creata per la protezione ravvicinata del torrione, ha funzione di copertura difensiva della parte inferiore del mastio. In entrambi i castelli europei studiati, la chemise non presenta, nei brani superstiti, alcuna apertura, eccezion fatta a Gisors, per la parte interessata dalla chiesa di Saint Tomas Becket, realizzata in un secondo momento dossandosi alla chemise stessa, dove vi è ricavata una finestra feritoia. Il rilievo, per quel che riguarda Gisors, ha evidenziato, come sopra accennato, tracce di un possibile doppio percorso interno alla chemise. Il modello francese propone, delle nervature che, come paraste, rinforzano gli angoli della poligonale nei punti più deboli. Già Vitruvio ricorda che la forma migliore, per opporsi alla forza di attacco, è senza dubbio quella cilindrica o circolare in genere; la chemise di Chatou Gaillard (Bini 2005, 57) pare osservare rigorosamente tale regola proponendo un andamento polilobato, e San Marco rimane fedele a tale principio sia nel mastio che nella cinta di coronamento. Sembra facile trasferire il concetto di chemise a quello di muro perimetrale di un castello, ma alcune differenze si devo annotare per l’evoluzione della funzione. La chemise non ha aperture ma ha percorsi apicali, oltre a quelli posti nella sua sezione che risultano meri collegamenti privi di feritoie di controllo. Le mura di un castello più complesso dislocano lungo il proprio sviluppo, feritoie di controllo e strutture aggettanti per la difesa fiancheggiante. Tutto ciò e sicuramente una evoluzione che è presente in varie strutture europee precrociate ma che non appartengono affatto alla tipologia castellare; piuttosto af-

Dopo quanto sostenuto, proviamo a leggere nuovamente 13

Sull’argomento Occhiato 1987. Le cave di Caen vengono affidate, dal re normanno, ai Benedettini che le organizzano e le gestiscono. Sono le cave di Caen che forniscono il materiale edilizio anche all’Inghilterra, inviando navi cariche di conci già preparati per realizzare i capitelli della cattedrale di San’Agostino. In merito a tale particolare viene narrato il così detto “Miracolo di Sant’Agostino”, a cui fu attribuita la salvezza della nave che portava proprio il carico per la fabbrica a Lui dedicata. Tatton-Brown 2001, 305314. Gem 1987, 83-101 15 Varie sedute del Capitolo generale cistercense riportano concessioni e richiami alle Abbazie, del sud Italia, che mettevano a disposizione i propri conversi all’Imperatore Federico II, per la costruzione dei castelli. (Bini, Luschi e Bacci 2006, 35-48; Decaens 1994, 43; Farina 1998). 14

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M. Bini, C. Luschi: mastio, motta e cinta, archetipi dei castelli crociati l’insediamento fortificato di Wu ‘Ayra che in arabo vuol dire “luogo aspro ed impervio” analogo come significato al termine gastina.16Queste condizioni territoriali sono ricorrenti nelle concessioni di aree alle fondazioni religiose, per realizzare insediamenti eremitici o nuclei residenziali produttivi. Come abbiamo sopra detto l’insediamento di Wu’Ayra non ha motta, è privo di donjon, ma è caratterizzato da un’area rettangolare che suggerisce un progettualità diversa, non usuale, in un castello che dovrebbe avere caratteristiche di fortificazioni ben maggiori di quanto non abbia Wu’Ayra. L’orografia che caratterizza l’area la pone in posizione defilata, e non a vista rispetto a nessun altro castello, a meno di una teorizzata torre che potesse traguardare il keep di Habis, situata sulla sommità denominata Khubtha. Diversamente è proposto dal Kennedy che teorizza un contatto visivo diretto fra i due castelli, a mezzo della torre sud interpretata come keep. Riteniamo che non vi siano torri, che possano elevarsi oltre i 14 metri di altezza, viste le sezioni murarie rilevate e le dimensioni planimetriche, insufficienti per poter creare un collegamento visivo con Habis. É pur strano trovare un castello così fuori dalla rete di controllo, a meno che la posizione defilata non fosse cercata e ponderata per una funzione diversa da quella che un castello abitualmente assolve. Ricordiamo inoltre che all’interno del castello di Wu’Ayra sono state ritrovate delle tombe così descritte: …. Nella zona a sud della chiesa, in prossimità della rampa che conduce all’accesso laterale della stessa, è stata rinvenuta l’area cimiteriale di epoca crociata costituita, allo stato attuale delle ricerche, da due tombe scavate direttamente nella roccia con, sul fondo, la sagoma destinata accogliere il cavere e, superiormente, la sede di incasso per la chiusura (Bini-Bertocci 2004, 153). Un tale uso risulta anomalo, in quanto all’interno di un castello, non vengono seppelliti dei morti, che per le condizioni climatiche sono inumati sempre fuori dalla cinta muraria; così è anche per Schoubak, che ne conta due, uno cristiano ed uno mussulmano, posti nel fondo valle.17 Dobbiamo parimenti annotare che Wu’Ayra ha un orientamento rigoroso. L’area è organizzata come se fosse una bastide, ovvero la chiesa è posta al nord della corte con asse longitudinale est ovest pressoché perfetto. I castelli hanno certo una cappella, o più di una, ma per esigenze prevalenti di tipo militare, sono orientate approssimativamente est ovest. Succede così a Schoubak, a Gisors, a Kerak. Ma a Wu’Ayra l’asse est ovest della cappella, che occupa anche la posizione più elevata, è perfetta. Inoltre i rettifili

del perimetro creano angoli retti che sono punti di grande debolezza, tanto da dovervi posizionare torri angolari. La chemise inoltre, con quella sezione non poteva essere tanto alta da inibire ogni possibilità di lancio a distanza. La ricerca si è spinta a rintracciare un qualunque insediamento, di una certa importanza, che potesse essere scambiato per castello, e che fosse cronologicamente congruente con il periodo di datazione acquisito. Una possibile risposta la troviamo all’interno degli annali del Marrique,18 e confermata dallo Janauschek.19 Si apprende da queste fonti, se pur indirette, dell’esistenza di un’abbazia di patronato imperiale la cui fondazione è stata collocata intorno al 1199;20 dedicata a Sant’Angelo in Petra, è l’abbazia più a oriente dell’ordine Cistercense, figlia di Hautecombe21 e sorella di Fossanova. In una lettera di Gregorio IX, viene ricordato che alcuni monaci greci, rifiutando l’obbedienza alla gerarchia latina, lasciarono il monastero di Rufinianes, posto all’interno del patriarcato di Costantinopoli. In un primo momento l’abate di Sant’Angelo di Petra, aveva pensato di trasferirvi il titolo abbaziale, con tutta la comunità, ma poi, considerato l’inopportunità di tale progetto, aveva chiesto ed ottenuto di poterlo officiare con quattro monaci. L’inopportunità si era palesata per due importanti motivi, come è riportato; il primo che avrebbe dovuto rinunciare al patronato imperiale, il secondo è che non avrebbe potuto trasferirvi i corpi dei nobili Latini sepolti nella sua abbazia.22 Una coincidenza di questo tipo, ci induce ad approfondire la conformazione del sito fortificato di Wu’Ayra che presenta all’esterno della parte munita, un insediamento produttivo con un laghetto artificiale, almeno da quanto rinvenuto durante le campagne di studio in sito. Da un punto di vista compositivo funzionale possiamo osservare che la chiesa, aula mono-absidata, con pastofori fiancheggianti l’abside, presenta sul lato ovest uno spazio che potrebbe essere considerato un vero e proprio nartece, rivolto verso la comunità, posto all’esterno del circuito murario principale, mentre una seconda porta, forse la principale, si apre sul lato sud in diretto collegamento col luogo dove sono state rinvenute le sepolture. Lo schema ricalca quello delle chiese abbaziali ben più grandi. (Figura 10) La composizione quadrangolare di tutto l’impianto, oltre ad avere una conformazione geometrica molto romana, non smentisce la possibilità che si possa trattare dell’Abbazia fortificata di Sant’Angelo a Petra, con tutta la sua comunità di conversi. Va tenuto presente che le ricerche 18

L’autore riferisce di una notizia ripresa direttamente da Cesareo, una delle fonti più autorevoli della storia cistercense, in parte perduto ma trascritto dallo stesso Manrique.(Manrique 1642-1649). 19 ( Janauschek 1877), che riporta l’inumazione di nobili latini all’interno dell’Abbazia di ‘Sant’Angelo in Petra’. 20 La data coincide approssimativamente con i risultati emersi dagli scavi e dalle analisi effettuate dal Vannini. Fra gli altri Vannini e , Tonghini 1997, 371-384. 21 Va sottolineato inoltre che Hautecombe, fu fondata cistercense da Amedeo III di Savoia detto il Crociato e morto a Cipro, rilevando una precedente fondazione benedettina. (Manrique 1642-1649, anno 1199, v; Janauschek 1877). 22 (Manrique 1642-1649, vol. III, cap. III, anno 1199). L’autore è molto preciso riguardo alla fonte delle sue notizie attribuendo a Cesareo, come già anticipato, la descrizione di Sant’Angelo a Petra, e facendo quindi risalire l’affiliazione al 1199..

Gastina è un termine che si ritrova nei documenti di privilegi e concessioni fatte ai Teutonici, in Terrasanta; indica, come la stessa radice “gas” suggerisce, un territorio desolato, una steppa, una zona aspra ed inospitale. 17 In merito al tema della presenza di tombe nei castelli crociati, si è voluto interpellare, per un maggior conforto, OPCF M. Piccirillo, incontrato a Gerusalemme nel maggio 2008; egli, con disponibilità e pazienza, ascoltando i termini della questione, ha confermato che non si era mai imbattuto in tombe interne al circuito principale di un castello ed in generale non ne era a conoscenza, eccetto che per Wu’Ayra. Si portera caro il ricordo di quel incontro che non potrà mai più avere un ulteriore seguito. 16

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Farina, F. 1998. L’organizzazione dei cistercensi nell’epoca feudale. Frosinone,ed Casamari. Gem, R. 1987. Canterbury and the cushion capital: a commentary on passages from Goscelin’s de miraculis Sancti Agustini , in Stratford, N., Romanesque and Gothic: essays for George Zarnecki, Woodbridge, 83-101. Janauschek, L.1877. Originum Cistercensium, tomus I. Vindobonae . Kennedy, H. 2001. Cruser castles, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press . Manrique, A. 1642-1649. Cistercensium seu verius ecclesiasticorum annalum a conditio Cisterci., Lugduni . Marino, L. 2001. La motta e il donjon dell’epoca delle crociate, in “Castellum”,n.43. Marino, L. 1994. Siti e monumenti della Giordania, rapporto sulla stato di conservazione, Firenze, Alinea. Mesqui, J.1998. Le chàteau de Gisors aux XII et XIII siècle, in « Bullettin Monumentail ». Occhiato, G. 1987. Robert de Grandmesnil: un abate “architetto” operante in Calabria nel secolo XI. Studi Medievali, serie III, anno XXVIII, fasc. II, Centro Italiano Studi sull’Alto Medioevo. Spoleto. Palmer, E.H. 1871. The desert of Exodus, Cambridge, II. Pepin, E. 1963. Gisors et la vallèe de l’Eptè. Paris Perkins, B.W. 1996. Urban survival and urban transformation in the eastern Mediterranean, in “mediterranean”, Early mieval town in West Mediterranean, P.Brogiolo (ed.)Mantova 1996. Robinson, E. 1841. Biblical researches in Palestine and the iacent regions: a Journal of Travels in the year 1838, London, II. Pringle, D. 1993. The churches of the Cruser Kingdom of Jerusalem. A corpus, I II, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Tatton-Brown T. La pierre de Caen en angleterre - les plus anciens exemples d’utilization de la pierre de Caen en Angleterre, in AA. VV., L’architecture Normanne au Moyen Age, II edizione, Presses universitaires de Caen, Vol. I. Caen Vannini, G. e Tonghini, C. 1997. Medieval Petra. The stratigraphic evidence from recent archaeo¬logical excavations at al-Wu’Ayra, in The sixth international conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan. Amman. Vannini G. (ed .) 2007. Archeologia dell’insediamento crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania. Il progetto Shawbak. Firenze, All’Insegna del Giglio.

della comunità cistercense, attualmente, danno il sito dell’abbazia di Sant’Angelo a Petra non identificato. Alla luce delle considerazioni fatte, siamo fortemente propensi a riconoscere, nelle fortificazioni crociate in Terra Santa, uno sviluppo formale e funzionale mutuato direttamente dall’esperienza abbaziale. Le fondazioni monastiche europee ed italiane in particolare possono essere a pieno titolo considerate la piattaforma sperimentale di soluzioni strutturali e distributive dei nuovi castelli di Terra Santa. L’organizzazione monastica è l’unico segmento sociale che, oltre a conservare i principi della classicità greca e latina, ha sviluppato tecnologie estrattive di cava, ha prodotto architetti ed ingegneri tali da poter costruire in materiale lapideo od in cotto, strutture architettoniche complesse. Per la prima volta si sperimentano le strutture voltate a crociera, riducendo le sezioni murarie ed ottenendo strutture particolarmente ampie e solide. La gravitas cistercense produce inoltre, nella sua essenzialità architettonica, una prolifica scuola compositiva che è capace di adattarsi a qualunque tipo di territorio. Una così vasta esperienza dal punto di vista strutturale e funzionale non può essere tralasciata dagli studi concernenti i castelli medievali, comparando forme e strutture dei vari organismi edilizi coevi. Consideriamo che, in fondo, i castelli crociati che più ci affascinano e ci offrono spunti di riflessione sono quelli dei Templari, dei Giovanniti, dei Teutonici, tutti ‘monaci’ anche se in armi.

BIBLIOGRAFIA AA.VV., Itinera Hierosolymitana Crucesignatorum, vol. I, 1978, vol. II 1980, vol. III 1983, textus latini cum versione Italica, Francescan Printing Press. Jerusalem Bini, M. e Bertocci S.2004. Castelli di Pietre, Aspetti formali e materiali dei castelli crociati nell’area di Petra in Transgiordania. Firenze, Polistampa. Bini M. 2005. Il castello di Gisors, Resoconto della campagna di rilievo per una ricerca tipologica e funzionale. Firenze, Alinea. Bini, M., Luschi, C. e Bacci, A. 2005. Il Castello di Prato, strategie per un insediamento medioevale, Firenze, Alinea. Burckhardt, J.L. 1822. Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, London. Decaens, J. 2001. Le temps des châteaux - Maison fortes, in L’architecture normanne au moyen age, II edizione, I, 177-180. Caen, Presses universitaires de Caen.

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Figura 1. Il castello di Shoubak in Transgiordania. Ben visibile la grande motta sulla cui sommità si erge il castello.

Figura 2. Il Castelo di Gisors (sopra) ed il Castello di San Marco Argentano (sotto). Confronto fra i due profili dove sono evidenti gli elementi caratteristici: la motta, la chemise ed il mastio. Rilievi effettuati con tecnologia laser-scanner 3D.

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Figura 3. Piante e sezioni del Castelo di Gisors e di San Marco Argentano con evidenziate le costruzioni geometriche, base del procedimento progettuale e costruttivo delle strutture difensive. Lo schema geometrico proposto, da conto della proporzionalità fra la motta, il mastio e la cerchia muraria, oltre a regolare l’inclinazione della motta stessa.

Figura 4. Insediamento fortificato di Wu’Ayra. Il vallo artificiale ottenuto tagliando la roccia che divide la torre angolare nord dalla sequenza di feritoie a difesa del Wuadi, visto dall’interno e dall’esterno del borgo.

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Figura 5. Il Castelo di Gisors. Rilievi delle tracce del primitivo sistema di accesso al mastio, realizzato in quota.

Figura 6. La torre dei Prigionieri nel castello di Gisors. Pianta e sezione in una raffigurazione dell’inizio del XX secolo.

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Figura 7. Neufles San Martin. Sezione del mastio circolare, planimetria della motta ed immagine fotografica di quanto oggi rimane della possente fortificazione.

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Figura 8. Castello di San Marco Argentano. Sezione dei vani voltati sovrapposti che mostra l’organizzazione interna del mastio.

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Figura 9. Il Camminamento degli arcieri nel castello di Shoubak ed in quello di Gisors.

Figura 10. Pianta dell’insediamento fortificato di Wu’Ayra. Sono evidenziati gli accessi e le aree specialistiche oggi riconoscibili: in giallo le torri, sia di avamporta che angolari; in rosso la chiesa; in arancio la zona cimiteriale. Si è voluto, inoltre, rappresentare la modularità che lega la dimensione della chiesa all’estensione complessiva del plateau e alla dimensione planimetrica delle torri. Con questo semplice sistema di aree qurate si può valutare il grado di proporzionalità intercorrente fra i vari elementi architettonici dell’impianto. Si può dedurre facilmente come l’ampiezza della chiesa costituisca il modulo base architettonico.

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RILIEVO E DOCUMENTAZIONE ARCHEOLOGICA: UN GIS BASATO SULLA FOTOGRAMMETRIA PER L’ANALISI STRATIGRAFICA DEGLI ELEVATI Pierre Drap, Julien Seinturier, Gilles Gaillard, Massimiliano Casenove Cnrs-Lsis Marseille Abstract (2008) Archaeological surveying and recording: photogrammetry-based GIS for upstanding structures stratigraphic analysis. Archaeological recording, characterised by high standard integration between graphic and non-graphic items (stratigraphic and qualitative information, multimedial elements, various notes). Survey, conceived as interpretation of real world, must have a predetermined and specific purpose. All the instruments presented here allow to achieve, by means of photogrammetry, a complete graphic production, from a mass of points to the GIS (Geographic Information System) software’s bidimensional realization of stratigraphic contexts. The connection between the geometrical information acquired by such application and the archaeological knowledge, inserted in a relevant database of traditional type (or more flexible types, as those based on XML), is settled by archaeologists. Pad and pencil, always archaeologists’ reliable tools, can now be replaced or, at least, supported by softwares able to manage both photogrammetric and non-graphic data. As concern upstanding structures photogrammetric survey, the basic atomic element is the single block of stone. As early as this stage, the archaeologist, who uses such implementation system, can, during the surveying, make his considerations (lithotype, its belonging to a specific context, its dressing, etc.) and hypotheses about a given ashlar (i.e., how deep it gets into the wall). The geometry of measured blocks is linked to the archaeological database, named Petradata, thus the measured blocks shape the archaeological items: from the characteristics of detailed frontage drawings to USM (wall context), etc… and so a query to the database can soon yield a group of stones, relevant to a specific wall context, projected on a plane. Photogrammetry is the best measurement method for such an implementation. It is better than other applications at least for three reasons: - Photogrammetry uses digital photos, so that it transfers information, which is not only metrological but also qualitative. Qualitative photos can actually result in detecting specific material and frame of masonries; - Photogrammetry allows to work at two stages: a field-work for sampling (taking photos, measurements), and afterwards lab-processing of data. - Photogrammetric data are various and very versatile: single points relevant to the survey, orthophoto, files for GIS software, mass of points (whose high resolution match other much more expensive instruments, like, for example, laser scanner). The innovation of such implementation is not only represented by its new capacities (3D drawing, GeoTiff, georeferential Orthophoto, complex mass of points achieved by surface massing, ShapeFile and GeoTiff format data transfer to GIS software), but also a real change of the traditional approach to surveying. The geometrical information comes from a query to the database, where archaeological notes and records have been collected (in this case to Petradata); data provided by the software pipeline will result in geometrical reconstructions of selected objects (either single blocks, wall contexts or overall views). This methodology has first been tried out on a building (CF5) of the castle of Shawbak; the database, which has collected both archaeological information and 3D graphic data, is named Showback.

Da alcuni anni all’interno del Progetto Shawbak è in atto una collaborazione tra il Cnrs-Lsis di Marsiglia e la Cattedra di Archeologia Medievale di Firenze con lo scopo di sviluppare un sistema integrato di documentazione e di gestione dei dati ottenuti dalla lettura archeologica degli elevati1. Il primo passo, necessario in ogni progetto che intenda coagulare molteplici competenze, è stato quello di cercare di comprendere i differenti punti di vista e i rispettivi linguaggi per fare sì che quella frontiera che solitamente separa le diverse discipline diventasse invece una linea di comunicazione attraverso cui ampliare la conoscenza. L’obiettivo primario è lo sviluppo di un insieme di strumenti che vanno dalla produzione di documentazione grafica tradizionale, come ortofoto o modelli 3D a bassa risoluzione (VRML), all’uso di un sistema informativo geografico 3D/2D, attraverso la creazione di una banca-dati unica per tutti i dati archeologici. L’utilizzazione di questi strumenti deve permettere agli archeologi di produrre, conservare, visualizzare e gestire tutte le tipologie di dati che hanno a loro disposizione, di tipo tanto geometrico quanto testuale e fotografico.

Il punto di partenza nell’elaborazione del sistema GIS 3D/2D Showback è che tutte le informazioni archeologiche vengano veicolate dal rilievo delle strutture studiate. Da qui la necessità di trovare una definizione condivisa di rilievo come interpretazione del mondo reale (Drap, Nucciotti 2009), operazione in cui si uniscono la misura dell’oggetto da rilevare e la conoscenza archeologica del manufatto. La base teorica è pertanto l’idea che il rilievo possa essere un’espressione di conoscenza, tanto geometrico-quantitativa che qualitativa. 2 Analizzando la documentazione usualmente prodotta per la lettura stratigrafica degli elevati (dagli eidotipi stratigrafici alle ortofoto, alle elaborazioni di foto, oltre che le schede di usm3), si è cercato di capirne profondamente le esigenze per riuscire a trovare un sistema capace di assolvere a tutte le funzioni fin qui svolte da essa e di offrire inoltre miglioramenti consistenti, come, ad esempio, la produzione di parte di questa documentazione in automatico (Figura 1). Studiando gli elaborati prodotti nei rilievi utilizzati come supporto e come comunicazione della lettura stratigrafica di un elevato si è ritenuto che lo strumento più adatto ad esprimere il maggior numero di informazioni

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La scelta di lavorare per l’ottenimento di un sistema complessivo di raccolta, immagazzinamento e gestione dei dati di lettura archeologica degli elevati è stata dettata dall’importanza rivestita dallo studio delle strutture fuori terra all’interno del Progetto Shawbak, condotto secondo le indicazioni dell’archeologia leggera (Vannini, Nucciotti 2009, 28), che bene si prestava a sviluppare ricerche già avviate dallo scrivente sulle problematiche del rilievo dei manufatti architettonici (Drap et alii 2000).

Per citare un riferimento teorico che risale ad una fase di riflessione sulle connessioni tra rilievo e stratigrafia muraria: “Agire sull’efficacia del rilievo, renderlo “critico”, ossia, letteralmente, capace di distinguere - … - i fenomeni edilizi, mi è apparso un passo necessario ….” Doglioni 1988, 223. 3 Con usm si intende unità stratigrafica muraria, secondo la definizione di Brogiolo 1988.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean debba prevedere anzitutto la tridimensionalità.4 La proposta è stata quella di lavorare con la fotogrammetria che, a partire dalla fase della raccolta dati sul campo, permette di snellire i tempi di ripresa e i costi, rispetto ad altri strumenti di rilievo 3D come, ad esempio, il Laser Scan. Inoltre, dalla ripresa fotografica sino al rilievo, il lavoro può essere svolto interamente dall’archeologo, che così può ad inserire sin da subito operativamente nel rilievo la sua conoscenza dell’oggetto della ricerca. La fotogrammetria infatti, con l’uso di una macchina digitale calibrata, applicando poche regole per la ripresa delle foto, permette di ottenere modelli inseribili nel sistema geodetico del sito, mediante l’acquisizione di punti di controllo battuti con la Stazione Totale e/o il DGPS.

che si immettono anche i rapporti fisico-stratigrafici di tutte le usm individuate durante l’analisi archeologica, all’interno di una apposita scheda collegata a ciascuno degli elementi rilevati. Concettualmente, il rilievo è effettuato a partire da una query ad un database, entro cui si hanno tanto le informazioni geometriche quanto quelle archeologiche (Figura 2). Elaborare un software che permetta questa operazione comporta, anzitutto, la definizione dell’elemento minimo che deve essere preso in considerazione. La scelta ha portato ad individuare come elemento di base del rilievo il concio, il blocco lapideo, che, a differenza dell’usm, ha un modello teorico geometrico, potendo essere definibile a priori come un prisma. La definizione teorica del blocco, oltre alle sue caratteristiche geometriche, è data anche dalla sua posizione all’interno del paramento o dalla sua appartenenza a specifiche membrature architettoniche. La misura di ogni singolo concio deve poter essere condotta dall’archeologo e perciò si è anzitutto cercato di fare in modo che si potesse scegliere il punto da misurare su di un’unica foto, in pratica “nascondendo” le operazioni di calcolo. Una volta che l’archeologo ha scelto su una foto orientata il punto da misurare, il software si occupa di realizzare l’intersezione di questo punto con il piano teorico del muro e di riportarlo su tutte le altre foto correlate in cui questo punto è presente (apportando via, via una serie di correzioni necessarie). In questo modo l’archeologo è in grado di misurare tutti i punti che ritiene significativi per il rilievo di ogni singolo concio. È evidente che il rilievo sarà fatto sulla faccia a vista del concio, mentre la sua profondità sarà ottenuta mediante estrusione, secondo le indicazioni fornite dall’archeologo. Il risultato di questa operazione di rilevamento potrà anche essere utilizzato per generare in automatico, mediante una richiesta al database, le nuvole di punti di una qualunque delle aree rilevate (Figura 3). Nella fase della misurazione dei blocchi l’archeologo correla ciascuno di essi a tutte le informazioni archeologiche necessarie (appartenenza del blocco ad una usm, rapporti fisico-stratigrafiche con le altre, litotipo utilizzato, tipo di lavorazione a cui ciascun blocco è stato sottoposto, strumento di lavorazione utilizzato etc.). Nel database ora sono presenti tutte le informazioni, geometriche e qualitative, e quindi è possibile, mediante una query riuscire a visualizzare il 3D dell’oggetto, ad esempio in un formato gestibile da Autocad. Molto interessante è, però, che il modello 3D prodotto sia effettivamente l’interfaccia di tutte le informazioni contenute nel database,7 tanto quelle geometriche che quelle archeologiche. Pertanto mediante interrogazioni al database è possibile visualizzare le usm, le usm sul supporto grafico delle immagini, ma anche ottenere colorazioni tematiche che visualizzino le misure dei

Le tappe del lavoro possono essere distinte principalmente in tre operazioni: 1. le riprese fotografiche, sul campo; 2. l’orientamento delle foto, in laboratorio; 3. il rilievo vero e proprio e la generazione dei dati, in laboratorio.5 Le campagne di ripresa delle foto sul campo attualmente hanno raggiunto la copertura totale di 9 corpi di fabbrica.6 L’orientamento delle foto (800 foto orientate in totale), sino ad ora fatto manualmente, è l’operazione che comporta il maggior dispendio di tempo e proprio per ovviare a questa difficoltà è in corso di messa a punto un procedimento che permetterà la loro generazione in automatico, con conseguente velocizzazione e semplificazione del lavoro. L’ultima fase è quella del rilievo vero e proprio. Interessante è che il rilievo sia eseguito in laboratorio, lasciando il massimo tempo possibile sul campo alla lettura archeologica. Inoltre il rilievo è svolto dall’archeologo in modo che si possano effettivamente coniugare la misurazione dell’oggetto con la conoscenza specifica, che solo la competenza del ricercatore che ha condotto l’analisi sul campo può inserire nella scelta dei punti da discretizzare e nella definizione dei caratteri archeologici. La misurazione avviene lavorando su di un’unica immagine, dopo l’orientamento delle foto, (si è infatti ritenuto utile ”nascondere” il processo fotogrammetrico che comporta la misura di ciascun punto su una coppia di foto orientate, per rendere più agile questo compito che non deve essere portato a termine da un esperto di fotogrammetria, ma da un archeologo). Nel momento in cui esegue il rilievo infatti l’archeologo inserisce anche una serie di informazioni, tra cui la principale (ai fini della lettura stratigrafica) è l’appartenenza di ciascun elemento rilevato ad una usm. È in questa fase 4

Nonostante la notevole produzione di letture stratigrafiche su ortofotopiani, è evidente che la resa di una lettura stratigrafica di un edificio sia spesso meglio comunicabile, in tutta la sua complessità, mediante un modello tridimensionale. Inoltre, la raccolta dei dati necessari Tridimensionalità che racchiude i dati bidimensionali 5 Due operazioni su tre devono essere effettuate in laboratorio e sono, senza dubbio, quelle che richiedono il maggior dispendio di tempo. Questo è un dato virtuoso nel caso in esame, essendo, in genere, per necessità, le campagne sul campo a Shawbak limitate ad una all’anno e con tempi sempre strettamente contingentati. 6 Si tratta dei corpi di fabbrica cf 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 18, 24, 32, e 34.

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Sino ad oggi gli archeologi a Shawbak hanno lavorato con un database relazionale, il PETRAdata, che contiene tutte le informazioni dal livello del sito a quello dei reperti archeologici. Generalmente noi invece siamo abituati a lavorare con databases in XML, più agili, che, però, reggono un minor numero di dati. La scelta che è stata fatta per ora è di lavorare con un database misto, che possa contenere una grande mole di dati, ma con delle relazioni alleggerite.

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P. Drap, J. seinturier, G. Gaillard, M. Casenove: Rilievo e documentazione archeologica blocchi (Figura 4).8 Sempre ponendo query al database è possibile estrarre un’immagine con le informazioni sulla presenza della malta (Figura 5), generare modelli 2D, su cui visualizzare la lettura stratigrafica, ad esempio escludendo dalla visualizzazione il perimetro dei blocchi, e tutte le altre informazioni disponibili. Infine è anche possibile, proprio perché il database alla fine del rilievo contiene tutti i dati geometrici e qualitativi, oltre che quelli fotogrammetrici, richiamare la nuvola di punti utilizzati per il rilievo. Come si vede pertanto il database, oltre a contenere tutte le informazioni raccolte nella fase di studio dell’oggetto archeologico, permette anche loro elaborazioni successive, creando nuovi piani di letture e di analisi (Drap et alii 2009). Questa prima fase della ricerca congiunta tra archeologi e ricercatori di Computer Science ha messo in luce inoltre una nuova linea di indagine possibile. Infatti, lavorando sulla formalizzazione teorica delle usm per la realizzazione del software si è iniziato a riflettere sul carattere spaziotemporale delle usm e dei loro rapporti e, dal momento che un elemento di organizzazione e di visualizzazione dei rapporti stratigrafici tra usm è quello ottenuto mediante la realizzazione del matrix di Harris (Harris 1983), si è cercato di mettere a fuoco il problema forse principale che discende da esso, cioè quello della rappresentazione solo puntiforme del tempo. Nel campo dell’intelligenza artificiale J. F. Allen (Allen 1983) ha proposto un metodo che, attraverso la codificazione di 13 relazioni, permette di gestire anche la durata. Il prossimo obiettivo della nostra ricerca andrà quindi nella direzione di provare ad affiancare alla visione puntiforme harrisiana la gestione della durata.

BIBLIOGRAFIA Allen J. F.,. 1983, Maintaining knowledge about temporal intervals. Journal of the ACM, Volume 26, 832—843. Brogiolo, G.P. 1988. Archeologia dell’edilizia storica, Como. Doglioni, F. 1988. La Ricerca sulle strutture edilizie tra archeologia stratigrafica e restauro architettonico, in Archeologia e restauro dei monumenti, a cura di R. Francovich – R. Parenti, Firenze, 223-247. Drap P. et alii 2000. A stone-by-stone photogrammetric survey using architectural knowledge formalised on the ARPENTEUR Photogrammetric workstation, in XIXth Congress of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), Geoinformation for all, Amsterdam. Vol.:XXXIII, part 5, 8. Drap, P. et alii. 2009. Going to Shawbak (Jordan) and getting the data back: toward a 3D GIS dedicated to medieval archaeology, in Proceedings of the 3rd ISPRS International Workshop 3D-ARCH 2009, Fabio Remondino, Sabry El-Hakim and Lorenzo Gonzo, ISPRS Commission V - WG 4 and FBK-IRST, Trento, Italia et NRC-CNRC et ETH Zurich, Suisse, vol. XXXVIII-5/W1, pp. 320-328. Drap, P., Nucciotti, M. 2009. Il rilievo archeologico a Shawbak. Un uso combinato di misura e documentazione archeologica, in Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una frontiera, Catalogo della Mostra (Firenze 13 luglio-11 ottobre 2009), a cura di G. Vannini, M. Nucciotti, Firenze, 166-173. Harris, E.C. 1983. Principi di stratigrafia archeologica, Roma. Vannini, G., Nucciotti, M. 2009. Un problema di visibilità archeologica: territorio, analisi “leggere” e sintesi storiche, in Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una frontiera, Catalogo della Mostra (Firenze 13 luglio-11 ottobre 2009), a cura di G. Vannini, M. Nucciotti, Firenze, 28-31.

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È possibile indicare classi di dimensioni specifiche relative alle lunghezze o alle altezze dei blocchi e verificarne il pattern della loro presenza all’interno di un corpo di fabbrica o anche dei diversi corpi di fabbrica analizzati.

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Figura 1. Esempio di documentazione tradizionale per la lettura stratigrafica degli elevati (lettura vettorializzata su ortofoto)

Figura 2. 3D e lettura stratigrafica dell’oggetto misurato ottenuti mediante una query rivolta al database

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Figura 3. Nuvola di punti utilizzata per il rilievo

Figura 4. Esempio di risposta ad una query secondo classi di altezze dei conti

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Figura 5. Visualizzazione della presenza della malta

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ALCUNE CONSIDERAZIONI SUL RESTAURO DEI CASTELLI: IL CASO DI SHAWBAK Pietro Ruschi Università di Pisa

Abstract (2008) Some remarks concerning castles’ restoration: the example of Shawbak Problems concerning restoration of a castle arise from difficulties of ascertaining and investigating events, which have brought about throughout the centuries: transformations, additions, demolitions, rebuilding, at times to a great extent. It is exactly by means of a critical analysis of such situations, that lines of a plan can be properly followed, which primarily aim at the preservation of material and documentary architectonic context. The restoration project of Shawbak Castle has generally been based on three methodical choices. The first and fundamental choice concerns preservation. The typological and architectural significance of a castle – the case of Shawbak is outstanding – is detected only by means of its building characteristics and strategic functions, which have shaped its body, so that a single wall or even a piece of it may result in an essential element, in order to understand planning and the whole activity of the castle: any given wall is therefore to be absolutely preserved. The second is based on the fact that any preserving restoration of ancient architectonic contexts cannot actually imply the only and generic use of traditional techniques, sometimes useful to fill small and medium gaps, but generally far from meeting important requirements in terms of preservation and consolidation, whereas their resemblances to the original may at times result in forged artefact. Restoration, in fact, is not an artisan work, but a very complex operation in terms of project and scientific plan. The third choice derives from the cultural background of restoration itself, or really, from a position, which has been theoretically defined as early as the mid-20th century and, following the recent definition by Giovanni Carbonara, promotes a restoration approach conceived as ‘fair modification’. If such modifications are consequent on a deep anamnesis and careful and critical analysis, they can result in not only a correct comprehension of architectonic work, but also, thanks to an aware and scientifically set plan, its best realization. Works of the kind can then represent an important support to new and ‘different’ use of the castle, since, as they are planned ex novo, may easily meet current requirements. However, it must be said that, whilst these have been the purposes of the project, the latter has in practice regarded only a small part of the great fortified complex of Shawbak, that is the lower church and the ‘production area’ in front of it. There, the plan instrument has been really applied on the basis of a deep, both archaeological and architectural, analysis of the building, so that a wellbalanced undertaking has been implemented, along with the strictest rules in terms of preservation, when necessary; nonetheless, new solutions have boldly been proposed, as long as they are in keeping with the original parts, in terms of form, dimension and function, and at the same time help with a better comprehension of the complex and stratified historical and building identity of the castle, avoiding aberrant faking of works. In this sense one may consider the covering of the site, which is made up of metallic frameworks, but able to get linked to the rest of the near intramural buildings, as well as the cross vault of the ‘production edifice’, which is made up of light material and so destined to let the original hall space arise, definitely in harmony with the ancient structures. Finally it has to be emphasized that this project represents just the first step of a more complex and conclusive implementation, nonetheless, it actually shows those methodological guiding lines, which, although critical according to every single case, will feature the entire restoration work at Shawbak Castle

Il restauro della fortezza di Shawbak (Figura 1) si presenta arduo sotto numerosi aspetti. Essi riguardano i suoi caratteri costruttivi, assai diversificati a secondo delle fasi edilizie, le prime delle quali, sulla base dei dati raccolti durante la campagna archeologica condotta da Guido Vannini e dai suoi collaboratori, risalgono all’epoca romano bizantina per poi estendersi, dopo quella crociata, fino all’età moderna. Si tratta di un caso assai raro nel quadro dei castelli crociati del vicino Oriente, quasi sempre caduti in totale abbandono dopo la riconquista araba. Tali molteplici fasi si sono in parte sovrapposte, in parte hanno determinato ampliamenti e rilevanti modifiche del sistema insediativo (palazzi e abitazioni) e difensivo (torri e cortine), tanto da trasformare Shawbak in uno delle più grandiose e complesse fortificazioni dell’intera regione. Come già si è qui detto, le indagini archeologiche in corso, inoltre, offrono continue testimonianze circa la presenza nel castello di strutture di natura produttiva e commerciale, a conferma di un ruolo politico ed economico vitale e di assoluto rilievo, svolto continuativamente da Shawbak nel corso della sua storia, ben oltre il periodo della sua edificazione. Si tratta, com’è facile comprendere, di un contesto estremamente ricco e variegato che necessita, sul piano conservativo, di un vasto e articolato progetto basato sia su un costante raccordo con la ricerca archeologica, sia sulla puntuale analisi delle testimonianze architettoniche e funzionali, sotto il

profilo storico e materico. Un progetto, dunque, destinato a essere sottoposto a continue verifiche e a eventuali modifiche via via che le ricerche e gli scavi si estenderanno all’intera fortezza, nel corso di un periodo non certamente breve. Anche nella zona attualmente oggetto di studio (Figura 2) - limitata al settore sud-est del complesso e comprendente la chiesa inferiore, la porta meridionale di accesso, tratti di mura e vari ambienti, alcuni con funzioni produttive alla prima fase medievale, quella crociata, si sono aggiunte quella ayyubbide e quella mamelucca (qui di modesta entità, ma la più estesa in altre parti del castello). A tali fasi, tutte finalizzate all’ammodernamento dei sistemi difensivi e all’ampliamento del complesso, agli inizi del secolo scorso si è aggiunta quella beduina, legata a un casuale e approssimato uso insediativo e, sul piano materico, del tutto parassitaria. Nel corso degli ultimi anni, dopo circa mezzo secolo di abbandono, sono stati realizzati alcuni interventi di restauro da parte delle competenti istituzioni giordane, finalizzati a migliorare le condizioni statiche delle murature, ma in realtà non sempre opportunamente inseriti in un disegno progettuale organico e impostato su dati storici e architettonici comprovati (Figura 3 e Figura 4). Preso atto dei rischi che tale carenza avrebbe potuto comportare, tali interventi sono stati concordemente sospesi e si è affrontato 313

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean un nuovo e più articolato progetto, sulla base dell’accordo stabilito fra il Direttore del Dipartimento delle Antichità della Giordania e il Rettore dell’Università di Firenze1. E’ anche opportuno precisare che alle diverse fasi della stratificazione storica del castello corrispondono varie tecniche murarie sotto il profilo sia della lavorazione dei materiali lapidei - ma non della loro qualità, che si presenta sostanzialmente omogenea -, sia della tecnica di allettamento e messa in opera, sia dell’uso di leganti diversi (in questo caso anche dal punto di vista qualitativo). Un dato questo che richiede un’attenta definizione dei metodi di risarcimento e di consolidamento, al fine di garantire la messa in sicurezza delle murature senza comprometterne la leggibilità. Un altro aspetto rilevante è rappresentato dalla situazione statica della fortezza che, nella zona in esame, presenta diverse situazioni. Le caratteristiche disomogenee del terreno - in parte solido grazie alla presenza di affioramenti rocciosi ma in parte sabbioso o di riporto e quindi di scarsa consistenza - l’uso di malte di modesta qualità , il carattere empirico e talora demolitorio di alcuni fra gli interventi susseguitisi nel tempo, l’effetto degli agenti atmosferici e climatici, l’uso improprio e l’abbandono, hanno fatto sì che una parte consistente delle strutture verticali abbia subito estese lesioni e crolli, liberando nel contempo e in modo caotico grandi quantità di materiale incoerente (il sacco murario). Solo le strutture spingenti (archi e volte) (Figura 5), come di consueto, si sono meglio conservate, anche se spesso in evidenti condizioni di precarietà. Sotto tale aspetto, gli interventi passati, cui accennavo, hanno risolto solo parzialmente alcuni problemi, senza affrontare in modo coordinato l’intera problematica strutturale, e finendo così per mettere a repentaglio gli stessi risultati ottenuti. Un ulteriore aspetto concerne il degrado dei materiali. Esso presenta un quadro particolarmente differenziato, in quanto in una stessa muratura di costruzione omogenea e coeva è spesso possibile riscontrare situazioni fortemente contrastanti. Le ragioni di tale fenomeno possono essere trovate sia nelle diverse caratteristiche meccaniche di alcuni elementi lapidei (non tanto per la loro composizione, quanto per il taglio e la lavorazione) sia, e soprattutto, per le diverse sollecitazioni cui le bozze lapidee sono state sottoposte a causa dei numerosi dissesti fondali e murari.

vale la pena di sottolineare come la documentazione, appositamente svolta con l’ausilio dei sistemi di rilevazione più avanzati – come ha ben chiarito Pierre Drap che mi ha appena preceduto come relatore -, in questo specifico caso abbia costituito la base sia per la restituzione dei dati archeologici sia per il progetto di restauro (Figura 6), a conferma della loro complementarietà. Il progetto, infatti, ha avuto inizio proprio dall’acquisizione dei risultati della campagna archeologica, assunti come determinante supporto critico. L’intento primario è stato, dunque, quello di rispettare e, ove opportuno, evidenziare le diverse fasi costruttive della fabbrica, senza operare selezioni e tantomeno ripristini, ma anche senza rinunciare alle necessarie opere di protezione e di consolidamento. A tal fine sono stati conservati, almeno dove non c’erano evidenti interferenze con il contesto storico della fabbrica, anche la maggior parte degli interventi più recenti, che sono stati inseriti nel disegno generale. L’evidenziazione delle diverse fasi costruttive è stata principalmente affidata alla tipologia e alle tecniche di finitura dei paramenti lapidei: le stuccature e le finiture, sempre eseguite a calce, sono state differenziate per esecuzione, per consistenza e per colore. L’opera di consolidamento e protezione è stata prevista su due diversi livelli. Quello superficiale consiste nella stessa opera di stuccatura, dove necessario eseguita anche in profondità con l’uso di calce e rifinita all’esterno con velature sempre a base di calce - adottando una tecnica documentata nell’area fin dall’epoca crociata (Figura 7) - diversamente pigmentate (Figura 8). Il livello strutturale dell’intervento ha invece interessato soprattutto le grandi lacune architettoniche, in particolare quella costituita dall’assenza delle volte in pietra nella seconda porta (Figura 9) e nel vano antistante la chiesa inferiore (Figura 10), detto ‘laboratorio’ per la sua destinazione manifatturiera in epoca post-crociata. Al riguardo, l’intento è stato quello di proporre soluzioni architettoniche che, senza interferire coll’esistente, fossero grado di adattarsi formalmente al contesto così come esso oggi si presenta, risuggerendo quote e spazi originari tramite il ricorso a elementi moderni realizzati con materiali leggeri (cementi alleggeriti, resine, acciaio), per riproporre la continuità strutturale, come nel caso di nuove volte e nuovi solai (Figure 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16). Tali elementi, prevalentemente coperture, vengono a svolgere non solo un determinante ruolo protettivo, grazie alla messa in opera di guaine isolanti e di rivestimenti in materiali impermeabili, ma anche un’importante funzione di consolidamento delle murature verticali (Figura 17). E’, infine, previsto un selettivo intervento di pulitura e restauro del materiale lapideo e degli intonaci, alcuni dei quali realizzati in cocciopesto, dov’è presente un forte degrado e, a tal fine, sono stati già eseguite in sito alcune prove con prodotti appositi (Figura 18). I risultati, opportunamente valutati anche sul piano chimico fisico, consentiranno di individuare le scelte più opportune, in collaborazione con l’Opificio delle Pietre Dure e Laboratori di Restauro di Firenze3. Un’altra proposta progettuale è stata quella di restituire

Il progetto ora messo a punto2 interessa, come detto, solo una piccola parte del complesso, ma intende svolgere un ruolo ‘pilota’ anche per una più vasta e capillare opera di restauro che, in futuro, dovrà estendersi all’intero castello: un ruolo, beninteso, indicativo e ovviamente destinato a costanti verifiche e adeguamenti. Alla limitatezza dell’area operativa, dunque, ha corrisposto una meditata e accurata messa a punto sotto l’aspetto metodologico. Al riguardo, 1

Al riguardo, desidero qui ringraziare personalmente lo stesso Direttore del Dipartimento delle Antichità della Giordania, professor Fawaz Khreisheh, e i funzionari del suo Dipartimento per la determinante e fattiva collaborazione. 2 Il progetto, messo a punto in collaborazione con gli architetti Carlo e Lodovico Mocenni e con l’ingegnere Enrico Sodi sulla base dei rilievi appositamente eseguiti e dopo attente verifiche sul posto, è stato redatto a livello esecutivo. Sono in corso gli ultimi accordi con i tecnici del Dipartimento delle Antichità della Giordania per l’avvio il cantiere.

3

Sono state già effettuate due missioni a Shawbak da parte di restauratori dell’Opificio fiorentino, al fine di verificare lo stato dei manufatti e mettere a punto le metodologie d’intervento.

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P. Ruschi: Alcune considerazioni sul restauro dei castelli: il caso di shawbak sitor’s Centre, appena ultimato da parte delle competenti autorità giordane. Per una corretta impostazione del progetto e per una completa salvaguardia e valorizzazione del castello di Shawbak, occorre tuttavia precisare che l’intervento restaurativo non può e non deve essere limitato al solo testo architettonico, come, per ragioni contingenti, è fin qui avvenuto, ma è necessario che esso venga quanto prima esteso a tutto il quadro, sia insediativo che ambientale, che ne costituisce il fondamentale contesto. E’, infatti, proprio quel contesto che costituisce in termini strategici e costruttivi la vera matrice storica della fortezza e, nel contempo, grazie alla sua integrità e alla sua suggestiva bellezza, ne esalta la straordinaria architettura. La viabilità, la presenza di strutture difensive esterne, di case isolate lungo i ripidi pendii, di piccoli villaggi in gran parte abbandonati posti in prossimità del piccolo e verdeggiante corso d’acqua che scorre nel fondovalle -la cui sorgente in antico costituiva la fonte d’approvvigionamento del presidio - sono elementi non meno importanti, sotto il profilo storico, e non meno preziosi e suggestivi dello stesso castello (Figura 20). E’ dunque necessario che essi vengano inseriti in un accurato e vasto piano di tutela ambientale che, richiamandosi al concetto di ‘conservazione integrata’ formulato nella Dichiarazione di Amsterdam del 1975, garantisca la totale conservazione del sito, nella sua singolare valenza storica, architettonica e paesaggistica. E’, infatti, evidente che per giungere a una reale valorizzazione e al totale recupero di questo straordinario castello occorre che il progetto di restauro architettonico, i cui tempi di esecuzione saranno prevedibilmente assai lunghi, sia inserito in un più vasto piano di salvaguardia ambientale da rendere operativo quanto prima possibile.

al fronte della fortezza sul lato meridionale, ampiamente rialzato e modificato nel corso degli interventi di restauro di qualche anno fa, un profilo sommitale più articolato, in grado di suggerire alcune fra le quote originarie, di evidenziare le torri, di consentire un percorso perimetrale continuo fino a raggiungere, tramite una scala di nuova realizzazione, il livello del confinante palazzo (Figura 19). In sintesi, l’intento di questo progetto è stato quello di adottare, sul piano concettuale e metodologico, i principi condivisi della scuola italiana del restauro, tradizionalmente impostata sul rispetto e sulla salvaguardia dei valori documentari del testo architettonico e aliena da intenti ripristinatori – oggi sempre più diffusi, in particolare proprio in ambito archeologico - per realizzare un intervento in grado di garantire la conservazione del monumento nel maggior rispetto possibile della sua identità storica, della sua consistenza materiale, della sua immagine così come, nel nostro caso, ci è pervenuta dopo quasi due millenni. Confidando che nulla più della percezione delle tracce che il tempo e la storia hanno lasciato sull’opera possano rappresentare, per l’osservatore, il veicolo più suggestivo alla contemplazione e lo stimolo più emozionante alla conoscenza dell’opera stessa. Il progetto, infine, sia pure nell’ambito ridotto della zona d’intervento, affronta il tema dei percorsi e della fruibilità del monumento, proponendo non solo un itinerario illustrativo, ma anche punti di osservazione e di approfondimento degli aspetti storici, archeologici e architettonici di Shawbak, tramite l’adozione di supporti cartografici e di modelli virtuali: anche in questo caso è evidente che il progetto di restauro dovrà essere poi esteso all’intero complesso e integrato con altri supporti esterni, come ad esempio quelli che potranno essere accolti nel vicino Vi-

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

GREAT AND LITTLE TRADITIONS OF TRANSJORDAN: THE VIEW FROM TALL HISBAN DURING MEDIEVAL TIMES Oystein S. LaBianca Andrews University Abstract (2008) Great and Little Traditions of Transjordan: The View from Tall Hisban during Medieval Times What makes archaeological research on frontier settlements such as Tall Hisban so interesting is the opportunity it presents for studying the ways in which successive imperial world-making projects influenced the daily lives of elites and local inhabitants and vice versa. A major focus of the Tall Hisban Expedition recently has been to develop a theoretical framework for examining such imperial-local interactions over the longterm. An important step in this direction has been the adoption of Robert Redfield’s “great and little traditions” framework as a means to study the give-and-take between imperial and local world-making in Transjordan. “Great traditions” or “imperial world-making projects” that we are currently tracing in our archaeological research at Tall Hisban include those of the New Kingdom Egyptians, Sea Peoples, Neo-Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, Persians, Greeks (Alexander and his Hellenistic successor kingdoms), Nabateans, Parthians, Romans, Byzantines, Sassanids, Umayyads, Abbasids, Tulinids, Fatimids, Seljuks, Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, French, British and Americans. Concurrently we have also sought to identify ‘little traditions’ or ‘local world-making projects” by means of which the indigenous population has managed to cope with over three millennia of nearly unabated imperial world-making in their homelands. To this end ethnoarchaeological research has been carried out in the present-day village of Hisban which has led to identification of the following sevenlittle traditions: • Water security through local capture and storage of rainwater. • Risk-spreading through raising a mixture of crops and stock • Residential flexibility or the ability to live in a house, a cave or a tent • Cooperative sharing of pasture lands with other families and tribes • Hospitality as a means to mutual aid and honor • Reliance on honor and shame to enforce social obligations • Organization of access to wives, water, land, labor and protection through reliance primarily on kin-based social networks or tribalism This paper will update on efforts to refine and apply this theoretical framework to understanding Tall Hisban and Transjordan in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Tall Hisban Anthropological Archaeology Project is an undertaking of the Institute of Archaeology at Andrews University in Michigan, USA; the Madaba Plains Project Consortium and the Department of Antiquities of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Tall Hisban is a multi-period archaeological site located approximately 20 km south of Amman on a limestone outcrop in the highland plateau overlooking the southern end of the Jordan River Valley and the northern tip of the Dead Sea. Excavations at the site were begun in 1968 by Siegfried H. Horn (Boraas and Horn 1969) of Andrews University, a biblical scholar and founding director of the Heshbon Expedition which he organized in order to confirm the widely held belief that Tall Hisban is biblical Heshbon--an Amorite stronghold conquered by Israelite warriors and re-built by the tribe or Rueben (Numbers 21: 21-31). That Tall Hisban was not only an important biblical site, but also a promising Greco-Roman, Early Christian and Medieval site became clear already by the end of the first season of excavations. Luckily for us today, the original Heshbon Expedition included among its core staff that first season a highly regarded stratigrapher, Roger S. Boraas of Upsala College, and a promising young ceramicist, James A. Sauer of Harvard University. For these two team members, and for Lawrence T. Geraty (also of Harvard and later of Andrews) who succeeded Horn as director of the expedition, the prospect of being able to obtain at Tall Hisban a rigorously excavated sequence of carefully separated layers containing pottery spanning the Early Iron Age through Late Medieval and Early Modern periods was an exciting opportunity. Sauer’s (1973) pioneering work on the seriation of Tall Hisban’s Islamic/Medieval pottery stands as one of the most important achievements of the original Heshbon Expedition. As might have been expected, these strides forward in systematic dating of Tall Hisban’s stratigraphy and pottery led to heightened awareness of a yawning gap in the original Heshbon Expedition plan of work; namely the absence of

any sort of comprehensive theoretical framework for making sense out of the tall’s multi-millennial archaeological history. The task of filling this gap pretty well sums up what has animated my personal research agenda as an anthropological archaeologist ever since 1971 when I started as a graduate student staff member on the original Heshbon Expedition. Furthermore, this quest is a major reason why I decided to renew field research at the site in 1996 after a twenty years hiatus. In 1998 I was joined in this endeavor by Bethany Walker, then a recent graduate in Islamic archaeology and art from the University of Toronto. I turn now to sharing a few insights that have resulted from this research in hopes that they may be of some use to this congress on Medieval Jordan in the 12th and 13th centuries. THEORETICAL ORIENTATIONS FOR STUDYING JORDAN’S LONG-TERM HISTORY The first theoretical construct to be deployed as a means to making sense out of Tall Hisban’s multi-millennial archaeological history was the food systems concept (LaBianca 1990). This concept, along with cycles of intensification and abatement and allied notions of sedentarization and nomadization, enabled us to discover and document systematically interconnected changes over time in Tall Hisban’s settlement patterns, architectural remnants, pottery remains and plant and animal residues. These changes are summarized in the following graph showing oscillations over three and a half millennia in the intensity of Hisban’s food system. Notice that the 9th through 14th centuries AD is a period of gradual intensification and sedentarization that culminates during Mamluk times. 317

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean While the food system framework has proven to be most helpful as a means for integrating various lines of archaeological data and for summarizing and comparing longterm changes in peoples’ daily lives at Hisban and vicinity, a limitation of relying exclusively on this approach is that it does not really help us understand how and why such changes occur. Nor does it adequately account for the significant changes over time in scripts, iconography, art and monumental architecture at the site. As already indicated, one of the major reasons we went back to work at Tall Hisban was to facilitate examination of other theoretical frameworks that might fill in some of the grounds not covered by food systems theory. Among the theories we have examined in this regard are the longue durée framework of the French Annales School; world systems theory; political economy; political ecology; historical ecology; axial age theory; global history; power of scale theory; great and little traditions and world-making. A description of each of these theoretical orientations and few brief observations about our experience with deploying each of them:

other processes related to imperial engagements in the region. The perspective is not of much help, however, in dealing with periods when the site was a seasonal village for semi-sedentary cultivators and herdsmen, as was the case during much of the Abbasid and Ottoman periods. POLITICAL ECONOMY Political economy is an attempt to better understand the relationship between political institutions and economic systems, which has relevance for evaluating the impact of the state on local society. Recently Carroll, Fenner and LaBianca (2006; also see Carroll 2008) have deployed political economy as a framework for studying Ottoman imperial engagements in Central Jordan, focusing in particular on the Ottoman modernization project as seen in the so-called Tanzimat reforms of the early 19th century. Their research has documented how these reforms opened up the region to capitalist investment as evidenced by pasturelands in the Hisban area being turned into agricultural lands and by related changes in social relations and the built environment.

LA LONGUE DURÉE FRAMEWORK

POLITICAL ECOLOGY

The great merit of the Fernand Braudel’s (1996) longue durée framework is that it has helped legitimize the study of long-term historical trends both among historians and archaeologists of the Ancient Near East (Levy 2000). In particular, it has focused attention on the role of geographical considerations in understanding continuities and changes throughout the Mediterranean. We have found, however, that this framework is difficult to deploy as a means to explain Hisban’s cyclic ups and downs. A major reason for this is that its core analytical concepts - la longue durée, mentalités, and histoire événementielle - are vague and often overlapping categories, which make it difficult to actually deploy them as analytical tools for sorting archaeological data.

Along these same lines, political ecology is concerned with the relationship between political institutions and local environments, especially as it relates to assessing the impact of the state on local water and land use and vice versa. On our team Bethany Walker (2001; 2003; 2004; 2007a; 2007b) has deployed this approach to study how the Mamluk and Ottoman states negotiated access to and use of land and water in the region of Hisban, and also in several villages in northern Jordan. Her research has documented how the struggle over natural resources between these imperial administrations and local Jordanian society led to lasting transformations in both bodies. It also has led to better understanding of the lasting power of traditional structures in Jordanian society.

WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY. An outgrowth of the French Annales perspective, Wallerstein’s (1974) world systems theory posits the rise - in the sixteenth century AD - of a hierarchically ordered world economy where the division of labor is that between economically advanced core countries and economically underdeveloped peripheral ones. Recently this perspective has been adopted by Gunder Frank (2000) and others as a means to understand long-term changes in trade relations in the past. For example, Thompson (2006) has argued that world system development has advanced over time in an alternating pattern that has three major pulsations or phases: an ancient one, a classical one, and a modern one. Each of these pulsations includes an “initial period of production innovation on a relatively narrow scale (which) is followed by a period of diffusion over a broader scale.” This perspective holds some promise for understanding the broad episodes of intensification and abatement in Hisban’s food system, although there is not generally a good mesh between Thompson’s posited peaks and valleys and those in Hisban’s food system cycles. This discrepancy may in part be due to Hisban’s geographical position on the periphery of the core economies of the ancient world, and, in part due to

HISTORICAL ECOLOGY In their landmark volume The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History, Horden and Purcell (2000) examine the relationships between people and their local environments in the Mediterranean region over the past 3000 years. Following LaBianca (1990) they posit episodes of intensification and abatement that characterize the cyclic nature of ecological adaptations on the local level and connectivity on the regional level. Of particular importance to understanding the social values of Mediterranean peoples is their analysis of the institution of honor and shame, which they conclude is an example of a long-term Mediterranean social value. We have ample evidence of both cycles of intensification and abatement and honor and shame at Hisban. AXIAL AGE THEORY Axial Age Theory focuses attention on breakthroughs in human thinking and reflexivity that have had global impact and that have shaped the course of history of entire civilizations 318

O. S. La Bianca: Great and Little Traditions of Jordan and continents (Eisenstadt 2008, 2; Arnason et al. 2000). In its classic version as formulated by Karl Jaspers (1949) “similar spiritual /intellectual developments occurred more or less simultaneously and seemingly independently in three different areas of the ancient world, in China, India and the eastern Mediterranean” (Assman 2008,1). Judaism, Christianity and Islam are, of course, examples of such spiritual breakthroughs in the Southern Levant. Of these three universal faiths, Christianity has left the heaviest footprint in Hisban, followed by Islam and Judaism (barely).

culture changes in the Levant (and in particular, at Hesban) include the New Kingdom Egyptians, Sea Peoples, NeoAssyrians, Neo-Babylonians, Persians, Greeks (Alexander and his Hellenistic successor kingdoms), Nabateans, Parthians, Romans, Byzantines, Sassanids, Umayyads, Abbasids, Tulinids, Fatimids, Seljuks, Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, French, British and Americans. The primary vehicle of importation for most of these great traditions have been empires (La Bianca 2007a; 2007b). Little traditions that have enabled local inhabitants at Hisban to survive despite the comings and goings of empires include water security through local capture and storage of rainwater; risk-spreading through raising a mixture of crops and stock; residential flexibility or the ability to live in a house, a cave or a tent; cooperative sharing of pasture lands with other families and tribes; hospitality as a means to mutual aid and honor; reliance on honor and shame to enforce social obligations; organization of access to wives, water, land, labor and protection through reliance primarily on kin-based social networks or tribalism.

GLOBAL HISTORY Unlike “world history” which traditionally has concerned itself with the study of progress of civilizations, global history is concerned with unraveling “the entangled threads” of natural and human history (Shafer 2007). Of special interest to global historians are the Neolithic Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, for both greatly accelerated human domination of the planet. Another key event is the Western “discovery” of America which brought the “old” and the “new” worlds into contact. They thus divide global history into three major eras: preglobal or the time before the Western discovery of the Americas c. 1500 AD; protoglobal or the time between that discovery and c. 1950 AD; and global or the period from c. 1950 AD to the present. These three eras are all well attested in the multi-millennial archaeological record of Tall Hisban.

WORLD-MAKING According to Palsson (1990) “one of the central problems of modern social theory relates to the role of human agency in the making of history.” At issue is “the extent to which the individual is a creative agent or merely someone behaving and thinking in accordance with external structures. Worldmaking not only entails a social construction of the present, it also involves the creation of new social and ecological structures.” Thus “humans make their worlds in the sense that their reality is inevitably mediated by their cultural context. The ecological ‘facts’ of aridity and drought, therefore, do not speak for themselves. Experience of them is socially constructed, located in a specific context of world-making. This does not mean that one should ignore ecological analyses and abandon cross-cultural comparison. Rather, it demands that social analysis be sensitive to contextual differences and the dynamics of social life” (Palsson 1990). As an example, we believe this perspective may help us better understand and account for the overwhelming evidence at Tall Hisban for reuse of past material remains to create new built environments.

POWER OF SCALE According to John H. Bodley (2003) global history can be seen as a process of elite-directed concentration of social power that ultimately benefits a smaller and smaller cluster of selfinterested few. The principal vehicle for such concentration is the imperium or empire, where absolute power or domination is concentrated in the hands of a ruler, or an élite few (Bodley 2003, 4). According to this theory the world’s cultures can be sorted into three groups depending on their dominant forms of imperial: tribal, imperial and commercial. Each world is dominated respectively by households, political rulers, or economic élites. The co-existence in the Southern Levant of these three worlds is one way to account for the oscillation back and forth in the concentration of power between the tribal, imperial and commercial worlds. Viewed over the long-term, power has shifted gradually from the tribal to the imperial to the commercial world. Very likely part of the explanation for the oscillations in the food system cycles of Hisban can be found in this theory.

IMPLICATIONS FOR UNDERSTANDING HISBAN’S LONG-TERM HISTORY What I have attempted to show in the foregoing brief overview of various theoretical orientations is that, in one way or another, all of them have something to contribute to our effort to account for long-term cultural changes at Tall Hisban. To begin with, the longue durée perspective heightens awareness of the extent to which Hisban’s local environment has provided the backdrop for cultural transformations over time in the region. The long-term pulsations in regional trade and commerce posited by world systems theorists go part of the way toward explaining the ups and downs in the intensity of Hisban’s food system, but they do not provide a complete answer. Political economy and ecology bring into focus how the policies of specific imperial rulers during particular historical periods impact local social and economic relations,

GREAT AND LITTLE TRADITIONS According to Robert Redfield (Redfield 1960) a civilization’s great traditions are normative principles and behaviors propagated by its literate élites who are the primary custodians of the canonical texts. Its little traditions, on the other hand, are the conglomerate of vernacular or local knowledge and practices considered normative by the largely non-literate masses not derived from a canonical text. Great traditions that are of particular importance to understanding long-term 319

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean the built environment, land and water use in Hisban and beyond. Historical ecology sheds light on long-term regionwide continuities in evidence at Hisban, such as the institution of honor and shame. Axial age theory begins to explain the “holy” in the Holy Land and why there were sacred spaces in Hisban, such as the three Byzantine basilica found in the site. Global history provides an intriguing temporal frame for understanding macro-changes in human-environmental interactions in Hisban. Power of scale theory focuses attention on cumulative aspects of elite-directed concentration of social power both at the level of imperial powers dominating Jordan and at the local level of regional imperial agents. The great and little traditions perspective offers a means to link changes over time in imperial and local social and economic order with attendant transformations in art, artisanship and architecture. And, finally, the world-making perspective illuminates how and why so much of what was constructed at Hisban was built with materials and ideas borrowed from the past.

Manuscript. Frank, G., Gills, B.K. 2000. The Five Thousand Year World System in Theory and Praxis, In World System History: Social Science of Long Term Change, Edited by Robert Denemark et al. London/New York, Routledge, 3-23. Horden, P., Purcell, N. 2000.The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History. Oxford, Blackwell. Jaspers, K. 1949. Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte. Munich, R.Piper&Co. LaBianca, O. S. 1990.Sedentarization and Nomadization: Food System Cycles at Hesban and Vicinity in Transjordan (Hesban I), Berrien Springs, MI, Andrews University Press. LaBianca, O. S. 2007a. Thinking Globally and also Locally: Anthropology, History and Archaeology in the Study of Jordan‘s Past. In North American Contributions to the Archaeology of Jordan. Edited by by Thomas E. Levy, P.M. Michele Daviau, Randall W. Younker and May Shaer. London, Equinox Publishing, Ltd., 3-14. LaBianca, O. S. 2007b. Great and Little Traditions: A Framework for Studying Cultural Interaction through the Ages in Jordan. In Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan IX, (Jordan, Department of Antiquities), 275-289. Levy, T. E. et alii 2007. Crossing Jordan: North American Contributions to the Archaeology of Jordan. London, Equinox. Pálsson, G. 1990. From Water to World-making: African Models and Arid Lands. Uppsula, Sweden, Nordic Africa Institute. Redfield, R. 1960. The Little Community and Peasant Society and Culture. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Sauer, J.A. 1973. Heshbon Pottery 1971: A Preliminary Report on the Pottery from the 1971. Excavations at Tell Hesban. Berrien Springs, Andrews University Monographs VII. Schafer, W. 2007. Global History. In Encyclopedia of Globalization, ed. by Roland Robertson and Jan Aart Scholte et al. New York and London, Routledge, vol. 2, 516-21. Thompson, W. R. 2006. Trade Pulsations, Collapse and Reorientation in the Ancient World. In Connectivity in Antiquity. Oystein S. LaBianca and Sandra Arnold Scham, eds. London, Equinox. Walker, B. J. 2001 Mamluk Administration of Transjordan: Recent Findings from Tall Hisban. al-‘Usur al-Wusta 13.2: 29-33. Walker, B. J. 2003. Mamluk Investment in Southern Bilad alSham in the Fourteenth Century: The Case of Hisban. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 62.3, 241-261. Walker, B. J. 2004. Mamluk Investment in the Transjordan: A ‘Boom and Bust’ Economy. Mamluk Studies Review, 8.2, 119-147. Walker, B. J. 2007a. Transformation of the Agricultural Economy of Late Mamluk Jordan. Mamluk Studies Review, 11.1, 1-27. Walker, B. J. 2007b. Peasants, Pilgrims, and the Body Politic: The Northern Jordan Project and the Landscapes of the Islamic Period. In Crossing Jordan: North American Contributions to the Archaeology of Jordan. Thomas Levy et al. eds. London, Equinox. Wallerstein, I. 1974. The Modern World System. New York, Academic Press

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF JORDAN IN THE 12TH AND 13TH CENTURIES Unlike forty years ago, when we started the work at Hisban, there is today a range of potentially fruitful theoretical orientations available to be tested and deployed by archaeologists and historians working in Jordan. To the extent that we do we will help build understanding Jordan both on a theoretical level as well as empirically. The archaeology of the 12th and 13th centuries offers unique opportunities for engaging with the various theoretical perspectives mentioned earlier. In particular, I believe that attempts should be made to test and deploy the perspectives of historical ecology, great and little traditions, and world-making. I believe these three theoretical orientations hold the greatest promise for understanding the encounter between Franks and Arabs that is the big story of the 12th and 13th centuries in Jordan. BIBLIOGRAPHY Arnason, J.P., Eisenstadt S.N. and Wittrock, B. (eds) 2000.Axial Civilizations and World History, Brill. Assmann, J. 2008. The Axial Age and the Space of Writing, Unpublished Manuscript. Boraas, R.S. and Horn, S. H. 1969.Heshbon 1968: The First Campaign at Tell Hesban. Andrews University Seminary Studies 7.2, 97-239. Braudel, F. 1996. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II: Volume I, Translated by Sian Reynolds. Berkeley, University of California Press Carroll, L. 2008. Sowing the Seeds of Modernity on the Ottoman Frontier: Agricultural Investment and the Formation of Large Farms in Nineteenth-Century Transjordan, Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress, 4(2), 233-249. Carroll, L., Fenner, A. and LaBianca, Oystein S. 2006. The Ottoman Qasr at Hisban: Architecture, Reform, and New Social Relations. Near Eastern Archaeology, 69 (3-4), 138146. Eisenstadt, S. N. 2008. Axial Visions and Axial Civilizations: The Transformation of World Histories between Evolutionary Tendencies and Institutional Formations, Unpublished 320

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SOME NOTES ON THE MEDIEVAL SHAWBAK: HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Amer Bdour Department of Antiquities of Jordan Mansour Shqairat Al-Hussein Bin Talal University Saad Twaissi Abstract(2008) The 19th century villages in the Shawbak Region: Shamakh as a case study Shamakh is a cultural and natural heritage site in southern Jordan with universal importance. It is facing the Dead Sea and expressing the special geology and nature of that area. Its archaeological remains relate to three chronologically separated periods of human settlement and they are different in character. Each period reflects on one hand certain uniqueness and on the other a fabric of intertwined human cultural contexts of its period. The last occupational period of this site was the 19th century during which it was built as a resident village which will be the focus of this paper. Little attention paid to the conservation of this heritage site which should be an integral part of the planning and management processes of a community, as it can contribute to the cultural tourism, economic and social development of the community of this village. This study will include an overview of the general structure of the site, periods of occupation and other related archaeological artifacts with more focus on the 19th century village in terms of its spatial lay out, architecture, demography and reasons of abandonment. The aim of this paper stems from the fact that we are responsible for protecting the natural and built environment and its moral, social, natural and cultural meanings. We have to respect what our ancestors have created for themselves and for future generations. Protecting our architectural heritage means self-protection and cultural diversity in a much wider sense than only for the purpose of housing. This paper tries to shed some light on the socio-economic history and mode of human settlement at the Shawbak region during the medieval period based on historical sources and archaeological evidence. Although the evidence available is very little, it indicates, from anthropological perspective, that the Shawbak region was inhabited by people of various mode of productions including rural agrarian societies of small villages and pastoral nomads. However, the whole region was dynamic and had wide trade contacts with neighbouring regions.

INTRODUCTION

give the following notes on the historical and archaeological evidence which suggest that the Shawbak region was intensively cultivated, inhabited and dynamic during the medieval period.

The Shawbak region extends along the northern Part of the Sharah mountain and cover the area from fujaij to Jarba, and can generally be described as high plateau, with an increase in elevation from 1100 to 1600m ASL (Konck 1987, 40). Its vegetation region is of the Mediterranean type with soil of terra rossa type (El-Esawi 1985, 50). Its climate region is of the warm temperate rainy type where annual average rainfall is around 300mm (Shehadeh 1985, 34), which is enough to sustain dry farming mainly of wheat and barely. This region has had very long history of human settlement, from Palaeolithic down to modern day (see for example Rolefson 1985, Glueck 1935; Brown 1985). However it is our concern in this paper to shed some light in the socio-economic history of the Shawbak region during the medieval period which is poorly understood and need further research and demonstration.

THE HISTORICAL SOURCES Historical sources on the Shawbak region, mainly of the 13th-15th centuries AD, suggest that the Shawbak region was intensively cultivated with fruit trees and grain and there was high yield of agricultural products, that the Shawbak region used to export agricultural products with large quantities to neighboring regions. For example, written sources tell us that fruit from around Shawbak was sent to the Egyptian capital, Cairo whilst the cotton from Balqa’ was bought by Italian traders operating in the Mediterranean. Further more a 14th century AD Italian merchant Balducci Pegolotti records in a trade manual that the sugar of Karak and Shawbak was regarded as the fourth best available in the Mediterranean region (Boas 1998, 145). Further more historical sources of the Mamluk period mention that in Rajab/Mrach AD 1336 12,000 Cairene of grain arrived from Karak and Shawbak to Egypt (Sobra 2000, 145; Lapidus 1969, 6). From anthropological point of view, food surplus and intensive agriculture suggests more land-tied sedentary mode and full time agriculture (La Bianca 1990). This in turn would suggest that, from socio-economic point of view, more agrarian and rural society in Medieval Shawbak. From spatial point of view such communities would be found in villages of small population distributed in large area. For better illustration one

THE MEDIEVAL SHAWBAK Most of the recent studies of the Medieval Shawbak concentrated on the Shawbak castle (castle of Montreal ) which was built by Baldwin I in 1115 as part of his policy of expansion of the kingdom’s border (Boas 1998, 159). This castle has been thoroughly studied by the Italian team, whose main concern was the architecture of the castle (Vannini et al 2007). However, the whole synthesis of the socio-economic history of the Shawbak region during the medieval period has not been demonstrated yet and still poorly understood. In this domain we would like to 321

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean can mention here the socio economic organization of the Shawbak region during the 19th century AD. During that time the Shawbak region was inhabited with village communities of small population distributed over a large area. These villages characterized by small built area, small houses (usually a single-room houses) surrounded by irrigated agricultural fields of fruit trees such as olive, grape, pomegranate and fig, and at the second zone dray farming of wheat and barley and lentil etc. was practiced. Now a day these villages are abandoned and remained uninhabited (figures 1-5). However, the ethno-archaeological potential of these villages, together with the historical sources of the medieval period would suggest that there was settlement establishment, settlement growth and settlement abandonment in the region of the Shawbak during ages, and the mode of sedentary in this region characterized by agrarian societies inhabited in many villages surrounded by agricultural fields. The over all conclusion here is that the historical sources on the medieval Shawbak suggest that there was no occupational gap or depopulation in the Shawbak region during the medieval period. This conclusion is evident in a 13th century document preserved now at the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris, the al-Nwairy manuscript. Al-Nuwairi was Sultan’s Baibars chronicler. In that document we have been told that on May 28 AD 1276 Sultan Baibars, the Mamluk Sultan, crossed Shawbak on his way from Cairo to Karak. There he received delegates of the princes of Bani ‘Uqba and of the nomadic tribes of the Shawbak regions, and they, the delegates, offered Sultan Baibars camels and horses (Zayadine 1985). Here we can also understand, in the light of this document, that the economy of the Shawbak region was also mixed of “rootbased cultivation” (for example, polyculture with olives and vines etc), grain agriculture and pastoral nomadism. Finally it should be mentioned that, although historical references on the Shawbak region during the medieval period is very scarce, it shed, if read in anthropological perspective, some light on the socio-economic history of the region during that time. This scarcity of historical sources maybe understood as that the Shawbak region was peripheral and inhabited by rural communities, and because the chronicles of that period tended to reflect the interest of the ruling elites and generally pay little attention to peripheral and rural areas, Shawbak region had received little attention from historians and chroniclers (see Milwright 2006 for further discussion).

1988). Nevertheless, recent field studies have recorded various types of evidence which go in line with our conclusion above. First, field study has recorded a branch of the darb al-hajj al-shami called darb al-Misfirih, extends from the northern border of the Shawbak to Jarba in the southeast passing through fujaij-khirbit Dusag-Bir bin DhiyabKhirbet ibn Shibon-al-Halasa-Khirbet Kuwaiz-Jarba (Rawashdih 2002, 115). Such a road must had large impact on the dynamism of the Shawbak region during Islamic periods. Moreover there are many medieval olive presses (locally called Badd) have been recorded in the Shawbak region, such as Badd al-Lawama at Mukariyyah; Badd Abu Makhtub; Badd al-Bardiyyah near Abu Makhtub; Badd al-Arzah, Badd al-Shawbak at the Shawbak castle; Badd Fujaij at Wadi Fujaij (Rawashdih 2002, 117). Such type of evidence plausibly suggests an intensive agricultural activities and more agrarian societies in the medieval Shawbak. Further more, there are several burial places belonging to local saint or as called locally wali which are mostly of Mamluk period such as the shrine of Abu Sulayman ad-Dirani (see Wlmsely 2001, 536 for detailed description). The shrine is dated by a foundation inscription to H 646/ AD 1248. The inscription is now preserved at the museum of king Abdula I mosque at Amman (Rawashdih 2002, 218-219). There are also another unpublished shrine. It is the shrine of al-Yasi’ bin ‘Akhtub at abu Makhtub village. This shrine is rectangular in plan (4.25m x 2m) with semi-barrel vault ceiling (Rawashdih 2002, 220-221). Such evidence would support our earlier conclusion that the Shawbak region was inhabited by village communities, because the idea of embellishing burial places of persons of religious or social status is a phenomenon mostly existed with sedentary societies.

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

BIBLIOGRAPHY Boas, A,. 1998. Archaeological Sources for the History of Palestine: The Frankish Period: A Unique Medieval Society Emerges, Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 61, No. 3. 138-173. Brown, R,.1988. Summary Report of the 1986 Excavations: Late Islamic Shobak, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 32, 225-245. Al-Esawi, D. 1985. Vegetation in Jordan, Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan II, 45-57. Glueck, N.1935. Explorations in Eastern Palestine II. An-

CONCLUSION Shawbak region has received very little archaeological interests and the whole synthesis of its socio-economic history through ages still poorly understood. Nevertheless, the little available evidence of the medieval Shawbak suggests that this region was inhabited by rural agrarian societies. Further field archaeological research in this region is recommended to demonstrate the settlement pattern; settlement history and the socio-economic history of the medieval Shawbak.

The archaeological evidence of the period concerned is not of a better case of historical sources. In general archaeological interest of the medieval period is very recent, and there is still many unsolved problems concerning the chronology of the pottery of this period (see Walmsely 2001 for detailed discussion on the problem of this period). Further more, apart of the Shawbak castle, none of the archaeological sites in the Shawbak region has been excavated yet. However, the excavations at the castle have revealed continuous occupation from crusader to ottoman period (Brown 322

A. Bdour, M. Shqairat, S. Twaissi: Some Notes on The Medieval Shawbak Rwashdih, M,. 2002. Al-Shawbak, the land and the People: A documentary Field Study (in Arabic), Amman, Ministry of Culture. Shehadeh, N. 1985. The Climate of Jordan in the Past and Present, Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan II, 25-37. Sobra, A, 2000. Poverty, and Charity in Medieval Islam: Mamluk Egypt, 1250-1517, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Vannini, G. et alii 2007. Archeologia dell’insediamento crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania. il progetto Shawbak, Firenze, All’Insegna del Giglio. Walmsely, A,. 2001. Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Jordan and the Crusader Interlude, in MacDonald, B., Adams, R. and Bienkowski. (eds.) The Archaeology of Jordan. Levantine Archaeology 1. Sheffield, Sheffield Academic Press, 515-559. Zayadine, F. 1985. Caravan Routes Between Egypt and Nabataea and the Voyage of Sultan Baibars to Petra in 1276, Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan II, 159-171.

nual of the American Schools of Oriental Research, XV (1934-1935). Konck, F. 1987. The Regional Environment, in Parker, T. (ed), The Roman Frontier in Central Jordan: Interim Report on the Limes Arabicus Project, 1980-1985. Part I. British Archaeological Reports International Series 340 (i), Oxford, 11-40. La Bianca, 1990. Sedentarization and Nomadization: Food System Cycles at Hesban and its Vicinity in Transjordan: Hesban I, Michigan, Andrews University Press. Lapidus, M,. 1969. The Grain economy of Mamluk Egypt, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, vol 12.1. 1-15. Marcus, M, 2006. Central and Southern Jordan in the Ayyubid Period: Historical and Archaeological Perspectives, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 16:1, 1-27. Rollefson, G. O. 1985: Late Pleistocene environments and seasonal hunting strategies: A case study from Fjaje, near Shobak, southern Jordan, Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan, 2, 103-107.

Figure 1. Map of the Shawbak region with site mentioned in the text

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Figure 2. The 19th century village of Shammakh in Shawbak

Figure 3. The 19th century village of Abu Makhtub in Shawbak

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Figure 4. The 19th century village of Jaya in Shawbak

Figure 5. The 19th century village Muqariyyah in Shawbak

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THE CONCEPT OF LOCAL OWNERSHIP AS A MEAN OF CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES. TELL HESBAN PROJECT O.La Bianca Andrews University Maria Elena Ronza

Abstract Archaeological sites are meaningful as places of life and civil discussion of the past. Theyare the tangible representation of our past and often this social and symbolic significance played an important role for their survival through the centuries. In fact, the social significance of a site does not necessarily equate with its archaeological and historical value. The archaeological and historical value is prominent for the research, but the social significance is the key for the conservation of the site. Our main aim of our work at Tell Hesban is the relocation of the site in the daily life of the village as an ever-present reality. It is of crucial importance to increase the awareness of the local community about the archaeological site. The general tendency is to invest in protecting archaeological sites from people and not to work on public awareness to promote a positive perception of the site as a valuable and accessible place. This attitude contributes to widening the gap between the scientific research and the lay public, whose perception of the archaeological is deviated. The result is the loss of the local sense of ownership, which have been fundamental for the survival of the archaeological site along the centuries. The involvement of the local community has been pursued since the first campaign at Tell Hesban and has became a major objective in the last phases. Over the past forty years, the archaeological missions at Tell Hesban have been working side by side with the local community to investigate, preserve and improve the site. Beside the scientific research, the mission has been focusing on the transversal cultural exchange between people of different cultures and backgrounds working side by side for a common objective. Enhancing the role of the local municipality and of the villagers in the setting a strategy for the preservation and the promotion of the archaeological site and in general of the historical areas of Hesban helped to close the gap between historical and social implications of the archaeological research and contributed to the awakening of the “sleeping historical memory” with the creation of new collective memories related to the site. In conclusion, the passage of the project into the history and the life of the tell is one of the infinitive layers of a palimpsest, which the site could represent and the consciousness of being part of this history is a powerful mean to assure the conservation of the site.

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CONSIDERATIONS ON POSSIBLE CULTURAL PROMOTION OF THE “AIN AL RAGAYE”: A SPRING EXPLOITATION TUNNEL IN SHAWBAK CASTLE (JORDAN) Ezio Burri Università dell’Aquila Abstract Considerations on possible cultural promotion of the “ain al ragaye”: A spring exploitation tunnel in Shawbak castle (Jordan) The Ain al Ragade spring surfaces at the foot of the hill on whose summit Shawbak castle stands. A tunnel of about 120m has been excavated within the fortified walls, with an intermediate spiral section, and which allows diversion of the spring waters so they can be used in a protected condition. In consideration of the site’s unique cultural value, several enhancement and safeguarding actions can be promoted, which would also allow tourists to visit the location.

and might certainly constitute a further element of attraction, in other words an added value to the extraordinary historical and archaeological charm of the fortress. The morphological milieu at the side of the hill (except for the west) bears strong incisions starting at the northwestern quadrants. The incisions converge east of the hill, in a single wadi, which develops eastwards. The western side of the hill is cleft by a morphological col created by the uplands to the rear. The sequence of strata that build up the castle hill framework as well as the surrounding reliefs, is formed by carbonate rock, in particular by alternating microcrystalline granite, calcarenites and calcirudites rich in bioclasts, and layers of flint. The latter are quite continuous, in grey-blackish strata ranging from a few millimetres up to 40cm in height (but usually about 15-20cm). Since the flint strata offer greater resistance to rock of carbonate origin, the resulting morphology is very striking. Overall, the sequence reveals a general attitude to the east, but this is disturbed locally by folds that cause a significant variability in strata gradient. Evident plastic-type deformation is visible, for instance, on the slopes south of the castle, while attitude variations are also very clear in the tunnel being studied. A manmade tunnel with a steep gradient drops down in the southwest sector of the castle, between the first and second set of fortifications, and leads to the natural spring called Ain al Ragaye. The entrance skirts a curtain wall and reaches a few steps that lead down to a short section of tunnel. There is a 180°-turn then a further deviation of 90° southeast. Light arrives from small openings set into the right-hand wall, while the steps change shape, both in the drop and the tread. Here the constructed tunnel gives way to the excavated tunnel. A further set of steps continues with only a minor deviation in the original direction, but this soon bears east-south-east and retains this orientation for the rest of its path. Observation of structures has shown that the tunnel was realized to reach the spring that originally rose at the foot of the hill from inside the fortified structure. For this purpose two sections of similar length (about 60m) and size (about 2 x 2.5m) are joined halfway along the route by a helical section that allowed for a significant height drop in a small space. This particular solution meant that the layout and sequence of steps

In a similar way to natural caves, manmade underground sites are of great interest in the environmental heritage sector for their unique significance. Apart from specific and noteworthy archaeological and/or anthropological importance, there is also an archaic affinity, quite often a function that has developed between the local communities and the particular cave. Consequently, in this context, the cultural resource-environmental resource combination finds its most perfect expression. This concept deserves even greater consideration when observing the manmade caves built for water diversions, which is to say sites whose social and traditional knowledge values fuse with technological expressions. When dealing with this subject, it should not be forgotten that the underground environment, with few exceptions, is not at all an isolated, closed world. Paradoxically it is actually well connected with the surface and this occurs basically via well-known, documented processes (Badino 1995, Cigna 2002). Constant air flows of various speeds, direction and seasonality are the breathing of the caves, and other chemo-physical factors are also associated, including temperature, humidity and CO2. Casual human presence, almost never continuous, and certainly not massive, does not bring about significant modifications, and in any case the latter have an extremely limited timeframe. With structural interventions targeting tourist promotion, things might change quite radically (Cigna & Burri 2000, Burri 2001). SHAWBAK CASTLE AND AIN AL RAGAYE TUNNEL The importance and structural layout of Shawbak Castle have been known in literature for some time (Vannini 2007), and theories and projects for its promotion have also been produced. Worthy of note in this circumstance is a tunnel known as Ain al Ragaye, created for underground diversion of a natural spring which since ancient times has risen at the foot of the hill where the castle itself is located. Its existence has been known for so long that it is actually mentioned in many guidebooks for tourists , but it is its unique blueprint, or rather the design that brought about its implementation, which could turn it into an suitable, targeted show cave. This site is unique in its genre in this area 327

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean retained a gradient that made it easier for those having to carry water to climb back up. At this junction point two flattened arches, in well-cut ashlar that sit partly against the actual tunnel walls, support rough, low masonry used to hold excavation or restoration debris of various sizes. It is likely that several natural sections, caused by the simple dissolution of carbonates, were embraced in this sector, as can be seen clearly lower down. Unfortunately the presence of the abovementioned debris prevents exploration of the other shafts that seem to be present. The structural profile shows that a preliminary exploration shaft was built and widened to current dimensions only when the objective had been achieved. In the past, the underground layout had stone steps that are still obvious in the first section, while the steps in the subsequent sector are merely etched out and in a very poor state of repair. Excavation of the tunnel was conditioned by the presence of the strata of flint, where there are clear height changes, which possibly were even used as a guide during digging. It will be noticed that the most substantial remain on the left, while there is no lack of small deviations derived to bypass obstacles posed by “anomalous” outcrops. Direction errors have been revealed, especially in the final section, which appears to have been dug upwards. This seems to indicate how the spring was also intercepted by a specific section of the tunnel, which clearly derived from the site of the source. The underground cistern hollowed out near the abovementioned spring objectively appears quite small compared to the extent of the works undertaken. Moreover, several construction details seem to indicate that the plan was never completed. The presence of large amounts of silt residue in the cistern prevent a convincing analysis that defines its real capacity. At the end of the ancient tunnel, a recently built connection leads out through a five-metre concrete well, set at the southern edge of the hill. It is interesting to note that the original source of the spring was naturally located at the edge and base of the hill outcrop. Its presence may be a good reason for explaining the rural settlement outside the fortifications, which has survived seamlessly, with rock phases, until recent times. The spring’s name, Ain al Ragaye, is emblematic, as it means “chameleon” and might well refer to it being camouflaged. This type of layout is not unusual: there are a large number of similar structures spread throughout the arid and semiarid areas of the Near and Middle East. They document a consolidated practice for creating tunnels to ensure access to springs, that served not only to decrease evaporation but also to safeguard the water layer from pollution.

2) lighting; 3) pedestrian pathway structure. The structural configuration of the tunnel, with two distinct openings upstream and downstream, means this underground site can be classified as a high-energy category with constant, well-conveyed aeration. So there should be very little or no condensation phenomena since there are no traces of concretions. The solution of the lighting issue appears more complex, since this is required to light the path, but not to trigger growth phenomena of vegetation in any case extraneous to the underground milieu. Nor can it disturb visitors. The use of LEDs is the best solution to this type of requirement, as is confirmed by their extensive application in all lighting installations in the world’s leading show caves, on condition that an underfoot support is used to light the path and, simultaneously, highlight construction details. It is not possible to go into technical detail here since the position and orientation of the of the lighting will actually be defined at the time of installation. Moreover, the LEDs will only power up when visitors are passing, to avoid a possible – even if unlikely – increase in temperature. As already stated, the total absence of concretions makes this a secondary consideration. The current configuration of the tunnel means that only persons fit enough to undertake mountain excursions will be able to visit it, since the steps are of different sizes and are only found at the start of the pathway. Then there are dust and rubble to consider, not to mention the steep slope, which makes the walk even more problematical. Further ahead the spiral development of the route poses more complex difficulties. A proposed solution would be one already implemented in similar tunnels: a catwalk that connects the two entrances seamlessly. The supporting structure appears suspended over the original footpath by several tenths of a metre and is anchored to it by limited groundwork, or is simply attached with mechanical supports. This is a non-invasive solution and allows for the recovery of the original steps, if they exist. This support is made from steel and aluminium, and allows for laying electrical cables, as well as serving as the base for spotlights. The final hurdle is the small size of the last section and the access pit that leads out into the open, at the foot of the hill. Since this structure was built quite recently, it should not be too difficult to plan for a complete functional renovation. BIBLIOGRAPHY Badino, G. 1995. Fisica del clima sotterraneo, Memorie dell’Istituto Italiano di Speleologia, s. II, 7, Bologna, 1995. Burri, E. 2004. La fruizione delle cavità naturali tra cultura storica e conflittualità ambientale, in Atti del Convegno “Risorse culturali e sviluppo locale”, Mem. Soc. Geog. Ital., II, 2004, 559-593 Burri, E, Germani, C., Mancini, M., Nucciotti, M., Parise, M., Vannini, G. 2009. Ain al Ragaye: a tunnel for exploitation of natural spring in Shawbak Castle (Jordan), “Opera Ipogea”, 1, 61-67.

PROMOTION FOR CULTURE AND TOURISM The castle is a tourist attraction even if the incoming structures are still to be realized and it is this context that offers the scenario for the enhancement of the diversion tunnel, if its exceptionality is considered. The following problems are to be resolved: 1) evaluation of carrying capacity; 328

E. Burri: Considerations on Possible Promotion of The “Ain Al Ragaye” Burri, E., Germani, C., Mancini, M., Parise, M., 2009. Il “passaggio” di ‘Ain Raghaigha. in Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una frontiera, Firenze, 2009, 108-109. Cigna, A. A. 2002. Il concetto di capacità ricettiva e la fruizione delle grotte turistiche, Le Grotte d’Italia, s. V., 3, Frasassi, 25-31. Cigna, A. A., Burri, E. 2000. Development, management

and economy of show caves, International Journal of Speleology, 29 B, (1/4), Bologna, 1-27. Padri Francescani, 1984, Guide to Jordan, Franciscan Printing Press. Vannini, G. (Ed). 2007, Archeologia dell’ insediamento crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania. Il progetto Shawbak, Firenze.

Figure 1. The Ain al Ragaye tunnel plan

Figure 2. The Ain al Ragaye tunnel section

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Figure 3. The Ain al Ragaye tunnel. Entrance

Figure 4. The Ain al Ragaye tunnel. Section in the first area

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Figure 5. The Ain al Ragaye tunnel. Near the spiral passage

Figure 6. The Ain al Ragaye tunnel. After the spiral passage

Figure 7. The Ain al Ragaye tunnel. After the spiral passage in the section affected by karst erosion

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UMM AL JIMAL Architect Moh’d Ali Al Khatib Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Tourism &Antiquities Bedouin style of life. Christianity spread and many churches were built- the traces of 15 churches can be seen at the present one of which is a Cathedral (Figura 9) In AD 551 the town was hit by an earthquake and then attacked by the Persians which resulted in the abandonment of the town

The town of Umm El -Jimal is situated in the north-eastern part of Jordan – Governorate Of Mafraq. It is 60kilometres from Amman (Figura 1) This ancient town has been considered through time and for a long period of time an important trade and strategic centre. (Figura 2) It is 800metres long and 550metres wide. (Figura 3) Till now, its real name is unknown but it is believed that it is not much different from its present name, i.e Umm El -Jimal, due to its commercial role in the desert where camels were used in transportation. This ancient town is part of the great basalt area which has been formed through the development of the earth’s crust in the past geological eras that resulted in the flow of large quantities of volcanic black stones through the earthly holes and volcanoes in the area. This has been reflected in the use of basalt stones in the masonry of the town.(Figura 4) Also, the basalt stones were used in the roofing procedure in the town through the use of the ceiling-corbelling and stone-beaming procedures. Moreover, the long stone-beams were used in constructing the aerial stairs.(Figura 5 e Figura 6) The basalt stones quiries were used as water reservoirs to keep water for winter. (Figura7)

In the Umayyad era 636-750 AD, Umm El -Jimal regained its prosperity and development due to its closeness to the Umayyad capital, Damascus, and because it was used as a route for pilgrims During this era, the Byzantine houses were reused and new houses were built using the same techniques and Muslims and Christians lived together peacefully In AD 749, the town was hit by another earthquake. Many houses fill down and many diseases spread in the town and it was abandoned, especially after the movement of the capital to Baghdad during the Abbasid era. (Fgura 10) The town was reinhabited during the Ayyoubid –Mamlouk era 1171-1516 AD. Then, during the Ottoman era 15161916 AD many of its buildings were used by the Ottoman soldiers. Moreover, during the British-French mandate 1916-1946 A.D. many buildings were used by the British and French soldiers. The town continued to be inhabited by people before the Department of Antiquities acquired it in the eighties. People of the area now live in a nearby new town The Jordanian Department of Antiquities has been involved in many projects in Umm El -Jimal. It has restored many buildings in the area and is now restoring, rebuilding and rehabilitating an Umayyad house (House 119) in order to be used as a visitors’ centre (Figura 11). Umayyad house (House 119) It has one main entrance from the south. The rooms are U-shaped on an open courtyard in the northern part. There are also two animal pens in the southern part. Most of this structure is damaged and the rest is in a very bad state, but all evidence of its landmarks and the way it was built is presentmangers for feeding animals, especially cows. (Figura 12) In the present project, the original shape of the building is going to be preserved (Figura 13) Finally, in order to differentiate the restored parts from the original parts, a margin of 3-4 centimetres has been made toward the inside (Figura 14) Historic notes are taken from Dott. Abdel Qader Hosan.

The history of Umm El -Jimal goes back to the first century BC and the first century AD.when the Nabatean Kingdom was at its peak. After the Nabateans moved their capital from Petra to Busra Al-Sham which is close to Um El -Jimal (only 24Kilometres northeast), the trade routes in the south of Jordan lost their importance in favour of Tadmur (Palmira) and the routes in the Syrian desert that lead to Iraq and the Arabian Gulf. This resulted in the expansion and prosperity of Umm El -Jimal. After the fall of the Nabatean Kingdom on the hand of the Roman Empire Trajanus in AD 106, Umm El -Jimal and the other towns and cities continued their important roles as trade routes. In AD 111 the Romans started building a road to connect Busra Al-Sham with Aqaba Gulf ‘Trajanus Road’. This road passes through Umm Al-Jimal and its traces can still be seen near Umm El -Jimal at the present (Figura 8) After that Umm El -Jimal witnessed the Byzantine era AD 324-636 during which it expanded and its population increased to 8,000. The Bedouin tribes settled and left their

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A. Al Khatib: Umm Al Jimal

Figura 1 Jordan- The town of Umm El –Jimal

Figura 2 Umm El -Jimal

Figura 3 Planimetry of Umm El -Jimal

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Figura 4; Figura 5 e Figura 6 The masonry of Umm El -Jimal

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Figura 7 The basalt stone quiries

Figura 8 The road passes through Umm Al-Jimal

Figura 9 Umm El –Jimal. The cathedral

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Figura 10 Umm El –Jimal. The buikdings

Figura 11 Umm El –Jimal . Umayyad house (House 119)

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Figura 12 The way built for feeding animals

Figura 13 The project of restoration

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Figura 14 The restored parts and the original parts.

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INSEDIAMENTO E CONFINI: UNA CASISTICA ARCHEOLOGICA DELL’ITALIA MEDIEVALE SETTLEMENT AND BORDERS: ARCHAEOLOGICAL CASE STUDIES FROM MEDIEVAL ITALY ATTRAVERSO LE FRONTIERE: GLI ITINERARI DI PELLEGRINAGGIO PER LA CONOSCENZA DEL MEDITERRANEO MEDIEVALE Francesca Romana Stasolla Sapienza Università di Roma

Abstract (2008) Over the frontier: pilgrimage routes for the knowledge of Medieval Mediterranean. Pilgrimage journeys, begone in Late Antiquity and with no interruptions until the High Middle Ages, went often through several countries, followed beaten roads and opened new paths, and finally cause some roads to persist rather than others. Pilgrimage routes are a particular group of sources, which combine more or less brief descriptions of visited places with valuable pieces of information about the ways men moved as from Late Antiquity. In particular, as regards the centuries until the High Middle Ages, they represent documentary sources of long-distance journeys, through a different land, in terms of administrative districts, political events, cultural aspects, road network. Pilgrim’s eyes, although fixed on his destination, not seldom notice unusual and peculiar details, especially while passing through either geographical or cultural boundary zones. In the light of the analysis of Late Antique and Early medieval routes, compared with those of Crusader epoch, the topography of the road network has been tried to be outlined, which, crossing Europe, reached the Eastern regions, until the holy city par excellence, Jerusalem. A reconstructed route network will be put forward, that emphasizes the state of border zone of some places through the times, and strengthened their settlement. Cultural geography will be stressed on at the same time, as well as the passage from the known world to the unknown and the wonder, the diversity over the boundary, the ways men were used to tackle religious and linguistic barriers.

Gli itinerari di pellegrinaggio costituiscono un corpus di fonti eccezionale per la comprensione delle dinamiche degli spostamenti di lunga percorrenza, per alcune epoche ne concentrano le uniche informazioni in nostro possesso, consentendoci di guardare all’Oriente con lo sguardo dell’Occidente e, per il Medioevo più avanzato, anche in senso opposto.1 Tali fonti non possono che essere prese in considerazione nel loro complesso, poiché una serie di utili riflessioni può essere tratta solo da analisi di lunga durata, su un ampio arco cronologico. Dalla lettura comparata dei due principali gruppi di itineraria, quelli di età tardoantica e bizantina2 e quelli del periodo crociato,3 emerge una

pluralità di orizzonti all’interno della quale si articolano i diversi limites. C’è innanzi tutto un orizzonte topografico, della via che si snoda davanti al pellegrino e che lo conduce a mete diverse, via menzionata solo in riferimento alla sua utilità e non nella prospettiva, così che spesso le strade iniziano e non se ne percepisce il termine ultimo. Il percorso prima che fisico è un processo di avvicinamento e di percorrenza dello spazio del sacro, in una dimensione limitanea che vede il pellegrino in bilico tra spazio reale e spazio interiore.4 Ma il pellegrinaggio si snoda, concretamente, su strade fisiche, le cui scelte spesso hanno determinato la fortuna di alcuni percorsi rispetto ad altri e la nascita di nuovi assetti viari.

1

La bibliografia in merito ai pellegrinaggi, e a quelli in Oriente in particolare, è enorme e l’edizione delle fonti molteplice. Nell’impossibilità di procedere a citazioni complete, si rimanda ai riferimenti nelle singole note per quanto riguarda le scelte effettuate nell’analisi delle fonti scritte e di alcuni, sintetici e scarni, riferimenti storiografici. 2 I principali itinerari di pellegrinaggio presi in esame sono editi in Itineraria. 3 Tra la vastissima bibliografia, i si limita a citare i numerosi contributi raccolti in Wallfahrt, quindi Grabois 1998; fra i molteplici studi di Franco Cardini dedicati all’argomento si rimanda, per completezza, in modo specifico a Cardini 1996; a Cardini 1991 e da ultimo a Cardini 2002. Per

il tardo medioevo, si rimanda alla recente sintesi di Cocci 2005. 4 Turner e Turner 1978, la cui analisi è ripresa e ridiscussa in Idinipulos 1996. Si veda anche Ladner 1983, con particolare riferimento alla ripresa del contributo già edito in Ladner 1967. Per il concetto di ‘terapia dello spazio’ si rimanda a Dupront 1973, 189-206, quindi Dupront 1993. La percezione della Terrasanta da parte dei pellegrini occidentali è ben evidenziata in Grabois 1998.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Gli itinerari più antichi appaiono scanditi sulla viabilità romana, e la tenuta del cursus publicus appare evidente dal più antico itinerario verso la Terrasanta rimastoci, il Burdigalense, che nell’elenco apparententemente arido delle mutationes e delle mansiones tradisce la solidità di percorrenze romane.5 L’Itinerario Burdigalense, come è noto, parte dall’Aquitania, segue la via Domitia da Tolosa ad Arles, varca le Alpi al Moncenisio e prende le strade della Cisalpina transpadana per Torino ed Aquileia, per poi proseguire via terra. Al ritorno, invece, il percorso avviene via mare, presumibilmente allo scopo di passare per Roma. Da qui si sale verso Milano e si riprende la via dell’andata. Questo itinerario, che fotografa la situazione della prima metà del IV secolo, mostra anche la strutturazione della rete stradale transalpina, che vede nelle Alpi un valico e non un ostacolo. Infatti, il pellegrino attraverso la catena alpina due volte nel viaggio di andata, nella stagione primaverile, apparentemente non pienamente adatta ad un transito agevole.6 L’itinerario più articolato della tarda antichità è sicuramente quello dell’Anonimo Piancentino, che partendo da Piacenza nella seconda metà VI secolo, percorre Cipro, il Libano, la Palestina, l’Egitto, la Siria e la Mesopotamia (Ant. Plac.) (Figura 1). Nella descrizione, però, prevalgono le città sui punti di sosta e soprattutto sulla scansione geografica, segno di un progressivo allentamento del sistema romano di organizzazione dello spazio. Particolarmente interessante ai fini della conoscenza dell’occupazione araba della Terrasanta è l’itinerario di Arculfo, vescovo delle Gallie, redatto nella seconda metà del VII secolo (Figura 2), nel quale però le indicazioni geografiche prevalgono su quelle topografiche: i punti di riferimento sono costituiti da elementi naturali da insediamenti, piuttosto che dalla scansione delle miglia percorse (Adamn). Da questo momento e per tutto il X-XI secolo sono scarse le fonti relative ai pellegrinaggi, benché alcuni eventi storici abbiano contribuito e definire nuove frontiere e a modificare i percorsi. Ad esempio, la conversione al Cristianesimo del duca di Ungheria Geza, nel 985, facilitò la riapertura della via danubiana, resa più agevole dalla costruzione di una serie di ospedali, a cominciare da quello voluto da Stefano, figlio di Gesa, presso il monastero di Melk sul Danubio.7 Una frontiera riaperta, ma non ancora del tutto sicura se all’inizio dell’XI secolo nel racconto del vescovo di Bamberga, che guidava in pellegrinaggio 7000 fedeli tedeschi, si legge: ‘siamo stati molestati dagli Ungheresi, attaccati dai Bulgari, messi in fuga dai Turchi; abbiamo subito gli insulti degli arroganti Greci di Costantinopoli’(Arnold., I, 1-3). Ma la cosiddetta via diagonalis, che univa l’Europa occidentale alla Terrasanta attraverso l’area danubiana, era la preferita dalle spedizioni crociate che si muovevano via terra e dai pellegrini, almeno fino alla seconda metà del XII secolo, quando l’istabilità dell’area tornò a scoraggiarne l’attraversamento.

Un nuovo gruppo di racconti si sviluppa a seguito del nuovo impulso dato al pellegrinaggio in Terrasanta dalla conquista latina di Gerusalemme del 1099. A partire da questo momento, le fonti si arricchiscono anche di itinerari non solo da Occidente verso Oriente, ma anche da dall’area russa e sono redatti per lo più da ecclesiastici e mostrano un maggiore interessa per le tappe del viaggio. Un’articolazione variegata si nota nei tratti di percorso immediatamente precedenti o successivi alla visita a Gerusalemme.8 L’arrivo a Gerusalemme se avveniva da sud utilizzava prevalentemente la via che collegava la costa, l’Asia Minore, Siria ed Egitto (Figura 3). Per coloro che arrivavano da nord, invece, (Figura 1) era preferibile la strada che passava da Damasco, quindi si poteva scegliere tra due percorsi differenti: uno attraversava la Samaria, consentendo di visitare la tomba del Battista a Sebaste, il pozzo di Giacobbe, la tomba del patriarca Giuseppe e del monte Garizim, un percorso ricco di tappe minori, ma che risentiva della scarsa ospitalità dei samaritani nei confronti dei pellegrini cristiani. (Figura 4) Si tratta di un percorso, comunque attestato più volte nel corso dei secoli e che torna anche anche in età medievale, sia pure anche nella variante più vicina alla costa (Figura 5). In alternativa, era possibile costeggiare maggiormente la valle del Giordano (Figura 2). Questi percorsi potevano ovviamente anche essere utilizzati al termine della visita alla Città Santa, unitamente alla vatiante quello orientale, attestata da Egeria, che documenta il passaggio in Arabia dopo aver seguito il corso del Giordano fino a Scythopolis (It. Eg., XVI)����� . Infine, grande attrazione esercitava la visita al Sinai, prevalentemente per la via che si ritenesse percorresse quello biblico del popolo d’Israele, toccando Clysma (att. Suez) e segnando le tappe dell’Esodo (It. Eg., I-VII; Theod., XXVII; Anton.. Plac., XXXVII) lungo strade carovaniere tra Palestina ed Egitto che garantivano il sostegno di pozzi d’acqua a cadenza regolare grazie anche alla reste degli insediamenti nel deserto del Negev (Figura 6). Le aree confinarie appaiono segnate dalla presenza monastica e da quella di insediamenti castrensi, l’una e l’altra sostanziali per il proseguo del pellegrinaggio. Egeria sottolinea come all’ingresso dell’Egitto, lasciando la terra Saracenorum, si erge il castrum Phitona.9 Ma decisamente rilevante appare la reste monastica, che non solo si articola negli immediati dintorni di Gerusalemme, ma che segna il percoro dalla città al Giordano (Figura 7 e Figura 9).

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C’è poi un orizzonte geografico, che assume sfumature diverse nell’arco cronologico esaminato, le cui partizioni amministrative si fanno più labili nei secoli altomedievali. In taluni casi, i confini ammnistrativi coincidono con quelli geografici, che nell’ottica del pellegrino vengono poercepiti non come limiti generali, quanto piuttosto in riferimento alle difficoltà del viaggio. E’ questo il caso di Egeria nella descrizione dell’Eufrate, magnus et

Per l’analisi dell’Itinerario Burdigalense si rimanda da ultimo ad Uggeri 2005. Per le strutture del cursus publicus si veda Corsi 2000. 6 Per la concezione dell’arco alpino come elemento di congiunzione, piuttosto che di divisione, nel corso dell’altomedioevo si rimanda a Stasolla 2007b. 7 Si rimanda da ultimo a La via diagonalis e Vanni 2008.

La base cartografica qui presentata è stata curata da Michele Voltaggio, che ringrazio per avermela messa a disposizione. 9 It. Eg., VII, 6: Pithona etiam civitas, quam aedificaverunt filii Israhel, ostensa est nobis in ipso itinere, in eo tamen loco, ubi iam fines Aegypti intravimus, relinquentes iam terras Saracenorum: nam et ipsud nunc Phitona castrum est.

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F. R. Stasolla: Attraverso le frontiere: gli itinerari di pellegrinaggio ingens, quasi terribilis, il cui impeto è analogo, se non maggiore, a quello del Rodano. E quando, in nomine Domini, la traversata è compiuta, solo allora, alla fine, l’autrice aggiunge che il corso d’acqua coincide con il finis Mesopotamiae Syriae (It. Eg., XVIII, 1-2). La stessa autrice dall’alto del Monte Nebo ammira i centri al di qua e al di là del Giordano, dalla Palestina, la terra repromissionis, alla terra Sodomitum, dove tutto è un ammasso di rovine.10 La difficoltà di stabilire esatte partizioni territoriali appare chiara da alcuni itinerari: Egeria tenta di distinguere la terra Arabia dalla civitas Arabia, quae in terra Gesse est, che a sua volta si trova in terra Egypti pars,11 così che alla fine appare più sicura una scansione del territorio fondata sul susseguirsi delle mansiones che su dati di tipo amministrativo. Per salire sul Monte Nebo, è necessario ascendi usque ad Arabiam, al di fuori del sicuro confine della Palestina,12 benché ancora il calcolo in miglia aiuti a tener conto delle distanze.13 Di contro, nella più tarda cronaca dell’igumeno Daniil, malgrado il pericolo gli attacchi saraceni avvertito in più occasioni, le sponde del Giordano sono descritte in termini idilliaci, compresa la menzione dei ponti che lo attraversano.14

del XII secolo questi generici Saraceno compaiono come informatori,16 oppure nelle relazioni di piccoli scambi, come quando, riporta l’Anonimo Piacentino, in cambio di acqua fresca chiedono pane insieme alle loro donne ed ai bambini (Anton. Plac.) La situazione appare come è logico molto cambiata più tardi, nella descrizione dell’igumeno russo Daniil dell’inizio del XII secolo, i Saraceni escono da Ascalona ‘e uccidono molti pellegrini su quelle vie, e si prova grande paura, quando da quel luogo si penetra tra i monti’.17 Va detto però che poi, nella descrizione del monastero di S. Caritone nei pressi del Mar Morto, la stessa fonte fa menzione di un villaggio dove convivono cristiani e saracene, così che dopo la notte lo stesso sceicco saraceno conduce i pellegrini fino a Betlemme, per tutelarli dagli attacchi dei suoi. La frontiera culturale più importante, quella linguistica, pare abbattuta grazie alla presenza di interpreti, menzionati in più fonti in modo espresso; inoltre alla loro presenza credo vadano riferiti anche i molteplici riferimenti alle guide che i pellegrini incontrano e a cui si affidano. Non a caso, nelle descrizioni di viaggio, tali guide compaiono solo in riferimento a centri posti in aree diverse, sotto il profilo linguistico, da quelle di provenienza del viaggiatore.18 Coloro che provenivano dalla Rus’ avevano senza dubbio necessità di una guida-traduttore, e ne fa testo l’egumeno Daniil, che ammette l’impossibilità di visitare Gerusalemme senza, benché vi sia rimasto 16 mesi e sia stato costretto a dar fondo ai suoi averi.19 Più agevole è la situazione dei pellegrini occidentali, che comunque notano la presenza di traduttori anche per le celebrazioni liturgiche, affinché i fedeli ne comprendessero il senso: Egeria attesta dei presbiteri che traducono in siriaco le Scritture lette in greco, ed anche gli stranieri di lingua latina sono garantiti dalla presenza di monaci e monache ‘greco latini’,20 e parallelamente riferisce di monaci che

Esiste infine un orizzonte culturale, quello forse dominante, che vede il confine tra il noto e l’ignoto, l’accettato ed il ‘diverso’ che si apre oltre il limite, un confine mobile, che denota curiosità e desiderio di scoprire piuttosto di giudicare. L’occhio del pellegrino, pur rimanendo fisso sulla meta, coglie non infrequentemente scorvi e visuali insoliti, soprattutto nel passaggio fra aree limitanee sia sotto il profilo geografico che culturale. I Saraceni appartengono ad un orizzonte culturale che rimane sempre al limite di quello dei pellegrini. Il loro mondo si chiude ai fines Saracenorum, confini oltre i quali pare cessare la curiosità di questi viaggiatori, anche di coloro che paiono maggiormente interessati alle novità del viaggio. Non a caso, Egeria chiude la sua enumerazione delle terre che che il suo itinerario le consente di attraversare con il fines Saracenorum, la terra che non ha un suo nome né confini precisi.15 In qualche caso, nelle cronache

quae tamen singula nobis illi sancti demonstrabant. 16 Descriptio: Nam averterunt me Saraceni, dicentes locum non carere periculo propter serpentes, vermes, & feroces bestias ibi habitantes: sed postea comperi rem non ita se habere.... Dixerunt mihi Saraceni, Iordanem ingredi mare mortuum, et rursum egredi, sed post exiguum intervallum a terra absorberi.. 17 Dan. Egum., 81. Un passo analogo compare successivamente: 152 ‘Dal monte Tabor a Nazaret ci sono 15 verste grandi, si cammina due verste in pianura e 3 sui monti, il cammino è molto faticoso,, molto angusto e impraticabile. Su quei monti vivono molti pagani saraceni e in quella pianura ci sono molti villaggi saraceni. Quelli, uscendo da quei villaggi, assalgono su quel monte spaventoso. E’ stato penoso per me percorrere con un piccolo [seguito] quel cammino, solo con un grande seguito si può percorrere quel cammino senza paura. Non ci fu concesso un seguito. Così da soli, soltanto in 8, deboli e inermi, passando, sperando in Dio, conservati dalla grazia di Dio e mantenuti dalle preghiere della santa Signora nostra Madre di Dio, e raggiungemmo senza danno sani e salvi la santa città di Nazaret’. 18 Un breve cenno alla necessità di traduttori ed ai riferimenti alla loro presenza è stato fatto anche in Stasolla 2007a. 19 Dan. Egum. 73-74: ‘Io, indegno egumeno Daniil, giunto a Gerusalemme, sono rimasto 16 mesi, così ho potuto percorrere ed esaminare tutti questi luoghi santi. Senza una buona guida e senza interprete non è possibile esaminare e vedere tutti i luoghi santi. E ho dato tutto ciò che avevo fra le mani dei miei poveri averi a chi conosceva bene i luoghi danti nella città e fuori della città perché mi indicassero tutto bene, e così fu’. 20 It. Eg., XLVII, 4: Lectiones etiam, quecumque in ecclesia leguntur, quia necesse est grece legi, semper stat, qui siriste interpretatur propter populum, ut semper discant. Sane quicumque hic latini sunt, id est qui

It. Eg., XII, 5-6: In sinistra autem parte vidimus terras Sodomitum omnes nec non et Segor, quae tamen Segor sola de illis quinque in hodie constat. Nam et memoriale ibi est; de ceteris autem illis civitatibus nihil aliud apparet nisi subversio ruinarum, quemadmodum in cinerem conversae sunt 11 It. Eg., VII, 1: ... desiderii ergo fuit, ut de Clesma ad terram Gesse exiremus, id est ad civitatem, quae appellatur Arabia, quae civitas in terra Gesse est; nam inde ipsum territorium sic appellatur, id est terra Arabiae, terra Iesse, quae tamen terra Aegypti pars est, sed melior satis quam omnis Aegyptus est. 12 It. Eg., VII, 2 : Sunt ergo a Clesma, id est a mare rubro, usque ad Arabiam civitatem mansiones quattuor per eremo, sic tamen per eremum, ut cata mansiones monasteria sint cum militibus et praepositis, qui nos deducebant semper de castro ad castrum. 13 It. Eg., VII, 8: Nam ipse vicus nunc appellatur Hero, quae tamen Hero a terra Iesse miliario iam sexto decimo est, nam in finibus Aegypti est. 14 Dan. Egum., 141-142: ‘chi beve l’acqua del Giordano la trova molto dolce e pura ... Il Giordano scorre veloce, con acqua pulita ed è molto tortuoso ... ci sono moltissimi pesci alle sue sorgenti. Proprio alle sorgenti del Giordano, su entrambi i torrenti, ci sono due ponti di pietra, costruiti molto solidamente su archi ...’ 15 It. Eg., III, 8: Aegyptum autem et Palaestinam et mare rubrum et mare illud Parthenicum, quod mittit Alexandriam, nec non et fines Saracenorum infinitos ita subter nos inde videbamus, ut credi vix possit; 10

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean accompagnano i pellegrini nel corso delle visite in luoghi santi.21 La molteplicità linguistica dei monaci viene notata anche dall’Anonimo Piacentino, riguardo ai multi interpretes singularum linguarum presenti nei monasteri del Sinai frequentati dai pellegrini, che coprivano la conoscenza del latino, del greco, del siriaco, dell’egizio.22 Un percorso attraverso le frontiere, quello degli itinerari, e per questo destinato a sovvertirle, a spostarle in avanti, ma anche in grado di restituire un quadro vivido delle interrelazioni tra Occidente ed Oriente.

Dupront, A. 1973. Pèlerinage et lieux sacrés. In Méthodologie de l’histoire et des sciences humaines. Mélanges en l’honneur de F. Braudel. II,189-206. Toulouse. Dupront, A. 1993. Il sacro. Crociate e pellegrinaggi. Lingua e immagini. ed. it. Torino. Grabois, A. 1998. Le pèlerin occidental en Terra Sainte au Moyen Age. Brussel. Idinopulos, T.A. 1996. Sacred Space and Profane Power:Victor Turner and the Perspective of Holy Land Pilgrimage, in B.F. Le Beau and M. Mor (eds), in Pilgrims and Travellers to the Holy Land, , Piligrins & Travellers to the Holy Land, 9-20. Omaha, Creighton University Press (Nebraska). Itinerarium Egeriae, in F. Franceschini and R. Weber (eds), in Itineraria et alia geographica (Corpus Christianorum, serie latina, CLXXV), 29-103. Thurnolti 1965. Itineraria et alia geographica (Corpus Christianorum, serie latina, CLXXV), Thurnolti 1965. Ladner, G. 1967. ‘Homo viator’. Medieval Ideas on Alienation and Order. “Speculum” 42 , 233-259. Ladner, G.B. 1983. Images and Ideas in the Middle Ages. Selected Studies in History and Art. Rome. Stasolla, F.R. 2007a. Le strutture assistenziali in Italia tra tarda antichità ed alto medioevo. In La cristianizzazione in Italia fra Tardoantico e Altomedioevo. Atti del IX Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Cristiana (Agrigento, 20-25 novembre 2004). Palermo. Stasolla, F.R. 2007b. Le Alpi cerniera tra popoli e culture:le vie di lunga percorrenza, in Carlo Magno e le Alpi. Atti del XVIII Congresso Internazionale di studio sull’alto medioevo (Susa - Novalesa, 19-21 ottobre 2006), 253-267. Spoleto. Stopani, R. e Vanni, F. 2006. La via diagonalis: itinerario terrestre per Gerusalemme. Firenze. Theodosii De situ Terrae Sanctae, in Itineraria et alia geographica (Corpus Christianorum, serie latina, CLXXV), Thurnolti 1965, 113-125. Turner V. and Turner, E. 1978. Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture. Anthropological Perspective. Oxford. Uggeri, G. 2005. Itinerarium burdigalense, Il primo pellegrinaggio in Terrasanta. In I pellegrinaggi in età tardo antica e medievale. Atti del Convegno (Ferentino, 6-8 dicembre 1999), 161-177. Ferentino. Vanni, F. 2008. Rotte terrestri balcaniche nel Medioevo. In Routes of faith in the medieval Mediterranean: history, monuments, people, pilgrimage perspectives. International Symposium Proceedings (Thessalonike 7-10-2007). Thessaloniki. Wallfahrt kennt keine Grenzen. Themen zu einer Ausstellung des Bayerischen Nationalmuseum und der Adalbert Stifter Vereins. München 1984.

BIBLIOGRAFIA Adamnani De locis sanctis. In L. Bieler (ed.), in Itineraria et alia geographica (Corpus Christianorum, serie latina CLXXV). Thurnolti 1965. Antonini Placentini Itinerarium. In Itineraria et alia geographica (Corpus Christianorum, serie latina, CLXXV). Thurnolti 1965 127-153. Arnoldi Abbati Lubecensis Chronicon. J.M. Leppenberg (ed.) MGH, Script., 21, Hannoveae 1868, 544Cardini, F. 1996. Il pellegrinaggio, una dimensione della vita medievale. Manziana. Cardini, F. 1991. Gerusalemme d’oro, di rame, di luce. Pellegrini, crociato, sognatori d’Oriente fra XI e XV secolo. Milano. Cardini, F. 2002. La Terrasanta. Pellegrini italiani tra Medioevo e prima età moderna. Bologna. Cocci, A. 2005. Saperi di frontiera e rivendicazioni nelle relazioni di pellegrini in Terra Santa (secolo XIV). In I pellegrinaggi in età tardoantica e medievale. Atti del Convegno (Ferentino, 6-8 dicembre 1999), 119-159. Ferentino. Corsi, C. 2000. Le strutture di servizio del cursus publicus in Italia: ricerche topografiche ed evidenze archeologiche. ‘British Archaeological Reports’. Int. Ser., 875. Oxfords. Daniil Egumeno, Itinerario in Terra Santa. M. Garzaniti (ed), Roma 1991. Burchardus de Monte Sion, Descriptio Terrae Sanctae. Liber de descriptione terrae sanctae. Textus conferendus, hrsg. W. A. Neumann. Genf 1880. nec siriste nec grece nouerunt, ne contristentur, et ipsis exponitur eis, quia sunt alii fratres et sorores grecolatini, qui latine exponunt eis. 21 It. Eg., VII, 2: Sunt ergo a Clesma, id est a mare rubro, usque ad Arabiam civitatem mansiones quattuor per eremo, sic tamen per eremum, ut cata mansiones monasteria sint cum militibus et praepositis, qui nos deducebant semper de castro ad castrum. In eo ergo itinere sancti, qui nobiscum erant, hoc est clerici vel monachi, ostendebant nobis singula loca, quae semper ego iuxta scripturas requirebam; nam alia in sinistro, alia in dextro de itinere nobis erant, alia etiam longius de via, alia in proximo. 22 Anton. Plac., 37 147-148: ... Exinde alia die venimus ad montem dei Choreb, et inde moventes. ut ascenderemus Sina, et ecce multitudo monachorum et heremitarum innumerabiles cum crucis psallentes obviaverunt nobis, qui prostrati in terra adoraverunt nos, simili modo et nos facientes flentes. Et introduxerunt nos in vallem inter Choreb et Sina,et ecce multitudo monachorum et heremitarum innumerabilis cum crucis psallentes obviaverunt nobis, qui prostrati in terra adoraverunt nos, simili modo et nos facientes flentes. Et introduxerunt nos in vallem Choreb et Sina, ad cuius pede montis est fons ille, ubi Moyses vidit signum rubi ardentis, in quo et oves adaquabat. Qui fons inclusus est intra monasterium, quod monasterium circundatum muris munitis, in quo sunt tres abbates, scientes linguas, hoc est, latinas et graecas, syriacas et aegypticas et bessas, vel multi interpretes singularum lunguarum. ....

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F. R. Stasolla: Attraverso le frontiere: gli itinerari di pellegrinaggio

Figura 1: Itinerario dell’Anonimo Piacentino (VI secolo)

Figura 2: Itinerario di Arculfo (VII secolo)

Figura 3: Itinerario di Bernardo (IX secolo)

Figura 4: Itinerario di Innominatur (XII secolo)

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Figura 5: Itinerario di Othomerus (XII secolo)

Figura 6: Centri nel deserto del Negev

Figura 7: Monasteri nella valle del Giordano

Figura 8: Monasteri nel deserto di Giuda

Figura 9: Monasteri da Gerusalemme al Giordano

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

LA SICILIA TRA XII E XIII SECOLO: CONFLITTI “INTERETNICI” E “FRONTIERE” INTERNE Alessandra Molinari Università di Roma Tor Vergata Abstract (2008) 12th to 13th century Sicily: “ethnic” conflicts and internal frontiers. Archaeological research, carried out over the last twenty years in Sicily, is more and more evidencing the brutal impact that the Norman and then Suevian rule had on the lives of peasant people in the Island. Data are particularly clear for the Suevian period, wherein considerable differences can be noted, in terms of material culture between Eastern and Western Sicily. In particular, the state of conflict is well shown by the foundation of very large risen villages, which took place in the Western part between the second half of the 12th and the first half of the 13th century. Besides, this phenomenon brought about the abandonment of many defenceless sites. However, more impressive is the fact that none of the big Western villages continued practically to exist as late as the second half of the 13th century. Finally, it must be emphasised, that Sicily’s material culture, by the end of that century and in the following one, has no but very poor evidence of its Islamic past.

………et cum villani dicantur fuisse Sarraceni, eis modo mortuis et eiectis de Sicilia, feudi demanium discerni non potest1

ne siciliana nell’arco di circa due secoli (1061-1266) mi sembra che si possa affermare che si sia andata progressivamente determinando una forte differenziazione tra la Sicilia orientale e quella occidentale (citra et ultra Salsum) (Figura 1) in forme più nette rispetto ai secoli precedenti.4 Se tuttavia il fiume Salso può utilmente costituire una ideale demarcazione tra due aree con notevoli diversità socio-culturali, non si deve assolutamente pensare ad un reale e netta linea di confine tra le due parti dell’Isola. Discuteremo più oltre come si possano interpretare i diversi segni materiali messi in luce dalla ricerca archeologica nell’ultimo trentennio e come in parte rafforzino, in parte correggano quanto si può evincere dalle fonti scritte.

Partiamo dall’esito finale: queste poche righe del 1247-8 descrivono assai bene il drammatico epilogo della mancata integrazione in Sicilia della popolazione islamica nel regno normanno e quindi svevo. L’archeologia consente, a mio avviso, di rendere ancora più vivido e preciso il percorso di radicale trasformazione che subì il popolamento siciliano dall’arrivo dei Normanni alla fine della dominazione sveva. In particolare, i dati materiali permettono di sottolineare la violenza dell’esito finale di questo percorso ed anche i suoi diversi stadi. Ma andiamo per ordine. Il tema complesso delle frontiere e più in generale della precisa definizione degli spazi, oggetto specifico di questo convegno, si lega strettamente a molti altri affrontati a più riprese tanto dalla storiografia che dall’archeologia medievale,2 come ad es. le ‘conquiste e riconquiste’, le migrazioni, l’etnogenesi, ma anche le modalità di affermazione delle diverse organizzazioni statali e dei poteri territoriali, solo per citare alcuni dei temi. Universalmente si sottolinea comunque l’estrema variabilità sia della percezione sia della realtà materiale delle frontiere nell’arco di tutto il medioevo. Non è mia intenzione riprendere in questa sede la storia di un lungo ed ampio dibattito, ma di tenerne conto affrontando il tema più particolare dell’incontro/scontro tra due tipi di società molto differenti tra di loro come quella ‘occidentale’ fortemente signorilizzata e quella ‘arabo-musulmana’, che si caratterizzerebbe, fra le molte altre cose, per una maggiore indipendenza delle comunità contadine.3 Questo scontro tra società profondamente differenti ha interessato la Sicilia, come al-Andalus e l’Oriente latino, con esiti diversi ma confrontabili. Nell’ambito delle trasformazioni subite dalla popolazio-

I. GRECI E MUSULMANI NELLA SICILIA NORMANNA ATTRAVERSO LE FONTI SCRITTE Sulla composizione e sulle successive sorti delle popolazioni presenti sull’Isola al momento dell’arrivo dei Normanni esiste un’ampia letteratura,5 della quale voglio riassumere alcune delle interpretazioni più condivise come pure sottolineare alcuni dei punti più controversi. Molti dei temi affrontati in questa sezione, elaborati tenendo conto prevalentemente degli studi basati sull’interpretazione delle fonti scritte, verranno ripresi e ridiscussi in quella seguente, quando mi servirò specialmente delle fonti materiali. Come riferisce Goffredo Malaterra,6 al momento dell’arrivo dei Normanni in Sicilia, nell’area del Valdemone si concentrava la maggior parte della popolazione greco-cristiana dell’Isola. In ogni caso quando i Normanni sbarcarono a Messina la città avrebbe avuto anche una consistente componente araba nella sua popolazione. E’ stato poi sottolineato (Metcalfe 2003,174-187) come, sebbene la lingua greca si accompagnasse quasi sempre alla religione cristiana, nelle parti dell’Isola più profondamente arabizzate linguisticamente doveva esistere anche

1Winkelmann

1880-1885, 1, doc. n. 924, 702. Si veda ad es. Castrum 4, passim ed in particolare il saggio di Toubert 1992; inoltre Brogiolo 1994 ed in partic. il saggio di Gasparri 1994; Curta 2005; Davies et al. 2006 ed in particolare le conclusioni di Davies; sulle relazioni tra frontiere ed identità religiosa alcuni dei saggi contenuti in Bresc et al. 2008. 3 Si veda ad es. Acien 1997; Guichard 1988, 19-24; Pastor 1975; e per la Sicilia si veda Nef 2000 per la condizione dei contadini e Petralia 2005 per il problema della ‘feudalizzazione’. 2

4

Su questa differenziazione molto evidente in età sveva ha insistito molto Maurici 1997, 91-154. Sulle partizioni amministrative della Sicilia medievale anche Corrao e D’Alessandro 1994. 5 Sulle diverse componenti etniche della Sicilia in età normanna si veda ad es. Avenel 2004; Bresc 1985; id. 1992, 2001; Falkenhaousen 2002; Lucas-Rognoni 2004; Metcalfe 2003; Nef 2008a-b; Varvaro 1981. 6 Se ne veda l’edizione a cura Pontieri 1925-28, 32-33.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean feudalità e delle gerarchie ecclesiastiche10. Queste ultime, grazie alla legazia apostolica, erano direttamente scelte dagli Altavilla e la fondazione delle diocesi fu un capitolo importante della politica siciliana dei re normanni (finalizzata alla ‘cristianizzazione’ e al controllo del territorio). Sarebbe tuttavia errato ricondurre tutti i motivi di conflitto tra vecchi abitanti e nuovi venuti soltanto a differenze di lingua e di religione. Anzi specialmente nelle prime fasi della nuova dominazione fu certamente garantita ampia autonomia sul piano giuridico e religioso alle diverse comunità isolane11. Sebbene i sovrani Normanni rivendicassero la cristianità del loro dominio quale elemento legittimante del loro potere, presero di fatto in prestito dalla tradizione islamica alcune modalità di gestione delle popolazioni con diversi credi religiosi. Queste modalità prevedevano l’autonomia giuridica e la diseguaglianza fiscale. I musulmani si sarebbero così trovati a pagare la gizya, la capitazione che in precedenza era destinata invece ai non-musulmani. Da questa tassa personale sarebbero invece stati esenti i latino-cristiani. E’ poi soprattutto sul piano del controllo e dello sfruttamento del lavoro contadino che dovettero verificarsi i più forti attriti. Alcuni studi recenti hanno molto raffinato la lettura della condizione dei ‘villani’ greci e musulmani tra XI e XIII secolo12. Le numerose giaride o ‘elenchi di villani’, note sin dai primi anni della conquista, non testimonierebbero, secondo questi contributi, la generalizzata riduzione in schiavitù dei contadini ‘autoctoni’. Nate dalla preoccupazione di tassare regolarmente la popolazione conquistata, le giaride avrebbero tuttavia progressivamente contribuito a legare strettamente i contadini alla terra coltivata. Questa preoccupazione che mirava a limitare la libertà di movimento dei ‘villani’ dovette per altro essere motivata da consistenti e precoci fenomeni di fuga e di forte mobilità all’interno del territorio isolano dei contadini stessi (in cerca di migliori condizioni di lavoro?). Questo è un elemento importante, come vedremo, nella lettura dei dati archeologici e sarebbe testimoniato in modo abbastanza esplicito dalle fonti scritte e dai dati onomastici.13 Bisogna quindi considerare come la modalità di sfruttamento della forza lavoro contadina dovette essere uno dei maggiori elementi di scontro tra corpi sociali profondamente differenti. Anche la società islamica siciliana doveva essere di tipo ‘tributario’ con comunità contadine estremamente coese, che rispondevano collettivamente della tassazione statale, debolmente gerarchizzate al loro interno e poco o nulla ‘signorilizzate’.14 Si discute molto di quale fosse la struttura della proprietà della terra nella Sicilia islamica, sembra tuttavia decisamente accertata un’ampia presenza di contadini proprietari (Bresc 1995a-b e Nef 2000). I nuovi dominatori normanni erano portatori di valori opposti a quelli delle popolazioni locali ed il loro arrivo avrebbe avviato un lungo processo di ‘signorilizza-

una percentuale non trascurabile di arabo-cristiani. Si ritiene poi che le due comunità, la grecofona e l’arabofona, avessero un forte livello di integrazione sociale ed in generale vi fossero ampie fasce della popolazione collocabili in aree intermedie di acculturazione (ad es. Johns 2004b; Metcalfe 2003, 174-187). Sembra ad es. eloquente la testimonianza, anche se più tarda (1184-1185), di Ibn Giubàir (Amari 1880-81, 163) che descrive come a Palermo le donne cristiane uscite in strada il giorno di Natale non si distinguessero nell’aspetto da quelle musulmane. Sempre nell’XI secolo, il Val di Noto e il Val di Mazara erano più profondamente arabizzati ed islamizzati, sebbene questa situazione sembrerebbe essere stata il risultato di un processo abbastanza lungo e complesso con, da un lato, un’ acculturazione delle popolazioni locali e, dall’altro, una consistente immigrazione specialmente dall’area maghrebina.7 L’arrivo dei Normanni8 innescò una serie complessa di fenomeni e di tensioni che tuttavia si andarono manifestando ed acuendo nel corso di tutto il XII secolo, per esplodere definitivamente dopo la morte senza eredi di Guglielmo II ed in età sveva. L’emigrazione della popolazione arabomusulmana verso paesi islamici sembrerebbe essere stata relativamente contenuta. Il fenomeno più consistente e alla lunga più dirompente sembrerebbe invece essere rappresentato dalla immigrazione cospicua di gruppi ‘cristianolatini’, i cosiddetti ‘Lombardi’ (provenienti specialmente dall’area ligure e piemontese),9 al seguito anche dei marchesi Aleramici, legati a loro volta agli Altavilla da stretti rapporti di parentela. I ‘Lombardi’ si sarebbero insediati in una serie di borghi fortificati collocati soprattutto nella Sicilia orientale e centrale come ad es. San Fratello, Vaccaria, Sperlinga, Nicosia, Castrogiovanni, Piazza, Aidone, Mazzarino e Butera. Avrebbero costituito delle comunità fortemente coese, caratterizzate da una netta militanza ‘latina’ e da ostilità palese verso le comunità dei ‘vinti’ grecomusulmani. La strategia di accompagnare la conquista di nuovi territori con movimenti consistenti di colonizzazione di contadini-militari non è affatto originale ed ha anzi accompagnato anche altri grandi movimenti di conquista medievali come l’espansione germanica verso Est o la ‘Reconquista’ spagnola (ad es. Toubert 1992, 13). Anche l’immigrazione di gruppi grecofoni sembrerebbe essere stata relativamente consistente ai livelli sia delle èlites di intellettuali e di amministratori, sia dei ceti contadini. Un ruolo importante nell’attrarre popolazioni di lingua greca sembrerebbe essere stato svolto anche dalla politica di potenziamento dei monasteri basiliani, attuata dai sovrani normanni. L’immigrazione dal nord-europa sembrerebbe invece essersi limitata alle più alte sfere della 7

Si rimanda alla bibl. citata alla nota 5. Bisogna sempre tenere conto che le denominazioni di carattere etnico sono spesso delle esemplificazioni di comodo ed anche i Normanni erano un gruppo niente affatto omogeneo e con provenienze composite, cfr. ad es. Metcalfe 2003, 55 e ss. 9Sui Lombardi e sui loro rapporti con gli Aleramici si veda ad es. Bresc 1985; id. 1992; Varvaro 1981, 185-190. Secondo H. Bresc la cifra riportata dal Falcando di 20.000 Lombardi in occasione dei moti del 1161, sebbene esagerata darebbe un’idea attendibile della consistenza numerica di queste comunità di immigrati. 8

10

Si rimanda nuovamente alla bibl. citata alla nota 5. Si veda da ultimo Nef 2008a. 12 In particolare Nef 2000; Petralia 2006. 13 Ad es. Nef 2000, 601; Bover 1996, nota ad esempio come nella documentazione della seconda metà del XII secolo relativa all’area di Corleone, diversi abitanti, attraverso la nisba, denuncino la provenienza da Melfi, Rametta, Demone, Termini o Palermo. 14 Nef 2000 ed inoltre la bibliografia citata alla nota 3. 11

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A. Molinari: La Sicilia tra XII e XIII secolo: conflitti interetnici e frontiere interne zione’ della società siciliana (di nuovo Nef 2000 e Petralia 2006). A questo si aggiunge che i contadini ‘lombardi’ dovettero avere condizioni più vantaggiose, al fine anche di favorirne l’immigrazione, come la piena libertà personale, la proprietà allodiale e l’esenzione dalla gizia.15 Un altro tema centrale nella riflessione sull’impatto dei conquistatori normanni è legato alle loro strategie di insediamento e di controllo ‘militare‘ della popolazione locale. Questo è naturalmente un tema caro all’archeologia sul quale tornerò a breve e sul quale i diversi sistemi di fonti devono essere considerati complementari. Secondo H. Bresc16 i Normanni avrebbero promosso un ‘decastellamento’ delle popolazioni locali, destinando i castra muniti agli immigrati latino-cristiani ed i villaggi aperti e non protetti ai vinti. Se tuttavia alcuni insiemi documentari, come quelli ad es. legati al vescovo di Lipari e Patti,17 sembrerebbero leggibili in questo senso, le evidenze archeologiche invitano ad una maggiore prudenza nell’estendere questo modello a tutta la Sicilia e nella ricostruzione delle forme insediative di partenza (ad es. per la forte presenza/ persistenza in epoca islamica dell’insediamento sparso). F. Maurici18 ha poi illustrato con precisione come i Normanni presero possesso di tutti i principali capoluoghi di distretto di origine musulmana, attraverso anche la costruzione di fortilizi. L’aggravarsi progressivo delle condizioni dei contadini musulmani (perdita della libertà, aggravarsi del peso della tassazione e della dipendenza personale), assieme ai motivi di attrito che dovevano sorgere tra comunità contadine profondamente diverse tra di loro (le latino-cristiane dovevano anche avere, come abbiamo visto, notevoli privilegi in termini di libertà di movimento, modalità di concessione delle terre, luoghi di residenza protetti, ecc.) sfociarono in disordini sociali gravissimi in coincidenza anche di crisi istituzionali come nel 1161 e al momento della morte di Guglielmo II con dei veri e propri pogrom contro i musulmani, sia in ambito urbano che rurale. Di particolare interesse è il resoconto che lo pseudo-Falcando darebbe dei fatti del 1161 ed in particolare: per quello che più ci interessa, della distruzione di centri rurali musulmani da parte dei Lombardi di Piazza guidati da Ruggero Sclavo; della fuga ad montana oppida delle popolazioni musulmane ed infine di come i musulmani a causa dell’odio per i “nord-italiani” non volessero più vivere nella Sicilia orientale ed anzi evitassero di andarci.19 Vi sarebbero quindi diverse testimonianze di un progressivo spostamento verso la Sicilia occidentale delle popolazioni arabo-musulmane e di una accentuazione dell’insediamento difeso in questa stessa zona. Questi movimenti dovettero acuirsi alla morte di Guglielmo II,20 quando numerose fonti testimoniano di fenomeni non dissimili da quelli riferiti dallo pseudoFalcando. Tuttavia, durante il periodo della minorità di

Federico II la ribellione della popolazione musulmana avrebbe assunto contorni assai più precisi probabilmente anche per l’adesione delle èlites urbane arabofone. Nel Val di Mazara si segnala la chiara definizione di grandi centri di altura: Iato, Entella, Calatrasi, Corleone, Guastanella, ecc. ai quali, come vedremo, l’archeologia sta aggiungendo alcuni nuovi grandi siti. La ribellione, dicevo, dovette assumere contorni assai più organizzati con l’istituzione di un vero e proprio ‘emirato’. La complessità di questa organizzazione sembrerebbe essersi riflessa anche nella emissione di moneta d’argento, a nome dell’emiro ribelle Muhhamad ibn ‘Abbā ̣d (ad es. D’Angelo 1995a ) e con una circolazione limitata alla sola Sicilia Occidentale (Figura 2). A partire dal 1220 e fino al 1246 Federico II, spesso di persona, combatté i centri insorti e deportò un numero consistente di musulmani siciliani nella colonia di Lucera in Puglia. La deportazione, la distruzione dei grandi centri fortificati, l’emigrazioni di quanti poterono, le conversioni forzate avrebbero portato, al termine dell’età sveva, ad una sostanziale scomparsa o perdita di identità delle comunità arabo-musulmane. È stato inoltre sottolineato come la politica di Federico II sia stata decisamente differenziata nelle due parti dell’Isola anche in conseguenza delle profonde diversità nella composizione e nelle condizioni di vita delle rispettive popolazioni (Maurici 1997, 91-154). Particolarmente eloquente sarebbe anche la definizione di due differenti giustizierati, dotati di ampi poteri giudiziari e di polizia, per la Sicilia citra et ultra Salsum (Corrao e D’Alessandro 1994). Di estrema utilità per capire i fenomeni dei due secoli dei quali ci stiamo occupando (1061-1266) sono gli aspetti legati agli usi linguistici, alla storia della lingua in Sicilia (ad es. Bresc 1985; Metcalfe 2003; Varvaro 1981) Sembrerebbe ad esempio di grande interesse il fatto che mentre il greco e l’arabo avrebbero dato vita a numerosi prestiti reciproci, lo stesso non sarebbe avvenuto tra il latino e l’arabo, non solo per una più breve convivenza delle due lingue ma certamente per una sostanziale assenza di convivenza pacifica tra le due diverse società.21 Dopo l’età sveva soltanto le comunità ebraiche avrebbero conservato l’arabo come lingua fortemente identitaria, mentre nel resto della popolazione sembrerebbe veramente dubbio che dopo il 1300 vi fosse ancora chi parlava arabo.22 È del resto interessante quanto è stato notato a proposito del dialetto siciliano, che, nonostante i molti prestiti dall’arabo, avrebbe una struttura grammaticale strettamente romanza, a differenza ad es. del maltese. Dalla fine del XIII secolo la cristianizzazione e latinizzazione della popolazione siciliana sembrerebbe quindi essersi definitivamente consolidata, come anche l’ampio spopolamento delle campagne, una nuova organizzazione dell’insediamento e del lavoro contadino (Bresc 1986). Secondo Bresc (1985) nella cultura materiale vi sarebbero state maggiori forme di continuità rispetto alla sfera linguistica e religiosa. La ricerca archeologica degli ultimi anni sembrerebbe parlare invece, come vedremo, anche in questa sfera della cultura, di una forte rottura.

15

Bresc 1992 e le precisazioni di Petralia 2006 Per alcuni dei principali contributi di quest’autore sulle dinamiche insediative in Sicilia: Bresc 1980; 1984; 1994. 17 Ad es. le osservazioni di Petralia 2006, 258 ss., per questi documenti 18 Maurici 1992, si veda inoltre il repertorio dei castelli siciliani (AA. VV. 2001). 19 Siragusa 1897, 70 e anche 73, 80. 20 Per l’età sveva il fenomeno è stato studiato ampiamente da Maurici 1988 e 1997, 91 e ss. 16

21Da

ultimo Metcalfe 2003, 174-187. Bresc 2001 per un contributo monografico sul tema della componente ebraica in Sicilia. 22

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grandi e piccole dimensioni (dai catini alle tazze) (Figura 3), che prevalgono quantitativamente sulle forme chiuse (bottiglie e vasi con il filtro) (Figura 4); per la dispensa si conosce un’ampia serie di contenitori anforici ed inoltre esistono alcune forme con usi molto specifici, come i vasi da noria (Figura 5) o i bellissimi ‘vasi da basilico’ (Figura 6). I corredi da cucina possono avere in ambito isolano alcune oscillazioni e le diverse forme essere attestate in proporzioni differenti, tuttavia sono piuttosto ricorrenti le olle sia tornite sia modellate a mano (su queste torneremo) ed alcuni ‘jarritos’26 (Figura 7), che sembrano poter fungere da contenitori sia per bere, sia per riscaldare liquidi (come ad es. il latte). Meno universalmente diffusi, specie in ambito rurale, sembrerebbero gli ‘scaldavivande’ ed assenti i forni portatili del tipo del tannūr. La ceramica da mensa poteva essere decorata in bi o tricromia, sotto la vetrina trasparente, con motivi epigrafici o pseudo-epigrafici, geometrici, animali (Figura 3) o vegetali. In termini generali, forti punti di contatto nelle forme, nelle tecniche e nei motivi decorativi si possono notare specialmente con le coeve ceramiche dell’area dell’attuale Tunisia (ad es. Daouatli 1994; Louichi 2003). Altrove ho discusso i possibili significati e le possibili motivazioni dei cambiamenti del X secolo,27 quello che mi preme invece qui discutere sono gli aspetti della vita interna della Sicilia e le forme di convivenza tra le diverse componenti della sua popolazione. Sebbene esistano (in ambito sia urbano sia rurale) molti centri produttivi per le diverse classi ceramiche, quello che vorrei cominciare a sottolineare è come la composizione dei corredi, seppur con varianti, riveli con relativa costanza una koinè negli usi della mensa, della cucina, degli arredi domestici. Nel complesso quindi non riscontriamo variazioni sostanziali a Brucato (nelle fasi cosiddette precoci dell’insediamento), come alla Villa del Casale presso Piazza Armerina, a Mazara del Vallo, come a Palermo e nei loro territori rurali, ecc.28 Soltanto il piccolo insieme di ceramiche rinvenute a Merì presso Messina presenterebbe forse caratteristiche più ‘ibride’, con ceramiche riferibili in parte a tradizioni diverse.29 Per quanto riguarda invece le abitazioni, se ne conoscono assai meno e spesso in forme frammentarie. Tuttavia per il X-XI secolo si distinguono, in ambito rurale, le abitazioni del villaggio sorto sopra la famosa villa tardoantica in contrada Casale presso Piazza Armerina (Sicilia centrale) (Figura 8) ed alcuni resti più frammentari nel sito di Milena (AG), di Caliata, di Calathamet e di Entella (Sicilia Occidentale).30 La tipologia che sembrerebbe cominciare ad emergere è quella delle case ‘pluricellulari’, con pianta a U o a L, spesso associata ad una distribuzione spaziale ir-

Quando parliamo di migrazioni, di distinzioni etniche e culturali, di frontiere e di quanto questi fenomeni siano eventualmente leggibili attraverso il registro materiale siamo ormai abituati ad usare una certa prudenza. Sono infatti state sottolineate: le molte possibili variabili nei processi di costruzione dell’identità (etnica, nazionale, sociale, culturale, ecc.); l’instabilità dei gruppi etnici; la soggettività e variabilità nell’uso degli oggetti come marcatori sociali; spesso la grande ‘permeabilità delle frontiere’, anzi la loro caratterizzazione, talvolta, come luoghi di fondamentale confronto tra popolazioni differenti, ecc.23 Anche per la Sicilia islamica mi è capitato di recente (Molinari 2010 e c.s.) di sottolineare come andassero usate con cautela le argomentazioni ‘etniche’ nella lettura dei fenomeni materiali e di come le ‘identità’ isolane fossero soggette a continui mutamenti. Non è mia intenzione quindi riproporre in questa sede chiavi di lettura, rifiutate altrove, semplicemente per un periodo più tardo rispetto a quello affrontato in altri contributi. Ritengo tuttavia che si possano individuare, specialmente usando un ampio ventaglio di dati materiali: periodi di maggiore osmosi/dialettica tra comunità magari con lingua e religione differenti; periodi di maggiore separatezza; periodi di minore o maggior conflitto specialmente nel mondo contadino. Gli strumenti a disposizione dell’archeologo sono quelli del confronto sistematico tra contesti di diversa cronologia e localizzazione geografica, dell’analisi attenta delle dinamiche insediative più generali ed anche dell’organizzazione interna dei diversi siti. Avremmo certamente bisogno di un numero più cospicuo di siti e di contesti compiutamente scavati ed editi, alcune ipotesi si possono tuttavia cominciare a formulare. Sebbene quindi i dati a nostra disposizione non siano ancora sufficientemente ampi, sembrerebbe che l’arrivo di popolazioni alloctone (i musulmani avevano per altro, a loro volta, una composizione etnica alquanto composita) non sia chiaramente percepibile attraverso i dati materiali per il periodo compreso tra il IX e la prima metà del X secolo. Una più netta caratterizzazione della cultura materiale come aderente ad una koinè ‘islamica’ sembrerebbe avvertibile in Sicilia soprattutto dalla seconda metà del X secolo .24 Particolarmente eloquenti sembrerebbero a questo riguardo i corredi ceramici e, per quanto ad oggi noto, l’articolazione planimetrica delle abitazioni.25 Nell’ambito della ceramica il corredo domestico sembrerebbe essere costituito, per gli usi della mensa, da forme aperte di 23

La bibliografia su questi temi è sterminata mi limito qui a citare Jones 1997, per le tematiche generali sulle distinzioni etniche, e Halsall 1992; La Rocca 2006; Pohl 2003; Curta 2005 e 2007 per l’Europa altomedievale nel periodo delle “migrazioni”. 24 Bisogna comunque avvertire come lo stato della ricerca archeologica in Sicilia non permetta di escludere del tutto che alcuni cambiamenti possano essere avvenuti con un certo anticipo rispetto a questo periodo. E’ comunque chiaro di come sia soprattutto a partire dalla seconda metà del X secolo che i mutamenti del registro ceramico siano più chiaramenti avvertibili. 25 Per la ceramica esiste un ampio numero di contesti editi; Molinari 2007,. 2008 e c.s.a con i principali riferimenti bibiografici; inoltre diversi dei saggi contenuti in Pensabene e Bonanno 2008. Per le abitazioni v. infra.

I jarritos come anche i tannūr sono forme che in Spagna sono considerate tipiche del periodo islamico Gutierrez 2008. 27 Si veda in particolare Molinari 2008, c.s.a-b 28 Per Brucato Pesez 1984, per la Villa del Casale Pensabene e Sfanemi 2006, Pensabene e Bonanno 2008; per Mazara del Vallo Molinari 2010 (con appendice di D. Cassai); per Palermo ad es. Arcifa e Lesnes 1997; per il suo territorio ad es. Greco et al. 1997-98. 29 Per diversi siti nell’area orientale in modo particolare: Arcifa 2004a-c, ead. 2006, 2008. 30 Per Piazza Armerina: da ultimo Pensabene 2010 e Bonanno 2008; per Milena: Arcifa e Tomasello 2005; per Caliata: Castellana 1992b, per Calathamet: Poisson 1997, per Entella: Corretti 1995; id. 2002: Corretti et al. 2004. 26

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A. Molinari: La Sicilia tra XII e XIII secolo: conflitti interetnici e frontiere interne regolare e ad una viabilità tortuosa. Tale tipo di planimetria sembrerebbe particolarmente diffusa nel periodo islamico ad es. in Spagna, dove viene associata ad una struttura familiare del tipo ‘allargato’(ad es. Bazzana 1992 e Gutierrez 2008). Possiamo quindi ipotizzare una relativa ‘uniformità’ della cultura materiale dell’Isola, che sembrerebbe riguardare sia zone più profondamente islamizzate, sia zone con più forti radici greco-cristiane, sia zone con caratteristiche intermedie. Tutto questo fa pensare a rapporti fortemente dialettici tra le diverse comunità isolane e ci riporta alla mente le notazioni linguistiche sui prestiti reciproci del greco e dell’arabo ed anche le donne cristiane, in vesti orientali e che parlano in arabo, descritte da Ibn Giubàir, ricordate nella sezione precedente. Sempre rimanendo nelle fasi pre-normanne della realtà siciliana, di pari interesse mi sembrano le conoscenze relative all’insediamento rurale ed alla sua dislocazione. Ho discusso molte altre volte i dati sia degli scavi sia delle ricognizioni in diverse zone dell’Isola e rimando per i dettagli a quanto già edito.31 Sebbene le ricerche non coprano tutto il territorio isolano e proprio il Val Demone sia quello con una minor incidenza di indagini sistematiche per il periodo medievale, mi sembra che si possa affermare con un certo grado di sicurezza che in buona parte della Sicilia una percentuale molto elevata della popolazione contadina viveva in villaggi poco protetti, che sembrerebbero caratterizzarsi come centri agglomerati ma sostanzialmente non fortificati. Un buon esempio di uno di questi siti sta emergendo dagli scavi alla Villa del Casale e ad anche al di sopra del vicino vicus di Sofiana, mentre porzioni più ridotte di villaggi di questo tipo sono emersi a Milena, in contrada Saraceno, a Caliata, a Casale Nuovo, a CariniHykkara e molti altri sono stati segnalati nelle ricognizioni di superficie in tutta l’Isola. Come ho più volte ricordato i siti aperti si trovano molto spesso su insediamenti con fasi certe di età tardoromana e bizantina. I centri di altura sembrerebbero essere stati potenziati o anche rioccupati exnovo a partire soprattutto dal X secolo, ma l’archeologia non ci permette di valutare in quale misura questi siti, che sin dalla prima epoca normanna si connoteranno in alcuni casi come ‘capoluoghi di distretto’, fossero dei centri direzionali o comunque privilegiati. La facies complessiva di un qal’at 32 ci sfugge e tra i siti forti esisteva certamente un’ampia gamma di possibilità.33 Inoltre, questi siti possono essere stati profondamente rimaneggiati nei due secoli successivi, ossia in età normanno-sveva, o essere centri a continuità di vita. Qualche elemento ci può tuttavia dare qualche traccia da verificare con indagini future. Salvo forse per Calatubo (Diliberto 2004), non si conoscono attualmente fortificazioni di estensione ed impegno costruttivo consistente databili con certezza all’età islamica. Anche per Palermo non sappiamo sostanzialmente nulla della

realtà materiale della Halisah, la cittadella amministrativa di età fatimida, descritta da Ibn-Hawqal, e la cosiddetta seconda cinta muraria non sembrerebbe in nessun tratto risalire ad un’epoca precedente a quella normanna.34 Certamente, in alcuni casi, è possibile che siano state riutilizzate le fortificazioni di età classica (ad es. nel caso di Iato ed Entella) o che una buona archeologia dell’architettura ci possa permettere in futuro di identificare in giro per l’Isola fasi costruttive pre-normanne.35 Ritengo tuttavia che la scarsa visibilità di fortificazioni e grandi opere pubbliche potrebbe essere un possibile indizio della relativamente scarsa capacità di spesa dello stato e delle aristocrazie dell’ età islamica. È poi di estremo interesse quanto è emerso negli scavi di Calathamet36 nel trapanese. Qui l’estremità più eminente e naturalmente difesa del sito era occupata da una abitazione pluricellulare, che per impegno costruttivo si caratterizzava come quella di un primus inter pares piuttosto che di un ‘signore’. L’unico elemento distintivo rispetto ad altre case del villaggio sembrerebbe essere stata la posizione all’interno del pianoro e l’esistenza di un fossato per dividere questa ‘area privilegiata’ dal resto del villaggio. Le difese principali dell’intero sito, in questa fase, sembrerebbero essere semplicemente state le pareti relativamente scoscese del piccolo sperone roccioso. Non sappiamo poi se in questi siti ‘eminenti’ fossero collocate di preferenza le moschee congregazionali, come dettava il rescritto del califfo fatimida al-Mu’izz del 967.37 Sappiamo tuttavia che i primi documenti normanni relativi a Calathamet prevedevano ad es. l’esistenza di una piazza, per gli usi probabilmente del mercato (Bresc e Bresc 1977). Per i centri che dovevano essere decisamente più estesi, come le antiche città di Iato ed Entella, non siamo in grado invece di valutare la loro organizzazione complessiva nel X-XI secolo. Sono tuttavia state qui scoperte in un’area piuttosto estesa abitazioni del tipo ‘pluricellulare’, che in parte risalgono sicuramente alla tarda età islamica. Ad Entella rimarrebbe cruciale individuare le fasi iniziali e le successive stratificazioni delle strutture fortificate poste sul punto più alto del sito, sul Pizzo della Regina. Sarebbe qui da verificare l’eventuale consistenza degli edifici di età islamica (similitudini con Calathamet?), la presenza di un ‘incastellamento normanno’ e le successive fasi di età sveva, quando Entella divenne uno dei principali oppida islamici.38 E’ tuttavia importante sottolineare come il palazzo fortificato e dotato di hāmmam, scavato dalla Scuola Normale di Pisa nel saggio 1/2, sembrerebbe essere stato costruito sopra abitazioni più antiche, soltanto verso la fine del XII-XIII secolo (ad es. Corretti 1995; 2002; Corretti et al. 2004). 34

Per la cittadella ad es. Amari 1880-81, 11-12; sull’archeologia urbana a Palermo si rimanda a Spatafora 2004; 2005; in particolare sulle mura di Palermo si veda la sintesi di Sciortino 2007, con bibliografia. 35 Possiamo anche ricordare come le tecniche murarie tipiche del periodo islamico o comunque di sicura tradizione islamica (come a Iato, Segesta ed Entella) ad oggi note non prevedano mai l’uso della calce come legante, ma piuttosto della terra. Questo elemento se da un lato è certamente un tratto culturale è tuttavia senz’altro legato a procedure costruttive più semplificate. 36 Sulle questioni in esame in modo particolare Poisson 1997. 37 Il rescritto del califfo al-Muizz è riportato da an Nuwayrī, Amari 188081, II, 134-135. 38 Sul Pizzo della Regina Gelichi 2000; 2001; Corretti et al. 2004.

31

Molinari 1994a, ead. 1995b; 1998; 2008; 2009 con bibliografia. Questo è il termine con cui più spesso si dovevano identificare i siti fortificati in Sicilia 33Ad es. il sito di Calathamet (ad es. Pesez 1995 e 1998) doveva certamente essere assai meno esteso, popoloso e complesso di Iato (ad es. Isler 1995) o Entella (ad es. Corretti 1995; Corretti et al. 2004), centri che fra l’altro si avvantaggiavano anche delle presenza di imponenti rovine di età classica. 32

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Tale palazzo si distingue nettamente per articolazione ed estensione planimetrica, impegno costruttivo e presenza di elementi fortificati dalle coeve abitazioni circostanti. Nel complesso possiamo quindi notare come nella tarda età islamica gli insediamenti rurali fossero: a. dotati di complessi ceramici molto articolati, spesso non molto distanti da quelli di ambito urbano, con prodotti locali di buona fattura ed anche provenienti da altri centri dell’Isola;39 b. con abitazioni di buon livello ma non organizzate e programmate in modo rigido ed ordinato (lotti abitativi, tutti diversi, viabilità tortuosa, ecc.); c. debolmente fortificati; d. con scarse o nulle tracce di presenza di ceti nettamente eminenti per ricchezza o status sociale. Come ho già avuto modo di sottolineare altrove (ad es. Molinari 2008 e 2009) mi sembrerebbe possibile leggere questi dati sull’insediamento rurale, seppur ancora frammentari, come quelli relativi ad una società caratterizzata da uno Stato ‘leggero’ e con forti comunità di contadini benestanti, poco ‘gerarchizzate’ al loro interno e per nulla ‘signorilizzate’. Cosa avvenne con l’arrivo dei Normanni? È bene subito indicare come fino almeno alla metà del XII secolo la maggior parte dei fenomeni materiali sembrerebbe nel segno prevalente della continuità. Le ceramiche subirono una evoluzione interna, con variazioni stilistiche o semplificazioni formali, ma senza variazioni tecniche o l’introduzione di forme totalmente estranee alla tradizione.40 I dati a nostra disposizione non ci consentono al momento, all’interno del registro ceramico, di intravedere l’arrivo di popolazioni di differente cultura. Possiamo inoltre sottolineare come i ceramisti siciliani in questo periodo avevano capacità tecniche e formali infinitamente superiori rispetto al resto dell’Italia peninsulare, da cui erano supposti giungere gran parte dei nuovi venuti. Infine, non si notano differenze consistenti tra i contesti del XII secolo di Palermo, Agrigento, Calathamet, Marsala (Sic. occ.) o dell’area della Villa del Casale (Sic. Or.), ecc.41 Nell’ambito dell’insediamento rurale abbiamo visto come l’idea di un ‘decastellamento’ di età normanna non sia sostenibile poiché i villaggi aperti e non protetti sarebbero piuttosto un retaggio dell’età islamica, se non addirittura di quella bizantina. Inoltre, le fondazioni ex-novo di siti non protetti non sembrerebbero in generale troppo consistenti.42 È possibile tuttavia che i Normanni abbiano realizzato strategie differenti di controllo, a seconda anche delle possibilità contingenti incontrate e comunque differenziandole tra Sicilia orientale e occidentale. Purtroppo non esistono indagini archeologiche grazie alle quali monitorare i cambiamenti, che dovettero comunque avvenire, nell’ambito dei siti colonizzati dai ‘lombardi’ (questo potrebbe essere

una interessante finalità per le ricerche future) nella Sicilia centro-orientale. Certamente però sembrerebbe molto interessante il destino del grande villaggio (attualmente si stima che si estendesse almeno per 27.000 m2) sorto sulla Villa del Casale di Piazza Armerina. Qui sono attestate fasi di seconda metà X-XI secolo e sicuramente di prima metà XII secolo. Ai decenni centrali del XII secolo risalirebbero consistenti tracce di incendio ed alcuni tesoretti di monete (spesso sintomo di insicurezza), nel corso della seconda metà del XII secolo il sito sembrerebbe progressivamente abbandonato e quindi sepolto da spessi strati alluvionali, per esser rioccupato in forme più ridotte soltanto più tardi.43 Sebbene permangano forti dubbi sulla localizzazione dei diversi abitati citati nelle fonti medievali, sembrerebbe potersi notare una certa coincidenza del registro archeologico (direi interamente nella tradizione ‘islamica’) con i fatti narrati dallo pseudo-Falcando per gli anni 1160-1161 ed in particolare con i pogrom dei Lombardi contro i contadini musulmani. È possibile che molti siti aperti abbiano subito sorti simili a quelle della Villa del Casale e che comunque la migrazione verso ovest si sia intensificata. Conosciamo invece meglio quanto avvenne nella Sicilia Occidentale, dove sono stati eseguiti ed editi un numero molto maggiore di scavi ed in particolare è stato possibile studiare in modo intensivo il territorio di Calathamet-Calatabarbaro/Segesta-Calatafimi (Molinari 1997; Molinari e Neri 2004), quello di Entella44 e di Iato.45 A queste aree, oltre a molte indagini puntuali, si può aggiungere quella del fiume Platani oggetto di ricognizioni di superficie finalizzate alla conoscenza del periodo medievale (Rizzo 2004). Calathamet (non lontano da Castellamare del Golfo) era verosimilmente il principale centro del territorio al momento dell’arrivo dei Normanni. Questo centro venne affidato alla famiglia normanna dei Thiron che nella parte più elevata del sito dovette promuovere la costruzione: della sua dimora, di una piccola chiesa e di un muro di cinta, ritrovati negli scavi diretti da J.M. Pesez (Pesez 1995; 1998; Poisson 1997). Tuttavia, le fonti scritte testimoniano assai presto di contadini in fuga e, dallo scavo, non sono emerse, a mio avviso, tracce consistenti della seconda metà del XII e ancor meno del XIII secolo.46 Nel territorio sostanzialmente tutti i villaggi non protetti vennero abbandonati nel corso della seconda metà del XII secolo. Ma il fenomeno più impressionante testimoniato dagli scavi è costituito dalla rinascita, dalla metà del XII secolo e dopo molti secoli di abbandono, del sito di Segesta, che alcune fonti più tarde indicano con il toponimo di Calatabarbaro. Il sito di Segesta venne progressivamente riabitato e soprattutto, in piena epoca normanna, venne costruita una grande moschea congregazionale, in una zona ben visibile dal territorio circostante. Analoga crisi dei siti aperti sembrerebbe essersi verificata anche negli altri territori studiati, mentre

39

Su questi temi ho particolarmente insistito in Molinari 2007; 2008 e 2010. 40 Molinari 1992; 1995a, per quanto iscrivibili totalmente nel solco della tradizione islamica le ceramiche della prima metà del XII secolo sono comunque chiaramente distinguibili da quelle più antiche, sono quindi un buon indicatore cronologico. 41 Si rimanda per brevità oltre che alla bibl. della nota 58, a Arcifa e Lesnes 1997 per Palermo; Kennet et al. 1989 per Marsala; Fiorilla e Scuto 1990 per Agrigento; Pensabene, Sfanemi 2006 e Pensabene e Bonanno 2008 e Pensabene 2010, per la Villa del Casale. 42 Ad es. i casi delle ricognizioni di superficie dei territori di Monreale (Johns 1992), di Segesta-Calatafimi (Molinari e Neri 2004) o della Valle del Platani (Rizzo 2004).

43

Da ultimo i diversi saggi contenuti in Pensabene e Bonanno 2008. Anche ad Entella è stato scavato il sito di altura e sono state eseguite ricognizioni nel territorio: si veda ad es. Corretti et al. 2004 45 Il territorio ed il sito di Iato sono stati studiati da equipes con fini differenti. Mentre il sito egemone è stato studiato da antichisti, il territorio prevalentemente da medievisti, ad es. Johns 1992 e Isler 1995. 46 Per le fonti scritte Bresc e Bresc 1977, per la ceramica Pesez e Poisson 1991.. 44

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A. Molinari: La Sicilia tra XII e XIII secolo: conflitti interetnici e frontiere interne i centri eminenti di Entella e Iato continuarono con molta probabilità ad essere stabilmente insediati.47 Ad Entella sul finire del XII secolo vennero realizzate le strutture del palazzo fortificato. In termini generali sembrerebbe possibile affermare che i grandi siti di altura soprattutto a partire dalla fine del XII e nella prima metà del XIII secolo divennero di estensione veramente consistente. Eccoci quindi giunti alla morte senza eredi di Gugliemo II e a tutti i disordini che seguirono, a un periodo cioè chiaramente percepito già dai contemporanei come fortemente eversivo. Anche i dati che derivano dalla ricerca archeologica sono a mio parere piuttosto espliciti. I contesti ceramici e la loro composizione sembrano indicare, a differenza del passato, una consistente differenziazione tra la Sicilia orientale e quella occidentale, citra et ultra Salsum. I contesti noti per la Sicilia centro-meridionale (compiutamente editi soprattutto quelli di Gela) (Fiorilla 1996) sembrano indicare notevoli cambiamenti rispetto al passato e forti diversità con i contesti coevi della Sicilia Occidentale (ad es. Segesta, Iato ed Entella). In particolare sembrerebbero decisamente maggioritarie le scodelle molto probabilmente per uso individuale, con una forma assente nel precedente repertorio formale isolano. Queste scodelle, decorate in prevalenza in tricromia, sono la forma più caratteristica della cosiddetta protomaiolica tipo Gela (Figura 9) e sono rivestite secondo la tecnica dello smalto, che era assente dal bagaglio tecnico isolano dei secoli precedenti. Per il resto il corredo ceramico da mensa prevede tra le altre forme la presenza di boccali trilobati da vino (di varie fogge) anch’essi assenti dal repertorio islamico, mentre i vasi con il filtro sembrerebbero quasi del tutto assenti. Tra la ceramica da mensa la percentuale di quella importata è molto bassa. Anche le anforette con il fondo piatto e le anse a nastro non hanno antenati siciliani e il repertorio da fuoco è costituito dalle pentole con orlo e fondo invetriato prodotte in scala quasi industriale nell’area di Messina. La composizione di alcuni contesti venuti alla luce di recente in quest’ultima città (Fiorilla 1999-2002) prevede l’esistenza di una varietà di forme in fondo non dissimile dagli esempi di Gela, con una forte prevalenza delle scodelle per uso individuale. In questa città sembrerebbe tuttavia prevalere la tecnica dell’ingobbio sotto vetrina ed i decori monocromi. Oltre alle novità tecnico formali ed alla articolazione delle forme funzionali dei contesti della Sicilia orientale fa specialmente riflettere la diffusione della ceramica tipo Gela: è ben attestata nella Sicilia centro-orientale e quasi del tutto assente in quella occidentale, dove è comunque sempre in quantità molto ridotte. La protomaiolica siciliana si ritrova però in diversi centri del Mediterraneo orientale e lungo le coste tirreniche (Si veda ad es. Fiorilla 1996). Ricordo infine come siano stati più volte sottolineati i rapporti della ‘Gela ware’ con le protomaioliche e le ingobbiate e graffite tirreniche prodotte nell’area di Savona (ad es. D’Angelo 1995b). Riassumendo le caratteristiche generali dei con-

testi orientali possiamo sottolineare: le molte novità tecnico-formali in tutti i settori funzionali, le parentele con i prodotti liguri, la scarsa incidenza delle importazioni e una discreta rilevanza dell’esportazione dei propri prodotti. Nella Sicilia Occidentale48 invece i contesti ceramici sono differenti sotto molti punti di vista. Le produzioni locali sono decisamente radicate nella tradizione quanto a tecniche e repertori formali, tuttavia soprattutto nel caso delle ceramiche da mensa si nota un certo impoverimento della qualità di decorazioni e rivestimenti. Rispetto ai contesti orientali è quindi attestata una percentuale molto più alta di ceramiche fini di importazione. Oltre a catini e ciotole sono ben attestati i vasi con il filtro, cari agli usi islamici. Questi ultimi si ritrovano anche nella colonia di Lucera (Cassano et al 2008; Favia 2008), dove sappiamo venne deportata una parte consistente dei musulmani ribelli provenienti dai grandi centri della Sicilia Occidentale. Le anfore con fondo ombelicato sono anch’esse nella tradizione e lo sono ancora di più le pentole modellate a mano con decorazione applicata e anse ad orecchia (Figura 10), sulle quali torneremo. Non mancano tuttavia alcune novità nel repertorio formale sia tra i prodotti locali sia tra quelli importati: si conoscono anche in questa parte dell’Isola, ad esempio, i boccali trilobati ‘da vino’, prima assenti. Inoltre, anche qui hanno un notevole successo le pentole con orlo e fondo invetriato prodotte nell’area di Messina. Riassumendo: nella Sicilia ultra Salsum si può notare: una notevole continuità con la tradizione precedente, poche novità formali, un certo decadimento delle produzioni fini locali, un notevole apporto delle ceramiche fini importate, ma con contributi molto ridotti dalla Sicilia orientale (in particolare per quanto riguarda la Gela ware). Non abbiamo purtroppo molti dati sugli insediamenti della Sicilia Orientale in età sveva in questo periodo, anche se un forte calo dei centri aperti sembrerebbe anche qui decisamente ipotizzabile. Come abbiamo più volte accennato si conoscono invece piuttosto bene i grandi centri di altura della Sicilia occidentale, che in questo periodo sembrerebbero assumere dimensioni quasi urbane. Nel caso ad es. di Segesta-Calatabarbaro (Figura 11) l’insediamento di età sveva dovette raggiungere l’estensione assunta dalla città antica tra I sec. a.C. e I sec. d.C. (fino cioè alla cosiddetta cinta muraria superiore).49. Ovunque si sia scavato all’interno di questa cinta muraria, sono emerse abitazioni di età sveva, talvolta anche dotate di due piani. Grandissimo è inoltre il numero dei reperti con questa cronologia rinvenuti durante le indagini recenti. È possibile che la crescita di questi grandi centri d’altura sia legata sia ai fenomeni di progressivo abbandono dei siti aperti dei territori circostanti (come ad es. è stato verificato per il territorio di Segesta ed Entella) sia all’immigrazione dalla Sicilia Orientale o da centri come Palermo. In questi siti quasi urbani arrivavano ceramiche di importazione, dovevano anche esistere vasai locali50 e circolava molta moneta, sia i denari coniati a nome di Enrico IV e

47 Nel caso di Entella gli autori che se ne sono occupati non sono concordi

48

Sono ben noti i contesti di Palermo, Marsala, Mazara, Segesta, Iato, Entella, ecc.da ultimo Molinari e Cassai 2006, con bibl. e dati quantitativi più puntuali. 49 Da ultimo Camerata Scovazzo 2008, 11-22. 50 Per Entella Corretti et al 2009.

sulle sorti del sito nel XII secolo. Favorevole ad una sostanziale continuità Gelichi 2000, mentre l’equipe della Scuola Normale rimane più prudente, Corretti et al. 2004. Come accennavo più sopra sarebbe fondamentale la prosecuzione degli scavi al Pizzo della Regina.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Federico II, sia quelli di Muhammad ibn ‘Abbad (questi ultimi, ricordo, non circolavano nella Sicilia Orientale).51 Per quanto riguarda le loro caratteristiche culturali abbiamo visto come le ceramiche fossero ben ancorate alla tradizione locale, con qualche novità. Anche la pianta e l’organizzazione spaziale delle abitazioni databili ad età sveva ricalcano strettamente l’impostazione tradizionale, con le abitazioni ‘pluricellulari’ e la viabilità tortuosa. Se passiamo, tuttavia, anche agli altri indicatori materiali le cose si complicano. Non vi è dubbio che una componente fortissima di popolazione arabo-musulmana doveva essere la cifra ricorrente delle quasi-città. A Entella, Iato e Calatabarbaro sono state scavate necropoli di rito musulmano attribuibili a questo periodo52 (Figura 12). Tuttavia a Iato sono attestate contestualmente anche alcune tombe cristiane e a Segesta risale al XIII secolo una chiesa triabsidata ed una vasta necropoli si estende nel terreno ad essa di fronte (Figura 11 e Figura 13). Tra i sepolti anche un pio pellegrino con numerose conchiglie di San Giacomo appese al collo. A Segesta/Calatabarbaro tra gli ultimi anni del XII ed i primi del XIII secolo si dovette insediare ‘un signore’ cristiano che si fece costruire una dimora decisamente al di sopra della media delle altre del villaggio e che quasi certamente demolì anche la moschea congregazionale. Anche ad Entella dove non sembrerebbe essere attualmente testimoniato l’arrivo di forti contingenti cristiani si potenziò tuttavia l’aspetto ‘forte’ del palazzo e venne realizzato un piccolo hammām privato quale ulteriore segno di distinzione. Ciò che è tuttavia ancor più impressionante è l’abbandono completo sostanzialmente di tutti i grandi centri di altura, entro la metà del XIII secolo. Nel caso di Segesta/Calatabarbaro sono anche evidenti le tracce di un abbandono violento, come ad es. strati di incendio con molte punte di frecce nell’area del castello. In generale, a Iato, Entella e Segesta la grande quantità di oggetti rinvenuti sia in ceramica, sia in vetro e metallo fa pensare ad un abbandono repentino senza possibilità di recuperare i beni di maggior valore. L’archeologia come le fonti scritte concordano così nel situare in età sveva il forte spopolamento delle campagne siciliane. Non abbiamo molti dati per valutare cosa avvenne dopo l’età sveva nella cultura materiale. Tuttavia, quanto conosciamo ad es. dagli scavi di Brucato e di pochi altri siti specialmente della Sicilia orientale53 sembrerebbe avere molto poco a che fare con la tradizione dei secoli precedenti sia nel campo delle abitazioni sia della ceramica. Le prime diventarono del tipo monocellulare, mentre nelle produzioni ceramiche mancano molte delle forme caratteristiche della cultura locale dei secoli precedenti, come i vasi con il filtro e le pentole modellate a mano con anse ad orecchia (Figura 10). L’assenza di queste ultime nei contesti successivi alla metà del XIII secolo mi è sempre parsa

molto significativa. Le pentole modellate a mano non erano infatti, in Sicilia e per i secoli che abbiamo qui trattato, un indizio di arretratezza economica, ma piuttosto di tradizioni culturali, sociali e gastronomiche ben radicate.54 La loro scomparsa sembrerebbe segnare la fine di un’epoca. In sintesi nella cultura materiale mi sembra avvenga qualcosa di simile a quello che sembrerebbe verificarsi nei fenomeni linguistici. Come il dialetto siciliano avrebbe una struttura decisamente romanza con soltanto alcuni prestiti terminologici dal vocabolario arabo, così sembrerebbe avvenire nel mondo degli oggetti. CONSIDERAZIONI CONCLUSIVE Sebbene quindi i dati archeologici vadano ancora molto ampliati e perfezionati, si intravede bene la loro grande potenzialità a portare un contributo importante al dibattito, che non riguarda del resto solo la Sicilia, sugli esiti dell’incontro/scontro tra società differenti per lingua, religione, ma soprattutto per struttura. Inoltre, sembra risultare abbastanza chiaramente come la lingua e la religione non siano gli unici aspetti da considerare nel valutare i rapporti tra gruppi sociali diversi. Sembrerebbero altrettanto importanti i modi e le abitudini di vita (dalla tavola, alla casa, alle vesti), i modi di abitare e soprattutto di gestire il lavoro contadino. Nella Sicilia pre-normanna mi sembra si possa affermare, anche sulla base dei dati materiali, che vi fosse una forte osmosi e dialettica tra le comunità arabofone e grecofone. Questo fatto sarebbe anche leggibile in quella che sembrerebbe una relativa omogeneità della cultura materiale in tutto il territorio isolano. Altrettanto importante per la comprensione della struttura sociale islamica sembrerebbero anche: l’organizzazione complessiva dell’insediamento rurale; la ‘ricchezza’ dei contesti ceramici e la bontà delle abitazioni contadine; la presenza poco percepibile di forti distinzioni sociali nell’ambito degli insediamenti rurali (scarsità di fortificazioni, assenza di una rigida organizzazione degli spazi, debole distinzione di tenore tra le abitazioni, ecc.). L’arrivo dei Normanni vedrebbe l’inizio di un lungo percorso decisamente non lineare e fatto di una casistica complessa. Il ‘decastellamento’ delle popolazioni vinte non sembrerebbe un fenomeno davvero consistente, ma certamente il tentativo di sostituire un primus inter pares con un dominus, come nel caso di Calathamet, non sembrerebbe essere stato ovunque corredato da un pieno successo (abbandono di Calathamet e nascita di Calatabarbaro con la sua moschea del venerdì). Certamente le colonie di immigrati latino-cristiani dovettero avere maggiore fortuna, ma su questo l’archeologia non ha restituito che dati indiretti (la crisi e la successiva fine del grande villaggio in Contrada Casale-Piazza Armerina?). Per il resto non si notano fino alla metà almeno del XII secolo trasformazioni molto consistenti nelle caratteristiche e nella distribuzione della cultura materiale. Dalla seconda metà del XII secolo e soprattutto dalla fine di questo secolo mi sembrano

51

Un quadro d’insieme si può cogliere nei diversi contributi sul tema contenuti in Cadei e Di Stefano 1995. 52 Per un censimento complessivo delle necropoli di rito islamico in Sicilia si rimanda alla esaustiva sintesi di Bagnera e Pezzini 2004, con bibl. Si vedano inoltre i diversi contributi citati più volte a proposito di questi tre siti. 53 Per Brucato si veda Pesez 1984, inoltre Arcifa e Fiorilla 1994 e Fiorilla 1991, per altri contesti tardomedievali o post-medievali.

54

Sono tornata più volte su queste pentole e da ultimo in Molinari 2010 e c.s.

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A. Molinari: La Sicilia tra XII e XIII secolo: conflitti interetnici e frontiere interne particolarmente significativi gli abbandoni progressivi di numerosissimi siti aperti in tutto il territorio insulare, che si dovettero accompagnare ad una forte mobilità geografica da est verso ovest e dai siti non protetti a quelli ‘forti’. Molti dei siti aperti avevano alle loro spalle una lunga storia, che risaliva almeno alla tardoantichità. Come abbiamo visto, anche le fonti scritte sembrerebbero testimoniare chiaramente il crescente conflitto tra i tentativi della monarchia, dei signori laici ed ecclesiastici di legare sempre più stabilmente i contadini alla terra coltivata, da un lato, e i continui episodi di fuga dei contadini ‘autoctoni’, dall’altro. I potenziali contrasti innescati dall’arrivo dei Normanni deflagrarono e diventarono molto evidenti anche sul piano materiale tra la fine del XII e la prima metà del XIII secolo. Ne sono un segno evidente le consistenti diversità materiali, specialmente registrabili nei corredi ceramici, tra la Sicilia citra et ultra Salsum. Queste diversità profonde potrebbero essere indice di un più basso livello, rispetto al passato isolano, di integrazione e dialettica tra i nuovi venuti e i vecchi abitanti. Le differenze sociali e culturali sembrerebbero anche trovare una nuova sanzione amministrativa dalla nascita dei due differenti ‘giustizierati’ per le due parti dell’Isola. Il fenomeno più impressionante è tuttavia costituito dalle grandi dimensioni assunte dai centri di altura, che nella Sicilia Occidentale diventarono delle “quasi città”, come anche dalla loro fine totale e violenta non oltre la metà del XIII secolo. Queste quasi-città dovevano essere dei centri veramente complessi. È forse errato immaginarsele semplicemente come dei castra ben muniti, abitati da arabomusulmani in armi, spesso assediati dalle truppe di Federico II. Anche se certamente l’aspetto ‘forte’ è importante e poterono in molti casi essere riattivate le fortificazioni antiche, questi centri ospitavano un numero molto alto di persone, dovevano avere attività artigianali al loro interno (si vedano ad es. scarti di fornace a Entella) ed erano ben collegati ad una rete di scambi che doveva unire tra di loro i centri della Sicilia occidentale ed alcuni di essi ad alcune delle principali rotte dell’area tirrenica (si veda l’abbondanza delle ceramiche di importazione in tutto l’Ovest isolano). Inoltre, abbiamo visto che poteva esserci un’ampia casistica negli usi religiosi testimoniati al loro interno (da Entella forse più estesamente musulmana a Calatabarbaro con una popolazione mista). La forte similitudine nella cultura materiale di queste “quasi-città” (case e corredi ceramici) ci fa forse pensare che gli abitanti di questi centri fossero comunque degli ‘autoctoni’ tanto cristiani che musulmani (questi ultimi certamente prevalenti), molto probabilmente arabofoni55 (Figura 14). Le fonti scritte latine li consideravano tutti indistintamente “saraceni”. Anche gli ‘autoctoni’ non sembrerebbero comunque del tutto impermeabili alle novità, come ad esempio rivelerebbe una più spiccata stratificazione sociale leggibile negli edifici di maggior impegno edilizio tanto di Segesta, che di Entella. Nelle “quasi-città” si saldarono probabilmente interessi di-

versi, a partire da quelli dei contadini in fuga, a quelli delle aristocrazie di origine urbana, a quelli infine degli aspiranti “signori”. Di tutti ebbe ragione il grande “sforzo” unificatore di Federico II. È bene tuttavia richiamare il parere recentemente espresso dalla Nef (2008) sui comportamenti dell’imperatore nei confronti dei nuovi assetti insediativi promossi dai ‘saraceni’. Dalle fonti si evincerebbe chiaramente come non si trattasse di guerre né di religione, né contro popolazioni espressamente ribelli. L’intenzione di Federico II sarebbe stata soltanto quella di ‘restaurare l’ordine anteriore’ e di porre fine alla ‘perturbazione della tranquillità del reame’. Mi sembra, per concludere, veramente degno di nota e sintomo dell’intensità dei conflitti l’enorme accelerazione nella trasformazione delle forme insediative cui si assiste in Sicilia a partire dalla seconda metà del XII secolo, come anche il quasi totale annientamento non solo di moltissimi centri abitati ma di un intero sistema socio-culturale al termine dell’età sveva. Il risultato finale della latinizzazione, cristianizzazione e ‘signorilizzazione’ della Sicilia tra il XII ed il XIII secolo sembrerebbe essere quindi stato davvero distruttivo e brutale, in un modo che l’Isola non vedeva certamente da molti secoli (dall’arrivo forse dei romani?). BIBLIOGRAFIA AA. VV., 2001, Castelli medievali di Sicilia, Palermo. Acién Almansa, M. 1997. Entre el Feudalismo y el Islam. cUmar Ibn Hafsun en los historiadores, en la fuentes y en la historia, (2ª ed.). Jaén. Amari, M. 1880-81. Biblioteca arabo-sicula, trad. it., 2 voll., Torino-Roma (ris. anas. 1981). Arcifa, L. 2004a. Nuovi dati riguardanti la ceramica di età islamica nella Sicilia Orientale, “Mélanges de l’École française de Rome : Moyen-Âge”116, 1, 205-230 Arcifa, L. 2004b. La cultura materiale nel Messinese tra influenze islamiche e tradizione bizantina: primi dati per uno status quaestionis, in G.M. Bacci e M.A. Mastelloni (eds), Alle radici della cultura mediterranea ed europea. I Normanni nello Stretto e nelle Isole Eolie, 25-28. Palermo. Arcifa, L. 2004c. Merì: Località S. Giuseppe. I materiali, ivi, 86-92. Arcifa, L. 2006. I rinvenimenti di età medievale e moderna, in Da Alunzio a San Marco indagini archeologiche dal 1970 al 2000, 73-90. Palermo. Arcifa, L. 2008. L’insediamento e i materiali di età medievale, in C. Bonanno (ed), Apollonia. Indagini archeologiche sul Monte di San Fratello - Messina 2003-2005, 75-80. Roma. Arcifa, L. e Fiorilla, S. 1994. La ceramica post-medievale in Sicilia: primi dati archeologici, in La ceramica postmedievale in Italia. Il contributo dell’archeologia, Atti del XXVII Convegno Internazionale della Ceramica, 169171. Albisola. Arcifa, L., Lesnes ,E. 1997. Primi dati sulle produzioni ceramiche palermitane dal X al XV secolo, in La céramique médievalé en Méditerranée. Actes du 6° congrés, (Aix-enProvence 1995), 405-418. Aix-en-Provence.

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Una testimonianza umile ma significativa potrebbe ad es. essere il graffito in arabo rinvenuto su di una tubatura in cotto a Segesta, che non sembrerebbe essere un reimpiego ma essere in fase con il castello ‘signorile’, cfr. il contributo di De Luca in Molinari 1997b.

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perspectives, Atti del Convegno (Roma, novembre 2006). Molinari, A. e Cassai, D. 2006. La Sicilia ed il Mediterraneo nel XIII secolo. Importazione ed esportazione di ceramiche fini e da trasporto, in XXXVII Convegno Internazionale della Ceramica, Savona, 28-29 maggio 2004, 89-112. Molinari, A., Nef, A. (eds) 2004. La Sicile à l’Époque islamique. Questions de méthodes et renouvellement récent des problématiques, “Mélanges de l’École française de Rome: Moyen-Âge” 116. 19-46. Molinari, A. e Neri, I. 2004 Dall’età tardo-imperiale al XII secolo: i risultati della ricognizione eseguita nel territorio di Calatafimi, “ Mélanges de l’École française de Rome : Moyen-Âge”116, 109-127. Nef, A. 2000. Conquêtes et reconquêtes médiévales: la Sicile normande est-elle une terre de réduction en servitude généralisée?, “ Mélanges de l’École française de Rome: Moyen-Âge” 112, 2, 579-607. Nef, A. 2008a. Pluralism religieux et État monarchique dans la Sicile des XIIe-XIIIe siècles, in H. Bresc, G. Dagher e C.Veauvy (ed), Politique et religion en Méditerranée moyen âge et époque contemporaine, 237-254. Condé-sur-Noirau. Nef, A. 2008b. L’histoire des “mozarabes” de Sicile. Bilan provisoire et nouveaux matériaux, in C. Aillet, M. Penelas e P. Roisse (eds), ¿Existe una identidad mozárabe? Historia lengua y cultura de los cristianos de al-Andalus (siglos IX-XII), 255-286. Madrid. Nef, A. e Prigent ,V. 2006. Repenser l’histoire de la Sicile prénormande, “Storica”, 35-36, XII, 9-63. Pastor De Togneri, R. 1975. Del islam al cristianismo. En las fronteras de dos formaciones ecónomico-sociales. Bar���� celona. Pensabene, P. Bonanno, C. (eds) 2008. L’insediamento medievale sulla Villa del Casale di Piazza Armerina. Nuove acquisizioni sulla storia della villa e risultati degli scavi 2004-2005. Galatina. Pensabene, P. e Sfameni, C. (eds) 2006. Iblatesah, Placea, Piazza. L’insediamento medievale sulla Villa del Casale: nuovi e vecchi scavi. Piazza Armerina. Pesez, J.M. (ed) 1984. Brucato. Histoire et archeologie d’un habitat medieval en Sicile. Roma. Pesez, J.M. 1995. Calathamet, in C.A. Di Stefano e A. Cadei (eds), 187-190. Palermo. Pesez, J.M. 1998. Sicile arabe e Sicile normande: châteaux arabes et arabo-normands, “Mélanges de l’École française de Rome: Moyen-Âge” 110,561-576. Pesez, J.M., Poisson, J.M. 1991. Céramique locale et céramique d’importation sur les sites siciliens, XIe-XVIe siècles, in A ceramica medieval no Mediterraneo ocidental, Atti del Convegno (Lisbona 1987), 325-332.Mertola. Petralia, G. 2006. La “signoria” nella Sicilia normanna e sveva: verso nuovi scenari?, in La signoria rurale in Italia nel medioevo, Atti del II Convegno di Studi (Pisa 1998), 233-270. Poisson, J. M. 1997. Calathamet. Dal hisn arabo al castello normanno: una vera cesura?, in Atti delle II Giornate Internazionali di Studi Sull’Area Elima, (ottobre 1994), 1223-1233. Pisa-Gibellina. 356

A. Molinari: La Sicilia tra XII e XIII secolo: conflitti interetnici e frontiere interne Pohl, W. 2003. Le origini etniche dell’Europa. Barbari e Romani tra antichità e medioevo. Città di Castello. Pontieri, E. (ed) 1925-28. De rebus gestis Rogerii Calabriae et Siciliae comitis et Roberti Guiscardi ducis fratris eius. Auctore Gaufredo Malaterra monacho benedictino. Bologna (RIS, V, 1). Ritter Lutz, S. 1991. Studia Ietina V. Monte Iato. �������� Die mittelalterliche Keramik mit Bleiglasur. Funde ����������������� der Grabungen 1971-1980. Zurich. Rizzo, M. S. 2004. L‘insediamento medievale nella Valle dei Platani.Roma. Rognoni, C. 2004. Les Grecs dans la société de la Sicile normande: niveaux d’integration, in M. Colin e M.A. Lucas-Avenel (eds), De la Normandie à la Sicile: réalités, représentations, mythes, Actes du colloque (Archives départementales de la Manche du 17 au 19 octobre 2002), 67-78. Saint-Lô. Sciortino, R. 2007. Archeologia del sistema fortificato medievale di Palermo. Nuovi dati per la conoscenza della seconda cinta muraria (tardo X-XII secolo), “Archeologia

Medievale” XXXIV, 283-296. Siragusa, G.B. (ed) 1897. La Historia o Liber de Regno Sicilie e la Epistola ad Petrum Panormitane Ecclesie Thesaurarium di Ugo Falcando. Nuova edizione sui codici della Bibliothèque Nationale di Parigi. Roma. Spatafora, F. 2004. Nuovi dati preliminari sulla topografia di Palermo in età medievale, in “Mélanges �������������������������� de l’École française de Rome: Moyen-Âge”, 47-78. Spatafora, F. (ed) 2005. Da Panormos a Balarm. Nuove ricerche di archeologia urbana. Palermo. Toubert, P. 1992. Frontière et frontières: un objet historique, in Castrum 4, 8-19. Varvaro, A.1981. Lingua e storia in Sicilia. Palermo.

Figura 1 - Mappa della Sicilia con le località citate nel testo

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Figura 2 - Un denaro dell’emiro Muhammad ibn ‘Abbād (da D’Angelo 1995a) Figura 3 - Ceramica invetriata da mensa da Mazara del Vallo (foto D. Cassai)

Figura 4 - Vaso con filtro (XI sec.) dal villaggio medievale sorto sulla Villa del Casale (Piazza Armerina) (da Pensabene, Sfanemi 2006)

Figura 5 - Vaso da noria (XII sec.) (da Arcifa, Lesnes 1997)

Figura 6 - “Alfabeguer” (XI secolo) o vaso da basilico dal villaggio medievale sorto sulla Villa del Casale (Piazza Armerina) (da Pensabene, Sfanemi 2006)

Figura 7 - “Pentolino” da Mazara del Vallo (XI sec.) (foto D. Cassai)

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A. Molinari: La Sicilia tra XII e XIII secolo: conflitti interetnici e frontiere interne

Figura 8 - Il villaggio di età islamica e normanna sorto sulla Villa del Casale (da Pensabene, Sfanemi 2006)

Figura 9 - Ceramica “tipo Gela” (p. m. XIII sec.) (da Fiorilla 1996)

Figura 10 - Ceramica modellata a mano da Segesta/Calatabarbaro (p. m. XIII sec.)

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Figura 11 - Veduta aerea del castello, con relativa necropoli di Segesta/Calatabarbaro

Figura 12 - Una delle sepolture islamiche di Rocca di Entella (foto R. Guglielmino)

Figura 13 - Una delle sepolture cristiane di Segesta/ Calatabarbaro (p. m. XIII sec.)

Figura 14 - Tubo fittile con iscrizione in arabo dal castello di Segesta/Calatabarbaro (p. m. XIII sec.)

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

IN CONFINIO IUDICATUS TURRITANI, ET ARBOREAE … ARCHEOLOGIA E STORIA DELLE FRONTIERE DEL GIUDICATO DI TORRES NELLA SARDEGNA MEDIEVALE Marco Milanese Franco G. R. Campus Università di Sassari

Abstract (2008) In confinio iudicatu Turritani, et Arboreae… Archaeology and history of the frontiers of the Judgedom of Torres in Medieval Sardinia. A definitive historiographic approach to the problem of boundary in Medieval Sardinia has ascertained – as early as the beginning of the 20th century – that the ecclesiastical districts were the bases of the territorial frames of Judgedoms and then lords’ districts. Documents, whereby the outline of diocesan and civic boundaries have been traced, however, mainly refers to well into the 14th century, when three out of the four Sardinian Judgedoms had already disappeared from the political scenery of the Island. After the studies of E. Besta (1909), A. Solmi (1917) and F. C. Casula (1980), the question of boundaries in Medieval Sardinia has come to a standstill, dwelling on age-old conventional ideas and leaving unsolved or not properly discussed problems. J.M. Poisson has specifically dealt with the topic of origin and consolidation of Judgedoms’ frontiers as regards the area of the Judgedom of Cagliari and Arborea, according to whom the subdivision of Sardinia in four Judgedoms seems to refer to the scope of the main Roman towns of the Island (Karalis, Turris Libisonis, Tharros, Olbìa), together with the role had by natural boundaries, in particular the Massif of Gennargentu, the mountain chain of Montiferru and the Massif of Limbara. These mountain contexts were in Roman times included within territories pertaining to the main urban settlements, and seem to converge towards a wide area in the heart of Sardinia, characterised by people out of any real administrative and military control. Such point may have had an important part in the slow evolving towards the political system of Judgedom, as also suggested by the map of first phase castle network, that is at the time of Judgedoms, before the following foundation wave of lord’s castles, dating from the 13th century. In recent years, the systematic application of archaeological surveying to the area of the Judgedom of Torres and the later transformations carried out by lords has pointed out that a systematic revise of literary sources and planning of surveys and excavations may allow to realize new settlement patterns, with special attention to landscape territorial hierarchy. Such an approach is backed by using G.I.S., as concerns the historical geography of selected areas. Besides, need of new and well-grounded studies in terms of ascertainment of Judgedom administrative districts’ boundaries has been stressed on, the latter having at times been distorted by an extreme use of regressive method, applied to a toponymy-based analysis. Judgedoms’ and seigniories’ frontiers, and villages’ boundaries are thus proposed starting from recently acquired material records and revise of literary sources, in order to carry out a quantitative geographical territorial analysis, conformed with the historic and archaeological data, relevant to the geography of Medieval settlements and boundaries, and based on the surveying of spatial variables.

La tematica dei confini nella Sardegna medievale, dopo una fortuna precoce legata agli studi di Besta (1909) e di Solmi (1917) ha subìto una battuta d’arresto fino alle ricerche di Casula (1980) e si è fissata nel tempo su visioni divenute negli anni stereotipate e lasciando quesiti irrisolti o non opportunamente affrontati. Tale consolidato approccio storiografico allo studio dei confini nella Sardegna medievale ha individuato – già all’inizio del Novecento – nelle circoscrizioni ecclesiastiche il punto di riferimento per la definizione degli assetti territoriali dei Giudicati e delle successive circoscrizioni signorili. Il quadro documentario su cui è stata in questa fase fondata la ricostruzione dei confini diocesani e di quelli civili rimanda tuttavia in prevalenza al pieno XIV secolo, ad un momento in cui tre dei quattro Giudicati sardi erano già scomparsi dalla geografia politica isolana. Successivamente, sullo specifico tema della formazione e del consolidamento delle frontiere giudicali nell’area del Giudicato di Cagliari e di Arborea si è soffermato J. M. Poisson, secondo il quale la suddivisione della Sardegna in quattro Giudicati pare riconducibile agli ambiti di pertinenza delle principali città romane dell’isola (Karalis, Turris Libisonis, Tharros, Olbìa), unitamente al ruolo giocato dai confini di carattere naturale, in particolare dal

massiccio del Gennargentu, dalla catena del Montiferru e dal massiccio del Limbara. Questi sistemi montani erano compresi, in età romana, all’interno dei territori assegnati ai principali insediamenti urbani, territori che sembrano convergere verso un vasto areale al centro della Sardegna, caratterizzato da popolazioni poco controllabili dal punto di vista amministrativo e militare. Tale aspetto potrebbe aver rivestito un ruolo importante nel lento passaggio verso il sistema politico giudicale, come suggerito anche dalla distribuzione della rete dei castelli di prima fase, ovvero di periodo giudicale, precedenti la successiva ondata di fondazioni dei castelli signorili, databile prevalentemente a partire dal XIII secolo . In anni recenti, l’applicazione sistematica della ricerca archeologica al territorio del Giudicato di Torres e delle successive trasformazioni signorili ha messo in evidenza come una strategia di revisione sistematica delle fonti scritte e la pianificazione di ricognizioni e scavi permettano di costruire (Milanese 2006, Milanese 2006a, Milanese Campus 2006) nuovi modelli insediativi (Sami 06, Quavas 2, Sardmediev 2) con un’attenzione alla gerarchia spaziale del territorio, un approccio facilitato dall’utilizzo dei sistemi G.I.S. per lo studio della geografia storica dei paesaggi pregressi. 361

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Si è inoltre evidenziata la necessità di intervenire puntualmente con nuove proposte di definizione dei confini dei distretti amministrativi giudicali, talvolta distorti da un eccessivo utilizzo del metodo regressivo applicato ad una lettura su base toponomastica. Le frontiere giudicali, quelle signorili ed i confini dei singoli villaggi vengono in tal modo proposte a partire dalle fonti materiali di nuova acquisizione e da una rilettura delle fonti scritte, con l’obiettivo di realizzare un’analisi spaziale di geografia quantitativa, applicata ai dati storico-archeologici relativi alla geografia dell’insediamento medievale e dei confini e basata sulla misurazione delle variabili spaziali. Il tema appare veramente complesso perché investe direttamente l’origine dei Giudicati, di queste circoscrizioni territoriali laiche, che rappresentano un nodo centrale della storia della Sardegna per tutto l’arco del periodo medievale, pur affondando le sue radici – lo si è anticipato - nei precedenti quadri istituzionali antichi e tardo-antichi. L’utilizzo del termine Giudicato nella Sardegna medievale è connotato come sinonimo di regno,1 anche se nelle fonti scritte i regnanti si definivano in prevalenza Giudici. Riflettere sui confini nell’intera diacronia del periodo medievale in Sardegna, significa differenziare numerosi periodi, in un’isola incredibilmente ricca di confini anche dal solo punto di vista politico. Esistevano linee di confine già durante l’alto medioevo, quando nel periodo bizantino era presente un confine interno, mentre nel periodo giudicale, in una fase matura, sono identificabili quattro confini, la cui origine è legata al complesso processo formativo dei regni, certamente caratterizzato da scontri interni tra i giudicati. 2 Nella seconda metà del XIII secolo, alla dissoluzione istituzionale del Giudicato di Torres (1259), la pressione delle signorie continentali presenti in questo territorio ne determinò la trasformazione da signorie fondiarie a signorie territoriali (Milanese 2006), situazione che ridisegnò, all’interno dei precedenti confini giudicali, una parcellizzazione talvolta esasperata dei nuovi confini signorili (Figura 1). Ma l’invasione della Sardegna da parte degli Aragonesi, alterò nuovamente dal 1323 l’assetto territoriale, introducendo la componente feudale con le assegnazioni agli esponenti della nobiltà che si erano distinti all’atto della conquista. Confini mobili, confini liquidi furono quelli percepibili dopo la conquista aragonese, in quanto agganciati ad un’interminabile guerra tra gli Aragonesi, i Doria ed il vicino giudicato d’Arborea, che si concluse soltanto entro la prima metà del XV secolo (Figura 2).

‘difficile’ che l’isola subì nel tempo; infatti la Sardegna, percepita chiaramente come unità geografico-politica in età romana, risulta divisa da un confine interno sotto la dominazione bizantina (VI-IX secolo), come documentato da, sia pure pochi, ritrovamenti archeologici e testimonianze scritte. Le fonti scritte per quanto riguarda l’Alto Medioevo sono limitate e non esistono ragionevoli speranze di crescita, in quanto si ritiene che i “giacimenti” di fonti scritte siano stati individuati tutti: si tratta di lettere papali, dall’epistolario di Gregorio Magno, a quello del pontefice Gregorio VII (1074 d C), dal quale si evince l’esistenza dei quattro regni giudicali e dei due arcivescovi di Torres e di Cagliari, con un’ulteriore ripartizione territoriale diocesana (Zedda e Pinna 2007, 75). Sul versante delle fonti archeologiche, fino a questo momento in Sardegna abbiamo fonti materiali soprattutto su castelli, villaggi, necropoli e qualche chiesa (queste ultime in genere con una bassa qualità dell’intervento stratigrafico), mentre più limitate sono le informazioni che si hanno sulle trasformazioni dell’insediamento sparso (Milanese 2006; 2006 a; 2006 b; 2010¸c.d.s., Milanese e Campus 2006). Il materiale disponibile permette di delineare alcuni punti fermi, che sembrano ormai convincenti. Durante il periodo vandalico e tutto il primo secolo dell’impero bizantino l’organizzazione dei territori e delle aree di pertinenza delle città prosegue senza variazioni, all’insegna della continuità. Gli studi più recenti (Garau 2007) continuano a sottolineare lo stesso risultato e cioè che non c’è nessuna drastica cesura nella maglia insediativa con l’arrivo dei Vandali, ma c’è una continuità, una continuità percepibile anche sulle coste, come nel caso del sito di Santa Filitica. I dati provenienti dalle ricognizioni (Milanese et al. c.d.s.) ci dicono che si vanno a rioccupare o che si continua l’occupazione di siti forti del territorio (dal punto di vista delle risorse economiche, fertilità dei terreni, sorgenti, ecc.) come ville o fattorie romane, ma anche i nuraghi, che vengono riutilizzati con funzioni varie: la continuità di vita è presente anche negli agglomerati di medie dimensioni. Questo fenomeno tocca maggiormente i centri localizzati lungo le direttrici viarie, quindi lungo il sistema stradale romano, che rimane sempre in funzione con leggerissime variazioni di percorso. I siti costieri continuano a funzionare e sono capofila di arrivo e distribuzione delle merci, e caso non strano è che i centri localizzati sulla costa siano sedi di diocesi, ma anche di pellegrinaggio. Questi segni di continuità li vediamo quindi principalmente negli insediamenti rurali romani dove i dati archeologici ci dicono che alcune porzioni delle ville vengono destinate al culto, però, finalmente si inizia a vedere che non sono solo spazi privilegiati, ma si ha anche un ordine paritario nella costruzione delle case, ma anche nella organizzazione delle necropoli. Un esempio è quello di Santa Filitica, nel nord della Sardegna, dove si vede che a fianco alla villa romana che viene trasformata nasce un villaggio dove

Crediamo che già da queste indicazioni sia possibile percepire alcuni aspetti della complessità della questione. Da questa immagine è possibile vedere il cambiamento 1

Richiamano recentemente questo aspetto Zedda e Pinna 2007, 75, nota 143. 2 Il caso del regno di Torres nel Nord-Ovest della Sardegna, derivato per frazionamento di un’originaria unità giudicale sarda, con la formazione di nuovi confini interni, è discusso da Zedda e Pinna 2007, 83-86 e 90-91. Per le guerre interne tra giudicati in ragione della definizione dei confini e per la progressiva formazione dei regni, conclusa nel terzo quarto dell’XI secolo, Zedda e Pinna 2007, 114-115.

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M. Milanese: In confinio Iudicatus Turritani, et Arboreae … sono state individuate case uguali, strade uguali, modo di seppellire uguale, un ordine ‘paritario’ riscontrabile nella cultura materiale, sottolineato da vari studiosi (Spanu, Pani Ermini, Martorelli). Di questo modo di organizzare una vita paritaria le fonti scritte non ci dicono niente. Abbiamo solo un breve accenno in una delle lettere di Gregorio Magno che chiede ai vescovi locali di cristianizzare queste popolazioni locali che ormai vivono insieme alle classi dirigenti. Però grazie alle lettere di Gregorio Magno abbiamo i primi confini all’interno dell’isola: la struttura delle diocesi in cui si formano le prime divisioni. Quali sono? Noi sappiamo che nell’organizzazione diocesana l’isola è divisa in due parti distinte: una parte costiera occidentale e una parte dove non ci sono centri urbani, né in età romana, né successivamente. Questa divisione è la prima linea di confine interna all’isola; anche in questo caso l’interpretazione è fortunata perché ci arriva sia da dati documentari che dai dati archeologici. Per i dati documentari abbiamo un’altra lettera di Gregorio Magno, che afferma che nel 594 in una lettera al dux bizantino Zabarda, residente a Forum Traiani, al centro dell’isola, si facesse riferimento ad un imminente accordo di pace tra i barbaricini e i bizantini. In un’altra lettera di poco successiva sempre il papa si rivolge a questo personaggio Ospiton, dux barbaricinorum, per non avere opposizione all’invio di alcuni vescovi in attività missionaria. Sulla figura di questo personaggio la storiografia sarda si è espressa con alcuni condizionamenti ideologici, facendolo diventare sia il rappresentante di un indipendentismo che sarebbe sopravvissuto per millenni ed incarnato da una figura mitologica. Secondo Raimondo Turtas, invece, Ospitone è un personaggio di origine cristiana e romana, che viene imposto per il suo carattere Oltre a questo possiamo dire che nel chiedere l’appoggio a questo personaggio, chiamato dux, per l’attività missionaria, il papa chiede una specie di nulla osta a tutte le personalità politiche del momento: alla sede apostolica, al rappresentante militare dell’impero e anche alle stesse popolazioni. Avviene in tal modo il riconoscimento ufficiale di un’entità istituzionale diversa all’interno della Sardegna bizantina. Ma il problema è che da questo momento non abbiamo più notizie di questo ducato interno. Dal punto di vista archeologico le tracce da far interloquire con questo ducato interno sono la presenza di alcune fortificazioni d’altura, localizzate in alto nelle montagne nella zona dell’Oristanese, il Castello della Medusa a Samugheo, poi le fortezze di Serri, Anela e Castro. Per quanto riguarda questi centri, P.G. Spanu ipotizzava l’esistenza di una linea fortificata flessibile, non completamente chiusa, ma una serie di postazioni di controllo delle aree interne, perché con l’indebolirsi dei commerci le popolazioni interne iniziano a compiere delle scorrerie, soprattutto per depredare le coltivazioni che si trovavano nella parte dell’isola che è sempre stata urbanizzata, cioè quella segnata dalle sedi delle diocesi. Abbiamo dal punto di vista archeologico dati certi solo sul sito di Castro e su 2 due campagne di scavo di Anela. Gli

altri sono stati associati al periodo bizantino da alcuni ritrovamenti casuali, dalle tecniche costruttive, ma non sappiamo esattamente altro. Non sappiamo neanche quando questo sistema va in crisi. La carenza di documentazione sull’assetto dell’area interna, fa sì che all’interno della storiografia più consolidata, questo tema scompaia, dopo il dux Ospitone, in quanto dopo di lui nella storiografia locale si passa subito alla nascita dei Giudicati e sembra quasi che i Giudicati siano l’evoluzione normale di questo sistema. Ma se iniziamo ad applicare un’ analisi spaziale alla struttura dei Giudicati vediamo che non c’è una paritaria divisione dell’area interna, ma in realtà ci sono tutta una serie di dinamiche completamente diverse. Una qualche influenza possono averla avuta i vecchi municipia romani, ma sicuramente i quattro Giudicati non sorgono come pensa la storiografia per difendersi dall’esterno, ma sono il frutto di una lunga sconosciuta, materialmente e dal punto di vista documentario, fase di contrapposizione interna che, se vista da fuori, sembra la difesa contro arabi a sud e longobardi a nord, ma in realtà si tratta di un processo di strutturazione territoriale isolano. Questo è il problema dei confini giudicali, che si ritrova solo a partire dall’XI secolo quando, seguendo Marco Tangheroni, abbiamo un ritorno della Sardegna nell’Occidente, come ci dicono le fonti che affermano che ormai questo processo è attuato, che nell’isola esistono quattro re, che hanno quattro territori distinti ed al loro interno divisi in distretti amministrativi ancora più piccoli, le curatorie. Su questo tema si era anche soffermato nel 1992 J. M. Poisson, che ipotizzava una divisione prima della parte meridionale dell’isola, quindi del Cagliaritano, poi della parte nord, quindi con i giudicati di Arborea e di Gallura, che si sarebbero staccati in un momento successivo 3. La ricerca si può fare partendo almeno dalla distribuzione di questi insediamenti, dal cambio dei sistemi insediativi, da quello romano a quello medievale, e anche studiando la distribuzione delle prime fortificazioni giudicali non in contrapposizione sempre ai confini, come la storiografia ha pensato, ma nel loro impatto nel governo del territorio. In questo senso la sorpresa è del tutto evidente: la divisione in quattro parti dell’isola non provoca immediatamente una costruzione di fortificazioni sui confini, che avvengono in un momento successivo, solo nell’XI-XII secolo. Lo scopo non è fermarsi allo sviluppo dei Giudicati, ma vedere poi come questo viene travolto dallo sviluppo di altri confini come quello – spesso parcellizzato in modo esasperatodei confini signorili con l’incastellamento signorile, che è una fase ben definita che compare tutta nel XIII secolo e poi con le altre vicende di organizzazione del territorio con l’arrivo degli Aragonesi. BIBLIOGRAFIA Besta, E. 1909. La Sardegna medioevale. Le vicende politiche dal 450 al 1326, rist. anast. Ed. Palermo, Sala Bolognese 1987 Casula, F. C. 1980. Castelli e fortezze. In Atlante della Sardegna, 109-114. 3

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Vedi anche nota precedente.

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Garau, E. 2007. Disegnare paesaggi della Sardegna. Ortacesus. Milanese, M. 2006. Archeologia del potere nella Sardegna medievale: la signoria dei Doria, in “Atti del IV Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Medievale”, San Galgano (26-30 settembre 2006), 287-293, Firenze.. Milanese, M. (ed) 2006 a. Vita e morte dei villaggi rurali tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna. Dallo scavo della villa de Geriti ad una pianificazione della tutela e della conoscenza dei villaggi abbandonati della Sardegna, “Quaderni del Centro di Documentazione dei Villaggi Abbandonati della Sardegna”, 2. Firenze, All’Insegna del Giglio. Milanese, M. 2006 b. Vita e morte dei villaggi rurali tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna. Archeologia e storia di un tema storiografico, in M. Milanese (ed), Vita e morte dei villaggi rurali tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna. Dallo scavo della villa de Geriti ad una pianificazione della tutela e della conoscenza dei villaggi abbandonati della Sardegna,

“Quaderni del Centro di Documentazione dei Villaggi Abbandonati della Sardegna”, 2., 9 -23. Firenze, All’Insegna del Giglio. Milanese, M. e Campus, F.G.R. 2006. Archeologia e storia degli insediamenti rurali abbandonati della Sardegna, in Milanese, M. 2010. Castelsardo. Archeologia di una fortezza dai Doria agli Spagnoli, “Sardegna Medievale”, 2, Sassari, Delfino. Milanese et al. c.d.s., Milanese, M., Biagini, M., Cherchi, M., Marras, G., Padua, G., Vecciu, A. Ceramiche tardo antiche da ricognizioni di superficie nella Sardegna nordoccidentale, “Late Roman Cooking Ware”. Pisa, 2008. Solmi, A. 1917. Studi storici sulle istituzioni della Sardegna nel Medioevo, ried. Cagliari, M. E. CADEDDU (ed.), Nuoro 2001. Zedda, C.e Pinna R. 2007. La nascita dei Giudicati. Proposta per lo scioglimento di un enigma storiografico, in “Reti Medievali” , www.retimedievali.it , 27 – 118.

Figura 1. Castelli signorili dei Doria e dei Malaspina (dal 1270 circa), posizionati nella maglia delle Curatorie del territorio dell’ex Giudicato di Torres

Figura 2. Alcune circoscrizioni signorili dei Doria (1349 circa)

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

LA CORSE DU HAUT MOYEN AGE: UNE MARCHE-FRONTIERE AU COEUR DE LA TYRRHENIENNE Philippe Pergola Cnrs Daniel Istria Cnrs

Abstract (2008) La Corse du haut Moyen Age: une marche-frontière au coeur de la Tyrrhénienne Longtemps considérée comme marginalisée et totalement privée de relation avec la Terre Ferme, la Corse du haut Moyen Age (VIIe-Xe siècle) apparaît aujourd’hui et à la lueur des récentes découvertes archéologiques, comme une île au contraire largement ouverte sur l’espace Tyrrhénien. De part sa position géographique, elle a ainsi constitué une sorte de marche-frontière, à la fois théâtre de conflits et espace d’expansion économique. A partir d’exemples puisés dans la documentation à la fois écrite et archéologique, l’exposé tentera de démontrer que l’île est, à partir du VIIe siècle environ, investie par de puissantes familles lombardes de la région de Lucques, avant d’être pleinement intégrée, un siècle plus tard, dans le patrimoine de l’Eglise romaine. Durant toute cette période, les échanges entre la péninsule et l’île n’ont pas cessé, alors que les musulmans l’utilisaient comme base de départ pour mener des expéditions vers la Terre Ferme et entraver les relations entre les cités marchandes italiennes et le reste de la chrétienté méridionale. Early Medieval Corsica: borderland in the heart of the Tyrrheanian Sea. Long considered as fringe-zone with no relations with the mainland at all, Early Medieval Corsica (7th-10th c.) appears now, conversely, in the light of recent archaeological data, as a definitely open island within the Tyrrheanian sphere. Its geographical position has actually caused it to become a sort of frontier-march, either theatre of conflict or land of economic expansion. Starting from some literary and archaeological evidence, this paper intends to show that, as from the 7th century onwards, the island fell within the scope of Lombard families, originally from Lucca, before becoming fully part of Roman Church’s property. Throughout this time, exchanges between the island and the peninsula never ceased, as long as the Muslims did not begin to use it as base for raiding towards the mainland and hindering the relations between the Italian mercantile towns and the rest of Southern Christian lands.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

L’ABRUZZO QUALE FRONTIERA POLITICA E CULTURALE DAL VI AL XIV SECOLO Fabio Redi Università Degli Studi dell’Aquila

Abstract (2008) The Abruzzi, cultural frontier between Goths, Byzantines, Spoleto and Benevento, Normans and Papacy. As early as under the Norman Kingdom, a castle network was established in the Abruzzi,especially upon the boundary with the Church State. These castles were mainly settled, in order to assure the control of the conquered territory to the invaders, and they progressively extended towards different directions, thus creating outposts, wherefrom advancing towards the boundaries of the Kingdom. However, it is under Frederick II that the office of provisores castrorum was founded and the Norman customary laws codified in the Statutes of castle repairing, so that the castra and castella network was resettled, restoring extant structures, which had been damaged and fallen into disuse during the period of feudal anarchy, followed after William II’ death. Some new were also built, so that the state of the Abruzzi as Suevian State’s frontier was strengthened, while its function of Kingdom’s boundary, had only tacitly previously, was at that time increased. When the Crown took over some castles, which had been built by barons with no authorization, the Suevian power consolidated in strategic positions of the territory. In this context, our archaeological investigation aims at checking the changes of the Abruzzi zone, in terms of either territorial control or technological innovations, occurred in the transition time betweormans and Suevians. The analysis of extant standing structures and those exposed by specific archaeological excavations gives interesting and partly original indications in this sense.

Fin dalla conquista del territorio da parte di Roma l’Abruzzo interno svolse fondamentalmente una funzione di cerniera, e quindi di frontiera, perché attraversato dalle più importanti vie di comunicazione che collegavano Nord e Sud, Tirreno e Adriatico (Migliarino 1995, 101-117; Zenodocchio 2008, 53-56 e 65-228) La Tiburtina Valeria e la Salaria univano Roma con Ostia Aterni (Pescara) e con Truentum (S. Benedetto del Tronto), la Claudia Nova costituiva l’asse di raccordo fra le due strade in senso trasversale, la via Cecilia collegava Amiternum, che costituiva un importante snodo viario, con Teramo e l’Adriatico. Strade di valico e di fondovalle, o di mezzacosta, costituivano, quindi, una rete di comunicazioni a maglie fitte di notevole importanza per l’Italia centrale. Questa situazione fu evidente anche al tempo della guerra greco gotica e, dopo la conquista longobarda, fra i ducati di Spoleto e di Benevento.1 La ricerca archeologica che da oltre un decennio abbiamo messo in atto nel territorio apporta nuovi dati in proposito (Redi e Malandra 2004, 229-243; Redi e Iovenitti 2004, 307-323; Redi 2008a, preatti). I rinvenimenti di Piana S. Marco (Castel del Monte, AQ) e di S. Paolo di Barete (AQ), insieme con i toponimi di origine bizantina, come Ansidonia, Camarda, Filetto, Assergi, e quelli di Robinie forse di origine barbarica, come Aringo, Paganica, Basto e Vasto, ecc. rivelano che il crinale appenninico facente capo al Gran Sasso e ai Monti della Laga costituì un valido diaframma fra i territori controllati dai Bizantini e quelli occupati dai Goti, mentre la valle dell’Aterno, solcata dalla Claudia Nova, continuò a rappresentare una significativa fascia di scorrimento fra i territori spoletini e quelli beneventani ma anche un percorso di intercettazione e di snodo rispetto all’asse trasversale che univa ancora saldamente Adriatico e Tirreno , costituendo il confine tra quelli che furono i due ducati longobardi del Sud (Redi 2008a, preatti). Ansidonia, Camarda,

Filetto e Assergi sono toponimi che sembrano attestarsi lungo un percorso di valico che dalla Claudia Nova si staccava presso Ansidonia per insinuarsi oltre Organica, nella stretta valle dell’Acqua di S Franco e, attraverso il Passo delle Capannelle scendere verso il Tramano o verso l’Adriatico percorrendo la valle del Vomano fino a Montepagano, anch’esso toponimo significativo. Il rinvenimento di tre fibule gotiche in agemina nel cimitero antistante alla pieve di S. Paolo di Barete (Segenni 1985, p. 241; La Collezione Augusto Castellani 2000, pp. 198-199, nn. 166,167) sembra attestare, invece, uno stanziamento barbarico con personaggi di rango elevato lungo la valle dell’Aterno, percorsa dal tracciato viario che, oltre Amiternum e Pizzoli, lambiva il Colle di Paganica presso Montereale e, attraverso Aringo e Amatrice, si ricollegava con la Salaria. Lungo queste direttrici vennero riadattate e fortificate le città di Amiternum e di Peltuinum-Ansidonia e stabiliti nuclei insediativi forti, come Ansidonia stessa e probabilmente Camarda, Baretee Aringo. A questi e ad altri di nuova istituzione fece riferimento la fase più antica di incastellamento del territorio, durante la quale si affermò un tracciato vario, probabilmente già frequentato in precedenza, che costituì l’asse principale dello scorrimento fra Nord e Sud e il raccordo fra la Salaria e la Tiburtina Valeria, essendo preferito dagli imperatori per il collegamento longitudinali. Lungo questa via, oltre al sorgere di castelli strategici come Antrodoco, Rocca di Corno, Collimento, Ovindoli, Celanno, troviamo ripetutamente placitare nel proprio palazzo di Campo Tedice (Campo Felice) o Rocca de Cedice, l’imperatore Ottone II (M.G.H. D.D. 1980, II.I, 288-290; Ibid., 298.) Sotto il Regno normanno una fitta rete di castelli fu stabilita in Abruzzo, specialmente verso lo Stato della Chiesa. Essi risposero principalmente a funzioni difensive dei confini, pur potenziando e addensando contemporaneamente le maglie del popolamento del territorio. Appare signifi-

1

Staffa 1995, 187-238. Per un recente aggiornamento si veda I Longobardi del Sud c.d.s. e I Longobardi del Sud 2008.

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F. Redi: L’Abruzzo quale frontiera politica e culturale dal VI al XIV secolo cativo, tuttavia, grazie ad alcuni scavi da noi effettuati, specialmente nel castello di Ocre (Redi e Pantaleo 2006, 325-342), che alcuni castelli normanni ebbero il compito principale di garantire agli invasori nella fase iniziale della conquista il controllo del territorio, procedendo a tappe di avanzamento e fissando avamposti dai quali partire per spingersi ulteriormente fino a stabilire i confini del Regno (Redi 2008b, pp. 136-143; Id c.d.s.a; Id c.d.s.b; Id c.d.s.c.). In alcuni castelli da noi indagati, in particolare quello di Ocre, abbiamo potuto evidenziare forme di impianto e di concezione organizzativa degli spazi e delle difese trasferite direttamente, quasi a ricalco, da ‘castelli matrice’ presenti nei territori di origine nella Normandia o comunque nelle regioni atlantiche della Francia settentrionale (Flambard Héricher 2002, 87-100; Construire, reconstruire, aménager le château en Normandie 2004). È significativa in proposito la sorprendente somiglianza del castello di Ocre primitivo, da noi rinvenuto con gli scavi recenti, rispetto a quello di Olivet a Grimbosq e a quello di Ganne a La Pommeraye (Flambard Héricher 2002, 9293; Flambard Héricher 2007, 127-154; Flambard Héricher. 2008; Forgione c.d.s.a; Id. c.d.s.b; Id. c.d.s.c.). In ambedue è presente una motta centrale, con torre lignea, fossato asciutto circostante e ponte levatoio, con adiacente specularmene una ‘bassa corte’ signorile, con dongione, servizi sussidiari e cappella, e un’altra borghese, con abitazioni di legno, stalle e officine, cinta da una palizzata. L’uso del legno è nettamente prevalente nella prima fase di insediamento fortificato in quanto risulta cogente la necessità di realizzare in fretta la fortificazione del territorio occupato. Soltanto in un secondo momento, una volta consolidato il controllo del territorio dopo la fase iniziale della conquista, si procede alla liticizzazione dell’insediamento fortificato, sostituendo le strutture di legno con altre più solide di pietra. La collocazione strategica dei castelli attestati nel Catalogus Baronum in appena un quindicennio, fra il 1154 e il 1169, in tutto l’Abruzzo (Catalogus Baronum 1972; Catalogus Baronum; Commentario 1984) appare, a uno sguardo complessivo, abbastanza uniforme. A noi interessa osservare, tuttavia, che nella fascia di confine contrapposta allo Stato della Chiesa, a Ovest e a Nord, i castelli normanni censiti occupano particolari posizioni che rispondono a criteri di controllo della viabilità principale, ma anche dei valichi e dei percorsi minori che si erano sviluppati durante l’Alto Medioevo recuperando collegamenti esistenti prima della conquista romana del territorio, forse mai completamente abbandonati. Salvo rare eccezioni, non conosciamo l’ubicazione di fortificazioni altomedievali, né possiamo ipotizzare, in assenza di scavi archeologici mirati alla soluzione di questo problema, in quale misura le fortificazioni normanne insistano su precedenti strutture castellane riferibili al fenomeno dell’incastellamento di X-XI secolo. La documentazione archivistica di questo periodo è scarsa e avara di particolari utili al caso nostro. D’altra parte non è proponibile l’ipotesi che le difese territoriali normanne siano state realizzate completamente in siti in precedenza non fortificati, sebbene diverse siano le ratio e le finalità della costruzione di castelli da parte dei Normanni rispet-

to a quelle della prima fase ‘canonica’ d’incastellamento. Questa risponde principalmente a esigenze di addensamento demico e di organizzazione feudale delle campagne, con forme accentrate di popolamento rurale, quella, invece, risponde a esigenze prettamente strategiche, di organizzazione della difesa del territorio, dei confini in particolare, anche se la densità capillare di presenze di castelli normanni nella regione, distribuiti equamente nel territorio, qualifica il fenomeno come conferma di quello dei due secoli precedenti definito con il termine incastellamento, e lascia supporre fondamentalmente che gran parte dei castelli normanni insistesse su precedenti fortificazioni. Se mai è da supporre una intensificazione degli insediamenti fortificati a seguito della specifica valenza di frontiera del Regno assunta dalla fascia settentrionale e occidentale della regione. Almeno una cinquantina risultano i castelli compresi all’interno della fascia settentrionale, distanziati mediamente otto-dieci chilometri e frequentemente a vista, così da costituire una valida catena di fortificazioni. Solo circa trentacinque sono i castelli della più estesa ma filiforme e meno densa fascia occidentale. Sotto gli Svevi, istituito nel 1231 con le Costituzioni di Melfi (Huillard-Bréholles 1854, 141) da Federico II l’ufficio dei provisores castrorum e codificate le consuetudini normanne nello Statuto sulla riparazione dei castelli ( Winkelmann 1880, 769 ss.; Sthamer 1995, 94-122), si procedette alla ricostruzione della rete dei castra e castella restaurando le strutture esistenti, rimaste danneggiate e andate in disuso durante il periodo di anarchia feudale succeduto alla morte di Guglielmo II, nel 1189, e costruendone di nuove così da potenziare il valore di frontiera dello Stato svevo assunto dall’Abruzzo e accentuarne la funzione di confine del Regno avuta solo implicitamente in precedenza. L’acquisizione alla Corona di alcuni castelli fatti costruire dai baroni senza autorizzazione, sancita nel dicembre 1220 nella Dieta di Capua, rafforzò il potere svevo in posizioni strategiche del territorio (Sthamer 1995) Nella rubrica De novis aedificiis diruendis si prescriveva, infatti, che tutte le rocche e fortificazioni, comprese le mura e i fossati, realizzate abusivamente dopo la morte di Guglielmo II fossero consegnate alla Corona per essere distrutte o riportate alle condizioni precedenti; quanti ai castelli appartenenti al demanio, Federico si riservava di disporne liberamente. L’elenco dei castelli contenuto nello Statutum de reparatione castrorum del 1231 appare quindi fondamentale per conoscere quali fortificazioni esistenti già sotto la dominazione normanna rientrassero nel progetto di restauro e di rafforzamento del potere centrale, in particolar modo nella delicata fascia della frontiera settentrionale. Delle 22 strutture fortificate e palaziali elencate (Sthamer 1995, 8, 94-122 e Appendice I, par. f. 117-122), tre sono concentrate lungo la linea di confine segnata dalle vallate del Tronto e del Velino: Civitella del Tronto, Arquata e Antrodoco; due fanno parte dello stesso sistema difensivo, ma si trovano a controllo di un percorso trasversale che unisce la stessa valle del Velino con Cascia: sono la rocca di Maczani, identificabile con Macchione o Ma367

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean chilone2, e quella di Ripa di Corno (Leonessa). Alla stessa linea di confine afferiscono fra fortilizi concentrati in un piccolo spazio a sbarramento dell’alta valle dell’Aterno, comunicante con quella del Velino attraverso il valico di Montereale e Amatrice e sfociante nella piana aquilana di Amiternum e Peltuinum: sono i castelli di Labareto (Barete), Pesculi (Pizzoli) e Ceresia (probabilmente Cesura)3. Gli altri castelli citati nell’elenco del 1231 si trovano o nel versante adriatico, ben cinque, o lungo l’asse trasversale che collegava Roma con l’Adriatico, costituito dalla Tiburtina-Valeria, cioè i castelli di Piscina, Aielli, Ovindoli, Massa d’Albe, o diramazioni diverse in direzione di Napoli: Sulmona e Castel di Sangro, Castrovalva, Trasacco, o verso Nord lungo la Claudia-Nova: il castello di Leporanica. Circa ¾ di questi castelli già esistevano, essendo elencati nel già detto Catalogus Baronum normanno; non compaiono quelli di Antrodoco, Ripa di Corno e Ceresia (Cesura) nella fascia di frontiera settentrionale, oltre quelli, situati altrove, di Atri, Castel di Sangro, Ovindoli, Trasacco e Leporanica. Dalla lista, pur se lacunosa, dei castra exempta, cioè direttamente dipendenti dalla Corona, del 1239 (Sthamer 1995, 57), risulta l’esistenza di un altro castello da restaurare, già censito fra quelli normanni del Catalogus Baronum come castrum Luniani, e nell’elenco in questione come Lullanum, immediatamente a ridosso della città di Rieti sulle pendici occidentali del monte Terminillo, situato cioè nell’estremo angolo nord-occidentale della frontiera, in aggiunta a quelli già esaminati. In quanto exempta, i castelli di Civitella del Tronto, Arquata del Tronto, Antrodoco e quello di Lugnano ora detto, insieme con quelli di Bertona e Paleria nel versante adriatico e di Leporanica e Ovindoli, al centro della regione, ben evidenziano la strategia di accentramento attuata da Federico II insieme con quella di rafforzamento dei confini, per mezzo della creazione di un cuneo nell’angolo N-O del territorio, ottenuta con il restauro e il potenziamento di alcuni castelli, in massima parte avocati sotto la diretta gestione del demanio regio. Con l’avvento degli Angioini, almeno nel primo periodo della dominazione dell’Italia meridionale, che termina negli anni Ottanta del XIII secolo, la politica di controllo del territorio non cambia sensibilmente, in quanto Carlo I prosegue i programmi difensivi già messi in atto da Federico II, sebbene con una forte accentuazione del restauro e del rafforzamento dei castelli del confine nord-occidentale del Regno e della dismissione di alcuni non più efficienti o non utilizzabili nelle strategie di difesa della frontiera (Cadei 2004, 235-301; Santoro 1988, 120-122; Sciommeri 2008, 13-20). L’importanza dei confini con lo Stato della Chiesa, in direzione di Rieti e di Spoleto, oltre che dal fatto che nel 1282 quasi tutti i castelli d’Abruzzo risultano custoditi da castellani francesi, fedeli del re, che lo avevano seguito e aiutato nella conquista del regno, si coglie dalla cura personale di Carlo nella pianificazione del riassetto del complesso difensivo della frontiera e nella realizzazione di cospicui

interventi, sia edilizi, sia urbanistici, da lui avviata e attuata dal figlio e da Roberto II (Santoro 1982, 14; Id. 1988, 122; Caggese 1922; Clementi 1988, 17-81). Un susseguirsi di provvedimenti emanati da Carlo I e successori, contenuti nei Registri Angioini di Napoli, oltre a fornire l’elenco delle fortificazioni che dovevano essere ispezionate dagli ingegneri o architetti di corte per la verifica dello stato di salute delle strutture e della efficienza dei sistemi difensivi, riguardano l’assistenza sul cantiere e l’accelerazione dei lavori in corso in alcuni fortilizi e la decisione di dismissione di altri ritenuti non idonei o comunque per i quali era considerato poco economico il mantenimento in servizio effettivo (Clementi 1988, 17-81; Santoro 1988,125-126). Quale fosse la ratio nell’atteggiamento da assumere nella scelta del restauro o della dismissione dei castelli da ispezionare emerge con chiarezza dalle istruzioni impartite alla commissione d’inchiesta emanate il 27 febbraio 1267.4 Da esse risultano di fondamentale importanza la posizione strategica del castello rispetto al sito del luogo e alla viabilità e vantaggiosità della fortificazione in caso di guerra. Risulta chiara l’attenzione dei sovrani angioini nei confronti dei castelli, più principalmente quelli di frontiera, che rivestirono sotto il loro dominio una funzione sia di difesa dei confini del Regno, sia di controllo dei territori, sia di contrasto nei confronti della feudalità locale, ancora largamente di formazione normanna. Dall’elenco del 28 novembre 1269 (Sthamer 1995, Appendice II, n. 4, par, 6) riguardante i castelli per i quali era ritenuta opportuna una verifica delle condizioni statiche, strutturali e militari, comprendente in totale 18 fortificazioni, si evince la preponderanza dei castelli collocati lungo la frontiera con la Chiesa rispetto a quelli del versante adriatico e interni ai confini: 8 sono distribuiti lungo la frontiera nord-occidentale, 5 lungo quella occidentale due sono arretrati nel versante adriatico, 3 all’interno della regione, ma a controllo di importanti tracciati viari.5 Cinque i castelli del primo gruppo, Civitella del Tronto, Macchia,6 Rocca de Intro,7 Antrodoco, Calcariola si trova‘…item inquiratur de situ singuloru; et que sunt illa que sita sunt super aliquibus bonis passibus. Item que sunt illa que possunt afferre profectum tempore guerre; et quem profectum possunt afferre. Item que et quot sunt illa que oportet necessario custodire et muniri’, Sthamer 1995, 12 . 5 I castelli del confine settentrionale sono: Civitella del Tronto, Macchia, Barete, Pizzoli, Rocca di Cane (o di Corno), Rocca de Intro, Antrodoco e Calcariola; quelli del confine occidentale sono: Calcariola, Petrella Salto, Mareri, Rocca dei Servi-dei Cerri (Roccacerro), Tagliacozzo, Pescocanale; quelli del versante adriatico sono: Loreto Aprutino e Pretoro di Chieti; quelli dell’interno della regione sono: Castel di Sangro, Castiglione dei Marsi (presso Piscina) e Ocre. 6 Ritengo fondatamente che il castello di Macchia non vada situato nel versante tramano (Macchia da Sole, Macchia da Borra, Macchia S. Cecilia, Macchia Tornella, Macchia Vomano, ecc), bensì nell’alto corso del Velino, fra Amatrice e Accumuli, dove sul fondovalle si erge una motta naturale che controlla direttamente la Salaria. Correttamente Sonia Antonelli (Antonelli 2003, 492) sostiene che non esistono elementi di certezza nell’identificazione di Castel Manfrino (TE) col Castrum Maccle in questione. 7 L’identificazione di questo castello è controversa, poiché non permangono riferimenti toponomastici consonanti, eccetto quello della rocca de Intromontibus, da identificare probabilmente con quella di Tremonti presso Tagliacozzo, presente nella lettera di Carlo d’Angiò del 14 gennaio 1284 (cfr. infra). Non troviamo toponimi affini nel Catalogus Baronum, salvo che Gualterius de Trozo aveva infeudate da 4

2

Erroneamente, così ritengo, viene identificata da alcuni con una non altrimenti nota rocca di Mascioni (presso Campotosto). 3 Si tratta di un’ipotesi non suffragata da dati non opinabili.

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F. Redi: L’Abruzzo quale frontiera politica e culturale dal VI al XIV secolo Rocca di Cane, perché contrapposto al Monte Torrecane.11 Pur con lievi varianti onomastiche i castelli amministrati dalla Curia angioina rimasero pressoché invariati di numero, 20-21, fino alla guerra del Vespro (Santoro 1988, 125). Direttamente assoggettati alla Corona, forse perché di rilevanza strategica, sono i castelli di Ocre, a controllo del percorso trasversale fra la valle dell’Aterno e la Marsica attraverso l’altopiano delle Rocche, ma in particolare, quello di Civitella del Tronto, perché a guardia della Salaria e dello snodo fra Ascoli e Teramo, e quello di Antrodoco, situato nel nodo Salaria-Claudia Nova. La Rocca de Intro,12 al confine settentrionale, controllava probabilmente un percorso di collegamento fra la Salaria e Norcia o Cascia; il castello di Mareri, sul confine occidentale, sorgeva in posizione centrale sulla strada della valle del Salto che collegava la Marsica con Rieti e costituiva il centro di potere della omonima famiglia feudale. Il re in persona s’interessa della costruzione o del restauro dei castelli maggiormente strategici, come attestano due lettere dell’aprile 1280 con le quali raccomanda all’architetto di Corte Pierre d’Angicourt di ispezionare alcuni castelli insieme con il Giustiziere d‘Abruzzo Guglielmo Brunello e di accelerare i lavori di costruzione di nuove strutture difensive nella rocca di Ripa di Corno (SthamerHouben 2006, III, 43-44, n° 1301.). Già il 16 giugno 1278 Carlo aveva approvato l’esecuzione di restauri agli edifici del castrum di Ripa di Corno e la costruzione ex novo di una torre in posizione intermedia fra esso e l’abitato stesso, situato ai piedi del castello, che avrebbe preso il nome di Leonessa; anche un’altra torre già iniziata da tempo, e una cisterna dovevano essere compiute all’interno del fortilizio.13 Della torre che avrebbe dovuto essere costruita ex novo si fa memoria anche in un dispaccio dell’anno successivo, esattamente del 6 aprile 1279, nel quale sono descritte minutamente le caratteristiche strutturali e tecniche della stessa (Sthamer-Houben 2006, III, 38, n° 1295). Con una lettera del 15 aprile 1280, il re ordinava allo stesso de Angicourt di fare un attento sopralluogo ai castelli di Macchia, Antrodoco, Civitella del Tronto, Montecalvo, Sorbo14. Pietralta, Forca Petila15 ed altri già appartenuti al defunto Bertoldo del Duca (Berardi 1955, 15), per individuare gli interventi che apparissero necessari per riparare e rafforzare le opere difensive (Sthamer-Houben 2006,

no in estrema posizione avanzata verso le Marche, Spoleto e il territorio reatino, a guardia della Salaria; gli altri tre del primo gruppo, Rocca di Cane (o di Corno),8 Preturo e Barete, sono in posizione arretrata, lungo le vie che afferiscono alla piana amiternina: la Latina-Claudia-Nova (Rocca di Corno e Preturo), la Latina, fra Amiternum e Macchia attraverso Amatrice, (Barete). Il secondo gruppo si attesta lungo le valli del Salto (Petrella e Mareri) e del Liri, (Rocca Cerri, Tagliacozzo, Pescocanale), cioè lungo importanti assi viari come la Tiburtina-Valeria o Claudia-Valeria, fra la Marsica e il Carseolano, i primi due, e il percorso che si staccava da essa verso Sud, in direzione di Sora e di Montecassino, l’ultimo castello, cioè Pescocanale. I tre castelli dell’interno, Ocre, Castiglione dei Marsi (presso Piscina),9 Castel di Sangro, controllavano rispettivamente la via trasversale fra la valle dell’Aterno e il bacino fucense, l’attraversamento della Tiburtina-Valeria fra la Marsica e la conca Peligna, lo snodo fra la via degli Abruzzi (fra Firenze e Napoli) (Cfr. Gasparinetti 1967; Minieri Riccio 1872; Zenodocchio 2008, 62-64) e la val di Sangro in direzione dell’Adriatico. Dei 18 castelli del 1269, nell’elenco di quelli concessi in feudo, del dicembre 1271 (Sthamer 1995, Appendice II, n. 7), ne mancano quattro, ubicati in ordine sparso privo di una logica strategica di diradamento del sistema difensivo per motivi economici mediante l’espunzione di strutture non funzionali o troppo onerose da mantenere in esercizio. I quattro castelli sono situati , infatti, nelle retrovie del versante adriatico, Loreto Aprutino e Pretoro Teatino, o della valle del Liri, Pescocanale e Rocca Cervi. In aggiunta a quelli della lista del 1269 sono elencati i castelli di Pescli (Pizzoli), Bertona (Montebello di Bertona) e Pagliare di Tossicia, che già comparivano nella lista federiciana dei castelli da restaurare, del 123110, e quelli di Lapalengue (Palena) e Capradosso, mai citati in precedenza. Il primo si trova nella valle dell’Aventino, quasi a metà strada fra i castelli di Casoli (Lanciano) e di Castel di Sangro, in posizione arretrata, quindi rispetto al versante adriatico; il secondo si aggiunge ai tre castelli della Valle del Salto censiti nel 1269, a rafforzare la frontiera nord-occidentale. Il castello di Rocca di Corno citato nell’elenco del 1271 è forse lo stesso riportato dalla lista del 1269 con il toponimo Rainaldo di Lavareta le rocche de Corno e de Tray, corretto con Rocca de Intro (Catalogus Baronum 1972, 228-230, parr. 1144-1152). Qualche dato illuminante, sebbene non risolutivo, si ricava dallo Statuto sulla riparazione dei castelli che attribuisce l’onere della manutenzione del castello di Ripa di Corno (Leonessa), fra gli altri, agli uomoni di Rocca de Intra, che quindi doveva trovarsi nel territorio del castello di Ripa di Corno: ‘Ripa de Cornu reparari debet per homines ipsius terre, per homines Rocce de Intra et per homines Cruci Arenarie et tocius terre monatnee; et possunt adiuvare, licet non debeant, homines tocius terre barounm de Macchinone’ (Sthamer 1995, n. 207, 119; 133). Quanto all’identificazione della Rocca de Intro con le preesistenze di Cittareale (Sciommeri 2008, 55-56), per quanto ben argomentata e suggestiva, non sussistono indizi risolutivi. 8 Sembra probabile l’identificazione proposta, poiché a Ovest di Rocca di Corno si erge il monte Torrecane (1580m). 9 Sembra improbabile l’identificazione di questo castello con quello di Castiglione Messer Marino presso Poggio Sannita, come ritengono alcuni, poiché situato nel Sannio anziché nella Marsica, dove, a poca distanza da Pescina, a guardia della sella che collega la Marsica con la Piana Peligna, ancora oggi è presente il toponimo Castiglione. 10 Vedi note24 e 25 e testo corrispondente.

11

Vedi nota 28. Vedi nota 27. 13 ‘…que pro faccenda et costruendo dicta turri de novo inter predictum castrum et eamdem habitacionem et faccenda et complenda dicta turris incepta dudum in eodem castro per se et que pro faccenda et complenda dicta cisterna in castro ipso et reparandis hedificis ipsius castri similiter per se fuerit opportuna’, Sthamer-Houben 2006, III, 38, n° 1294. 14 La localizzazione di questo castello, in generale sottaciuta dagli studiosi, appare probabile debba coincidere con il toponimo Sorbo ancora esistente in prossimità di Scurcola Marsicana, alle falde del Monte S. Nicola. 15 Anche questo castello, ritenuto in generale non localizzabile con sicurezza, appare coincidere con quello omonimo di Forcapretola, situato fra Antrodoco, Rocca di Cane e Borgo Velino, che avrebbe concorso alla fondazione di Porta Reale, distrutta sul nascere, come di lì a poco la stessa Forcapretola, dagli abitanti di Cittaducale (Sciommeri 2008, 2627). Già in età normanna Rainaldo di Lavareta risulta feudatario, in capite de domino Rege, fra gli altri feudi del territorio amiternino, anche della rocca di Furca Petula (Catalogus Baronum 1972, 228, par. 1144). 12

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean III, 44, n° 1302; cfr. Santoro 1988, 126-127; Sciommeri 2008,23). Di notevole interesse sono queste lettere, sia perché fanno conoscere l’architetto al quale attribuire i progetti degli interventi edilizi ai castelli citati e in generale ad altri nel Regno, sia, e soprattutto, perché indicano quali fossero i nodi principali della rete difensiva della frontiera settentrionale del Regno sui quali era appuntata l’attenzione dello stesso Carlo (Cadei 2004, 284-290; Pistilli 2006, 263-276; Santoro 1988, 126; Tabarelli 1983, 192). I castelli elencati, infatti, disegnano sulla carta due allineamenti convergenti, quasi ad angolo retto, nella punta estrema dei confini del Regno costituita dalla rocca di Ripa di Corno (Leonessa), in direzione di Cascia e di Rieti. I lati del mezzo quadrilatero in questione sono costituiti a Nord dalle valli del Tronto e del Velino, cioè ancora una volta dal fondamentale asse viario costituito dalla Salaria, con i castelli di Civitella del Tronto, Pietralta, Macchia e Ripa di Corno, procedendo da Est verso Ovest; a occidente il lato del mezzo quadrilatero, procedendo da Nord, è segnato dai castelli di Ripa di Corno, Antrodoco, Forca Petila (Forca Pretola presso Antrodoco)16 e Montecalvo,17 cioè segue il crinale del Terminillo e il percorso viario della Latina-Claudia Nova fra Antrodoco e Preturo, o un collegamento minore fra i castelli di Pendenza e Rocca di Corno attraverso Forca Pretola. Quanto a Sorbo, se identificabile con il toponimo ancora presente in prossimità di Scurcola Marsicana,18 il castello era a guardia della Tiburtina-Valeria e dello snodo con l’alta valle del Liri. Alcuni castelli, a seguito dell’ispezione effettuata da Pierre de Angicourt, probabilmente risultarono non idonei e soprattutto non meritevoli di spese per il mantenimento in esercizio, tanto che Carlo, allora principe di Salerno, in data 14 gennaio 1284, ritenne opportuno decretarne l’abbandono (Santoro 1988,126; Sthamer 1995, 24;). Di fatto sembra probabile che il decreto venisse attuato, poiché gli otto fortilizi in questione non compaiono nelle liste dei castelli le cui guarnigioni risultano a carico delle comunità (Santoro 1988, 125; Sthamer 1995, Appendice II, n. 24; I, par. 1). I castelli dismessi, eccetto quello di Bertona che era situato in posizione arretrata sul versante adriatico, erano ubicati in zone strategiche della frontiera nord-occidentale e coincidevano con importanti e antiche fortificazioni. Lungo la Salaria erano ubicati i castelli di Pietralta e Antrodoco; lungo il collegamento interno fra Amiternum e la valle teramana del Vomano o in direzione di Amatrice e della Salaria, il castello di Preturo amiternino. Sul confine occidentale si trovavano i castelli di Mareri, nella valle del Salto, e le rocche di Intramonti e dei Cerri, identificabili, come abbiamo detto, con Tremonti e Rocca Cerro presso Tagliacozzo, a guardia del valico fra questi e Carsoli percorso dalla Tiburtina-Valeri. Se il castello di Magnale fosse da identificare con quello di Magliano dei Marsi, anziché con altro, quest’ultimo sarebbe stato a

guardia dell’importante snodo della Tiburtina-Valeria costituito dalla via Quinzia, che percorreva la valle del Salto in direzione di Rieti. C’è da stupirsi come si fosse pervenuti alla risoluzione di abbandonare questi castelli che, da sempre, ricoprivano ruoli chiave nella difesa della frontiera settentrionale del Regno e come si preferisse dismetterli piuttosto che restaurarli e mantenerli in esercizio. Ma, probabilmente, qualcosa stava cambiando nelle strategie politico-militari, nelle quali stava guadagnando terreno l’opportunità di concentramento delle popolazioni, ancora sparse, in siti con valenza urbana atti a rafforzare un numero più limitato, ma più efficace, di poli strategici e a contrastare la feudalità locale, ancora indocile, con l’istituzione di organismi di accentramento demico controllati direttamente dal sovrano. Una nuova forma di popolamento del territorio o, se vogliamo, di incastellamento urbano di ultima generazione, stava maturando in particolar modo ai confini del Regno settentrionali secondo lo schema tipico delle bastides importato da Carlo d’Angiò (De Angelis D’Ossat 1971, 837-854; Guidoni 1985, 163; Prandi 1976, 334; Rossini 1991, 39-55; Ead. 2001, 119-125; Ead. 2003, 27-64). Solo sei anni prima del decreto del 14 gennaio 1284, a ricordo della città di Gonessa, patria degli avi di Carlo I, da lui stesso era stata fondata Gouexa, o Gonessa (Leonessa) (Chiaretti 1978; Clementi 1990, 31; Rossini 1991, 39-55; Sthamer-Houben 2006, III, 38, n° 1294; Zelli 1974) ai piedi della rocca di Ripa di Corno che il de Angicourt il 4 aprile 1280, come abbiamo detto, ispezionava per accelerarne la fine dei lavori.19 Dopo la distruzione del castello di Machilone, o Macchione, da parte degli Aquilani,20 nel 1299,21 a poca distanza era stata fondata Posta, sulla Salaria, mentre incerta è la fondazione della vicina Borbona, la cui prima attestazione risale comunque al 1284 (Leggio 1995, 185; Sciommeri 2008, 24-25). Essa era situata sull’importante tracciato viario che lasciava la Salaria a Posta per il collegamento con l’Amiternino, congiungendosi a Montereale con la via Cecilia proveniente dalla Valle del Vomano nel versante teramano. Nel 1308, alle porte di Rieti, vicino al castello di Carcariola, già incontrato nella lista del 28 novembre 1269, a guardia della Salaria, viene fondata Cittaducale (Clementi 1988, pp. 17-81; Id. 1990, Marchesi 2004, 31; Di Nicola 2004), mentre, pochi anni dopo, nel 1329, viene fondata Cittereale (D’Andreis 1961; Leggio 1995, 189; Lorenzetti 2003, 7-26; Rossini 2003, 27-64; Sciommeri 2008, 33-35). Nello stesso anno, il 9 dicembre, troviamo l’atto di fonda19

Significativa è la descrizione topografico-strategica del luogo contenuta nei dispacci di Carlo (Sthamer-Houben 2006, III, 38-39, n° 1294; 43-44, n° 1301): ‘Qui locus est infra fines regno per miliare unum et transeunt per ipsum duo strate, una quarum itur aput Reate et altera aput Spoletum, et subuiacet castro ipsius Ripe de cornu, quod per nostram curiam custoditur; quod castrum, ut scripsistis, inespugnabilem est et ex alia parte offendi non potest, nisi a quodam loco, qui est inter ipsium castrum et locum, in quo predicta habitacione hominum vallis de Arenaria fieri debet; per quem locum predictum castrum offendi consuevit, sicut accepistis ex relatu hominum regionis, qui locum preheminent habitacioni predicte, et subiacet ipsi castro’. 20 Vedi nota e testo corrispondente; La Sabina 1985, 70; Sciommeri 2008, 24; Zelli 1974, 88-90. 21 Chiaretti 1978, 3-17, riporta il testo del diploma di fondazione.

16

Vedi nota. 40. Il Monte Calvo (1301 m) si erge a Nord di Rocca di Corno, ma non sono localizzabili i resti del castello omonimo che potrebbero essere ubicati a Ovest in località di Castello di Corno, fra Antrodoco e Rocca di Corno, o a Est presso Forcella. 18 Vedi nota. 39. 17

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F. Redi: L’Abruzzo quale frontiera politica e culturale dal VI al XIV secolo zione di un altro centro di tipo urbano che doveva situarsi a breve distanza da Cittaducale e, per questa ragione, ancora sul nascere, venne distrutto dai vicini timorosi della perdita dei vantaggi acquisiti (Marchesi 2004, 38-39; Sciommeri 2008, 26-27).Si tratta di Porta Reale, la cui fondazione era stata fortemente voluta dagli abitanti del castello di Forcapretola, che abbiamo già incontrato col nome di Forca Petila in occasione dei sopralluoghi di Pierre de Angicourt del 1280, in sfacciato antagonismo con Cittaducale, che fece pagare agli stessi abitanti di Forcapretola l’ardire distruggendone il castello (Marchesi 2004, 40; Sciommeri 2008, 27). Ma la loro caparbietà non rimase senza frutto. Ultima fondazione nell’area di frontiera solcata dalla Salaria, è costituita dal ricetto di Borgo Velino. Essa viene attribuita, poco oltre 1330-1340, ancora alla volontà degli abitanti di Forcapretola, ovviamente in accordo con il re.22 L’attrazione esercitata dalla Salaria come arteria di primaria importanza nei collegamenti fra Roma e l’Adriatico e dell’alto corso dei fiumi Tronto e Velino come confine settentrionale del Regno, imperniato nella vetta più alta del territorio, il monte Terminillo, già dagli antichi romani individuato come ‘termine’ dell’Ager Reatinus, è evidenziata dal fiorire di insediamenti di tipo urbano di nuova fondazione, spesso a margine di precedenti castelli di origine normanna o sveva. In essi si era preferito concentrare la popolazione del territorio sottraendole alla feudalità locale e rafforzando, allo stesso tempo, la frontiera settentrionale. Frequenti, nella zona di frizione fra Rieti e il Regno di Napoli, erano stati episodi di scorrerie e rappresaglie culminati nel 1305 con un’incursione reatina ritenuta molto grave da Carlo II, che ordinò nel 1307 un’accurata verifica dei confini dalla quale scaturì la risoluzione di fondare una città che fronteggiasse, quasi a vista, l’avversaria (Leggio 1995, 71). Fra il 1308 e il 1309 veniva realizzata, infatti, la fondazione di Cittaducale, che contribuiva quasi a completare, come abbiamo detto, il piano strategico di rafforzamento dei confini dei Regno per mezzo della fondazione di insediamenti fortificati di tipo urbano, iniziato nel 1278 con Leonessa, prima del 1284 con Borbona, intorno al 1298 con Posta, nel 1308 con Cittaducale, nel 1329 con Portareale e Cittareale, nel 1330-1340 con Borgovelino. In particolare la fondazione di Cittaducale veniva a presidiare il punto strategico della confluenza delle valli del Velino e del Salto, a breve distanza da Rieti, in un luogo vitale finora rimasto sguarnito, se si eccettua il castello di Calcariola, a breve distanza, già ricordato nell’elenco di Carlo I del 1269. Un ideale quadrilatero costituito dai siti fortificati di Leonessa, Cittaducale, Antrodoco, Posta e Cittareale, veniva tracciato nella frontiera settentrionale del Regno. Ma oltre alle ragioni difensive delle principali vie di comunicazione e dei confini con la Chiesa, all’origine della fondazione di questi nuclei insediativi accentrati di tipo urbano dobbiamo riconoscere, come abbiamo detto, la volontà dei sovrani di sottrarre le popolazioni al controllo della feudalità locale, ancora forte, e di sostituire a essa una più significativa presenza dello Stato. Non a caso Carlo I, già nel 1268, aveva istituito la Capitania della Montagna (Berardi 1955, 22; Ead. 2005, 87-91; Di Nicola 2004, 6-10;

Marchesi 2004, 26-33). Significativo in proposito è anche il privilegio di fondazione di Cittaducale da parte di Carlo II che concede l’edificazione della città a patto che sul colle di Radicara, oltre alle abitazioni civili, si costruisse a spese pubbliche un castello da destinare ad alloggio del re in occasioni del suo passaggio dalla e a residenza del castellano o capitano (Marchesi 2004, 31 e 33). Roberto, dando esecuzione alle disposizioni del padre, pur mantenendo il nome della città, valutò tuttavia più favorevole all’insediamento e agli aspetti tattici della fondazione il sito di Cerreto Piano nel quale si trova Cittaducale.23 La sua costruzione alterò non poco la geografia politica del delicato confine fra il Regno e la Chiesa imperniato nel sistema vallivo del Tronto e del Velino, venendo Cittaducale a contrapporsi alla città di Rieti, fronteggiandola a pochi chilometri di distanza, lungo l’importante collegamento viario, noto come Via degli Abruzzi, che si era sviluppato recentemente, fra Firenze e Napoli con peculiari valenze commerciali (Gasparinetti 1967; Minieri Riccio 1872; Zenodocchio 2008, 62-64). Esse erano state evidenziate già nel 1287 dalla stipula di un importante accordo commerciale fra la città di Rieti e quella di Leonessa, da poco fondata (Verani 1964, 10-12). Le ragioni strategiche di controllo e di rafforzamento della frontiera si intrecciano, quindi, con quelle politiche e con quelle commerciali sotto forma di concentrazione della popolazione in luoghi favorevoli al controllo del territorio e ai commerci, capaci di attrarre forme di sinecismo rapportabili a quelle già messe in atto da Corrado IV nel 1254 e riproposte energicamente da Carlo I e da Carlo II rispettivamente nel 1266 e 1294 con la fondazione della città dell’Aquila (Clementi e Piroddi 1986). Modello culturale e politico, ma anche urbanistico perle nuove fondazioni, la rifondazione dell’Aquila rappresentò una forma di decastellamento del territorio e di conurbazione che fu riproposta nei centri ora citati, con particolare riferimento alle bastides francesi.24 Il castello di Ripa di Corno e quelli di Croce Arenicola e di Rocca de Intro dettero origine a Leonessa, il castello di Machilone e i villaggi di Borbone, Laculo, Sigillo, Totonero e Bacugno concorsero alla fondazione di Posta, quelli di Forcapretola, Rocca di Fondi, Ianula, Viaro, Canestra e Paterno a quella di Porta Reale e di Borgo Velino, quelli di Raderti, Falagrina e Camponesca a quella di Cittareale ( Berardi 1955, 3-40; Chiaretti 1978; Clementi 1988; 17-81; Id. 1990, pp. ______; D’Andreis 1961; Di Nicola 2004). Come per L’Aquila, i villaggi del territorio che concorsero al popolamento della città ebbero in assegnazione specifici quartieri nei quali vennero edificate le chiese che riproposero la stessa delucidazione di quelle di origine. Anche l’impianto urbanistico di questi centri rispecchia le caratteristiche delle ‘città di fondazione’ o dei ‘borghi franchi’ essendo sviluppato con assi viari ortogonali e isolati rettangolari di tipo ippodameo, a lotti pressoché costanti e regolari, con slarghi o piazze sulle quali si affacciano le chiese ‘di quarto’ o ‘di locale’ o ‘di sestiere’, a seconda del tipo di riparazione territoriale prescelto, comunque 23

22

24

Chiaretti 1978, 3-17, riporta il testo del diploma di fondazione.

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Chiaretti 1978, 3-17, riporta il testo del diploma di fondazione. Vedi nota 49.

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean giorno, Atti delle quindicesime giornate normanno-sveve (Bari, 22-25 ottobre 2002), 235-301. Bari. (ora anche in Cadei A. 2006, La forma del castello. L’imperatore Federico II e la Terrasanta, Pescara). Caggese, R. 1922. Roberto d’Angiò e i suoi tempi. Firenze. Carta dei luoghi fortificati del Lazio 1985, Carta dei luoghi fortificati del Lazio, Roma. Catalogus Baronum 1972, Catalogus Baronum, a cura di E. Jamison, Roma. Catalogus Baronum. Commentario, a cura di E. Cuozzo, Roma, 1984. Chiaretti, G. 1978. Gonessa. Leonessa 1278-1978, VII centenario, in “Leonessa e il Suo Santo”. Clementi, A. 1988. Le terre del confine settentrionale, in Storia del Mezzogiorno, II/1, 17-81.Napoli. Clementi, A. 1990. La fondazione di Leonessa e la creazione del confine settentrionale del Regno, in La fondazione di Cittaducale nella problematica di confine fra Regno di Napoli e Stato della Chiesa, Atti del Convegno, Comune di Cittaducale (Cittaducale, 7-8 dicembre 1990). Cerbara di Città di Castello. Clementi, A. e Piroddi, E. 1986. L’Aquila. Roma-Bari, Laterza. Construire, reconstruire, aménager le château en Normandie 2004. Congrés des sociétes historiques et archéologiques de Normandie, Caen (Annales de Normandie, 9). D’Andreis, A. 1961. Cittareale e la sua valle, cenni storici nel settimo centenario della sua fondazione. 1261-1961. Roma. De Angelis D’Ossat, G. 1971. Concezioni e imprese urbanistiche nell’Umbria del Trecento, in Storia e arte in Umbria nell’età comunale, II, Atti del VI Convegno di Studi Umbri (Gubbio, 26-30 maggio 1968), 837-854. Perugia. De Meo, M. 2003. La rocca di Cittareale nel panorama storico delle tecniche costruttive murarie in Sabina, in La Rocca dei Cittarealesi. L’eredità di Federico II. Dai misteri al riuso. Atti del Convegno, Comune di Cittareale, (Cittareale, 7 settembre 2002), 65-88. Rieti. De Meo, M. 2006. Tecniche costruttive murarie medievali. La Sabina. Roma. Di Nicola, A. 2004. Città Ducale dagli Angioini ai Farnese. Rieti. Flambard Héricher, A.M. 2002. Fortifications de terre et résidences en Normandie (XI-XIII siècles), in “Château Gaillard”, 20, Études de castellologie médiévale, Actes du colloque international de Gwatt (Suisse), 2-10 Septembre 2000, 87-100. Caen. Flambard Héricher, A. M. 2007. Le château Ganne à la Pommeraye (Calvados). Bilan des recherches 2004-2007, in “Annuaire des cinq départements de la Normandie », publié par l’Association Normande et les assises de Caumont, Congres de Condé-sur-Noireau 2007, 127-154. Flambard Héricher, A. M. 2008. Le château Ganne. Premiers résultats de la fouille archeologique. Caen. Forgione A. c.d.s.a, Forme e tecniche di difesa del castello di Ocre (L’Aquila) fra Normanni e Aragonesi, in Il Molise dai Normanni agli Aragonesi: arte e archeologia, Convegno (Isernia, 20-21 maggio 2008). Forgione A. c.d.s.b, Il caso emblematico del castello di

sempre a ricalco delle aggregazioni dei nuclei demici originari, convogliati entro spazi definiti che riproducono le comunità conurbate.25 Il numero delle chiese quasi sempre è spia della quantità delle comunità concentrate nell’insediamento di nuova costituzione. Una cinta muraria, con porte e torri d’angolo, rompitratta e di fiancheggiamento, racchiude l’abitato; una rocca turrita, generalmente ricavato in un angolo dell’insediamento o a margine, all’esterno di esso, nel lato corto dell’impianto urbanistico, rappresenta la sede dell’autorità di riferimento per l’intera comunità della fondazione: nel nostro caso quella reale o ducale sottesa dal nome stesso della nuova struttura insediativa. Se si escludono Gonessa (Leonessa) che comunque allude alla patria di origine della famiglia di Carlo I e Cittaducale, che si riferisce al figlio di Carlo II, Roberto duca di Calabria, gli altri centri fondati dai d’Angiò, Postareale, Portareale, Cittareale, Montereale, racchiudono nel toponimo il riferimento all’autorità che ha concesso, e in pratica promosso, la costituzione del polo strategico-commerciale e politico rappresentato dall’insediamento stesso. Alcuni castelli citati dai documenti d’archivio sono scomparsi quasi completamente; di alcuni, in verità molto pochi, non è possibile identificare l’esatta ubicazione; molti, infine, sono abbastanza ben conservati e mantengono le tracce di stratificazioni che consentono ci poter disporre di un soddisfacente campione d’indagine sulle tecniche costruttive e poliorcetiche attraverso i tre principali momenti della dominazione del territorio nel Medioevo. In questo contesto la nostra indagine archeologica è stata rivolta alla verifica delle modificazioni dello scacchiere abruzzese, sia sotto il profilo del controllo territoriale, sia sotto quello delle innovazioni tecnologiche, nei periodi di passaggio fra Normanni e Svevi e fra questi e gli Angioini. L’analisi delle strutture superstiti in elevato e di quelle rinvenute con scavi archeologici mirati a tale scopo offre indicazioni interessanti e in parte originali (Redi c.d.s.a; Id. c.d.s.b; Id. c.d.s.c.). BIBLIOGRAFIA Antonelli S. 2003. Notizie scavi e lavori sul campo: scheda su Castel Manfrino (TE), in “Archeologia Medievale”, XXX, 492. Berardi, M.R. 1955. Antrodoco: un castrum di confine tra età sveva e angioina, in “Rivista Storica del Lazio”, 3, 3-40. Berardi, M.R. 2005. I monti d’oro. Identità urbana e conflitti territoriali nella storia dell’Aquila medievale 87-91. Napoli. Cadei, A. 1992. I castelli federiciani: concezione architettonica e realizzazione tecnica, in “Arte medievale”, II ser., VI/2, 9-67 (ora Cadei A. 2006, La forma del castello. L’imperatore Federico II e la Terrasanta, Pescara, pp. 27 ss). Cadei, A. 2004. Federico II e Carlo I. Costruttori a Brindisi e Lucera, in G. Musca (ed), Le eredità normanno-sveve nell’età angioina. Persistenze e mutamenti nel Mezzo25

Vedi Nota 49.

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F. Redi: L’Abruzzo quale frontiera politica e culturale dal VI al XIV secolo Ocre (AQ) fra tecniche di difesa normanno-sveve e innovazioni angioine, in Archeologia dei castelli nell’Europa angioina (secoli XIII-XV), Convegno Internazionale (Salerno, 10-12 novembre 2008). Forgione A. c.d.s.c, I castelli di Ocre, Ariscola e S. Vittorino, in Archeologia castellana nell’Italia centro-meridionale. Bilanci e aggiornamenti, IV Congresso di Archeologia Medievale (Roma, CNR 27-28 novembre 2008). Gasparinetti, P. 1967. La «Via degli Abruzzi» e l’attività commerciale di L’Aquila e Sulmona nei secoli XIII-XV. Roma. (già in “Bullettino della Deputazione abruzzese di storia patria” LIV-LVI (1964-66) 5-103, 1963-64, 13-24). Guidoni, E. 1985. L’espansione urbanistica di Rieti nel XIII secolo e le città di nuova fondazione angioina, in La Sabina medievale, a cura di M. Rigetti Tosti-Croce, Cinisello Balsamo. Huillard-Bréholles, J.-H.L. 1854. Historia Diplomatica Friderici Secundi, IV/1, Peris. I Longobardi del Sud c.d.s. I Longobardi del Sud, 2008. I Longobardi del Sud, Catalogo della Mostra (Museo del Presente, Rende (CS), 23 maggio-14 luglio 2008) a cura di A. Coscarella, Viterbo. La Collezione Augusto Castellani 2000, Soprintendenza Archeologica per l’Etruria Meridionale, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, La collezione Augusto Castellani, a cura di A. M. Moretti Sgubini, Roma. La Sabina 1985, La Sabina. Luoghi fortificati, monasteri e abbazie, Cassa di Risparmio di Rieti, Rieti. Leggio, T. 1992. Mutamenti nelle tecniche murarie in Sabina e nel reatino sullo scorcio del Medioevo, in “Archeologia Medievale” XX, 479-484. Leggio, T. 1995a. Castelli, rocche e palazzi baronali in provincia di Rieti. Rieti. Leggio, T. 1995b. Itinerari Sabini: storia e cultura di città e paesi della provincia di Rieti. S. Atto. Lorenzetti, R. 2003. Cittareale e la sua rocca nelle fonti storiche ed iconografiche, in La Rocca dei Cittarealesi. L’eredità di Federico II. Dai misteri al riuso. Atti del Convegno, Comune di Cittareale, (Cittareale, 7 settembre 2002), 7-26. Rieti. Marchesi, S. 2004. Compendio Istorico di Civita Ducale, a cura di A. Di Nicola, Rieti. M.G.H., D.D. 1980, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Diplomata Regum et Imperatorum Germaniae, II.I, Ottonis II, diplomata, Muenchen (ed. orig. T. Sickel, Hannoverae, 1888). Migliario, E. 1995. Uomini, terre e strade. Aspetti dell’Italia centro-appenninica fra Antichità e Altomedioevo. Bari. Minieri Riccio, C. 1872. Itinerario di Carlo I d’Angiò ed altre notizie storiche tratte da’ Registri Angoini del Grande Archivio di Napoli. Napoli. Pistilli, P. F. 2006. Architetti oltremontani al servizio di Carlo I d’Angiò nel Regno di Sicilia, in V. Franchetti-Pardo (ed) Arnolfo di Cambio e la sua epoca. Costruire, scolpire, dipingere, decorare, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi (Firenze, 7-10 marzo 2006), 263-276. Roma. Prandi, A. 1976. Arte in Sabina, in Rieti e il suo territorio, Milano. Redi, F. 2003. Analisi archeologica delle strutture soprav-

vissute della rocca di Cittareale e indicazioni preliminari per lo scavo, in La Rocca dei Cittarealesi. L’eredità di Federico II. Dai misteri al riuso. Atti del Convegno, Comune di Cittareale, (Cittareale, 7 settembre 2002), 117-128. Rieti. Redi, F. 2008a. Archeologia dei paesaggi medievali e popolamento nell’Abruzzo interno tra la Tarda Antichità e la rifondazione della città dell’Aquila nella seconda metà del sec. XIII, in Geografie del Popolamento, Convegno (Grosseto, 24-26 Settembre 2008), preatti. Redi, F. 2008b. Castelli e fortificazioni medievali, in Abruzzo. Terra di meraviglie della natura e della civiltà, AA.VV, 135-150.Firenze. Redi, F. c.d.s.a. Forme e tecniche di difesa del territorio aquilano fra Normanni e Aragonesi, in Il Molise dai Normanni agli Aragonesi: arte e archeologia, Convegno (Isernia, 20-21 maggio 2008). Redi, F. c.d.s.b. Tradizione e innovazione nel cantiere e nelle tecniche costruttive delle fortificazioni angioine dell’Abruzzo, in Archeologia dei castelli nell’Europa angioina (secoli XIII-XV), Convegno Internazionale (Salerno, 10-12 novembre 2008). Redi, F. c.d.s.c. Dieci anni di archeologia dei castelli in territorio aquilano: un primo bilancio e nuove prospettive, in Archeologia castellana nell’Italia centro-meridionale. Bilanci e aggiornamenti, IV Congresso di Archeologia Medievale (Roma, CNR 27-28 novembre 2008). Redi, F. e Iovenitti, C. 2006. Piana S. Marco. Comune di Castel del Monte (AQ). Gli scavi dell’anno 2004¸ in “Archeologia Medievale” XXXIII, 307-323. Redi, F. e Malandra, C. 2004. Piana e Colle S. Marco. Comune di Castel del Monte (AQ). Notizie preliminari della campagna di scavi 2003¸ in “Archeologia Medievale” XXXI, 229-244. Redi, F. e Pantaleo, M. 2006. Castello di Ocre (AQ). Ricerche archeologiche. Relazione preliminare, anni 2000 e 2004¸ in “Archeologia Medievale” XXXIII, 325-342. Rossini, M. C. 1991. La Sabina e le città di nuova fondazione: il caso di Leonessa, in Leonessa: storia e cultura di un centro di confine, “Ricerche di Storia dell’Arte” XLIIIXLIV, 39-55. Rossini, M. C. 2001. Urbanistica e politica territoriale fra Umbria e Abruzzo in età federiciana e angioina, in Castelli e cinte murarie nell’età di Federico II, Atti del Convegno, Comune di Montefalco (Montefalco, 27-28 maggio 1994), 119-125. Roma. Rossini, M. C. 2003. Città nuove di confine: l’universitas di Cittareale e la politica territoriale di età angioina, in La Rocca dei Cittarealesi. L’eredità di Federico II. Dai misteri al riuso. Atti del Convegno, Comune di Cittareale, (Cittareale, 7 settembre 2002), 27-64. Rieti. Santoro, L. 1982. Castelli angioini e aragonesi nel Regno di Napoli. Milano. Santoro, L. 1988. I Castelli d’Abruzzo nell’evoluzione dell’architettura difensiva, in Abruzzo dei castelli. Gli insediamenti fortificati abruzzesi dagli Italici all’Unità d’Italia, 96-102. Pescara. Sciommeri, A. 2008. La rocca di Cittareale, Città di Castello (Mezzogiorno Medievale, IV). 373

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Segenni, S. 1985. Amiternum e il suo territorio in età romana. Pisa. Staffa, A. R. 1995. Una terra di frontiera: Abruzzo e Molise fra VII e VIII secolo, in a G. P. Brogiolo (ed), Città, castelli e campagne nei territori di frontiera (fine VI-VII sec.) 187-238. Mantova. Sthamer, E. 1995. L’amministrazione dei castelli nel Regno di Sicilia sotto Federico II e Carlo I d’Angiò, Bari (1a edizione Leipring 1914). Sthamer, E. e Houben H. 2006. Dokumente zur Geschihite der Kastellbauten Kaisers Friedrichs II. und Karls I. von Anjiou, III, Abruzzen, Kampanien, Kalabrien und Sizilien. Tuebingen.

Tabarelli, G. M. 1983. Castelli, rocche e mura d’Italia. Busto Arsizio. Verani, C. 1959. Castelli, rocche, torri della Sabina, in “Sabina”, IV, ser. II. Verani, C. 1964 Un trattato di protettorato e di alleanza fra Rieti e Leonessa (a. 1287), in “Leonessa e il suo territorio” 4, 10-12. Winkelmann, E. 1880. Acta Imperii inedita seculi XIIIXIV I, 769 ss. Innsbruck. Zelli, M. 1974. Gonexa. Appunti storici su Leonessa dall’origine all’anno 1400. Roma. Zenodocchio, S. 2008. Antica viabilità in Abruzzo. L’Aquila.

Figura 1. Carta della viabilità di età romana e presenza di insediamenti altomedievali segnalati da toponimi specifici o da rinvenimenti archeologici (carta a cura di B. Di Vincenzo).

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Figura 2. L’impianto normanno originario del castello di Ocre (1) a confronto con quelli normanni di Grimbosq (2, 3, 4) e di Ganne (5) (da Flambard Héricher 2007)

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Figura 3. Ocre: la fase di liticizzazione delle difese e delle abitazioni.

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F. Redi: L’Abruzzo quale frontiera politica e culturale dal VI al XIV secolo

Figura 4 Carta dei castelli d’Abruzzo dal Catalogus Baronum (elaborazione grafica a cura di A. Forgione)

Figura 5. I castelli elencati sotto Federico II e sotto gli Angioini (elaborazione grafica a cura di A. Forgione).

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Figura 6.Interventi federiciani o angioini alla frontiera del Regno: Barete (1), Ocre (2).

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F. Redi: L’Abruzzo quale frontiera politica e culturale dal VI al XIV secolo

Figura 7. Interventi federiciani o angioini alla frontiera del Regno: Pescina (1) e Trasacco (2) (da Abruzzo dei castelli 1988).

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Figura 8. Città di fondazione angioina: Leonessa (1), Cittaducale (2), Cittareale (3), Borgovelino (4): planimetrie (da Guidoni 1985).

Figura 9. La torre angioina di Leonessa (Ripa di Corno)

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

LE FRONTIERE DELL’ITALIA CENTRO- SETTENTRIONALE IN ETA’ BIZANTINA. LE AREE COSTIERE. Rosangela De Acutis Università degli Studi dell’Aquila

Abstract(2008) Byzantine Age “Italian frontiers”. Some examples from the coast Research on the vexata quaestio of the “Italian frontiers” between Byzantines and Longobards in the 6th and 7th century has led to several investigations, whereas more studies in depth are required, also thanks to specific historical and archaeological works on first generation castra. The historians Procopius of Cesarea and Paul the Deacon tell respectively of the main events, which took place in the entire Italy, featuring the 6th century: the GreekGothic war and the Longobard invasion. The difficult reconquest of Italy (535-554) did not result in any establishment of well-set fortified system as that of other areas of the Byzantine empire; but a partition in “castle districts” was carried out, which represented sites whereat local power was wielded. Fortified settlements were originally consequent on the military opposition between Goths and Byzantines, and then Byzantines and Longobards. During the latter conflict, the Byzantines were more and more inclined to the “principle of territory”, standing up directly to the different and, at times, divergent “powers”, exercised by local communities, castle aristocracy and central authority Byzantium itself and then Ravenna). Such phenomenon may be explained by two main reasons. Firstly, a conclusive fact was that, during the Greek-Gothic War, the strong resistance of the Goths and the difficulties of the Byzantines to advance with adequate armies brought about a long and wearing attack. Such contrast caused the defensive capacity of Goths also to wear out, mostly because of the scattering of the Byzantine armies. The other reason is that the Byzantines, while realizing the programme of renovatio imperii promoted by Justinian, had the control over the whole Italy just for very short time, to wit a little more than a decade. As consequence on it, as soon as after the first Longobard invasion (568) a sudden territorial scattering took place, whilst, at the end of the 6th century, only some areas remained under the Byzantine Empire: Liguria, the Exarchate and the Maritime Tuscia. Besides historical reasons, these regions are considered in the light of their geographical characteristics and as border zones. It was not only a defensive line, but rather a strip of land, wherein some castra, situated as outposts along the seaside, were the first line to face the sea and, through inland mountain roads, were at the same time connected with castles in the rear, which rose on the tactical edges of passes, watching over the mountain zone. Such a context may exactly be referred to the Ligurian limes, which followed the high and irregular line of the coast. Along the coastline, in the area of Finale, there were the castra of St. Antonino di Perti, Varigotti and Noli, strategically located upon the roads towards the mountain centres and directly to the Piedmont territory, the neighbouring Tuscia and the Po-Valley region. The analysis of the Ligurian territory let emerge that these fortifications were in Byzantine epoch of great consequence, not only in strict terms of defence, in the narrow coastal zone, but also as complex economic system, as supported by the finds from the castrum of St. Antonino.This site has yielded a great amount of artefacts: soapstone, kitchen pottery and tableware, coarseware, glassware, ceramic and glass lamps, bronze finds and coins, amphora shards. These latter can really strengthen the thesis of a strategy of territorial and extraterritorial control, as directly connected with maritime trading. As asserted by Stefano Gasparri we may conclude that: “a frontier, conceived as limit, clear break, did not exist, since the most evident data that seems to emerge from literary sources is the very opposite: boundary permeability and human, agricultural and commercial permeation of border zones”.

ANALISI STORICO - TERMINOLOGICA

che compongono il suddetto insieme; tali punti non sono né interni né esterni all’insieme, quindi ognuno di essi appartiene alla chiusura o alla “protezione” dell’insieme stesso; in altre parole tutti i punti di frontiera costituiscono e perciò sono la frontiera (o il contorno) dell’insieme esaminato.3 Dalla definizione appena enunciata, si deduce in sostanza che, se dovessimo riportare il significato matematico della frontiera nella sua accezione prettamente storico-topografica, i suoi punti corrisponderebbero nella fattispecie ai castra bizantini collocati proprio lungo la linea di “frontiera”, mentre i castra interni all’insieme (che è l’area, la porzione di terra, lo spazio terrestre, il territorio) non si potrebbero denominare castra di “frontiera”, piuttosto fortificazioni a controllo della viabilità interna, tali da consentire anche la comunicazione tra questi e la “frontiera”. Gli storici Procopio di Cesarea e Paolo Diacono narrano rispettivamente i principali avvenimenti che coinvolsero l’Italia intera e che caratterizzarono il VI secolo: la guerra greco - gotica e l’invasione longobarda. La difficile riconquista dell’Italia (535-554) non raggiunse l’apice con un’organizzazione ben articolata di un sistema fortificato conforme a quello di altre aree del mondo bizantino (Brown 1978, 323-338; Brown, Christie 1989, 377-99), bensì fu attuata una suddivisione in ‘distretti castellani’ i

La vexata quaestio sulle “frontiere” bizantino – longobarde, relative al periodo compreso tra il VI e l’VIII secolo, è da lungo tempo dibattuta dalla comunità scientifica.1 In questo contributo si intende descrivere in modo dettagliato diverse aree costiere del territorio italiano. Si propongono alcune osservazioni a seguito di conclusioni raggiunte nell’ambito di un progetto di ricerca. 2 Prima di entrare nel merito della questione è necessario approfondire dal punto di vista della terminologia moderna il sostantivo “frontiera” che sembra permearsi con il concetto di limes bizantino – longobardo. Quest’ultimo indicherebbe un limite non facilmente valicabile, una linea di separazione di un territorio da un altro nella cui demarcazione è profondamente implicita la distinzione geopolitica, culturale, folcloristica, linguistica e religiosa di due ambiti territoriali. Per meglio comprendere tale concetto nella disciplina logico - matematica la linea di frontiera di un insieme - in analogia con il suo comune significato - è costituita da punti 1 Gasparri

1995, in part. 11-14; Sergi 1995, 16; cfr. per l’area marchigiana Bernacchia 2002, in part. 88-90. 2 Lo studio è stato condotto nel corso del triennio di Dottorato di ricerca, portato a termine presso l’Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, ed ha riguardato l’ampio e complesso tema dal titolo: Castra bizantini costieri nell’Italia centro settentrionale. A tal proposito ringrazio il Prof. Guido Vannini per aver accolto in questa sede il mio lavoro.

3

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Devoto Oli 1990, s. v. (frontiera); 2002, s. v. (frontiera).

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean quali rappresentavano le sedi dell’esercizio del potere locale. Gli insediamenti fortificati erano inizialmente il risultato dell’opposizione militare intercorsa tra Goti e Bizantini ed in seguito tra Bizantini e Longobardi. In questo secondo scontro i Bizantini si legarono sempre di più al concetto di ‘territorialità’, interfacciandosi direttamente con i differenti e talvolta divergenti ‘poteri’ esercitati all’interno delle comunità locali dal clero, delle aristocrazie castellane e dell’autorità centrale.4 Questo fenomeno si può spiegare attraverso due principali motivazioni. In primo luogo influì in maniera decisiva il fatto che, durante la guerra greco - gotica, la forte opposizione esercitata dai Goti e la difficoltà dei Bizantini nell’avanzare con un adeguato contingente militare determinarono un estenuante e prolungato attacco. Tale contrasto provocò il logoramento della capacità difensiva da parte dei Goti, a fronte di un consistente frazionamento della forza armata bizantina. L’altra spiegazione è data dal fatto che i Bizantini, istitutori del programma di renovatio imperii, voluto da Giustiniano, conservarono il totale controllo dell’Italia solo per un brevissimo periodo, circoscrivibile ad appena un quindicennio. Ciò comportò che, all’indomani della prima invasione longobarda (568-569), vi fosse una repentina frammentazione del territorio e, alla fine del VI secolo, sotto il controllo dell’Impero bizantino, rimanevano solo alcune trance territoriali tra cui, ad esempio: la Liguria, l’Esarcato, la Tuscia maritima e forse parte del medio versante adriatico (Zanini 1998). Per quanto riguarda la contesa territoriale tra Bizantini e Longobardi le dinamiche storiche sono state piuttosto differenti. In buona sostanza l’attacco dei Longobardi avvenne in modo penetrante, quasi “subdolo”. Essi, pur essendo formalmente dichiarati nemici, in un breve lasso di tempo, si insinuarono nel tessuto sociale dei Bizantini fino a farlo proprio; in alcuni casi si assistette addirittura ad una integrazione ed una assimilazione tali che si installarono capillarmente come avvenne nel caso emblematico di Castel Trosino, area castellana oltre che cimiteriale nota per la sua valenza strategica nel territorio ascolano (Paroli 1995; Paroli 1997). Oltre alle ragioni storiche, si prendono in esame le suddette zone per le loro caratteristiche geomorfologiche e di “frontiera”. Spesso non si trattava semplicisticamente di una linea difensiva, ma di più linee di “frontiera” fluttuanti, a protezione del medesimo territorio. In taluni casi la frontiera andava a costituire una fascia, anche a protezione costiera, in cui alcuni dei castra, collocati in avamposto lungo la costa, erano esposti in prima linea rispetto al mare e - talvolta in prossimità di abitati (rurali o urbani) (Murialdo Conclusioni 2001, 769-770) - attraverso vie interne d’altura. Nel contempo altri fortilizi delle retrovie potevano costituire il limes che era identificato nei punti di frontiera che sorvegliavano il territorio anche dal suo interno. Questi ultimi castra, retrostanti rispetto alla costa, erano collocati anche presso accessi vallivi e a loro volta potevano arrivare a connettersi ad altri siti posti presso il ciglio tattico dei valichi, così da tenere sotto controllo, mediante alcuni punti d’avvistamento, la costa fino all’intera zona montana. Nei paragrafi che seguono si propone un esame critico del 4

microcontesto territoriale che via via si è messo in luce nelle regioni suddette. FRONTIERA LIGURE Il limes ligure doveva seguire un andamento frastagliato ed alto della costa. Lungo la linea litoranea, in area finalese (figure 1), sorgevano i castra di: S. Antonino di Perti, Varigotti e Noli (S. Antonino 2001). Essi, arroccati in corrispondenza delle vie d’accesso verso i centri d’altura delle Alpi marittime, erano in linea diretta con i territori del Piemonte, della Tuscia Maritima e del Delta Padano. Dall’analisi topografica dei siti liguri si evince che in età bizantina le suddette fortificazioni acquistarono un preponderante rilievo, non solo dal punto di vista strettamente difensivo nell’angusta area costiera, ma anche per ciò che riguardava il complesso sistema economico, come testimoniano i reperti rinvenuti nel castrum di S. Antonino. Da questo sito, collocato su un’altura di 287m. s.l.m., è stata recuperata un’enorme quantità di oggetti: pietra ollare, ceramica da mensa, da cucina, comune, grezza da cucina, suppellettili in vetro, lucerne fittili ed in vetro, bronzi, reperti numismatici e rinvenimenti anforari.5 Proprio questi ultimi materiali hanno permesso di avvalorare la tesi della strategia del controllo territoriale ed extraterritoriale perché ritrovamenti direttamente connessi con il commercio marittimo. Castrum Pertice, attuale S. Antonino di Perti, nella sua posizione naturalmente strategica a mezzacosta, aveva la possibilità del controllo simultaneo delle valli retrostanti e delle antiche strade che si diramavano in esse: dalla Valle Bormida infatti si biforcavano i collegamenti verso l’area padana e la fascia litoranea, dalla via Julia Augusta erano possibili i contatti in direzione del vicino porto di Varigotti e di tutta la Liguria costiera. Lo scavo di S. Antonino ha restituito tra gli oggetti metallici cinque pesi monetari bizantini bronzei, di forma a piastrina rettangolare. Essi documentano l’uso della verifica del peso delle monete in oro, a scopo di cambio fiscale e commerciale. In base a questa tipologia di ritrovamento si può affermare che S. Antonino non abbia avuto solo funzioni di difesa della frontiera, ma anche di centro attivamente partecipe alla circolazione monetaria in collegamento con le rotte marittime e con quelle terrestri. Si ipotizza, sulla scorta degli studi condotti da Arslan, che vi fosse un posto di dogana, forse situato sulla via Julia Augusta, installato prima dai Bizantini ed occupato poi dai Longobardi di Rotari a partire dal 643.6 Ė plausibile che in seguito, in età longobarda, il castrum abbia perso gradualmente la funzione ricoperta per tutto il VI secolo, ossia di luogo deputato agli scambi commerciali anche tra Bizantini e Longobardi.7. 5

La quantità di produzioni ceramiche da trasporto, da mensa e da cucina d’importazione è rappresentativa della stretta connessioni con le rotte commerciali nel Mediterraneo. Si veda S. Antonino 2001, 255 e ss. 6 Arslan 2001, 239-254; cfr. Bonora et al. 1984, 215-242. 7 Paul. Diac., Hist. Lang., IV, 42. “[...] Hic Rothari rex Langobardorum leges, quas sola memoria et usu retinebant, scritorum serie composuit codicemque ipsum edictum appellari praecepit. Erat autem iam ex quo Langobardi in Italiam venerant annus septuagesimus septimus, sicut idem rex in sui edicti testatus est prologo”. Cfr. Murialdo Conclusioni 2001, 749-796.

Bisanzio prima e Ravenna in seguito.

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in

Età Bizantina. Le aree costiere

di S. Donato, in località Parasio presso Varazze.9 La particolarità del sito è costituita dalla localizzazione su un dosso presso l’ansa del torrente Teiro. In analogia a questo è anche il castello di Campomarzio (Taggia - Imperia)10 che si situa ad Ovest di S. Antonino su un’altura e presso l’ansa del torrente Argentina, mettendo in evidenza la sua funzione di controllo e di sbarramento sulla fascia litoranea. Si osserva, altresì, che i castra menzionati non costituivano un limes chiaramente definito, dato che la frontiera settentrionale doveva essere interpretata come una fascia soggetta a influenze diverse, sia bizantine, sia longobarde, attraverso traffici mercantili. In tale contesto è opportuno osservare che alcune dinamiche della Liguria bizantina erano fortemente legate alla città di Albenga-Albingaunum, che non subì mai uno spostamento in altura (Lamboglia 1970, 2362). In quanto centro commerciale attivo e riferimento di primo piano per la comunità religiosa, Albenga mantenne un ruolo di primo piano in tutta l’età bizantina, ospitando esponenti della classe politica dirigente. Ebbe inalterata la connotazione di città fortificata, infatti non si esclude che tale centro fosse dotato di un apparato difensivo adeguato, che andò a integrare le mura tardoantiche volute da Costanzo.11

Considerata l’importanza della rete commerciale articolata nel finalese, Whickam ha ampiamente analizzato la problematica in chiave storico-archeologica, osservando che i commerci marittimi che si muovevano da castrum Pertice furono così intensi da far ritenere questo sito uno dei più importanti del Mediterraneo settentrionale, insieme anche agli scali marittimi ad esso connessi.8 Il castrum di S. Antonino si immetteva in un complesso sistema territoriale in cui faceva parte, nell’immediato versante orientale, il sito di Varigotti che, in età bizantina secondo quanto è stato osservato da una prospezione di archeologia subacquea (Pallarés 1985, 645-648), costituiva probabilmente uno dei principali centri portuali in stretta correlazione con il sito di Noli. In base ad una delle ipotesi del Lamboglia, il presidio militare di Varigotti si sarebbe configurato quale importante elemento strutturale e topografico costiero del limes bizantino ligure (Lamboglia 1976, 129-130). A tale proposito, la citazione nel Chronicon dello pseudo-Fredegario (Chron. IV, 71) indica Varigotti come uno dei centri litoranei di maggior rilievo, poi distrutto dai Longobardi di Rotari insieme ad altri centri della costa. Le altre informazioni, provenienti da questa fonte, non dichiarano esplicitamente la presenza di sistema fortificato di cui il porto di Varigotti poteva essere dotato, piuttosto sottintendono che lo scalo marittimo poteva disporre di un presidio ben organizzato, al fine di proteggere il naturale approdo. In questo ampio e sintetico quadro dei siti finalesi si inserisce appieno titolo Noli che, di recente, ha restituito numerosissime nuove informazioni riguardanti le origini stesse del suo insediamento (Frondoni 2007). Esso, pur non essendo con assoluta certezza un castrum, doveva essere uno scalo portuale di un certo rilievo e parte integrante del quadro storico – topografico appartenente alla fitta rete frontaliera. I siti liguri fin qui osservati sono associati ad un sistema di protezione bizantina che resistette, come già detto, fino al 643. La frontiera della Liguria marittima, che di fatto doveva protrarsi fino al versante di Levante, si mantenne sotto l’influenza bizantina per quasi ottanta anni e ciò non è spiegabile solo per il fenomeno della permeabilità delle frontiere, ma lo è anche per questioni di tipo sociale, geopolitico ed economico. È pertinente a tale assetto strategico dei siti anche il castrum

TUSCIA MARITIMA: LE FRONTIERE La presenza dei Longobardi sul territorio italiano a partire dal 569 determinò la rinascita di alcuni centri attraverso la ripresa di punti difensivi già esistenti e il repentino posizionamento dei Bizantini di nuovi centri fortificati per impedire che gli invasori potessero occupare le zone marittime e le vie di collegamento a queste. Questo è esattamente ciò che accadeva nella Tuscia.12 Nel 575 i territori interni erano già stati occupati dai Longobardi, anche se i Bizantini avevano cercato, nel 576, di opporre resistenza durante la sconfitta di Baduaro (Patitucci 2001, 193). La conseguenza di questi fatti fu il posizionamento dei ducati longobardi di Lucca, Arezzo e Chiusi (Bierbrauer 1991; Bierbrauer 1992); dal 584 i Longobardi iniziarono ad organizzare una rete sempre più fitta di gastaldati. Nell’ultimo decennio del VI secolo Pistoia, Firenze e Fiesole erano divenute longobarde (Magno 1999, 56-58). In quel periodo i Ducati di Lucca e Chiusi si rafforzarono rapidamente ed assunsero maggior potere anche sul versante costiero e dopo che Sovana entrò in trattative con il Ducato di Spoleto

Whickham 1999, 8-9:“The presence of ceramics from a long way away on an archaeological site does not prove trade, it must be stressed: they could have been brought be the state as part of its military commissariat, or indeed by a private landowner moving goods from one of his properties to another. But when we found -to take a real example- at the castrum of S. Antonimo di Perti in Byzantine Liguria, in the early seventh century, that out of the total finds of pottery, excluding amphorae, 58% come from Byzantine Africa and 1% was “ceramica longobarda” from Lombard northern Italy, whereas only 35% were demonstrably locally made, we can begin to draw clear conclusions about ceramics structures. In this case, we could indeed propose that the African pottery (both fine terra sigillata tableware and ‘common’ wares) was brought in by the army as part of its supply system, but this at least shows that the Byzantine military system still operated on a Mediterranean scale in the early seventh century, and had not localised its organisation so as, for example, to produce pottery in Liguria itself for its Ligurian soldiers. As for the Lombard pottery, its percentage, though small, is nonetheless important, for its shows that there was at least some trade (here, it most be commercial exchange) across political boundaries in Italy[…]”. 8

9

Nel Settembre 2008, per conto della Soprintendenza Archeologica della Liguria, sono state riprese le ricerche archeologiche del sito di S. Donato presso Varazze. 10 S. Antonino 2001, 764 e ss. Da settembre del 2008 nuovi scavi sono stati intrapresi sul sito per conto di diversi enti associati: il Ministero per i beni e le Attività culturali, la Comunità Montana, il Comune di Taggia e l’Università di Genova. Tali campagne di scavo mirano ad un’ulteriore chiarimento sulle questioni del limes e del controllo territoriale del castrum. 11 È interessante osservare a tal proposito l’unicità della tessitura muraria delle opere fortificate liguri, ciò verosimilmente sta ad indicare la presenza di una o più maestranze locali che lavoravano sul territorio. 12 Paul. Diac., Hist. Lang., II 26 (M. G. H. Scriptores rerum Langob et Italicarum secc. VI-IX , Hannoverae 1878, 126, 3e 127, 15): “...invasit omnia usque ad Tusciam, praeter Romam et Ravennam vel aliqua castra quae erant in maris litore costituta.”

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean nel 592 per il mantenimento del cosiddetto corridoio bizantino della via Amerina, si creò un ulteriore presupposto per la definitiva caduta in mano longobarda della Tuscia maritima, avvenuta nel 603 (Kurze 1986; Kurze, Citter 1995). Si osserva che all’epoca di Liutprando la frontiera posta tra la Tuscia longobarda e quella bizantina doveva essere notevolmente arretrata verso l’interno rispetto a quella marittima bizantina. Tale dato sarebbe spiegato dal fatto che il limite settentrionale del Ducato bizantino doveva estendersi fino alla fascia costiera dell’Etruria, appena dopo la conquista del territorio di Tuscania (che dovrebbe risalire agli anni compresi fra i sinodi del 649 e del 680).13 Le due roccaforti bizantine, egemoni all’interno della Tuscia marittima, che esercitavano una certa influenza politica sulle fortificazioni vicine erano: Cosa –Ansedonia e Roselle (figura 2) (Patitucci 2001). La prima, collocata nell’area meridionale e costiera della Maremma, rappresentava il primo appostamento arroccato di riferimento per il controllo della viabilità costiera determinata principalmente dall’Aurelia14 per il mantenimento delle derrate alimentari e per la gestione degli scali portuali presso la base navale di Orbetello. L’altra, Roselle, ricopriva invece un ruolo di tipo civile e religioso in quanto sede episcopale egemone sul territorio interno e si proiettava verso la fascia paralitoranea. È plausibile che entrambe le fortificazioni suddette potessero aver avuto un ruolo limitaneo ed in particolare Roselle, più interna e con maggior possibilità di contatti con i longobardi di Chiusi e di Lucca, avrebbe potuto proteggere maggiormente il territorium, installando una rete protettiva con gli altri castra limitrofi (Celuzza 1988).

ed economica del territorio che caratterizzava il centro di Comacchio (fig. 4). Esso emerge - del resto lo stesso Capitolare di Liutprando lo testimonia16 - come sede principale degli scambi commerciali soprattutto di derrate alimentari. Questo dato è da considerare se si valuta che ancora nel periodo della contesa tra Longobardi e Bizantini il suddetto scalo emporiale continuava ad avere la medesima valenza economica sul territorio ravennate, anche perché andava a sfruttare l’arteria fluviale, permettendo la penetrazione delle navi fino ai territori di conquista longobarda. Anche in questo caso si osserva tangibilmente la permeabilità delle frontiere che avevano la necessità dei commerci che a loro volta avevano favorito che i due popoli instaurassero rapporti economici sulla base di un tacito accordo. Dal Capitolare di Liutprando si deduce che i Comacchiesi avevano un ruolo di primo piano nel quadro economico del Regnum, vista anche l’importanza che il sale rivestiva per l’alimentazione e per la conservazione dei prodotti e delle derrate. Proprio in tale contesto geopolitico da lì a poco, verso la fine del VII secolo, si sarebbe germinata la vitalità dell’economia longobarda. A differenza dei Bizantini la società longobarda sembrava ben organizzata e fattivamente voluta. Il centro assolse a funzioni non legate esclusivamente alla propria economia e continuò ad avere un ruolo endemico per i commerci nel Mediterraneo.17 LA FRONTIERA NELLE MARCHE Come in altre regioni anche nelle Marche le frontiere continuarono a mantenersi profondamente labili e soggette a continui spostamenti. Come affermato da Sergi e da altri, è necessario negare l’idea di una guerra di posizione tra Longobardi e Bizantini ed accettare che non il fatto che essi non si siano mai fronteggiati su posizioni statiche.18 La permeabilità fronteriale era visibile anche quando il dominio bizantino, in particolare nella Marca anconetana, riusciva a rimanere più stabile a Nord del Conero e lungo l’incerta linea dell’Esino – Musone, presso Osimo. Da quel momento i ducati della Pentapoli e di Spoleto assunsero progressivamente una valenza di maggior rilievo. Si delineò, quindi, il profilo di un dominio piuttosto frammentario, privo di continuità territoriale e minacciato da profonde infiltrazioni dei Longobardi spoletini che, estendendo capillarmente le loro conquiste, scesero in breve tempo dall’Appennino verso il mare e/o da Nord verso il Piceno (figura 5). Il momento cruciale di questo movimento di scorribande militari avvenne quando Liutprando intervenne militarmente nel 727, impadronendosi del triangolo strategico Ancona – Osimo – Numana,19 attraverso il quale erano soliti affluire rifornimenti e truppe per l’Esarcato via mare dall’Oriente.20 In seguito il re avrebbe istituito due ducati

IL DELTA PADANO: TERRA DI FRONTIERA O DI ASSIMILAZIONE? Per quanto concerne il territorio padano è noto che il limes fortificato fosse “costituito” essenzialmente per proteggere l’Esarcato e la sua capitale. Non abbiamo informazioni dagli storici antichi, né dalla documentazione d’archivio relativamente alle modalità di controllo del territorio, anche se si può supporre che a Ravenna fosse presente un contingente - exercitus bizantino che presidiasse l’intero versante ravennate (Guillou 1969, 149-163). Una volta fallita la trentennale dominazione bizantina sulla costa tirrenica15 e caduti in mano longobarda i presìdi di Cremona, Mantova, Padova e Monselice (Paul. Diac., Hist. Lang. IV, 25), Ferrara, a breve distanza da quei luoghi, si sarebbe trovata a dover instaurare una cintura difensiva di castra, disposti lungo lo sbarramento naturale del Po, dando luogo allo sviluppo dei castra bizantini limitanei del delta padano (figura 3) (Patitucci 1989). C’è da sottolineare un dettaglio, che a mio avviso è piuttosto rilevante, relativo alla particolare vivacità commerciale

16 Muratori 1739, diss. XIX, cc. 23-26. Il primo studio critico fu effettuato

dallo studioso Hartmann 1904, 74-90, 123 e ss. 17 Ci si riferisce alla documentazione di scavo dei recenti scavi: cfr. Gelichi, Calaon 2007. 18 Sergi 1995, 16. Cfr. Gasparri 1995, in part. 11-14 e Bernacchia 2002, 88 e ss. 19 Per il binomio Ancona – Osimo è anche ampiamente descritto dallo storico Procopio; cfr. Proc. De Bell. Goth., II, 24. 20 Le fonti non sono del tutto esplicite a riguardo. Cfr. Liber pontificalis,

13

Mallet, Whitehouse 1967; Riguardo ai sinodi cfr. Bavant 1979, 79-80. Dal Liber Pontificalis (I, 428) è noto con certezza che la città di Tuscania era sede di un Guastaldius nel 742. 14 A breve distanza infatti la via Aurelia percorreva tutta la fascia litoranea della Toscana; cfr. Guillou 1969. 15 Paol. Diac. Hist. Lang IV, 28, 32; cfr. Agnelli Lib. Pont., 106.

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R. De Acutis: Le Frontiere dell’Italia Centro-Settentrionale distaccati da Spoleto, nelle sedi di Ancona e di Osimo, che avrebbero tempestivamente occupato il territorio, ricoprendo le veci dello stesso sovrano.21 Tale intervento placò il desiderio espansionistico del ducato di Spoleto, che fino a quel momento era riuscito ad avere il sopravvento anche sul Piceno (Bernacchia 1997, 16-17). Sul piano istituzionale nel corso dell’VIII secolo alcuni comites avevano sede a Fermo e ad Ascoli rispettivamente nel 74822 e nel 776,23 nei quali siti precedentemente era stanziata una popolazione di chiara matrice bizantina. Mancano dei dati sicuri sulla contemporanea esistenza di gastaldi nella regione.24 Da allora i comites furono preposti ad importanti circoscrizioni amministrative, con sede stabile nei rispettivi capoluoghi e con funzioni che spaziavano dall’ambito civile a quello militare (figura 6). Altro obiettivo architettato dal re longobardo era quello di sbarrare la via Flaminia, opponendo resistenza all’ambizione espansionistica del ducato spoletino (Bertolini 1954, III, 48), mettendo in evidenza che la Pentapoli sarebbe stata, da quel momento in poi, il territorio di conquista della monarchia longobarda. Infatti proprio per delimitare l’autonomismo di Spoleto, Liutprando impose che la nomina ducale fosse deliberata solo in seguito a sue disposizioni.

in

Età Bizantina. Le aree costiere

linee di confine tra Ducato di Spoleto e Ducato di Benevento, per questa ragione è probabile che fosse un castrum bizantino limitaneo e che in seguito fu facilmente espugnato dai Longobardi. IL LIMES ABRUZZESE La situazione di frontiera degli insediamenti che gravitavano attorno alla via Salaria è stata elaborata per la prima volta da Bierbrauer (1994). Lo studioso, ad un primo esame specifico delle singole realtà insediative fortificate, ha interpretato che i siti fossero in diretta connessione con la rete viaria; poi, rivisti nel loro complesso, ha elaborato l’ipotesi che entrassero a far parte di un grande baluardo atto a fronteggiare, tra VI-VIII secolo, possibili attacchi esterni. In un primo momento Bierbrauer ritenne che le fortificazioni avessero funzioni indipendenti le une dalle altre, in seguito però, soprattutto analizzando l’area cruciale e di confine ascolana, ha rettificato la sua interpretazione. Ripartendo proprio dal sito di Castel Trosino e dal fatto che le due identità bizantina e longobarda ebbero una profonda commistione tra loro, si osserva quanto fosse rilevante la collocazione strategica del luogo rispetto all’analisi geopolitica. Infatti Castel Trosino, situato presso la via Salaria, lungo il fiume Tronto ed in prossimità del corridoio della via Flaminia che congiungeva questa zona con Roma e con Ravenna, ebbe una tale rilevanza che oggi si può ritenere uno dei punti cerniera del centro Italia. La lunga durata della frequentazione del cimitero fino alla metà del VII secolo potrebbe quindi testimoniare anche l’interesse longobardo per il controllo delle zone di frontiera. Contrariamente a quanto la letteratura moderna abbia voluto sostenere in passato, le frontiere non sono state impermeabili e ciò è testimoniato dalla commistione delle genti che hanno “popolato” questo cimitero, indicando effettivamente che si trattava di un vero punto di cerniera e che in qualche modo il Tronto, con la sua valle, rappresentava un limes naturale ben noto al mondo altomedievale. È interessante puntare l’attenzione sulla vallata del Tronto; si osserva che essa, linea di confine tra le attuali amministrazioni regionali delle Marche a Nord e dell’Abruzzo a Sud, ha rappresentato in età bizantino – longobarda uno spartiacque, non a caso dovevano collocarsi i castra di: Castel Trosino, più interno, Porto d’Ascoli (forse con il toponimo di matrice longobarda Sculcula) (Staffa 2005) ed infine verso la costa Castrum Truentinum (Martinsicuro) (Staffa 2006). Dopo la conquista longobarda delle aree interne del Chietino fra la fine del VI ed inizi del VII secolo il castrum, ricavato sul celebre sito della villa romano-bizantina di Crecchio, avrebbe rappresentato l’esempio più emblematico (Staffa, Pellegrini 1993). Una palese testimonianza della difesa e della ristrutturazione di questo territorio è data dalla presenza di un castrum con approdo collocato sulla costa, Hortona (Staffa 2004). Esso sembra avere numerose similitudini con altri castra esaminati nei differenti contesti territoriali.26 Intorno a questo sito gravitava tutta l’area

Altro centro che permette in maniera del tutto esplicativa di comprendere le dinamiche insediative al momento della contesa longobardo – bizantina è Castel Trosino.25 Esso, collocato non lontano dalla via Salaria ed a breve distanza da Asculum, ad una quota di 419m. s. l. m., rappresentava probabilmente il miglior esempio in Italia di convivenza e quindi di tolleranza delle due popolazioni. In questo sito, originariamente bizantino, si andò ad installare tra il VI ed il VII secolo una comunità longobarda, chiaramente pacifica, perché deducibile dai contesti funerari (Paroli 1995). La necropoli ed il suo probabile castrum si collocavano proprio in un punto di cerniera, presso lo scorrimento del fiume Tronto, che in età altomedievale rappresentava una delle (Gregorius II, 184-185), texte, introduction et commentaire par L. Duchesne, I, Paris 1955, 404-405; Paul. Diac. Hist. Lang., VI, 49. Un indizio sull’esistenza dei ducati longobardi di Ancona e di Osimo verso la metà del sec. VIII è dato dall’assenza delle due città, oltre che di Numana, dall’elenco, presente nel Liber pontificalis, dei centri restituiti al beato Pietro nel 756, si veda Liber pontificalis (Stephanus II, 252-254) ed. cit., 453-454. Sulla permanenza di Ancona, Osimo e Numana nelle mani dei re longobardi dopo la seconda pace di Pavia si veda Fasoli 1981, 60-61; Baldetti 1981, 842-843. 21 Bertolini 1941, 684; Baldetti 1981; Fasoli 1981, 59-60; Bernacchia 1997, 16-17; Bernacchia 2002, 89. 22 CDL, V/1, a cura di H. Zielinski, Roma 1988, 48-53 n. 11, e IV/1, a cura di C. Bruhl, Roma 1981, 112-115 n. 38: «Rabenno, fil(ius) quondam Rabennonis comitis civ(itatis) Firmane» (a. 748). Nel doc. del 748 accanto a Rabenno sottoscrivono come testimoni altri due conti, Ansualdo e Teutprando. 23 CDL, IV/1, ed. cit., 78-83 n. 28 24 Esiste una questione assai dibattuta riguardante la funzione dei comites nelle terre conquistate dai ducati. Cfr. Bognetti 1966 alle pagine 262270; Gasparri 1983, 89-93, sulla questione comes-gastaldus; Conti 1982, 49-50, il quale, tuttavia (pagine 42-49), crede piuttosto a un ordinamento territoriale del ducato spoletino imperniato sui gastaldati. Secondo BERTOLINI 1954, 484-487 25 Questo sito interpretabile come presunto castrum bizantino è posto, secondo l’attuale amministrazione regionale, in provincia di Ascoli Piceno ed anche nel VI-VII secolo era proprio collocato in un punto di spartiacque tra i due territori.

26

Ampli e complessi sono i temi di carattere storico-topografico che interessano l’area del medio versante adriatico. Data la brevità del contributo ci si limita ad segnalare problematiche che si ritiene si dovranno approfondire in futuro.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean rurale ortonese. È certamente da considerarsi la capitale bizantina dell’Abruzzo27 ed, in quanto tale, ha rappresentato un vero proprio centro propulsore della cultura bizantina. Si aggiunge che dai dati di scavo è rilevabile che Ortona e Crecchio hanno costituito il binomio vincente della frontiera nel Chietino. Anche Pescara, in seguito al recente rinvenimento delle poderose mura del circuito bizantino, deve aver avuto un ruolo accentratore per gli altri castra più piccoli che forse erano più facilmente espugnabili (Staffa 2006, Staffa 2006a). Tutti i castra costieri abruzzesi appena analizzati hanno un comune denominatore rappresentato dal fiume. Il corso d’acqua è un effettivo limite naturale e per questo ha sempre indicato una delimitazione di confine (figura 7). Ciò è avvenuto per il fiume Tronto, dove presso la foce si collocava Castrum Truentinum; per il fiume Aternum dove sulla sua foce sorgeva l’omonimo Aternum – Ostia Aterni (Pescara) e ad una brevissima distanza dal torrente Arielli si inseriva la fortificazione costiera di Hortona. In tutti questi casi si nota che i corsi d’acqua hanno marcato il territorio ed hanno contribuito enormemente alle dinamiche insediative, ricoprendo anche una funzione di cerniera e perciò di frontiera territoriale.

flitto gotico, Belisario sfruttò i centri fortificati costieri per approfittare di rifornimenti dell’esercito imperiale, siti questi che non potevano temere il contrasto delle forze navali dei nemici.30 Le fortezze assunsero non solo la funzione di resistenza sul luogo del limes, ma anche di rifugio che era comunque un ulteriore elemento di forza della strategia imperiale.31 La tattica bellica bizantina era tesa più alla difesa passiva che non all’attacco, perché anche se battuti sul campo si sarebbero potuti mettere in salvo nelle proprie fortificazioni per proseguire la contesa, appena ristabiliti. La struttura difensiva bizantina non fu in grado di resistere alla crisi generale del sistema imperiale maturata tra la fine del VI e la metà del VII secolo. I ducati longobardi esercitavano una continua pressione espansionistica su tutto il territorio, mentre a livello internazionale l’interruzione dei flussi commerciali mediterranei e la conseguente perdita d’interesse per il controllo di scali marittimi e di vie di comunicazione determinarono presso i centri costieri l’abbandono, piuttosto che l’occupazione degli insediamenti fortificati. Per l’impero bizantino il VI secolo fu un periodo di crisi profonda. Dopo la morte di Maurizio (602), le frontiere di tutto l’impero iniziarono a traballare. Per quanto riguarda l’Italia, anche qui si verificarono notevoli cambiamenti nelle frontiere a causa della pressione longobarda. A partire dal 640 e progressivamente fino al periodo del trattato del 652 la Liguria divenne interamente di dominio dei Longobardi, quando ormai anche il resto dell’Italia era stato preso. Nel bacino del Mediterraneo, al momento di maggiore espansione territoriale dei Bizantini, il potere centrale ritenne prioritario potenziare le frontiere territoriali al fine di proteggere le aree annesse con imponenti sistemi difensivi, seguendo rigorosamente le strategie e le tattiche militari. Tale pratica in Italia fu necessaria, ma prima di tutto si pensò ad una riorganizzazione dell’intero sistema difensivo, dando luogo alla costruzione ex novo di centinaia di siti fortificati di varie dimensioni e caratteristiche che spesso si confacevano all’estensione del territorio stesso e alla sua geomorfologia. Alla luce di questa ultima considerazione, si sfaterebbe definitivamente il concetto di modello interpretativo che per lungo tempo ha rappresentato la tendenza degli studiosi, al fine di trovare soluzioni attraverso l’uso di tipologie. Si è constato infatti che esse sono spesso fuorvianti, riduttive e semplicistiche. L’attuale linea di studi che si sta tracciando in questo ultimo decennio è sempre più tesa a vedere il microcontesto, cioè il castrum, che a sua volta è inserito nel macrocontesto territorium, l’un l’altro intimamente correlati.

ALCUNE CONSIDERAZIONI FINALI La difesa del confine imperiale si basava oltre che sulle forze militari a disposizione, anche sulle popolazioni alleate che collaboravano proteggendo il territorio attraverso truppe in movimento e contingenti militari di controllo. Secondo il progetto giustinianeo il limes doveva estendersi al fine di tutelare completamente l’impero e, differentemente dai limites delle epoche precedenti, sulla “frontiera” erano molti i siti fortificati statici (Ravegnani 2004, 81-134). La “staticità” di un castrum bizantino non ha accezione negativa, deve essere la peculiarità esclusiva del sito, atto a garantire una sicurezza perché posto di blocco del flusso di movimenti militari avversi. Ciò avviene anche nel caso di siti interni, protetti d’altura; essi dipendono anche dalla necessità da parte della popolazione autoctona a trovare riparo e protezione non solo in caso di pericolo d’invasione.28 Precipuo interesse da parte della politica giustinianea era proprio quello di diffondere capillarmente sul territorio i centri fortificati promuovendo un rafforzamento delle difese dell’impero per assicurarne la stabilità anche dall’interno. Comunemente i suoi castra limitanei, che fungevano da centri di resistenza, non erano centri di difesa attiva, ma potevano essere buone basi operative durante le preparazioni d’attacco al di fuori del proprio territorio; quindi, dei veri e propri centri operativi dove si potevano organizzare le strategie belliche.29 Soprattutto nella prima fase del con-

e provvedono alla difesa della frontiera; un tipo di organizzazione che ebbe molta importanza nell’impero bizantino.” 30 Ad esempio il castello di Ancona fu una base navale in primissimo piano. Gli Ostrogoti cercarono di espugnarlo ma rimase saldamente in mano bizantina, funzione che f svolta anche da Otranto. Sul versante tirrenico settentrionale Orbetello dovrebbe aver avuto un ruolo importante per il traffico delle derrate alimentari provenienti da Ansedonia. Si veda per Ancona Proc. De Bell. Goth., II, 24, 14. 31 Proc. Bell. Pers. II, 21, 14, cfr. Agath., I, 16, 9: Avere il possesso di numerosi fortilizi mette in vantaggio i Bizantini rispetto ai Goti, come afferma Narsete.

27

Cfr. in part. Staffa 2004; Staffa 2006, 410 e ss. 28 Tali dinamiche hanno coinvolto ad esempio i siti di Ibligo Invillino e Sabbiona. Cfr.: Guillou 1969, 294-307. 29 A tale proposito cfr. Ostrogorsky 1963, 39: “Solo con la costruzione del forte esercito mobile dei comitantes, anche l’esercito di frontiera dei limitanei acquista il carattere di un corpo particolare dell’esercito che ha la funzione specifica della difesa delle frontiere. I soldati che stanziano sulle frontiere ricevono come compenso del loro servizio un appezzamento di terra; essi rappresentano un corpo militare composto da piccoli proprietari, che vivono dei prodotti del proprio appezzamento di terreno

386

R. De Acutis: Le Frontiere dell’Italia Centro-Settentrionale In definitiva si può affermare che in Italia, allo stato attuale della ricerca, il termine frontiera, in base ai fatti storici di VI-VII secolo, ha poco a che fare con: chiusura - claustra; limite; confine; margine, barriera; ha invece alcuni punti di contatto con i concetti di staticità/mutamento, discontinuità/continuità e sbarramento/varco. La frontiera è una entità mobile e mutevole, per quanto i siti fortificati siano fissi sul territorio. Il suo limite arretra o avanza continuamente e con la stessa rapidità ridefinisce una nuova identità, riportando alla luce la funzione culturale e geopolitica del confine. Il limes è una definizione che sembra aderire al concetto di costituzione di entità politiche e/o economiche, che si ridisegna sempre di più fuori dalla geopolitica. In questa moderna accezione, la frontiera non è più un territorio da attraversare per andare aldilà, per spostare il confine fra noto ed ignoto. La frontiera è una protezione che custodisce gli inclusi da quanto proviene dall’esterno. Essa, proprio perché legata al concetto di comunità, non sempre è visibile, non è semplicemente una linea tracciata per terra, ma è costituita ad esempio dal tracciato di una strada, di una via fluviale, di una catena montuosa. Geograficamente la frontiera - intesa con accezione antropologica moderna - non è più rilevabile, mentre lo è sempre di più sul piano mitico. L’incontro/ scontro di due entità distinte è articolato su un apparente ordine preesistente in cui più gruppi sociali e sistemi culturali interagiscono ed hanno una relazione di convivenza a lungo maturata. Così come le frontiere si sono articolate, così esse possono essere rimosse e tale evento può destabilizzare la comunità, la città e il sito fortificato che si sono sviluppati in funzione di essa, con il rischio di una frattura di tutta la dinamica insediativa che coinvolge interamente il territorio. In tale contesto insediarsi significa ritagliarsi un posto sul territorio ed i meccanismi che si innescano sono: l’identità della comunità e la forma di potere che esercita il sito stesso. Il sito fortificato è legato agli altri attraverso una rete di collegamento viario che permette di far interagire e convivere delineando nuove barriere prima inesistenti nel tessuto culturale e sociale di siti multiculturali. È possibile che proprio questo sia accaduto all’indomani dell’instaurazione della frontiera bizantina. Si può supporre che proprio l’individualità dei siti bizantini, che dovevano proteggersi da attacchi esterni, abbia contribuito alla difficile identificazione dei siti di frontiera da parte degli studiosi moderni. Si prende in prestito l’affermazione di Gasparri (1995, 19) che in un suo contributo conclude che: “la frontiera, se intesa come limite, come frattura netta, non esisteva in quanto il dato più evidente che emerge dalle fonti è proprio l’opposto: la permeabilità dei confini e la compenetrazione umana, agricola e commerciale delle zone frontaliere”. Dall’analisi dei dati e degli esempi proposti si osserva che i limites costieri andavano a creare tra loro uno sbarramento a doppio incastro dei presidi, lungo la linea litoranea, così da proteggere le retrovie e la linea di costa contemporaneamente.

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domani dell’invasione longobarda, ma anche alcuni elementi per la comprensione delle dinamiche insediative dei castra e per l’individuazione delle primarie necessità di salvaguardia, di rifugio e di protezione del territorio stesso (Ravegnani 1983) BIBLIOGRAFIA Alfieri, N. (a cura di) 1989. Storia di Ferrara, I-III, Ferrara. Arslan, E. A. 2001. Considerazioni sulla circolazione monetaria in età protobizantina a S. Antonino, in S. Antonino 2001, 239-254. Baldetti, E. 1981. Per una nuova ipotesi sulla conformazione spaziale della Pentapoli. Rilievi topografico – storici sui toponimi di area pentapolitana, in Istituzioni e società nell’alto medioevo marchigiano, Atti e memorie delle Deputazione di storia patria per le Marche, 86 (1981), 779894. Bavant, B. 1979. Le Duché byzantin de Rome. Origine, durée et extension géographique, in Mélanges de l’Ecole Française de Rome. Moyen Age-Temps modernes, 91, 4188. Bernacchia, R. 1997. I Longobardi nelle Marche. Problemi di storia dell’insediamento e delle istituzioni (secoli VIVIII), in Paroli 1997, 9-30. Bernacchia, R. 2002. Incastellamento e distretti rurali nella Marca anconetana (secoli X-XII), Centro Italiano Studi Alto Medioevo, Spoleto. Berti, F. et alii 2007. Uomini, Territorio e culto dall’Antichità all’Altomedioevo. Genti del Delta da Spina a Comacchio. Uomini, territorio e culto dall’Antichità all’Altomedioevo, Catalogo della Mostra, Comacchio 2006-2007, Ferrara. Bertolini, O. 1941. Roma di fronte a Bisanzio e ai Longobardi, Bologna. Bertolini, O. 1954. I papi e le relazioni politiche di Roma con i ducati longobardi di Spoleto e di Benevento, “Rivista di storia della Chiesa in Italia”, VIII. Bocci, S. 2004. Le Marche nelle fonti storiche – letterarie tra V e VI secolo, in Menestò 2004, 25-61. Bierbrauer, V. 1974. Ostgotische Grab- und Schatzfunde in Italien, Biblioteca degli Studi Medievali, 7, Spoleto. Bierbrauer, V. 1991. L’occupazione dell’Italia da parte dei Longobardi, in Menis 1991, 11-53. Bierbrauer, V. 1992. I primi insediamenti in Italia, in MENIS 1992, 74-89. Bierbrauer, V. 1994. Archeologia degli Ostrogoti in Italia, in Bierbrauer, V. et alii (direzione di), I Goti, Catalogo della mostra di Milano 28 Gennaio – 8 Maggio 1994, Milano, 170-213. Bognetti, G. P. 1966. Il gastaldato longobardo e i giudicati di Adaloaldo, Arioaldo e Pertarido nella lite fra Parma e Piacenza, in Bognetti, G. P., L’età longobarda, I, Milano 1966, 219-274 Bonora, E. et al. 1984. Il “Castrum Pertice”. Notizie preliminari sulla campagne di scavo 1982-1983 in località Sant’Antonino, Finale Ligure (Savona), “Archeologia Medievale”, 11, 215-242. Brogiolo, G.P. (a cura di) 1995. Città, castelli, campagne

Nel complesso da quest’analisi si vanno delineando non solo gli spostamenti della linea di frontiera bizantina all’in387

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean che Studien, 20, 414-451. Kurze, W., Citter, C. 1995. L’occupazione della Maremma toscana da parte dei Longobardi. La frontiera meridionale, in Brogiolo 1995, 159-186. Lamboglia, N. 1970. La topografia e la stratigrafia di Albingaunum dopo gli scavi 1955-56, Rivista di Studi Liguri, XXXVI, n. 1-3, (1970), 23-62. Lamboglia, N. 1976. Varigotti, in Archeologia in Liguria. Scavi e scoperte 1967-1975, Genova. 129-130. Magno, A. 1999. L’invasione longobarda in Toscana, Quaderni Centro Studi Lunensi, n. s. 5, 51-72. Mallet, M., Whitehouse, D. 1967. Castel Porciano: an Abandoned Medieval Village of the Roman Campagna, Papers British School Rome, XXXV, 113-146. Menis, G. C. (a cura di) 1991, Italia longobarda, Venezia. Menis, G. C. (a cura di) 1992. I Longobardi, Milano. Mollo, E. 1986. Le Chiuse: realtà e rappresentazioni mentali del confine alpino nel Medioevo, BSBS, LXXXIV, 336344. Murialdo, G. 2001. Conclusioni: il castrum di S. Antonino nell’Italia nord-occidentale in età bizantino – longobarda, in S. Antonino 2001, 769-770. Ostrogorsky, G. 1963. Geschichte des byzantinischen Staates, Berlin, (le prime due edizioni: 1940 1952). Ostrogorsky, G. 1970. Storia dell’impero bizantino, trad. It. di Leone, P. 1970. Milano. Paroli, L. (a cura di) 1995. La necropoli altomedievale di Castel Trosino. Bizantini e Longobardi nelle Marche, Catalogo della Mostra, Ascoli Piceno 1995, Cinisello Balsamo. Pallarés, F. 1985. Relazione sulla campagna archeologica sottomarina a Varigotti-Porto (SV), “Rivista di Studi Liguri”, LI, 645-648. Patitucci Uggeri, S. 1989. I ‘castra’ e l’insediamento sparso fra V e VIII secolo, in Alfieri 1989, vol. III, t. 2, 406-563. Patitucci Uggeri, S. 2001. Evidenze archeologiche nella provincia marittima bizantina in Toscana, in Rotili, M. (a cura di) 2001. Società multiculturali nei secoli V-IX. Scontri, convivenza, integrazione nel Mediterraneo Occidentale, Atti delle VII giornate di studio sull’età romanobarbarica, Benevento 1999, Napoli, 191-222. Pringle, D. 1981. The defence of Byzantine Africa from Justinian to the Arabic conquest, British Archaeological Reports, i.s., 99. Ravegnani, G. 2004. I Bizantini e la guerra. L’età di Giustiniano. S. Antonino 2001 = Mannoni, T., Murialdo, G. (a cura di), S. Antonino. Un insediamento fortificato nella Liguria Bizantina, Bordighera. Schmiedt, G. 1968. Le fortificazioni altomedioevali in Italia viste dall’aereo, in Orientamenti militari in Occidente nell’Alto Medioevo, Atti Settimane di Studio Centro Alto Medioevo 15/2, Spoleto 1968, 898-905. Schmiedt, G. 1978. I porti italiani nell’Alto Medioevo, in La navigazione mediterranea nell’Alto Medioevo, in Atti Settimane di Studio Centro Alto Medioevo 25/1, Spoleto 1978, pp. 132-140. Sergi, G. 1995. I confini del potere. Marche e signorie fra due regni medievali, Torino. Staffa, A.R. 2002. L’Abruzzo costiero. Viabilità, insedia-

nei territori di frontiera (VI-VII sec.), Atti del 5° seminario di Monte Barro, Mantova. Brown, T.S. 1978. Settlement and Military Policy in Byzantine Italy, in British Archaeological Reports, 41, Papers in Italian Archaeology, I, 2, Oxford, 323-338 Brown, T.S., Christie, N. J. 1989. Was there a Byzantine model of Settlement in Italy?, Mélanges de l’Ecole Française de Rome, Moyen Age, 101, 2, 377-99. Codice Diplomatico Longobardo, 1929. Roma. Celuzza, M. G. 1988. Archeologia di Roselle Medievale, Rivista Diocesana, 8, 120-125. Celuzza, M. G. (a cura di) 1993. Guida alla Maremma antica, Siena, 125-136. Celuzza, M. G., Fentress E. 1994. La Toscana centro-meridionale: i casi di Cosa-Ansedonia e Roselle, in Francovich, Noyè 1994, 601-613 Christie, N. 1989a. The Archaeology of Byzantine Italy: a Synthesis of Recent Research, Journal Medieval Archaeology 2,2, 1989, 249-293. Christie, N. 1989a. The limes bizantino reviewed: the defence of Liguria, A.D. 568-643, Rivista di Studi Liguri, LV, 5-38. Christie, N. 1991. The Alps as a frontier (A. D. 168-774), Journal Roman Archaeology, 4, 410-431. Ciampoltrini, G., Rendini, P. 1988. L’agro cosano fra tardo antico e alto Medioevo, Archeologia Medievale, XV. Citter, C. 1993. L’epigrafe di Orbetello e i Bizantini nell’Etruria Marittima, Archeologia Medievale, XX, 617-621. Conti, M. 1982. Il Ducato di Spoleto e la storia istituzionale dei Longobardi Spoleto, Spoleto. Devoto, G., Oli, G. C. 1990. Nuovo vocabolario illustrato della Lingua italiana, in Oli G., Magini, L. (a cura di), volume I, Milano. Devoto, G., Oli, G. C. 2002. Il Dizionario della Lingua italiana, Firenze. Fasoli, G. 1981. La Pentapoli fra il Papato e l’Impero nell’alto medioevo marchigiano, Atti e memorie delle Deputazione di storia patria per le Marche, 86 (1981), 55-88. Formentini 1930. Scavi e ricerche sul ’limes’ bizantino, in ASPP 30 (1930), 39-67. Frondoni, A. (a cura di) 2007. Il tesoro svelato. Storie dimenticate e rinvenimenti straordinari riscrivono la storia di Noli Antica, Genova. Gasparri, S. 1983. Il ducato longobardo di Spoleto. Istituzioni, poteri, gruppi dominanti, in Atti del 9° Congresso internazionale di studi sull’alto medioevo, Spoleto, 77-122. Gasparri, S. 1995. La frontiera in Italia (sec. VI-VIII). Osservazioni su un tema controverso, in BROGIOLO 1995, 9-19. Gelichi, S., Calaon, D. 2007. Comacchio: la storia di un emporio sul delta del Po, in Berti, Bollini, Gelichi, Ortalli, 2007, 386-416. Guillou, A., 1969. Régionalisme et indépendence dans l’empire byzantin au VII siècle. L’exemple de l’Exarchat et de la Pentapole d’Italie, Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo. Studi, 75-76 (1969), 294-307. Hartmann, L. M. 1904. Zur Wirtschaftgeschichte Italiens im frühen Mittelalter, Gotha. Kurze, W. 1986. Siegelringe aus Italien, Frühmittelalterli388

R. De Acutis: Le Frontiere dell’Italia Centro-Settentrionale menti, strutture portuali ed assetto del territorio fra Antichità ed Alto Medioevo. Staffa, A.R. 2004. Ortona fra tarda antichità ed altomedioevo. Un contributo alla ricostruzione della frontiera bizantina in Abruzzo, “Archeologia Medievale”, XXXI, 365-403. Staffa, A.R. 2005. Insediamento e circolazione nelle regioni adriatiche dell’Italia centrale fra VI e IX secolo, in L’Adriatico dalla tardo antichità all’età carolingia, Atti del convegno di studio Brescia 11-13 ottobre 2001, Brogiolo G. B., Delogu P. (a cura di) Firenze, 109-182. Staffa, A.R. 2006. I centri urbani dell’Abruzzo adriatico fra tarda antichità ed altomedioevo, in Le città italiane tra la tarda antichità e l’alto medioevo. Atti del convegno (Ravenna, 26-28 febbraio 2004), Andrea Augenti (a cura di), Firenze. Staffa, A.R. 2006°. Il porto romano di Pescara, in I porti del Mediterraneo in età classica, Atti del V Congresso di Topografia Antica (Roma ottobre 2004). Staffa A. R., Pellegrini, W. (a cura di) 1993. Dall’Egitto Copto all’Abruzzo Bizantino. I Bizantini in Abruzzo (secc. VI-VII), Catalogo della Mostra. Crecchio, Mosciano.

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Stratos, A. N. 1975a. Byzantium in the Seventh Century, III (642-668), trasl. By HIONIDES H. T., Amsterdam. Stratos, A. N. 1975b. Les frontières de l’empire au cours du VII siècle, in “Actes du XIV Congrès Int. des Etudes Byzant.”, II, Bucarest, 421-4. Uggeri, G. 1990. Il confine longobardo – bizantino in Puglia. Problemi storico – topografici, in XXXVII Corso di Cultura sull’Arte ravennate e bizantina. Seminario Internazionale “L’Italia meridionale fra Goti e Longobardi” Ravenna, 479-510. Varaldo, C., Murialdo, G. 1994. Savona ed il Finale: una regione di frontiera ai confini dell’Impero nei secoli V-VII, “Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana”, LXX, 484-490. Wallage Hadrill, J. M. (a cura di) 1960. Fredegarii Chronicon Liber Quartus cum continuationibus, London. Whickham, C. 1999. Early medieval archaeology in Italy: the last twenty years, “Archeologia Medievale”, XXVI, 8-9. Whitehouse, D. B., Potter, T. W. 1981. The Byzantine Frontier in South Etruria, Analecta, 55, 206-210. Zanini, E. 1998. Le Italie bizantine. Territorio, insediamenti ed economia nella provincia bizantina d’Italia (VI-VIII secolo), Bari.

Figura 1. Liguria

Figura 2. Tuscia

Figura 3. Delta Padano

Figura 4. Un’altra immagine del Delta Padano

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Figura 5. Marche e Abruzzo

Figura 6. Marche

Figura 7. Abruzzo

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

I CASTELLI NORMANNI DI FRONTIERA TRA IL DUCATUS APULIAE E IL PRINCIPATUS CAPUAE NELLA CONTEA DI MOLISE1 Gabriella Di Rocco Università degli studi di Cassino Abstract (2008) The Norman castles upon the frontier between the Principatus Capuae and Ducatus Apuliae in the County of Molise. The borderline between the Principatus Capuae and the Ducatus Apuliae in the County of Molise, to the north of Sepino, ran near to the castles of Vinchiaturo, Oratino and Pietracupa, located in Principatu, turned then towards north-west, where the rivers Trigno and Verrino flow together, along the tactical slope from Pietrabbondante to Monte Capraro, finally reaching the Abruzzi territory. Such border, mostly arisen for political reasons, had defined geographical characteristics, as it was crossed south-west north-east by the Biferno Valley, main artery between the inland of Molise and the Adriatic coasts. The three castles under question are located on a hill, watching over the high and mid-Valley of the Biferno. Vinchiaturo, nowadays small borough within the district of Campobasso, is 628m a.s.l. and so controlled the pass of the same name, situated on the top of a hill, whereat the wide plain of Boiano gets narrower and creeps towards the main town of the region. In the Catalogus Baronum of the second half of the 12th century, this site, named Junclatoro, is a fief of Hugo Cappella, feud vassal of the count of Molise. Poor remains of the castle, which was converted in baronial palace and situated at the topof the borough. Along the south-western side of the urban nucleus, part of a circular tower and a buttress, of Anjouin origin and pertaining to the wall circuit, survive. The abandoned site, by La Rocca of Oratino, is placed on the summit of a limestone peak, in a strategic position along the eastern slope of the high Valley of Biferno; about two kilometres to the south, the present borough of Oratino is located. Raytinum is mentioned in the charter of 1130, whereby Pope Anacletus bestowed the crown of Sicily to Roger II. A 5m side square tower, placed on the top of the rocky peak, is situated on a pre-existing Samnite settlement, of which two concentric enclosures partially remain. For its particular geographic position, featured by a rocky hill (695m), located between the mid-valley of the Trigno and the mid-valley of the Biferno, Pietracupa represent an important outpost along the frontier line between the castles of the Princedom of Capua. In the second half of the 12th century it is a feud belonging to Berardo, Roberto and Tustaiano of Bagnoli. Some extant parts of wall, still visible on the north-western side of the morgia, may support the idea that the fortified edifice was there placed, and the present Clock (dell’Orologio) Tower was placed upon remains of a tower of the castle. Of considerable interest is the crypt excavated in the crags of the eastern slope of the morgia, which had been a rocky settlement in Byzantine epoch. 1

Desidero ringraziare vivamente il Prof. Guido Vannini e tutto il suo staff per l’invito rivoltomi ad aderire con questo contributo al Convegno Internazionale ‘La Transgiordania nei secoli XII e XIII e le ‘Frontiere’ del Mediterraneo medievale’. Un particolare ringraziamento alla dott.ssa Elisa Pruno per la cortese disponibilità.

Con l’assemblea generale di Silva Marca del 1142 Ruggero II, riorganizzando il Regno, definisce un nuovo severo controllo sugli obblighi feudali. Da questo momento la contea di Boiano prende il nome di contea di Molise, divenendo ‘la più grande e la più compatta delle contee del Regno, resa sempre importante dalla sua posizione geografica attraverso le frontiere tra la Puglia e Capua’.1 Alla nuova contea Ugo II, dietro previa autorizzazione reale, sostituisce, infatti, il toponimo della città di Boiano con il suo cognomen normanno, Moulins (Cuozzo 1981, 126127). Il conte eredita una vasta e articolata contea, che si estende dalla foce del Volturno alla Puglia. I suoi avi, infatti, avevano creato un grande stato compreso tra il Ducatus Apuliae e il Principatus Capuae, annettendo alla contea di Boiano, sul versante settentrionale, la vecchia contea longobarda di Trivento e la Terra Burrellensis, su quello nordorientale, una parte della contea di Larino, ad occidente e a meridione le contee di Isernia e Venafro. Roccaforti come quelle di Venafro, Isernia, Roccamandolfi e Boiano consentono al conte di dominare la viabilità che dal nord scende a Capua e alla Terra di Lavoro, da un lato, e a Benevento e alla Puglia, dall’altro (Di Rocco 2009). Grazie al Catalogus Baronum, il registro dei feudi delle due province normanne, compilato tra il 1150 ed il 1168,

disponiamo dello stato dell’organizzazione del territorio, che corrisponde all’attuale Regione Molise, della leva della magna expeditio, cioè della leva imposta a tutti gli uomini liberi del Regno per allestire un’armata di difesa.2 La linea di confine tra il Principatus Capuae e il Ducatus Apuliae nella contea di Molise, salendo ad est di Sepino, lambiva i castelli di Vinchiaturo, Oratino e Pietracupa, posti in Principatu, per piegare poi in direzione nord-ovest fino alla confluenza del Trigno con il Verrino seguendo il ciglio tattico da Pietrabbondante a Monte Capraro finendo per raggiungere così il territorio abruzzese. Tale confine, nato per motivazioni essenzialmente politico-amministrative, ebbe precise caratteristiche geografiche, essendo tagliato in senso trasversale sud-ovest nord-est dalla valle del Biferno, principale arteria di collegamento tra il Molise interno e il litorale adriatico. Vinchiaturo, oggi piccolo borgo in provincia di Campobasso, con i suoi 628m s.l.m. controllava il passo omonimo al vertice di un dosso collinare nel punto in cui l’estesa pianura di Boiano si restringe e si insinua in direzione del capoluogo regionale. Per l’edizione critica del Catalogus Baronum: JAMISON 1972; per il Commentario: Cuozzo 1984. Il testo tradito del Catalogus Baronum presenta una delle sue lacune proprio laddove si tratta della contea di Molise. La lacuna riguarda il capoverso relativo alla menzione iniziale del conte Ugo (o del suo successore Riccardo di Mandra) e tutti i paragrafi relativi ai feudi e ai feudatari tenuti in demanio dal conte di Molise nel Principatus Capuae e nel Ducatus Apuliae. Sono assenti, inoltre, 26 feudi di cavaliere tenuti in servitio dal conte nel Principatus Capuae. 2

1

Jamison 1933, 76; Errico Cuozzo (1981, 116) non pensa ad una realtà territoriale unitaria, ma ad una contea costituita da una serie di terre feudali, non necessariamente contigue tra loro.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Nel Catalogus Baronum della seconda metà del XII secolo il sito, definito Junclatoro, è feudo di Hugo Cappella, suffeudatario del conte di Molise.3 Del castello, trasformato in palazzo baronale e posto nel punto più alto del borgo, si conservano scarse tracce. Lungo il versante sud-occidentale del nucleo urbano resta parte di una torre a pianta circolare e scarpa, di origine angioina, pertinente il circuito murario (figura 1) (Di Rocco 2009,164-165). Il sito abbandonato, in loc. La Rocca di Oratino, si trova in cima a un picco calcareo in posizione eminente lungo il versante orientale dell’alta valle del Biferno. Una torre quadrangolare di circa 5m di lato, posta al vertice dello sperone roccioso, s’imposta su un preesistente insediamento sannitico, del quale sopravvivono parzialmente due recinti concentrici (figura 2) (Di Rocco 2009, 120-121). Circa due chilometri più a sud è Oratino. Raytinum è menzionato nel privilegio del 1130 con il quale papa Anacleto II concede a Ruggero II la corona di Sicilia (Kehr 1903, 560-561). Il castello normanno è stato inglobato nelle successive fabbriche edilizie del palazzo rinascimentale, posto all’ingresso dell’attuale borgo. Per la sua particolare conformazione geografica, caratterizzata da un rilievo roccioso (695m s.l.m.) che svetta tra la media valle del Trigno e la media valle del Biferno, il castello di Pietracupa dovette rappresentare un importante avamposto lungo la linea di frontiera tra i castelli del Principato di Capua. Nella seconda metà del XII secolo esso è feudo di Berardo, Roberto e Tustaiano di Bagnoli4. Alcuni lacerti murari superstiti, visibili sul versante nord-occidentale della morgia, portano a supporre che qui si trovasse l’originario castello e che l’attuale torre dell’Orologio abbia riutilizzato i resti di una torre del fortilizio (figura 3) (Di Rocco 2009, 5859). Posto alla confluenza tra il Trigno e il Verrino e lambito dal percorso del tratturo Celano-Foggia e dalla via Serniese, l’arteria trasversale prosecuzione del diverticolo della via Latina che entrava nell’alto Sannio, il castello di Pietrabbondante garantiva il controllo sull’interno territorio alto molisano. Della sua esistenza abbiamo notizie sin dall’inizio dell’XI secolo: nel febbraio del 1014 Borrello, conte di Pietrabbondante, con sua moglie Ruta e i figli Giovanni, Borrello II e Oderisio II, donano al monastero di Montecassino la chiesa di Sant’Eustachio in località detta ad Arcum.5 Il Catalogus Baronum attesta che il castello in età normanna è feudo di Rainaldo Borrello.6 La posizione strategica di questo baluardo difensivo è ribadita dal fatto che esso è menzionato nello Statuto sulla riparazione dei castelli emanato da Federico II tra le fortezze demaniali del Co-

mitatus Molisii.7 Del fortilizio si conservano scarse tracce dei muri di cinta e di quelli relativi ad ambienti interni. Il toponimo ‘il Castello’, col quale il maggiore dei tre picchi che caratterizzano il borgo ancora oggi è indicato nel catasto, offre la conferma dell’ubicazione della roccaforte dei conti Borrello. Sul versante nord-occidentale del massiccio calcareo, nei pressi del viottolo che sale sulla vetta, esiste parte di un muro alto circa 7m e spesso 1,5m, mancante nella parte centrale; è ipotizzabile che qui dovesse trovarsi la porta principale di accesso alla fortezza; sul versante sud-orientale, invece, si scorgono resti di un muro perimetrale lungo circa 4m e spesso 1,5 m. Al centro del pianoro della vetta si trovano avanzi di strutture murarie disposte ad angolo retto (figura 4), conservate in alzato per 70/80cm e dello spessore di circa 1m, riferibili, verosimilmente, ad un ambiente interno del castello (Di Rocco 2009, 44-47). Certamente di questo imponente edificio dovettero giovarsi anche i conti normanni nel periodo in cui ressero il feudo, che in età sveva rimase tra i più importanti nel suo ruolo strategico per il controllo della viabilità di collegamento tra il nord e il sud della penisola. Tutti i castelli esaminati in questa sede, con la sola esclusione di Vinchiaturo, sono accomunati da una caratteristica costante, la cui presenza abbiamo potuto riscontrare anche in altri insediamenti fortificati nell’ambito di un più ampio studio sui borghi murati del Molise occidentale: i costruttori normanni adattarono i modelli di fortificazioni d’oltralpe, peculiari del territorio di appartenenza, alle particolari condizioni morfologiche molisane; il tipo della motta artificiale dovette essere rivisto in virtù del fatto che questo territorio dispone naturalmente di picchi, speroni e alte creste perfettamente funzionali allo scopo difensivo, che quindi non necessitano di apparati costruiti ex-novo. Tuttavia i numerosi adattamenti funzionali che gli edifici fortificati hanno subito nel corso dei secoli (Vinchiaturo, Oratino), da un lato, l’alta sismicità di questo territorio che ha provocato in taluni casi (Pietracupa, Pietrabbondante) la totale perdita del manufatto, dall’altro, costituiscono un limite oggettivo che non consente l’indagine strutturale sui primitivi impianti normanni. BIBLIOGRAFIA CB = Catalogus Baronum, a cura di E. Jamison, «Fonti per la Storia d’Italia», 101, I, Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo, Roma 1972. CMC = Chronica Monasterii Casinensis, a cura di H. Hoffmann, MGH, SS., XXXIV, Hannover 1980. Cuozzo, E. 1981. Il formarsi della feudalità normanna nel Molise, Archivio Storico per le Province Napoletane, 20, 105-127. Cuozzo, E. 1984. Catalogus Baronum. Commentario, «Fonti per la Storia d’Italia», Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo, Roma. Di Rocco, G. 2009. Castelli e borghi murati della Contea di Molise (secoli X-XIV), ‘Quaderni di Archeologia Medievale’, X, Firenze.

CB, 730, p. 130: ‘Hugo Cappella dixit quod demanium suum de Junclatoro…’. Verosimilmente dal lat. venclatorium/ventlatorium ‘luogo dove spira il vento’: cfr. Giammarco 1990, 411. 4 CB, 749, p. 135: ‘Berardus de Balneola cum fratribus suis Robberto et Tustaiano tenent… Petram Cupam…’. 5 CMC, p. 176: ‘Borrellus comes de Petra abundanti fecit huic monasterio cartulam oblationis de monasterio sancti Eustasii in finibus eiusdem castri loco, qui dicitur ad Arcum’. Cfr.: Bloch 1986, I, 284-287. 6 CB, 761, pp. 137-138: ‘Raynaldus de Petrahabundante tenet de eodem Comite Freselonem que est sicut ipse dixit feudum iij militum et augmentum eius sunt milites iij’ 3

7 Sthamer 1995, 98: ‘Item castrum Petre habundantis reparari potest per homines ipsius terre, Maccle, Triventi et vallis Anglonis’.

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G. Di Rocco: I castelli normanni di frontiera tra il Ducatus Apuliae e il Principatus Capuae Giammarco, E. 1990. Toponomastica abruzzese e molisana, in Dizionario abruzzese e molisano, VI, Roma. Jamison, E. 1933. I conti di Molise e di Marsia nei secoli XII e XIII, in Convegno Storico Abruzzese-Molisano, Atti e Memorie, I, Casalbordino, 73-178. Jamison, E. (a cura di) 1972. Catalogus Baronum, in Fonti per la Storia d’Italia, 101, I, Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo, Roma. Kehr, F.P. 1903. Nachtrage zu der Romischen Berichten,

in Nachrichten der k. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, Phil. Hist. Klasse, 560-561. Sthamer, E. 1995. L’amministrazione dei castelli nel Regno di Sicilia sotto Federico II e Carlo I d’Angiò, a cura di H. Houben, Bari, (1a edizione Lipsia 1914).

Figura 1 - Vinchiaturo, torre del circuito murario angioino (foto G. Di Rocco).

Figura 2 - La Rocca, loc. Oratino, torre da sud-est (foto G. Di Rocco).

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Figura 3 - Pietracupa, lo sperone su cui si ergeva il castello (foto G. Di Rocco).

Figura 4 - Pietrabbondante, resti di strutture murarie del castello (foto G. Di Rocco).

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

QUANDO IL LIRI NON SEPARA: PASSI, VIABILITÀ E STRUTTURE DI DIFESA DI UNA ‘FRONTIERA MEDIEVALE’ NEL LAZIO.1 Sabrina Pietrobono Università degli Studi dell’Aquila

Abstract (2008) As the Liri does not separate: passes, road network and defensive structures of a Medieval “frontier” of the Latium region. The word ‘frontier’, always evolving and difficult to consider in a narrow sense, refers to ‘what is to face’, even in terms of conflict.’Boundary’, on the other hand, indicates an enclosed space, a definite line. The two terms are closely linked to each other. An interesting case of study in this sense comes from the southern Latium, where centuries of Italian unification have not settled yet even very dramatic claims and conflicts, which tend to define diverse rather than common cultural spaces, and differences rather than similarities. Literary sources tell of the taking of Arce, Arpino and Sora by the Longobards, happened in about the early 8th century. As from that moment on, and throughout the Middle and Modern Age, the two areas will have been separated, nonetheless featured by a great permeation of each other; such a permeation of the political and cultural frontier was possible because of open areas and direct connections, roads and some passes, although fortified and militarily watched over. Data coming from surveys and researches on documents, concerning the territory of the Middle and Low Latin Valley (Latium), has evidenced the presence of several fortified complexes as well as important elements to tracing the boundary line between Roman Pope’s lands and southern kingdoms: this seems to emerge to a considerable extent as regards archaeology and monumental architecture, especially for the span between the 12th and 15th century. Main purpose is to point out results about the eventual unbroken link between the territories of Sora and Castrum, stressing on the elements, which featured the physical boundary line between the two contexts, but that cannot be always immediately ascertained and realised in terms of either archaeology or chronology, when they are not featured by monumental structures. As concerns the territory of Sora, the boundary line ran to the north through the mountain ridges from the Latium to the Abruzzi region: the Abbey of Casamari was a fundamental place along the road that had in Roman times connected the ancient centres of Ferentinum, Frusino, Verulae and Sora. Near to the arteries and passes upon the River Liri, imposing structures relating to defence and checkpoints remain, either independent or connected with castra. An example of the former is, to the south-west of Sora, the castrum of Castelluccio, in the territory “of the Kingdom”, having the function of first defence of the castle of Isola Liri; the tower of St. Paolo upon the River Liri, by the bridge with the same name, is attested to south of Castelluccio. St. Eleuterio’s Tower is the first considerable complex relevant to pass-watching between the Church’s State and the Kingdom, which was perhaps erected at the end of the 13th century. In the papal region, small ruined or partially preserved towers remain, along the routes that from the territories subjected to Rome penetrated the Kingdom. Beyond the castrum of Isoletta, the border separated the castle of St. Giovanni Incarico, in the diocese of Aquinum and within the Kingdom, from that of Falvaterra, in papal territory, and the castrum of Pastena from that of Castrum, nowadays Castro dei Volsci.

1

Ringrazio il prof. Guido Vannini per aver accolto questo lavoro nei presenti atti. Questo contributo è il primo di una serie in elaborazione riguardante il tema delle frontiere. Sono stati schedati in forma necessariamente sintetica i piccoli insediamenti fortificati, meno noti in bibliografia, oppure inediti, mentre ai siti maggiori o a quelli già sufficientemente studiati in tempi recenti è stato fatto un semplice richiamo, pure per motivi di spazio, rinviando per approfondimenti e fonti, in questi casi, ai testi citati nei riferimenti bibliografici.

INTRODUZIONE. Il territorio del Lazio Meridionale, termine convenzionale che indica oggi le province di Frosinone e Latina, fu unitario in età romana, dapprima entro i limiti della I regio, poi della provincia denominata Campania.1 Tra la fine del VII ed i primi anni dell’VIII secolo, il beneventano Gisulfo ultimò la conquista delle roccaforti bizantine di Arce, Arpino e Sora (Hist. Lang. 6, 27), mentre i territori a NO del Liris rimasero nel confine del «Ducatus Romanus». È plausibile che, prima di tale data, nello spazio tra il Liri, il Melfa e la distrutta abbazia di Montecassino abbia trovato applicazione “la prassi germanica di desertificare le zone

di frontiera” (Sennis 1996, 37), tanto che proprio l’abbazia benedettina poté essere nuovamente costruita soltanto nei primi decenni dell’VIII secolo; l’area divenne forse “zona cuscinetto” o “terra di nessuno”, dove “il controllo dell’autorità insediata è quasi fittizio, mentre quello del nuovo arrivato è troppo debole per sostituirlo”.2 Dati sulla cultura materiale delle popolazioni ivi stanziate stanno progressivamente emergendo dagli scavi di Sora, Atina, Castro dei Volsci, da tempo noto, rivelatori di commistioni culturali tra i residenti in loco ( Nicosia, Trigona 2006, 329-332; Bellini 2001, 71-76; Tomassetti 2006, 305-312; Luttazzi 1992, 767-787). Interessante è la diffusa presenza di toponimi cultuali tradizionalmente associabili a bizantini e longobardi, quali il piano di S. Giorgio e S. Angelo, distribuiti tra Sora ed il monastero di Casamari (Figura 1). Proveniente dalla Valle Roveto a Nord di Sora, il fiume Liri3 fino a Ceprano avanza in direzione sud prima in una

Solin 1996, 3; 21; Paolo Diacono, Hist. Lang. 2, 17; cfr Falkenhausen 1994, 323-326. Il nome riemergerà nella pontificia «Campania e Marittima» o «Terra Domini Papae», «Campagna del Papa», cfr Frutaz 1972, I, XV-XVII, e nella regnicola «Campania», tra il Liri e Montecassino; nei CMC, II, 32, 226; 55, 283 (Soram Campanie civitatem); III, 23, 389, il termine Campania si riferisce sia alla «Campagna», il territorio “romano” dall’Urbe alla città di Sora, sia a quella «Campania» in età sveva Giustizierato di Terra Laboris et comitatus Molisii, Sthamer 1914, 11. Il nome di Terra di Lavoro ha storia complessa ricostruita in Gentile 1979, 9-63, il quale già ricorda che Riccardo di Sangermano ne evita l’uso per la zona del cassinate; nei Gesta Henrici II et Ricardi I, si attesta: «Et ad sanctum Germanum qui est ad pedem montis Cassie deficit Terra Laboris et incipit Campania», citazione a 31. 1

2

Confronti sono gli studi in Calabria, Roma 1998, 7-27 e sulla frontiera bizantino-longobarda nel Salento, Stranieri 2000, 333-355, da dove ho tratto la citazione: la riflessione dell’autore mi sembra da tenere in considerazione anche per il presente contesto. 3 Per il Liri nella memoria collettiva locale, cfr Corradini 2007, 45-53.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean discontinua piana alluvionale, la conca sorana, poi attraverso la soglia di contatto tra i monti Simbruini ed Ernici ed il complesso dei Monti di Arpino, dove si apre una larga gola. Presso Arce, il fiume entra nella più ampia pianura della Valle Latina, caratterizzata da microrilievi e basse colline, che tendono ad aumentare di quota allorché ci si avvicina ai monti Ausoni ed Aurunci. Emerge così la debolezza del versante laziale: il fiume non era una linea di confine invalicabile, l’attraversamento era possibile in particolare nei periodi di secca. Nell’anno 1821, proprio tra Sora ed Arce, Pietro Coppola testimonia non vi fossero rilevanti impedimenti all’avanzata di truppe nemiche: «Di dieci più celebri invasioni, una fu inutilmente tentata per il Tronto, due sventuratamente per Rieti, e sette per Ceprano, delle quali cinque acquistarono il regno e posero sul trono di Napoli dinastie novelle; ed intanto questo tratto della frontiera né forte né fortificato, è distante dalla capitale per soli tre giorni di marcia» (Colletta 1847, 419-420). Lo stesso autore ripete: «Il tratto debole del confine è il terreno tra Ceperano e Sora, lungo il Liri; ma lo proteggon gli Abruzzi, tre province nei gioghi degli Apennini, tra i fiumi Tronto e Sangro» (Colletta 1834, 199). Nelle schede che seguono si accorpano i principali dati fin qui raccolti utili alla definizione topografica del confine tra Patrimonio pontificio e Regni del Sud nel tratto Sora - Ceprano, attraverso i secoli.

oggi in gran parte divelti; in qualche caso, si reimpiegarono le colonnette preesistenti (cfr sch. 4).6 Lungo il confine si organizzarono inoltre infrastrutture doganali, fortini (visibili nella carta del Rizzi Zannoni del 1808), case per la guardiania pontificia e di Regno, così come prima si erano costruite strutture fortificate castellane. La contrada “Fra due mondi”7, a SE del Porrino, si dice pure “Costa del Regno”; a S è la contrada “Colonnelle”, in territorio di Monte S. Giovanni. 4. Contrada Collasturo, Ponte S. Lorenzo. 41° 40’ 19,1’’; 13°, 32’, 52,2’’; CTR 390110, q. 216,2 m. A NE del convento di S. Lorenzo o “Le muraglie”, da cui il nome del manufatto; vi convergeva un tratto di strada basolata; un percorso proseguiva per Castelliri ed Isola del Liri (Aurigemma 1911, 38-39). Una “vertenza sulla differenza dei confini indicati dalle genti di Monte S. Giovanni e Castelluccio”, datata 17528, intendeva dirimere le questioni esistenti tra le due comunità, pontificia la prima, “di regno” la seconda. Il Governatore di Frosinone, “con la scorta di uomini vecchi e pratici de’ siti” eresse una macera di sassi sul Monte di Licinetto (“o sia Contrada di Collestura”), individuata come punto “incontrastabile di confine fra le dette sue comunità”. Porre elementi quali cippi e ripristinare macere lungo fossi e campi per segnalare il passaggio dall’uno all’altro stato, sono azioni che si ripeteranno nel tempo; nel corso della sua ricognizione, il governatore, con l’aiuto di testimoni, rileva la presenza di cippi divelti e di macere disfatte, da ripristinare, ad esempio: «(...) i suddetti sassi e pietre s’incontrano quasi nell’istessa linea che viene a formare il ginocchio di detta Macera la qual linea (...) va a colpire in una possessione posseduta oggi da un certo Mastrantoni del Monte, nella qual possessione asserirono lo dette persone de auditu parimente da loro antenati, che vi fosse piantata anticamente un’altra colonnetta, la quale essendo stata levata via dalle stesse genti del Castelluccio, si trovasse al presente gettata in un fosso, o sia siepe di detta possessione. Infatti portatosi il Governatore nel luogo indicato ivi trovò colca la detta colonnetta et constatò che detto fosso o siepe non è molto distante dal sito dove viene a ferire la linea retta formata dal ginocchio di detta macera. Ne si può dubitarsi che detta colonnetta non sia stata Termine, perché oltre che si vede oculatamente essere tagliata a tale uso, e che ne indica possessione, ne in quello vicinanze vi si sia trovato pietre di sorte alcuna, nel conseglio celebrato nell’anno 1689 si fa menzione di detta colonnetta, e si rileva che fin da allora era stata rimossa dal suo sito, e trasportata nel fosso, ove si trova presentemente». La selva di “Lantera” era di spettanza della Camera Apostolica, quella di “Tocco di Castelluccio” al Regno.

F.° 152, III SO (Isola del Liri).4 1. Abbazia cistercense, Casamari, 41° 40’ 17,2’’N; 13°, 29’, 12,1’’ E; CTR 390100, q. 262 m; sul luogo dell’antica Cereatae Marianae, posta lungo la strada romana tra Veroli e Sora, di cui resta un tratto di basolato. Fondata secondo tradizione da un gruppo di verolani, nel 1005 o nel 1036, ai margini del territorio cittadino dell’ultima diocesi in territorio pontificio. Al XIII secolo risale la trasformazione in forme gotico cistercensi ed è ora complesso munito e saldamente chiuso.5 2. S. Maria del Reggimento, Monte S. Giovanni Campano. Lat. 41° 40’ 9,8’’N; long. 13°, 29’, 58,1’’E; CTR 390110, q. 310 m. La chiesa, luogo di sosta presso il confine, originariamente apparteneva a Casamari (Valeriani 2001, 188191). 3. Dogana di Porrino. 41° 40’ 18’’N; 13°, 30’, 46,1’’E; CTR 390110. La continuità del confine nel tempo è segnalata dai cippi di confine d’età borbonica raggiungibili dai lati della strada moderna, presso il Ponte del colle dei Morti, poco oltre il Km 17. La pratica di porre cippi di confine è già attestata nel medioevo (cfr la colonnella di Ceprano a S. Giusta, sch. 17). Quando, in applicazione al trattato del 26 settembre 1840, si decise di disporre “colonnette lapidee”, in travertino, o pietra viva di calcare, o tufo arenario, fu necessario integrare gli elementi fino ad allora utilizzati, come le macere, con ulteriori cippi recanti gli stemmi dei due stati confinanti, giunti fino a noi anche se

6

I numerosi cippi di confine che si rintracciano lungo tutta la linea confinaria moderna, non saranno oggetto di schedatura specifica; si rinvia per essa a D’Arpino, Farinelli, 2000, 103-125. Per la ricostruzione della linea confinaria in età moderna, cfr Meriggi 2005, 37. 7 Franitimundus o Fratimundus in ACV 1985, n. 386, 80; nn. 425, 427, 91; n. 452, 98. 8 ASV, Fondo Boncompagni Ludovisi, Prot. 36, n. 16: “Relazione del governatore di Frosinone riguardante i confini territoriali tra Monte S. Giovanni Campano, stato pontificio, e Castelluccio, regno di Napoli, data alla Sacra Consulta”, ff. 133-145.

4

Le indicazioni nella titolatura si rifanno alla tavoletta moderna. Cfr Farina, Fornari 1983, 11-21; Per le fasi del complesso, si veda quanto riassunto da Fiorani 1996, 78, nota 69. 5

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S. Pietrobono: Quando il Liri non separa: passi, viabilità e strutture di difesa to del territorio: è menzionata nell’aprile 98912 la cella di Insula. Nella seconda metà del XII secolo, il feudo di quattro militi di Isola e Castelluccio era nelle mani di Roffredo dell’Isola, insieme a Rainaldo Boccavitello e a Rainaldo d’Aquino, signore di Roccasecca, di Casale Cantalupo e della terza parte di Aquino (Jamison 1972, nn. 1008, 1011, 1012, 181 – 182). Il 28 Novembre 1269, l’Insula Filipetri appare nelle liste angioine tenuto da un castellano scutifer; nella lista del 1271, da un castellano concergius (Sthamer 1914, 60). Nel 1579 ca è: «... una rocca di fabrica antica ma molto comoda, con sale che hanno di longhezza più di cento palmi et con stantie grandi e magnifiche, assai eminenti al piano dove al basso la terra è abitata ...» (Pagano 1985, 231). L’attuale castello, privato, è posizionato su di un colle circondato dalle acque del Liri in cascata. Forse il corpo centrale attorno alla torre (alta, con coronamento superiore ricostruito; paramento in conci regolari, particolarmente curati) può avere un legame con precedenti strutture medievali, inglobate nella residenza, ma non è possibile al momento verificare tale ipotesi.

(...) Dal qual sito si va poi a riuscire in un campo, (...) che non si controverte sia compreso nello Stato Pontificio, tira infino alle radici del Monte Corneto, dove asseriscono le persone esservi un’altra macera di sassi per termine di detti territori». Il documento descrive numerosi campi e macere che da secoli delimitavano il confine, specificando che già nella seconda metà del XVI secolo era stato stipulato un protocollo di intesa sul ripristino di confini certi, mediante termini fissi. 5. Castelluctium, oggi Castelliri, 41° 40’ 43,9’’N; 13°, 33’, 10,4’’E; CTR 390110, q. 230 m. Risulta dubbia l’identificazione con un Castelluczo del 1026 o 1031, più probabilmente il colle Castelluccio, tra Arpino e Fontana Liri.9 Il 5 giugno 1147, si nomina Castelluctium, in un documento di permuta di terre (Mottironi 1958, doc. 159, 259-261). Nella seconda metà del XII secolo è affidato a Roffrido de Insula ed al nipote, feudatario di Isola e Castelluccio10. Nel 1215 confluì, con la vicina Isola, nella cessione della Contea di Sora e delle terre limitrofe al papa Innocenzo III, effettuata da Federico II di Svevia.11 Tra 1241/1246 la «Rocca Sorelle reparari debet per homines Vallis Orbeti, Pescli Solidi, Brocti, Vallis Sorane et per homines Sore; homines eciam Castellucii et Insule tenentur ibidem facere sarcinales» (Sthamer 1914, 94.). Nel 1579 ca (Pagano 1985, 232): « ... Il suo territorio dalla parte disopra confina con Sora et anche con l’Isola, anzi tra queste due comunità si contrasta per causa di questi confini, ma però sono tra loro in termine d’accomodamento; confina ancora a levante con detta Isola, a ponente con Baucco e Veroli dello stato della chiesa, et a mezzogiorno col Monte San Giovanni del marchese del Vasto con che viene a terminar nel fiume, in luogo detto la Torre di San Paulo, dove il dominio di VE verso campagna finisce (...)». Alla fine del Settecento era «circondata all’intorno di antiche mura castellane, ma in qualche sito rovinate. Vi si entra per due porte, una a levante, e l’altra a ponente. Presso di quest’ultima si regge tuttavia in piede alta torre intera, ma con qualche lesione, cagionata forse dalle scocche de sofferti attacchi, cui fu soggetta la Terra (...)» (Pistilli 1798, 26). Il castrum aveva funzione di “antemurale” al castello di Isola Liri, su un ridotto colle adiacente il moderno abitato in direzione est, a N della strada romana Casamari – Arpino, che superava a S il Liri sul ponte San Paolo, mentre una sua deviazione, sulla quale si ubica Castelliri, raggiungeva il colle di Isola del Liri e il sito di S. Domenico, presso il Liri. Restano una torretta semicircolare inserita in una civile abitazione, ed un tratto di muratura, di difficile collocazione sul piano cronologico. “Largo torre” doveva essere la sede della torre circondata da un borgo compatto di case mura. 6. Insula Filiorum Petri, oggi Isola del Liri. 41° 40’ 49,0’’ N; 13° 34’ 27,3’’ E; CTR 390110, q. 216 m. Appare nel X secolo nell’ambito della riorganizzazione del popolamen-

7. Torre S. Sebastiano, Isola Liri, localmente definita Torre di Marica, 41° 41’ 39,9’’ N; 13° 34’ 30,6’’E; CTR 390110, q. 342 m. È creduta una struttura di difesa, ma forse è un mulino a vento, simile all’esemplare rintracciato a Pofi (Pietrobono 2006b, 154-155), cui rimanderebbero il massiccio corpo vuoto, difficilmente associabile alle altre torri di difesa, i grandi finestroni superiori, ed il numero considerevole di incavi per travi. Realizzata in opera incerta, usando materiali locali in particolare puddinghe locali, costituite da rocce formate da ciottoli arrotondati, cementati con malta di matrice calcarea, impastato con calce e ghiaia. La canna della torre era in origine divisa in due piani, il piano terreno era coperto da una volta, perduta. Conserva aperture rettangolari con stipiti, soglie ed architravi in pietra, con alcune perdite. 8. Torre di S. Domenico, forse presso la Badia di S. Domenico; 41° 41’ 49,7’’ N; 13° 34’ 47,0’’ E; CTR 390110; q. 270 m. Da Croce d’Isola, la via romana oltrepassava il Liri sul Ponte Marmone, presso la Barca di S. Domenico: evidentemente il ponte crollato non perse il suo ruolo di riferimento, e vi si appoggiava una scafa per il transito sul fiume (Aurigemma 1911, 29; Rizzello 1985, 47). L’abbazia di San Domenico di Sora è ubicata alla confluenza del fiume Fibreno col fiume Liri; fu fondata nell’XI secolo da Domenico di Foligno. Nel 1222, fu unita giuridicamente all’abbazia di Casamari.13 Berardo Gaspare di Aquino marchese di Pescara, il 18 agosto 1458, possedeva, in Terra di Lavoro, Arpino colla Torre di S. Domenico (Magliari 1897, I, n. XXI, 55-60). Oggi è di dubbia identificazione la pianta topografica della casa e Villa di Cicerone del 1750, indica una piccola torre mezza diruta attaccata all’angolo della chiesa di San

9

CMC II, 55, 272; ed. Magliari 1899, III, 5 - 7, n. 55, cit. 6. Urbano, Quadrini 2004, 48; Jamison 1972, n. 1011, 182. 11 Huillard–Bréholles 1852, II,2 n. 11, 427; Liber Censuum, I, 428-429; Antonelli 1986, 277. 10

12

Cfr Antonelli 1986, appendice, doc. 2, 371. Farina, Fornari, 1986, XXII; 6-8; per ulteriori notizie, cfr Antonelli 1986, 208-239. 13

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Domenico,14 presso l’abbazia, nell’angolo sinistro della facciata.

5. La torre. 41° 35’ 29,5’’ N; 13° 31’ 25,6’’ E; CTR 402030; q. 129,0 m. Torre inglobata in un casolare, presso il fiume Liri; Cfr Stasolla 2005, 526. Torre di Canneto nel 1436. Nelle vicinanze, sussiste il toponimo, da legare ad una località Cannetum, forse castrum, che nel 1295 è detto però Villa cannete, Pietrobono 2007b, 128.

9. Colle Montano; Isola del Liri; Torre di Tremoletto. 41° 41’ 34,1’’ N; 13° 35’ 38,0’’ E; CTR 390120, q. 272 m ca. Forse era struttura utile alla sorveglianza della strada Sora – Arpino. Si trovava al centro di uno specchio d’acqua a forma esagonale ed è stata smantellata. «La torre era costruita con blocchi sbozzati ed il materiale proveniente dalla demolizione fu riutilizzato. La piana di Tremoleto fu utilizzata per scopi agricoli» (Carbone 1971, 117; Rizzello 1990, 151).

6. Castelnuovo; 41° 35’ 35,8’’ N; 13° 30’ 46,8’’ E; CTR 402030; q. 276,0 m. Menzionato nella seconda metà del secolo XI, in diocesi di Veroli. Cfr Pietrobono 2007b, 128. 7. Strangolagalli; 41° 36’ 48,0’’ N; 13° 29’ 28,6’’ E; CTR 390140; q. 235 m. Nella diocesi verolana, segnalato nel 1112 come oppidum. Cfr Pietrobono 2007b, 115.

10. Carnello (Figura 3). Comune di Sora; 41° 41’ 22,4’’ N; 13° 36’ 14,4’’ E; CTR 390120; q. 275 m. Legata all’insediamento aperto di Carnello in prossimità del ponte sul fiume Fibreno o Carnello. Il 19 ottobre 1400, tra Giacomo Etendart di Arpino, e Matteo di Celano di Isola Liri, si disputava se la Turris de Cannello, sita et posita in provincia Terre Laboris iuxta flumen de Cannello iuxta territorium soranum, si trovasse in territorio di Arpino o di Isola del Liri (Magliari 1897, II, doc. XXXIII, 90). La disputa diviene in realtà un indizio della funzione della torre, probabilmente segnale di confine tra comunità vicine. È un alto torrione recentemente restaurato, a base quadrangolare, praticabile, con corpo cilindrico emergente in altezza, di cui non sono conservati però i piani di utilizzo; al piano terra si apre un grande ambiente quadrangolare, coperto a crociera. La porta ad arco a sesto ribassato, in conci di dimensioni medie lascia accedere alla struttura crollata per metà, tranne che nel pianterreno. Si tratta forse di una tarda torre di avvistamento segnalante il passaggio di confine tra il territorio dei castelli di Arpino, Sora e Isola del Liri.15

8. Torre di San Paolo. 41° 39’ 38’ N; 13° 33’ 27,5’’ E; CTR 390110; q. 202,2 m. Attestata a sud di Castelluccio, presso il ponte omonimo.16 Vi giungeva un diverticolo della strada romana da Collasturo ad Arpinum; il ponte era di detto S. Paolo o “delle sette cosce”. Si nomina la chiesa di San Paolo in Campo nel 1110.17 9. Castellum Zupponi Un ripostiglio monetale tardo romano fu rinvenuto prima del 1899 a Fontana Liri Inferiore (Pistilli 2000, 55-56). Nel 1006 ca «Giovanni del fu Albino, abitante nel territorio di Erpino, in località castellum Zupponi», vende «una vigna nel territorio del medesimo castello ...».18 Nel 1110, nella bolla di Pasquale II, ritorna «in castello Zapponi ecclesiam s. Marie» (Squilla 1971, 171-176). È stato localizzato presso Fontana Liri Inferiore (Ciceroni 1990-1991, 63-71). 10. Castrum Fontanae (figura 5), oggi Fontana Liri Superiore. 41° 37’ 3,3’’ N; 13° 34’ 1, 8 E; CTR 390150, q. 365 m. Su un colle dal profilo allungato in senso NO-SE, sulla strada Arce - Sora. Nel 1142 emerge il toponimo “Fontana” (Pistilli 2000, 75). Nella seconda metà del XII secolo era feudo del Conte Roberto di Caserta, con Arpino e Montenero (Pietrobono 2008, 105-108). Nel 1215 era parte della Contea di Sora. Nel 1221, Tommaso, di Caserta, riconfermò diversi benefici (già precedentemente concessi dal suo bisavolo Roberto Maggiore e dal nonno Guglielmo) e ne stabilì altri a clericis, militibus et aliis bonis hominibus di Fontana” (Caetani 1922, 29). Tra 1241/1246: «Item Castrum Fontane reparari debet per homines ipsius terre» (Sthamer 1914, 95). Il 28 novembre 1269, appare nelle liste angioine tenuto da un castellano scutifer e da 10 servientes; così nella lista del 1278, del 1280 (Sthamer 1914, 60). Il 10 febbraio 1295, Carlo II infeuda la Contea di Caserta, con Fontana ed Atina, ai Caetani (Caetani 1922, 86-88). Nel 1579 ca. è così descritto: «questa terra è a banda manca del fiume, posta in colla che pende assai; ha nel più alto

F°. 160 IV NO (Arce). 1. Monte S. Giovanni Campano. 41° 38’ 25,0’’ N; 13° 30’ 52,9’’ E; CTR 390150; q. 420,5 m. Appare all’inizio dell’XI secolo; ha storia complessa, cfr Pietrobono 2007b, p 117-124. Il castrum si fortifica compiutamente a seguito del passaggio di una sua grande parte alla famiglia d’Aquino, poco oltre la metà del XII secolo. Si conserva un castello attualmente sotto esame da chi scrive. 2. La Torretta. 41° 37’ 57,6’’ N; 13° 30’ 2,4’’ E; CTR 390150; q. 362,3 m. Torre con recinto, intonacata, un tempo abitata. Cfr Stasolla 2005, 526. 3. Colle Mendrella. 41° 38’ 9,2’’ N; 13° 31’ 22,6’’ E; CTR 390150; q. 275 ca m. Torretta, ca 4,6 m per lato, si vuole avesse ruolo “giurisdizionale”; descrizione, cfr Stasolla 2005, 525. 4. Rave Cornacchione. 41° 37’ 42,9’’ N; 13° 31’ 0,8’’ E; CTR 390150; q. 302,7 m. Torretta d’avvistamento, ca 3, 20 m per lato; h max 1,20 m. Cfr Stasolla 2005, 525-526.

16 Arcata

visibile in Urbano, Quadrini 2004, 27. Bolla di Pasquale II, Squilla 1971, 175; Aurigemma 1911, 41; 47-48, n. 1. 18 Leccisotti 1972, n. 4, doc. 1440, 267. Magliari 1897, II, n. IX, 33-34. La più tarda espressione Scipionis è corruttela del più antico toponimo (Zupponis). 17

14 Aurigemma 15

1911, appendice, n. 8 dell’elenco. cfr Rizzello 1990.

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S. Pietrobono: Quando il Liri non separa: passi, viabilità e strutture di difesa una rocca di fabrica antica e trista, tutta rovinata di dentro» (Pagano 1985, 232). L’impianto castrale si sviluppa con forma allungata in senso NO-SE; le case si dispongono lungo due assi viari che confluiscono da nord in un solo percorso al centro dell’abitato nell’estremità SE. Sono individuabili la cerchia muraria del borgo ed il castello (Pistilli 2000, 67). A sinistra dell’edificio parrocchiale è ubicato un torrione a base cilindrica, dotato di scarpa, che si distingue per la sua posteriorità rispetto al resto del recinto; può trattarsi di un intervento rinascimentale, per disegno e dimensioni. La cinta è composta da case mura con alcune torri cilindriche, tre visibili, che sporgono dalla linea della cortina esterna, con base a scarpa. La prima poggia direttamente sul piano di roccia, al vertice di un grande caseggiato rettangolare che emerge per la sua imponenza, in stato di abbandono. La seconda di dimensioni minori, è incorporata in un edificio a circa metà del perimetro della cinta muraria. La terza è presso la chiesa di S. Croce, nel rione “Case spallate”. Del castello è ben conservato il lato sudoccidentale della cortina, corrispondente ad un edificio palazziale con finestre dal semplice profilo rettangolare distribuite su due ordini: si compone di due corpi di fabbrica intersecantisi ad angolo in corrispondenza del muro laterale all’attuale torre dell’orologio. Vi si accede da una porta aperta all’esterno del castello, costruita evidentemente nella fase in cui la struttura fu restaurata per il cambio d’uso. L’interno è stato alterato dall’inserimento di ballatoi in legno per la manutenzione dell’orologio. Il paramento murario esterno si presenta in filari di bozze calcaree legati da abbondante legante, una regolarità che richiama la capacità tecnica del vicino torrione di Monte S. Giovanni Campano (Pietrobono 2007b, 117-124), pur se con una pezzatura di minore dimensione. Le catene angolari si innestano agli spigoli alternando e sfalsando i diatoni con estrema precisione. L’ambito cronologico di riferimento è più propriamente il XIV secolo inoltrato. Nei due corpi di fabbrica interni al palazzo si entra attraverso due ingressi ad arco, a tutto sesto quello disposto sul lato sud, ad ogiva quello ad occidente19. Integravano il complesso altre strutture, non ispezionabili ad impianto chiuso.

visibile di ca 3,50 m; il resto è coperto da vegetazione. Si trova in collegamento visivo diretto con la torre di S. Eleuterio o Campolato. 12. La Turris Campilati, Torre di Campolato o del Pedaggio o di S. Eleuterio, 41° 35’ 53,3’’ N; 13° 33’ 8,0’’ E; CTR 402030, q. 135 s.l.m., in territorio di Arce, presso la riva sinistra del fiume Liri, tra le località Campostefano e S. Eleuterio. É il primo grande complesso di “custodia di passo” tra Stato e Regno, eretto forse alla fine del XIII secolo. Una recente ipotesi collega Raynonus de Caplato, del 1175, a Campolato (Jaminson 1972, n. 1271, 265; Ebanista 2007, 47). Nel “tenimento” di Arce, il Cayro collocava il villaggio di Campolato; vi ricordava un ponte semidistrutto: “Vi ho passato anch’io sopra travi sui pilastri, che al presente esistono ...».20 Nel 1431, Eugenio IV invitò l’Abate di Montecassino a ricevere a nome del papa la Terra di Arce ed i suoi fortilizi, la Turris Campilati, la terra di Babuco, il castrum Fractarum, Castri novi e le altre terre del ribelle Antonio Colonna. É menzionata nelle fonti d’età aragonesi (Cfr Ebanista 2007, 49-51). Del complesso, era parte integrante un’osteria, ricordata già nella prima metà del XVI secolo.21 Il ponte fu demolito affinché i Baroni del Regno riscuotessero il pedaggio in un solo luogo nel territorio di una stessa terra; si preferì mantenere la dogana di Isoletta (sch. 18); nel 1722 è attestato l’uso dei piloni residui del ponte da parte degli abitanti del posto come supporto ad un tavolato che consentiva il transito tra le due rive.22 La fortificazione risponde ad una tipologia di costruzione a torre presente nel Lazio Meridionale (Torre del Piano di Piglio, Torre di Tufano presso Anagni, Torretta di Monte San Giovanni Campano). Il complesso architettonico è costituito da una torre con un recinto fortificato, a pianta quadrangolare, e un annesso basso corpo di fabbrica. La torre, a pianta quadrata (6,15 x 6,20m), è alta 19 m, e si sviluppava per cinque livelli originari. Occupa un estensione di terreno di circa 200 m2, si trova a quota 135 m slm, ad un’altezza di circa 10 m rispetto alla riva del fiume sottostante, acquistando in tal modo un ampio raggio visivo sul corso d’acqua. Cfr Ebanista 2007. 13. Arce. 41° 35’ 16’’ N; 13° 34’ 26’’ E; CTR 402030 q. 520 m. Aggiungo alla descrizione di Arce23, che appare tra il VII e l’VIII secolo, la presenza del toponimo Cancello, posto in corrispondenza di un fossato, il rio Cancello, che scorre presso il colle di Arce e di una struttura fortificata con torrette quadrangolari e circolari, a chiudere il passaggio della strada che, costeggiando lo stesso colle, prosegue verso Sora, dove all’ingresso della città da O si riscontra il medesimo toponimo Cancello, in coincidenza di una struttura fortificata d’accesso alla città; ad Atina, in Val Comino, è presente, in una località Cancello, una ulteriore

11. La Torretta 41° 36’ 47,3’’ N; 13° 33’ 48,2’’ E. CTR 390150, q. 377,4m. Si trova su un plateau calcareo, che domina i siti di Fontana Liri superiore, della torre di S. Eleuterio, di Monte S. Giovanni Campano e di Arpino. Si conserva la base di una struttura a torre dalla pianta quadrangolare irregolare, con resti di elevato fino a 2 m di altezza. Le murature hanno tessitura in bozze, ricoperte da uno spesso strato di intonaco di colore rosa. Dal lato nord in senso orario, misurano m 4, 75; 4, 61; 4, 90; 4, 50; lo spessore murario rilevabile sul lato ovest è 1 m ca; sul lato est 85 cm; 55 cm sul lato sud. Il muro sud prosegue verso occidente con una cortina

20

I resti del ponte sono ancora visibili nei periodi di magra del corso del fiume, a conferma della testimonianza del Cayro 1808, 178; 1811, 37. 21 Fonti in Ebanista 2007, 40-46; 54-55..... 22 1690 – 1722. Memoria sul ponte detto di S. Eleuterio sul fiume Liri in confine di regno con Monte S. Giovanni, stato ecclesiastico con attestato di quest’ultima comunità. ASV, Arch. Boncompagni Ludovisi, prot. 32, n. 78, ff. 347rv-348rv ebanista 2007, 45. 23 Effettuata da Ebanista 2006, 65-79.

19

É stato possibile (anno 2005) individuare la scala che conduceva ai livelli superiori, posta nel corpo sud, ed attraversare il salone al piano terra fino ad individuare due stanze adiacenti. Per il resto la vegetazione fitta ha impedito ulteriori osservazioni. In seguito è stato chiuso per restauri.

399

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean struttura fortificata. Tra la struttura fortificata di Arce e la sovrastante Rocca (sch. 14) non sono state trovate tracce di murature continue; è credibile che la struttura di Arce fosse pertanto limitata alla funzione di cancello che si riscontra in altri siti della Valle Latina. Cfr Ebanista 2006.

Dalle immagini satellitari riemerge la linea di confine, tracciata sul terreno con fossati come il Rio S. Giacomo, e siepi, quale fissata dal Rizzi Zannoni, rimasto a segnalare i confini intercomunali (Colasanti 1912; Pietrobono 2007a, 106-108). 18. Insula Pontis Solarati, oggi Isoletta di Arce; 41° 31’ 18,7’’ N; 13° 32’ 43,3’’ E; CTR 402070, q. 92 m. Situato a sud del pianoro di Opri; l’idronimo insula indica un corso d’acqua che avvolgeva parzialmente il sito: il fiume Liri sul versante SE, un fossato sul lato NE. Nel 1174 arse l’Insula Pontis solarati (Ann. Cecc., 286). Nel 1240 Federico pone gli alloggiamenti dell’esercito raccolto nel Regno nei suoi pressi (Ryccardus de Sancto Germano, 206). Il 1 gennaio 1270, una sua parte fu concessa in feudo a Rinaldo di Aquino da Carlo d’Angiò (Magliari 1899, III, LVII, 9-10). Nel 1487 Isoletta risulta disabitata.28 Durante la costruzione della SS82, direttamente prospiciente il fiume Liri, si rinvennero lacerti di murature, in pessimo stato di conservazione, del castello edificato nel 1465 da Leonardo della Rovere, nipote di Sisto IV, e demolito nel 1934;29 era a pianta quasi rettangolare con torri angolari: due settentrionali a pianta semicircolare, due quadrate a meridione. Sono stati scavati bassi alzati murari, compreso tra 0, 30m ca e 1,10m ca, in corrispondenza di una delle due torri semicircolari.30 «Il palazzo detto del re, fatto edificare dai Borboni sulla sponda sinistra del Liri a forma di fortezza, ha quattro torri agli angoli; ora è in sfacelo; il terremoto del 1915 ha fatto crollare delle volte e porzione dei tetti» (Bonanni 1926, 19; Bonanni 1922, 215-216).

14. Roccadarce. 41° 35’ 18,3’’ N.; 13° 34’ 44,5’’ E, CTR 402040; q. 562. Subisce una serie di passaggi di mano nel corso degli scontri che si susseguirono per la conquista della Valle, tra il XII ed il XIII secolo.24 La Rocca fu fatta restaurare da Federico II: «Item Rocca Arcis reparari potest per homines de Pontis Curvi, Pignatarie, S. Georgii et S. Apollinarii; homines eciam ville ipsius Rocce tenebantur ibidem iuvare, qui sunt inde amoti de imperiali mandato» (Sthamer 1914, 95). Il castello versa in pessime condizioni di mantenimento. In alcune foto risalenti agli inizi del XX secolo, mostrava un massiccio corpo di fabbrica poligonale con torri quadrate sporgenti dalla cortina, potentemente rinforzate a scarpa, mentre si notavano parti di un recinto che si è constatato chiudere il fortilizio, posto nell’angolo ENE della cima del colle, su tutti restanti lati. I resti della fortificazione sono soltanto parzialmente conservati: sono visibili, all’esterno del cimitero, i livelli inferiori del perimetro ovest, come pure parti degli alzati del perimetro est e nord del fortilizio; la costruzione moderna ha invece annullato il perimetro del recinto esterno a sud e a sudest. Cfr Ebanista 2006, 33-64. 15. Monte Orio. 41° 34’ 51,0’’N; 13°, 35’, 48,7’’E; CTR 402040, q. 491 m. Il monte del territorio di Arce è denominato Orreo in ASV, Arch. Buoncompagni Ludovisi, prot. 32, num. 75, ff. 333: Pianta de Territori e confini controversi fralle terre di Roccasecca et Arce.

19. Ponte del Diavolo; 41° 30’ 55,3’’ N; 13° 35’ 3,6’’ E; CTR 402080, q. 72, 3m. Manufatto ad E di Isoletta, era un ponte a tre arcate, che fu, nella prima metà del XX secolo, grandemente rifatto. Vi transitava la via Latina (Bonanni 1922, 207; Pietrobono 2007a, 105-106).

16. Coldragone, oggi Colfelice. 41° 33’ 17,1’’N; 13°, 36’, 13,2’’E; CTR 402040, q. 149 m. É abitato moderno, costituito in un territorio boschivo, da ricondurre a coltura; esistente nel 1584, era parte dello Stato di Arce.25

20. San Giovanni Incarico. 41° 30’ 14,2’’ N; 13° 33’ 27,3’’ E; CTR 402070, q. 184,8m. La prima menzione del castello risalirebbe al 977 (Nicosia 1991, 83-85). Nella seconda metà del XII secolo, era feudo di Raynaldus Buccavitellus (Jamison 1972, n. 1000, 180). I confronti possibili sulla base della cartografia regionale, rivelano un circuito fortificato a chiudere un impianto quasi circolare strutturatosi intorno alla chiesa di S. Giovanni che, a giudicare dal nome del castrum, attestato con tale dedica fin dagli esordi, è possibile ritenere fulcro del primitivo abitato. La posizione periferica ed aggiunta del castello, caratterizzato da torrioni a base quadrangolare, sul margine ovest, conferma tale osservazione. Le fortificazioni, dominate da

17. S. Giusta - Grotte d’Opi; 41° 32’ 15,9’’N; 13°, 32’, 9,4’’E; CTR 402070, q. 135 m. Nella Carta del Rizzi Zannoni, del 1808, la linea confinaria è poco chiara, mentre spicca nel 1851.26 In entrambe, sul pianoro di Opi, viene ubicata la chiesa di S. Giusta, ubicabile presso i resti della cisterna romana conservati sul pianoro di Opri, dove fu localizzata la “Città nuova” o Flagella, costruita per ordine di Federico II in fronte Ceperani, presso la colonna di confine tra gli stati, in località Colonnella;27 nella città si trasferirono alcuni uomini della vicina Isoletta (Ryccardus de Sancto Germano, 211; 212). 24

Fonti in Ebanista 2006, 65; 87-97. 1584 aprile 28, ASV, Arch. Boncompagni Ludovisi, Prot. 32, n. 1, c. 2: “affitto per anni sei dello stato di Arce, cioè della terra di Arce, Isoletta, Colle Drago e Rocca d’Arce, fatto da Giacomo Boncompagni duca di Sora a favore di Gaspare, Vincenzo e Girolamo Nardelli di Santopadre”. 26 Rizzi Zannoni 1808; Pietrobono 2007b, 107, fig. 1. cfr Diglio 2006, 177-210. 27 Colasanti 1912, 44-48; colonnella, nel processo del 1324, Ibidem, 50. 25

28

Magliari 1899, III, n. LXX, 51-52. 1602. Isoletta resta inabitata, ASV, Arch. Boncompagni Ludovisi, prot. 29, n. 29, f. 55r. 29 Note tratte dai preliminari di scavo pubblicati nel CD TAV Archeologia ed alta velocità, a cura della Società TAV e della Soprintendenza ai Beni Archeologici del Lazio. 30 Cfr immagini in Corradini 2004, tavola IV fuori testo.

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S. Pietrobono: Quando il Liri non separa: passi, viabilità e strutture di difesa torrette cilindriche, alcune distrutte, possono essere associate alle tarde difese di Fontana Liri e dei castelli contermini, che subirono un processo di fortificazione graduale.

nei dintorni si ergono in seguito torrette di varia tipologia e di difficile identificazione sul piano della proprietà; non è escluso che in alcuni casi siano state gestite da privati. Sembra poi che alcuni castelli di questo versante, ad esempio Montenero di Castro dei Volsci,31 progressivamente scompaiano al rafforzamento delle difese sul versante regnicolo, dove le strutture fortificate, in parte preesistenti, nel corso dell’età normanna si rafforzano nelle strutture. Di notevole interesse diventa il ruolo della “pontificia” Abbazia di Casamari che, annettendo a sé la “regnicola” S. Domenico di Sora, si configura importante cerniera tra i due versanti del confine, attraverso numerose proprietà distribuite lungo di esso. Le torri, a loro volta, non hanno avuto solo una funzione di controllo lungo percorsi stradali: a S. Sebastiano la torre potrebbe appartenere, in una fase della sua storia, ad un impianto molitorio; a Carnello è probabilmente limite confinario. I due passi di confine, Campolato e Isoletta, erano destinati alla riscossione del dazio; però, nel momento in cui un passaggio viene ufficialmente chiuso (Ponte di S. Eleuterio), sono le comunità locali, che continuamente si spostano da una sponda all’altra, ad organizzarsi per usufruire della struttura residua del ponte. In definitiva, quello che in genere viene immaginato un rigido confine fin dall’VIII secolo, emerge invece come uno spazio in ‘movimento’: si delimita con difficoltà, si struttura nelle sue difese nel corso del tempo, non impedisce ‘i fatto la continua osmosi tra le due anime, ‘pontificia’ e ‘regnicola’, di questa parte dell’odierno Lazio Meridionale.

21. Falvaterra. 41° 30’ 18,1’’ N; 13° 31’ 24,9’’ E; CTR 402070, q. 270 ca m. Menzionato nella seconda metà dell’XI secolo. Cfr Pietrobono 2007b, 114-115. 22. Montenero; 41° 30’ 48,2’’ N; 13° 27’ 0,9’’ E; CTR 402060, q. 270,2 m. Menzionato intorno alla metà del XII secolo, ma in via di abbandono nei decenni successivi, assorbito nel territorio del vicino Castro dei Volsci. Cfr Pietrobono 2007b, 124-126. 23. Ceprano, 41° 30’ 18,1’’ N; 13° 31’ 24,9’’ E; CTR 402070, q. 270 m. Il castello Ceperani è menzionato nel 987. Protegge nel corso dei secoli il ponte sul fiume Liri, in uso, tra molteplici rifacimenti, fino ai nostri giorni. Cfr Pietrobono 2007b, 112-114. 24. Cippo borbonico. 41° 33’ 54,0’’ N; 13° 31’ 51,1’’ E; CTR 402030, q. 165,1 m. Cfr infra, sch. 3. CONCLUSIONI Questo tratto appartenne al confine più longevo in Europa, poiché rimase in vigore fino all’Unità d’Italia; eppure ebbe continuativamente difficoltà difensive, testimoniate ancora nel secolo XIX. La separazione tra i due versanti di confine, oltre che dal fiume Liri, veniva di fatto indicata, dal tardo medioevo, attraverso colonnette, poi andate perdute, e bisognose di continui ripristini, che si riproporranno in particolare in età moderna; restano atti di cause legali avviate per il suo mantenimento. Di certo, piantare semplici cippi e colonnine non era sistema idoneo ad impedire passaggi repentini di uomini, mezzi, beni, eserciti, da una parte all’altra del confine. Il sistema difensivo della linea confinaria si rende pienamente evidente sul piano archeologico e monumentale solo progressivamente, tra il XII secolo, quando il territorio meridionale fu organizzato nel normanno Regno di Sicilia e diventa pressoché completo l’elenco dei castelli sorti sul territorio, ed il XV secolo. La presenza di ponti ed i rinvenimenti di basolati, qui solo accennati, lascia trasparire l’esistenza di una rete di strade romane che non andò perduta in età medievale, ma che rimase, con le dovute trasformazioni, come nerbo dei collegamenti tra i due stati. Lungo di essa si inserirono torri e castelli in particolari posizioni genericamente definite strategiche (Pietrobono 2006a). La posizione ottimale per controllare le vie di comunicazioni, comprese quelle fluviali, di alcune strutture come i castelli di Sora, Arce, Arpino, fino alle più piccole torrette, spiega la necessità della conquista di particolari castelli ed i rapidi passaggi di mano di questi. I castelli del versante pontificio sono inizialmente castra inseriti nell’amministrazione diocesana, spesso già attestati nel X o ai primi dell’XI secolo (Pietrobono 2007b);

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I regesti dell’archivio, VII, Pubblicazioni dell’Archivio di Stato, LXXVIII, Roma. Liber Censuum = Le Liber censuum de l’Église Romaine, a cura di P. Fabre, Paris I - II, 1905; vol. III, par G. Mollat, Paris 1952. Luttazzi, A. 1992. Materiali tardoantichi e altomedievali conservati nella Biblioteca Giovardiana di Veroli (Frosinone), in Archeologia Laziale, XIX, 767-787. Magliari, A. 1897 (a cura di). Bollettino Storico Volsco, I, Arpino. Magliari, A. 1898 (a cura di). Bollettino Storico Volsco, II, Arpino. Magliari, A. 1899 (a cura di). Bollettino Storico Volsco, III, Arpino. Meriggi, M. 2005. Sui confini dell’Italia preunitaria, in Salvatici S. (a cura di), Confini, costruzioni, attraversamenti, rappresentazioni, Soveria Mannelli, 37-53. Mottironi, S. 1958. Le carte di Sant’Erasmo di Veroli, Roma. Nicosia, A., 1991. S. Giovanni Incarico: ricerca di storia e topografia, S. Elia Fiumerapido. Nicosia, E., Trigona, S.L. 2006. La città di Atina (Frosinone) nell’altomedioevo. Nuovi rinvenimenti da contesti funerari, in «Lazio e Sabina», 3, a cura di G. Ghini, Atti del Convegno Terzo incontro di studi sul Lazio e la Sabina, Roma, 329-332. Pagano, F. M. 1985. Fonti per la storia del ducato di Sora nell’archivio Boncompagni Ludovisi, in Latium, Rivista di studi storici dell’Istituto di Storia ed Arte del Lazio Meridionale di Anagni, 2, 185 - 234. Paulus Diaconus, Historia Langobardorum, a cura di L. Bethmann u. G. Waitz, MGM, Scriptorum rerum Langobardorum (1878), 45-187. Pietrobono, S. 2006°. La Media Valle Latina: castelli e viabilità in una zona di frontiera, in Atti del IV Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Medievale, Scriptorium dell’Abbazia, Abbazia di San Galgano (Chiusdino – Siena), 20-30 settembre 2006, Firenze 2006, 275-279. Pietrobono, S. 2006b. Carta Archeologica Medievale, Frosinone. Forma Italiae Medii Aevi. F°. 159-I, Quaderni di Archeologia Medievale, Firenze. Pietrobono S. 2007a, Per la topografia della Contea d’Aquinum e dei feudi aquinati: la viabilità medievale tra Arce ed Aquinum. Problemi metodologici e prospettive di ricerca, in Delle Donne F. (a cura di),“Suavis terra, inexpugnabile castrum. L’Alta Terra di Lavoro dal dominio svevo alla conquista angioina”, 73-113. Pietrobono S. 2007b, Gli insediamenti fortificati nella Diocesi di Veroli: primo contributo, in Archeologia del paesaggio medievale. Studi in memoria di Riccardo Francovich, a cura di S. Patitucci Uggeri, Quaderni di Archeologia medievale IX, Firenze, 105-136. Pietrobono, S. 2008. S. Amasio: un culto campano nelle antiche diocesi di Sora e di Aquino. Incidenze archeologiche e topografiche, in Amasio di Teano. Memoria e culto di un antico Defensor Fidei nel Lazio Sud - Orientale. Ricerche di Agiografia – topografia – tradizioni popolari, a cura di F. Carcione, Collana di storia e cultura religiosa medievale - San Germano, n. 10, Venafro, 65-114. 402

S. Pietrobono: Quando il Liri non separa: passi, viabilità e strutture di difesa di storico-epigrafici sul Lazio antico, Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae, XV, Roma, 1-22. Squilla, G. 1971. La diocesi di Sora nel 1110, Casamari. Stasolla F. R. 2005, Torri e case torri nel territorio di Veroli. II Le testimonianze del territorio diocesano in età medievale, in Il Tesoro delle città, III – 2005, 513-531. Sthamer, E. 1914. Die Verwaltung der Kastelle im Konigreich Sizilien unter Kaiser Friedrich II und Karl I von Anjou, Leipzig, rist. Tübigen 1997. Stranieri, G. 2000. Un limes bizantino nel Salento? La frontiera bizantino-longobarda nella Puglia Meridionale. Realtà e mito del “limitone dei Greci”, Archeologia Medievale, XXVII, 333-355. Tomassetti, A. 2006. Sora. La villa e la necropoli tardoimperiale di S. Giuliano, in «Lazio e Sabina», 3, a cura di G. Ghini, Atti del Convegno Terzo incontro di studi sul Lazio e la Sabina, Roma, 305-312. Urbano, B., Quadrini, E. 2004. Castelliri. Profilo storico, in appendice Cataldi R., Contributo per una bibliografia di Castelliri, Castelliri. Valeriani, P. 2001. Dal 2001 Monte San Giovanni. Dal 1872 al 4 Aprile 2001 (129 anni) Monte San Giovanni Campano. Dal secolo IX al secolo XIX, Monte San Giovanni, Casamari.

Pistilli, F. 1798. Descrizione storico - filologica delle antiche e moderne città e castelli esistenti accosto il fiume Liri, e Fibreno: arricchita di vetusti monumenti in gran parte inediti, con un saggio delle vite degli illustri personaggi ivi nati, Napoli (1824, 2 ed). Pistilli, G. 2000. Fontana Liri, due centri - una storia, Fontana Liri. Ryccardus de Sancto Germano = Ryccardi de Sancto Germano notarii Chronica (1189 – 1243), ed C. A. Garufi, in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, VII, II, Bologna 1937. Rizzello, M. 1985. Viabilità del territorio sorano in epoca romana in relazione a necropoli e sepolture, in Latium, 2, 23 – 100. Rizzello, M. 1990. Carnello e la via del Fibreno, storia di una comunità, Casamari. Rizzi Zannoni, G. A. 1808. Atlante Geografico del Regno di Napoli, Napoli. Roma, G. 1998. Sulle tracce del limes longobardo in Calabria, in Mélanges de l’École française de Rome 110, I, 7-27. Sennis, A. 1996. Un territorio da ricomporre: il Lazio tra i secoli IV e XIV, in Atlante Storico Politico del Lazio, Roma 27-62. Solin, H. 1996. Sul concetto di Lazio nell’antichità, in Stu-

Figura 1. Stralcio della Carta Topografica dello Stato Pontificio e del Granducato di Toscana, 1851, H 16, Archivio Storico dell’Istituto Geografico Militare, Firenze.

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Figura 2. Stralcio della Carta Topografica dello Stato Pontificio e del Granducato di Toscana, 1851, H 17, Archivio Storico dell’Istituto Geografico Militare, Firenze.

Figura 3. Sora ed il suo territorio. Particolare della Carta topografica pubblicata da G. A. Rizzi Zannoni, Atlante Geografico del Regno di Napoli, Napoli 1808.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

IL CONFINE MEDIEVALE COME STRUTTURA STORICA THE MEDIEVAL BORDER AS HISTORICAL STRUCTURE

IL CONFINE E LA SUA SCRITTURA NELL’ITALIA COMUNALE Francesco Salvestrini Università di Firenze

Abstract (2008) Boundary in writing. Some examples from Italy at the time of the city-states. This paper intends to deal with two questions: investigating the part had by borders and their endering in the control carried out over the territory by some towns of city-state Italy; the representation of written and, at times, even cartographic boundary data is analysed with respect to the sample towns of Vicenza, Bologna, Modena, Perugia, Orvieto, Siena, Pistoia. Literary sources show a semantic change in terms of concept of border, compared to the Early Medieval past, which results in a more definite spatial representation (by means of artificial signs to establishing unbroken boundaries), a more careful attention to acquired data (by ascertaining the real topographical state), finally a stricter juridical assessment; this regards both administrative boundaries as well as terms of public and private estates. The analysis of the Libri terminationum, issued with fiscal purposes or for territorial defence requirements, therefore concerns rural and urban areas. In documents from towns, boundary attests to legal power of town over territory and that of the city-state over intramural demesne, as intended to establish physical and ideal terms that will have been taken as definite marks in the writings of public administration.

Nel presente contributo vorrei fare riferimento ad alcuni registri contenenti confinazioni scritte (libri terminorum, libri finium, regesta possessionum) composti presso alcune importanti città dell’Italia comunale, nella fattispecie Bologna, Vicenza, Modena, Perugia, Orvieto, Pistoia e Siena, onde fissare per iscritto limiti territoriali di carattere politico e amministrativo o termini relativi a beni pubblici e privati. I testi furono dettati durante il periodo grosso modo compreso fra gli anni Quaranta del secolo XIII e il primo ventennio del XIV, ossia nell’arco cronologico che vide in molti centri l’affermazione dei cosiddetti regimi di Popolo (cioè di matrice imprenditoriale e mercantile) e la definitiva strutturazione dei governi municipali.1 La scelta è caduta su fonti edite o, comunque, ben studiate che potessero offrire una descrizione dettagliata circa i segni e le modalità dell’operazione terminale. Si tratta, come vedremo, di testimonianze diverse fra loro, sia per scopi redazionali che per tipologia documentaria. In ogni caso il riferimento al dato confinario costituisce l’elemento a tutti comune, consentendo di verificare quale fosse, di volta in

volta, il valore attribuito al dato del limite territoriale nella prassi veicolante della codificazione scritta. I primi volumi oggetto d’esame sono i Libri terminorum della città di Bologna risalenti al 1245 e al 1294 (Venticelli 1999, 245-330; anche Foschi 1990). In questo Comune, depositario di una antica cultura giuridica, la scrittura del confine fu applicata all’esatta delimitazione di alcuni spazi pubblici urbani (soprattutto vie e piazze) per difenderli dall’erosione che, tramite usurpazioni, operavano da tempo i proprietari privati. In questo caso al testo scritto si affiancò l’applicazione di segni confinari visibili (cippi lapidei), con una esatta corrispondenza tra la confinazione artificiale fisica e la sua puntuale traduzione documentaria. Anche in rapporto al Regestum possessionum comunis Vincentie realizzato nella città veneta alla fine della signoria di Ezzelino da Romano (1262), lo scopo fu quello di delimitare beni di proprietà pubblica (Regestum 2006). Tuttavia in tale sede si estese l’indagine alla campagna circostante soggetta politicamente alla città. Il sistema confinario descritto in questa fonte è, però, di tipo più tradizionale e si modella sull’eredità della contrattualistica altomedievale. I segni terminali furono tratti dall’ambiente e la loro tra-

1

Per una più ampia trattazione del tema rinvio a Francesconi, Salvestrini 2006. Sul confine in età comunale si veda anche Guglielmotti 2006.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean duzione scritta non servì a tracciare per la prima volta i confini, ma a registrare delimitazioni in larga misura già esistenti. Infatti il comune vicentino non intendeva tanto procedere a una nuova delimitazione dei propri spazi, ma solo alla conoscenza e al recupero dei medesimi (Lomastro 1981, 3). Scritture del confine di concezione urbana ma riferite ad ambiti esclusivamente rurali sono quelle delle città di Perugia, Orvieto, Pistoia e Modena. Per quanto riguarda il Liber terminationum del Comune di Perugia (1291), esso riguardava beni pubblici su cui la città vantava antichi diritti. Analogamente al testo vicentino, anche questo interessava superfici coltivate, boschi e pascoli che le autorità pubbliche intendevano difendere dall’usurpazione dei privati, estendendo la confinazione allo spazio della campagna. Come nei libri bolognesi, il dato scritto si accompagnò alla creazione di segni terminali sul territorio (pilastri in muratura piantati in punti precisi) (Vallerani 1987, 663-698; Id. 1992). Non molto diverso sul piano concettuale e compositivo risulta il volume delle terminationes di Orvieto (Liber comunaliarum), stilato originariamente nel 1244 (Carocci 1987, 703706). Questo registro fu fatto compilare con l’obiettivo di invenire, videre et recuperare […] omnes comunalias civitatis, ossia i beni territoriali di proprietà pubblica. Esso imponeva il controllo dei limiti entro cui erano chiuse le proprietà collettive, la loro redazione per iscritto e il progressivo rinnovo di tutte le pietre confinarie. Anche in questa circostanza il liber riportava la verbalizzazione di alcuni sopralluoghi compiuti personalmente dal Podestà con l’ausilio di quattro rectores populi e con un gruppo oscillante di accompagnatori ufficiali. Rispetto all’esempio precedente l’impostazione del testo e la descrizione confinaria appaiono maggiormente dipendenti da inventari anteriori e presentano una tipologia tutto sommato poco varia. Con il Liber finium di Pistoia, composto intorno alla metà del secolo XIII, ci troviamo di fronte ad una mappa completa di un districtus urbano; mappa volta a stabilire i limiti territoriali fra le comunità rurali soggette a questa città. La fonte definì i confini dei villaggi fra loro ma, per ragioni di strategia politica, onde non compromettere i rapporti con le grandi città vicine, soprattutto Firenze e Bologna, non fissò i contorni territoriali esterni. La confinazione, al contrario di quelle finora citate era di tipo amministrativo, ma si connotava per riempimento piuttosto che sulla base di una puntuale definizione limitanea. Il liber pistoiese servì a legittimare confini già esistenti e non previde la creazione di segni terminali artificiali. La scrittura del confine si distinse non tanto per la qualità delle tecniche seguite, quanto piuttosto per l’organica progettualità politica dell’impresa (Francesconi e Salvestrini 2001). Anche nel registro dei confines totius episcopatus Mutinae del 1222 si procedette alla scrittura di un intero contado cittadino (Calzolari 1982, 98-114). Questo progetto sembrò rispondere, però, più che altrove, allo stretto legame tra politica e scrittura, poiché il volume attribuiva una forte componente legittimante ad un’operazione ricognitiva che era stata programmata durante una fase

caratterizzata da numerose vertenze le quali opponevano Modena alle città vicine per il controllo di alcune importanti aree periferiche. Come a Pistoia, anche qui gli emissari incaricati dell’impresa si servirono di testimoni locali. Furono identificate le circoscrizioni rurali minori (curiae) e tutti i singoli segmenti del territorio, con una rappresentazione modellata sulle emergenze del paesaggio che tenne conto della rete idrografica, di monti, boschi ed alberi, nonché di particolari elementi significativi come mulini o croci situati lungo le strade.2 Una confinazione precisa e puntuale, elemento cardine per l’identificazione degli immobili patrimoniali dei privati a fini fiscali, figura nella più tarda delle scritture considerate, ossia la grande Tavola delle possessioni senese (13171318).3 Questa vasta catastazione, una delle più antiche nel panorama comunale, voluta dall’oligarchia mercantile al potere nella città toscana, mirando all’individuazione di tutti gli immobili posseduti dai senesi e dagli abitanti del territorio evidenziò una notevole cultura matematica pratica e una grande precisione agrimensoria da parte dei tecnici incaricati di compiere il censimento per conto delle autorità urbane. A prescindere dall’effettiva visibilità dei confini nell’ambiente (di norma non furono aggiunti segni di delimitazione a quelli eventualmente già esistenti), con la Tavola delle possessioni si giunse ad una completa traduzione del confine territoriale in forma scritta, nonché, in alcuni casi, anche cartografica.4 Il testo previde l’indicazione delle misure delle parcelle territoriali e il riferimento a tutti i dati confinari possibili (nomi dei proprietari limitrofi, strade, fiumi e così via). Nella documentazione della città comunale entrò allora per la prima volta anche la più piccola parcella di terreno. Dagli esempi citati si deduce che le città comunali attraverso la redazione dei libri di confinazione manifestarono la volontà di definire e di riconoscere organicamente, e di farlo in forma scritta, la propria identità politica, patrimoniale e territoriale. Un piano, questo, sul quale le loro risorse culturali – espresse dai ceti legati alle libere professioni – e le esigenze della politica interagirono nella programmazione di progetti che coniugavano gli obiettivi pratici dell’amministrazione con la volontà di costituire, attraverso l’elaborazione di una ‘memoria scritta’, un nuovo spazio di autorappresentazione collettiva. Questo, in ultima analisi, doveva funzionare anche da ‘manifesto politico’; tanto più su un versante come quello della dimensione confinaria, per lo stretto legame di complementarietà esistente tra i concetti di addomesticamento dello spazio e di costruzione della propria identità. Le fonti prese in esame presentano fra loro numerose differenze, soprattutto perché alcune riguardarono confini di beni immobili pubblici e privati ed altre furono ripartizioni di tipo politico e amministrativo. Ma a prescindere dalle discrepanze, appare evidente che tutte le città comunali ricordate accentuarono, tramite la scrittura, il valore legale del dato confinario. Infatti certezza dei confini significava per questi organismi politici maggiore certezza di domi2

In proposito anche Lazzari 2006. Al riguardo Cherubini 1974, 231-311. Per una bibliografia degli studi relativi alla Tavola anche Farinelli e Giorgi 1990. 4 Come nel caso della pianta di Talamone (Redon 1994, 233, nota 46). 3

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F. Salvestrini: Il confine e la sua scrittura nell’Italia medievale Cherubini, G. 1974. Signori contadini borghesi. Ricerche sulla società italiana del Basso Medioevo. Firenze. Farinelli, R. e Giorgi, A. 1990. La ‘Tavola delle possessioni’ come fonte per lo studio del territorio: l’esempio di Castelnuovo dell’Abate, in A. Cortonesi (ed), La Valdorcia nel medioevo e nei primi secoli dell’età moderna, 213256. Roma. Foschi, P. 1990. Il Liber Terminorum: Piazza Maggiore e Piazza di Porta Ravegnana ”, in I portici di Bologna e l’edilizia civile medievale, 205-224. Bologna. Francesconi, G., Salvestrini, F. 2001. Il Liber finium districtus Pistorii: modelli e scritture del confine in età comunale, in P. Foschi e R. Zagnoni (eds), Il confine appenninico: percezione e realtà dall’età antica ad oggi, 29-61. Porretta Terme - Pistoia. Francesconi, G., Salvestrini, F. 2006. La scrittura del confine nell’Italia comunale. Modelli e funzioni, in O. Merisalo and P. Pahta (eds), Frontiers in the Middle Ages, Proceedings of the Third European Congress of Medieval Studies, Fédération Internationale des Instituts d’Études Médiévales, Jyväskylä (FIN), 10-14 June 2003, 197-221. Louvain-la-Neuve. Guglielmotti, P. (ed) 2006. Distinguere, separare, condividere. Confini nelle campagne dell’Italia medievale , Reti Medievali, www.retimedievali.it . Lagazzi, L. 1991. Segni sulla terra. Determinazione dei confini e percezione dello spazio nell’alto Medioevo. Bologna. Lazzari, T. La creazione di un territorio: il comitato di Modena e i suoi “confini’”, Reti Medievali, www. retimedievali.it . Lomastro, F. 1981. Spazio urbano e potere politico a Vicenza nel XIII secolo. Dal “Regestum possessionum comunis” del 1262. Vicenza. Redon, O. 1994. L’espace d’une cité. Sienne et le Pays Siennois (XIIIe-XIVe siècles). Rome. Carlotto, N., Varanini, G.M. 2006. Il “Regestum possessionum comunis Vincentie” del 1262.Roma. Vallerani, M. 1987. Il Liber terminationum del comune di Perugia, in Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge, Temps Modernes 99 n. 2, 649-699. Vallerani, M. 1992. Le comunanze di Perugia nel Chiugi. Storia di un possesso cittadino tra XII e XIV secolo, Quaderni storici 27 (1992),. 625-652. Venticelli M. 1999. I libri terminorum del Comune di Bologna , in F. Bocchi (ed)Metropoli medievali, Proceedings of the Congress of Atlas Working Group International Commission for the History of Towns , 223330. Bologna.

nio. Tuttavia le fonti in questione esprimono anche un’altra istanza, che era quella della confinazione come ermeneutica del territorio. Sia pure con differenti modalità, tutte le fonti esaminate accentuano l’istanza epistemologica dell’identità spaziale, identità che espressero con notevole precisione classificatoria. Tale accuratezza derivava, senza dubbio, da una precisa volontà e da una maggiore capacità di intervento sul territorio, ossia su un contesto che in città, così come nel contado, era ormai il contenitore di tanti investimenti e vedeva crescere continuamente il suo valore patrimoniale. In ogni caso anche altri elementi emergono dal confronto fra gli esempi. All’importante differenziazione tra un confine discontinuo di matrice altomedievale, soprattutto applicato ad ambienti silvo-pastorali, ed un limite più omogeneo, geometricamente fissato, connesso allo sviluppo dell’economia agricola ed urbana e quindi tipico di organismi politici anche diversi dalle città-stato5, la città comunale italiana aggiunse un terzo elemento, ossia il riconoscimento giuridico dei tracciati in un’ottica centralizzata di controllo dello spazio. Ciò che, infatti, sembra emergere con evidenza da tutte le fonti esaminate è proprio la volontà di legittimare il confine. Anche laddove il segno terminale traeva la sua origine dal contesto rurale, esso subì una rielaborazione concettuale. La relazione di contiguità con le realtà geografiche nominabili fu un elemento che i terminatori inviati dalla città riversarono in una nuova e pianificata scrittura. I segni di confine ereditati dal passato, una volta conosciuti dagli emissari comunali, furono trasferiti su un piano modellizzante che produsse una nuova definizione (geo)grafica espressa con compiutezza nei registri di terminationes. I limiti tracciati fra le collettività rurali, così come fra i beni pubblici e fra quelli dei privati, fossero già esistenti o definiti dai confinatori, trassero, in ultima analisi, la loro stessa ragion d’essere dall’elaborazione documentaria delle magistrature cittadine. Accentuando, così, il valore legale del confine i Comuni resero operativa la parcellizzazione dello spazio nella misura in cui, esercitando un potere, furono loro stessi che la stabilirono o la riconobbero. Per di più, ormai relativizzato e per molti aspetti obliterato il connotato sacrale del limite ambientale, essi accolsero quest’ultimo in quanto forma razionale e strumento coercitivo di gestione del territorio, dando luogo, in tal modo, a un’astrazione ordinatrice che si tradusse in nuovi modelli e nuove scritture del confine. BIBLIOGRAFIA Calzolari, M. 1982. “Un documento delle lotte per l’egemonia nel contado nella tarda età comunale. I confines totius episcopatus Mutinae”, in Atti e Memorie della Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Antiche Province Modenesi 11, 77-114. Carocci, S. 1987. Le comunalie di Orvieto fra la fine del XII e la metà del XIV secolo , in Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge, Temps Modernes, 99 n. 2, 701-728. 5

In proposito Lagazzi 1991, 53-65, 84-88.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

SPAZI CONFINATI TRA SIGNORIE FONDIARIE E TERRITORIALI NELLA TOSCANA MERIDIONALE Giovanna Bianchi Università di Siena Abstract (2008) Concentrated and border space between land- and territorial lordship in South Tuscany Settling a given context means creating a specific space in the indefiniteness of places, creating a boundary between the inside and outside of the built-up area. In the southern Tuscany, the most recent archaeological investigations at risen sites, with settlement continuity between the Early and High Middle Ages, have now allowed to figure out a picture of the ways men, who lived in those places, established such boundaries, and the meaning that the latter had, with regard to the community and the forms of power connected with them in the span between the 8th and 12th century, during the passage from land to territorial lordship.

Nella letteratura delle scienze sociali e antropologiche con il termine confine si vuole identificare distinzioni, limiti, chiusure riferibili sia a contesti territoriali più ampi, sia a spazi di minori dimensioni caratterizzati dalla eventuale presenza di un nucleo insediativo. È a questi ultimi casi, con particolare attenzione a quelli presenti in ambito rurale, che si farà riferimento nel presente contributo per un arco cronologico compreso tra l’alto medioevo ed i secoli centrali. La presenza di confini e la comprensione, non sempre possibile a seconda dei periodi storici, di come tali limiti fossero percepiti dai contemporanei è un tema pregnante di significati che sino ad oggi non ha trovato ampio spazio nel dibattito relativo alle caratteristiche delle strutture insediative soprattutto in riferimento all’età altomedievale. Eppure per le scienze sociali ed antropologiche la presenza di un limite è un’evidenza di grande rilevanza dal momento che tracciare un confine significa istituire delle distinzioni, favorire dei processi di coerenza interni alla comunità, determinare delle differenze tra un dentro e un fuori(Cella 2006, 78). Disegnare un confine di fatto rappresenta un modo esplicito per ottenere qualcosa dagli altri definendo uno spazio proprio dove stabilire le proprie regole, acquisendo, tramite il riconoscimento di una diversità, un’autonomia visibile anche dall’esterno. Fin dalla sua prima apparizione il confine mostra quello che sembra essere il suo carattere fondamentale: segnalare il luogo di una differenza, reale o presunta che sia. Tale pregnanza di significati relativa al confine si lega al concetto che il percorso più semplice per la definizione di una identità sia quella del riconoscimento per contrapposizione con tutto quello che sta all’esterno e in questo senso, ovvero per la formazione di una identità, i confini divengono irrinunciabili (Cella 2006, 20). Pertanto, nella maggioranza dei casi, i gruppi e le comunità non esisterebbero senza confini, specie quelli elaborati nella mente dei soggetti che ne fanno parte, come ha mostrato da tempo la ricerca etno antropologica. Non è solo, però, l’identità comunitaria ad avere bisogno di limiti. Qualunque forma di rappresentanza politica richiede sempre la delimitazione degli ambiti territoriali. Lo stesso pensiero politico si costruisce su rappresentazioni spaziali perchè è la stessa politica e le forme di potere ad essa legate che organizzano spazi di libertà o estendono gli

spazi di dominio (Cella 2006, 87). Più in generale, quindi, la costruzione sociale e politica è facilitata dai confini in quanto sono proprio questi a fornire argomenti decisivi per l’identificazione e la denominazione di entità come le classi sociali, la politica, le forme della cittadinanza. Secondo il sociologo Gian Primo Cella, che a questi temi ha dedicato un recente lavoro monografico, il confine è un concetto o una famiglia di concetti: concetto classificatorio (per definire stati, comunità, territori); concetto distributivo (distribuire le conseguenze delle differenze); concetto relazionale (relazioni fra le identità singole che fonda attraverso la distinzione) (Cella 2006, 69). All’interno di quest’ottica, il termine frontiera, per Cella come per altri studiosi, non ha la stessa denotazione di confine perchè indica senso di mobilità, significato di ordine politico-militare, zona di contatto in cui predomina l’incertezza, la sovrapposizione di identità, elementi questi che devono in seguito richiedere una distinzione proprio attraverso la definizione di un confine. I due termini pertanto non possono essere usati come sinonimi dal momento che confine ha un uso metaforico, inteso come elemento di distinzione, che frontiera non ha. I confini sono strettamente legati alle dinamiche di insediamento dal momento che insediarsi vuole dire anche e soprattutto ritagliare un posto tra la genericità dei luoghi, porre un limite tra l’abitato e il non abitato (La Cecla 2003). Lo spazio interno a questi confini costituisce l’inquadramento di un sistema sociale determinato, dove tale organizzazione spaziale deve essere correlata all’insieme delle relazioni economiche, sociali e religiose che vi si svolgono. Nell’ambito di singoli nuclei insediativi in particolare di carattere rurale, il significato di confine per essere percepito ed acquisire valore agli occhi della comunità occupante e dell’eventuale forma di potere committente, doveva essere segnato con precise evidenze materiali. Nell’Alto Medioevo poteva trattarsi di steccati, palizzate, siepi, fossati. In questo senso le fonti documentarie, soprattutto di VIII e IX secolo AD, forniscono un certo numero di dati sulla natura materiale dei confini riferibili, però, in tutti i casi a ridotte unità abitative e non ad interi complessi occupati da comunità più o meno numerose. 1 Bisogna arrivare al A questo proposito si rimanda a quanto edito in Galetti 1997 in particolare ai capp. II e III. 1

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G. Bianchi: Spazi confinati tra signorie fondiarie e territoriali X secolo AD inoltrato e alla descrizione dei primi castelli dell’Italia padana per avere una casistica più articolata del tipo di confine materiale riferibile alla chiusura di un ampio spazio comunitario (Settia 1984). In questo senso, quindi, le più recenti ricerche archeologiche hanno apportato nuovi, fondamentali dati per la definizione dell’aspetto materiale delle realtà insediative di ambito rurale altomedievali, che hanno consentito di recente ad alcuni studiosi di riallacciarsi al tema della nascita e formazione dei villaggi e del loro significato, a partire dalle caratteristiche materiali, all’interno delle dinamiche storico-politiche che interessarono il Centro Nord della nostra penisola tra VII e IX secolo AD.2 Un importante contributo in quest’ottica è venuto dalle indagini estensive che l’insegnamento di Archeologia Medievale dell’Università di Siena ha svolto e continua a svolgere all’interno di siti a continuità di vita o abbandonati, locati nella parte meridionale della Toscana, all’interno delle province di Siena, Grosseto, Livorno e Pisa (Figura 1). Si tratta di una casistica piuttosto articolata, forse la più ricca a livello nazionale, legata ad una precisa strategia di ricerca perseguita per oltre un ventennio da Riccardo Francovich e dai suoi allievi, volta ad individuare i passaggi chiave delle dinamiche insediative dal momento di dissoluzione dei paesaggi di età classica sino alla formazione e sviluppo delle signorie fondiarie e poi territoriali. È a questi casi che si farà riferimento nel presente contributo arricchendo i dati già acquisiti con nuove informazioni, ancora inedite, desunte dalle più recenti campagne di scavo effettuate nell’estate 2008. In tema di confini la Toscana, in parte analogamente ad altri contesti regionali, è un territorio che presenta delle anomalie sia in ambito urbano sia rurale, sin dalla fine della Tarda Antichità. Qui, infatti, a differenza del paesaggio rurale del Centro Nord della penisola, non solo non si ritrova ampia diffusione di un ceto di possessori in grado di rivitalizzare le ville di età imperiale con ampliamenti, nuovi apparati produttivi ed edifici religiosi, ma manca quasi del tutto quella rete di castra costruiti tra V e VII secolo AD in area bizantina e poi in parte rioccupati dai longobardi, che costituirono il principale elemento di novità nelle campagne tardo antiche anche dal punto di vista dell’edificazione di nuove cinte finalizzate a delimitare precisi confini insediativi.3 Dalle soglie dell’Alto Medioevo e sino perlomeno alla metà dell’VIII secolo AD, l’attuale Toscana sembra essere un territorio in cui non si costruiscono nuovi limiti. In ambito urbano, all’interno di un sistema di città caratterizzato dalla precoce decadenza dei centri situati nelle aree meridionali, si continuarono ad utilizzare, con eventuali interventi di restauro, i circuiti costruiti nella Tarda Antichità e bisognerà arrivare alla metà del XII secolo AD per trovarci, con il caso di Pisa, di fronte ad una grande impresa edilizia per l’edificazione di un nuova cinta difensiva. Nelle campagne dopo il periodo di caos e disarticolazione

insediativa succeduto alla guerra greco gotica e alla prima fase di dominio longobardo al momento non sono state ritrovate, nella parte meridionale della regione, tracce materiali di confini edificati da quelle nuove comunità che nel corso del VII secolo AD scelsero di ritirarsi sulle sommità di alture, secondo un processo ampliamente indagato da Francovich e poi da Valenti in numerosi loro contributi.4 Analogamente alle città, in alcuni casi come Scarlino o Donoratico, è possibile che si riutilizzassero in questa fase i circuiti costruiti in età precedenti il Medioevo. Le fonti documentarie, perlomeno sino al X secolo AD, riportano i termini di vicus, fundus, casale, locus et fines, curtis arricchiti dal X secolo AD con le dizioni di villa, castellum, per localizzare i territori di residenza di categorie di individui (Farinelli 2007, 48-50; Francovich 2004, XX-XXI; Wickham 1992, 240-241). A tale riguardo Francovich in più occasioni ha posto l’attenzione sulla valenza semantica collettiva che rende riferibili questi termini a contesti di villaggio (Francovich 2004, XX), valenza parzialmente negata a più riprese da Wickham che ha affermato come tali termini non siano in grado di specificare il carattere concentrato o disperso di questi habitat (Wickham 1988, 215), ponendo poi l’attenzione, a partire proprio da alcune considerazioni relative ai confini, sulla scarsa coesione comunitaria di questi insediamenti perlomeno sino all’XI secolo AD (Wickham 1992) . In alcune aree della Piana di Lucca ed in misura minore nel Casentino, i confini, perlomeno da quello che traspare dalle fonti documentarie di VIII e IX secolo AD studiate da Wickham, non sono marcati, ma labili, sovente soggetti a modifiche e come tali forse erano percepiti dai contemporanei all’interno di un sistema insediativo, accentrato o meno, segnato da una scarsa identità sociale (Wickham 1992, 241-244). La realtà materiale degli insediamenti di altura indagati nella Toscana meridionale presenta però un quadro differenziato. All’interno dell’area che ci apprestiamo ad esaminare, i primi esempi di confini riferibili all’Alto Medioevo si ritrovano nel noto sito di Montarrenti (SI) (Figura 2), scavato da Francovich, Hodges e edito in ultimo da Cantini, dove, tra seconda metà VII e prima metà VIII secolo AD, una recinzione composta da pali andò a separare l’area sommitale dai versanti della collina (Cantini 2003, 227228). Questa palizzata seguiva le isoipse del rilievo ed era costituita da pali di grandi dimensioni disposti a coppie simmetriche che forse sostenevano altri pali o travi orizzontali. Una seconda palizzata con la medesima cronologia, delle cui tracce restano cinque grandi buche di palo, doveva difendere la parte bassa dell’abitato disposta lungo i versanti della collina, o almeno una parte di questo. La carenza di dati documentari (le prime notizie del sito risalgono al 1156) non ha consentito agli studiosi di formulare ipotesi relative ad eventuali legami di specifiche forme di potere con questa prima comunità che viveva, internamente alle cinte, in capanne di legno e per il proprio corredo ceramico usufruiva di prodotti provenienti da un

Per una trattazione esaustiva di questo tema si rimanda alle pp. 1-7 introduttive al volume di Valenti 2004. 3 Per la più recente sintesi su tali processi in ambito toscano si veda Valenti 2010. 2

Per tutti si veda Francovich, Hodges e Valenti 2004 e in ultimo Valenti 2010. 4

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean ambito regionale. A Donoratico (LI) nel sito locato su di un’altura posta nell’immediato entroterra costiero dell’alta Maremma (Figura 3) lo scavo, ancora in corso,5 ha consentito di trovare tracce di limiti anteriori al IX secolo AD, verosimilmente risalenti al pieno VIII secolo AD (Francovich e Bianchi 2006a ). Tali evidenze sono localizzate nella parte meridionale del pianoro su cui, per una superficie di poco meno di un ettaro, si estese il successivo castello basso medievale. Proprio gli interventi edilizi relativi al nuovo assetto legato alla fortificazione dei secoli centrali, voluta dalla potente casata dei Della Gherardesca, hanno per buona parte cancellato eventuali tracce relative a palizzate nella parte Nord-Ovest del pianoro, più soggetta tra l’altro a fenomeni di dilavamento rispetto alla porzione di Sud-Est, dove appunto sono state riportate in luce le tracce degli originari confini. Si tratta di alcune buche di palo di grandi dimensioni, dotate di uno spesso rivestimento in terra argillosa localizzate in parte lungo il limite della sommità, in parte a seguire un andamento rettilineo, perpendicolare all’allineamento lungo il pianoro, per delimitare probabilmente una porzione di spazio sommitale, analogamente a quanto avverrà nel corso del IX secolo AD, quando un sistema di muri in pietra, che continuarono a seguire l’andamento delle buche di palo, tagliò in parte quest’ultime con le sue trincee di fondazione. L’indagine archeologica al momento ha consentito di verificare una continuità di vita del sito dal IV secolo BC. sino al Basso Medioevo. Le labili tracce sinora rapportabili al VI-VII secolo AD non permettono, in attesa dei nuovi dati di scavo, di delineare le caratteristiche insediative di una comunità di persone che in queste fasi andò ad occupare la sommità o parte di essa, riutilizzando con probabilità sia il circuito di età ellenistica ancora in parte conservato, sia gli edifici interni costruiti in piena e tarda età imperiale. Le più evidenti tracce rapportabili all’VIII secolo AD inoltrato sembrano invece mostrare una più chiara organizzazione degli spazi abitativi con la definizione di nuovi confini tra interno ed esterno ma, anche internamente, tramite la realizzazione di un ridotto a chiusura della porzione sudest del pianoro, che si manterrà praticamente inalterato nella sua concezione anche nel secolo successivo. I primi documenti che citano Donoratico risalgono al 1161 ma anteriormente possiamo ragionevolmente supporre che il sito rientrasse all’interno dei possedimenti di un cittadino pisano di nome Valfredo, che, appartenente all’alta aristocrazia urbana deteneva il controllo della curtis di Castagneto, locata in corrispondenza dell’omonimo ed attuale centro abitato posto a soli due chilometri in linea d’aria dal sito di Donoratico. L’entità dei beni di Valfredo è nota perché proprio alla metà dell’VIII secolo AD quest’ultimo li donò, con un atto di dotazione, al vicino monastero di S.Pietro in Palazzuolo, da lui fondato tra il 752-4 insieme ad altri due aristocratici lucchesi.6 È però tra la seconda metà dell’VIII secolo AD e soprattutto nel IX secolo AD che le attestazioni di confini aumenta-

no e si fanno più complesse. A Montemassi (GR), noto sito legato alla sua raffigurazione nell’affresco del Guidoriccio da Fogliano di Simone Martini, scavato a più riprese dagli anni Novanta dello scorso secolo ad oggi, una recentissima rielaborazione dei dati in occasione della redazione di una tesi di laurea, ha permesso di riconoscere i resti di una palizzata, utilizzata tra VIII e IX secolo AD, che andava a chiudere parte del pianoro sommitale. I resti della palizzata corrispondono a escavazioni nella roccia di alloggi longitudinali associabili a buche di palo a due ordini di medio-grandi dimensioni, per una lunghezza complessiva conservata di circa venti metri. Del sito non si hanno attestazioni documentarie prima dell’XI secolo AD, quando risulta evidente il suo legame con l’importante casata degli Aldobrandeschi (Bruttini 2008, 245-246). Sempre a Donoratico, è in questo secolo che venne edificata una cinta muraria in pietra della lunghezza complessiva di 353m a chiusura di uno spazio esteso per circa 8900mq (Figura 4). Oltre alla cinta fu edificato un muro di eguale spessore del circuito difensivo e sempre in pietra, che andò a delimitare, riprendendo l’andamento della possibile preesistente palizzata, uno spazio ridotto che racchiuse al suo interno un pozzo, un’area aperta, probabili strutture abitative di cui al momento sono state riportate in luce le tracce di una grande capanna e possibili impianti produttivi, tra cui forse un forno per la produzione di ceramica depurata e a ‘vetrina sparsa’, dato l’eccezionale rinvenimento di numerosissimi frammenti di questo tipo di ceramica in associazione a scarti di fornace e pareti di forno.7 La costruzione della cinta richiese la presenza sul posto di un gruppo probabilmente ridotto di maestranze specializzate a cui si può rapportare l’adozione di una tecnica costruttiva che prevedeva l’impiego di pietre sommariamente sbozzate o spaccate, estratte da cava e legate da malta. Il livello di specializzazione di tali maestranze è evidente oltre che dall’impiego di tale tecnica, scarsamente diffusa in quel periodo in parte della Tuscia rurale, anche dal buon livello di progettazione del circuito, particolarmente significativo in un periodo in cui, sino al XII secolo AD, tali progettazioni di cinte difensive erano pressoché assenti in ambito urbano (Bianchi 2008). Il circuito era provvisto anche di una torre in muratura riconosciuta nell’ultima campagna di scavo nel punto di accesso al ridotto interno allo spazio sommitale. Le articolate conoscenze tecniche dei costruttori sono indicate anche dall’utilizzo di particolari strutture produttive come i tre miscelatori di malta (Figura 4), tutti coevi e relazionati alle stratigrafie pertinenti il cantiere di costruzione del circuito, ritrovati in prossimità del pozzo ed usati per mescolare in tempi più rapidi ed in maggior quantitativi la calce con gli aggregati (Bianchi 2010a). Queste strutture, che trovano in Toscana riscontri più tardi, per questo arco cronologico sono al momento confrontabili con quella rinvenuta nel monastero di S. Vincenzo al Volturno impiegata per la costruzione della chiesa abbaziale voluta da Giosuè (Hodges 1993). A muratori meno

Lo scavo ha avuto sino al 2007 la codirezione scientifica di chi scrive insieme a Riccardo Francovich. 6 Per le indagini archeologiche nel monastero si veda Francovich e Bianchi 2006b. 5

7

Per tali preliminari ed inedite informazioni si ringrazia Federico Cantini che coordina lo studio delle ceramiche provenienti da questo sito.

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G. Bianchi: Spazi confinati tra signorie fondiarie e territoriali qualificati è rapportabile la tecnica in opera ‘complessa’, anch’essa impiegata per la costruzione di buona parte del circuito. Lo spazio interno a quest’ultimo prevedeva anche la presenza di una chiesa localizzata nella parte più alta del pianoro, nel lato opposto al ridotto interno. In base a questi dati l’insediamento è stato interpretato come il centro di una vasta curtis legata, dopo la donazione di Valfredo, al potente monastero di S.Pietro in Palazzuolo alla cui committenza è con tutta probabilità attribuibile la complessa ristrutturazione del sito nel IX secolo AD (Francovich e Bianchi 2006). Rimanendo nell’area costiera maremmana è sempre nel corso del IX secolo AD che l’insediamento sommitale di Scarlino (GR) (Figura 5), noto sito indagato da Francovich nel corso degli anni Ottanta con risultati di recente sottoposti a revisione e edizione (Marasco 2008), venne interessato da un generale riassetto. La parte sommitale, dove già dal VII-VIII secolo AD viveva una piccola comunità, fu infatti provvista di un confine rappresentato da un muro di terrazzamento in pietra, forse con alzato in materiali deperibili che andò a marcare la parte più alta dell’insediamento, dove si collocò una residenza, distinta per dimensioni dalle altre poste nel sottostante primo declivio della collina e coeva a piccole infrastrutture per l’immagazzinamento di derrate e a un fornetto per la lavorazione di suppellettili in piombo (Marasco 2008, 154). Tale insediamento è al momento interpretato come il centro curtense di cui danno menzione i documenti solo nel 973 attribuendone il possesso alla casata degli Aldobrandeschi. A Montarrenti la sostituzione della precedente palizzata, tra la seconda metà dell’VIII ed il IX secolo AD, con un muro in pietra edificato in tecnica complessa (Figura 6) sembra effettuata per marcare una divisione funzionale analoga a quella di Scarlino, dal momento che all’interno dell’area sommitale chiusa dal muro sono state ritrovate tracce di strutture destinate sia alla raccolta di derrate agricole sia alla loro lavorazione, come attesta soprattutto il rinvenimento di un magazzino e di un fornetto per l’essiccazione delle granaglie (Cantini 2003, 228-229). Tale cambiamento è stato rapportato alla trasformazione del precedente abitato in centro curtense guidato da un nuovo potere ancora non riconoscibile per l’assenza di dati documentari. Trasformazione questa che avrebbe reso più articolata la stessa economia dell’insediamento, come dimostra l’incremento delle varietà morfologico-funzionali del vasellame ceramico che trova confronti per la ceramica depurata con quella presente a Siena, a riprova di una maggiore ampiezza di scambi seppure di ambito interregionale. Ancora a simili divisioni funzionali sembra rapportare la progettazione degli spazi e la definizione di un preciso limite nel sito di Rocca degli Alberti dove è ancora in corso uno scavo avviato nel 2004.8 Lo scavo interessa la parte più alta dell’abitato a continuità di vita di Monterotondo Marittimo (GR). Qui tra XII e XIII secolo AD furono edificate le imponenti strutture della residenza signorile della

casata degli Alberti che controllava il castello. La scarsità di documenti per il periodo altomedievale non consente però di stabilire le forma di potere pertinente le più antiche fasi di vita dell’insediamento, delle quali sono state trovate consistenti tracce materiali durante le indagini archeologiche. Indirettamente però sappiamo che il sito fu al centro di proprietà legate sia all’episcopato lucchese, sia al monastero di S.Pietro in Palazzuolo oltre ad essere soggetto, perlomeno dall’XI secolo AD, a poteri informali esercitati dagli Aldobrandeschi (Farinelli 2007). Tra l’estate 2007 e 2008, in concomitanza con le annuali campagne di scavo, è stato individuato uno spesso muro in pietra, cronologicamente attribuibile al IX secolo AD, costruito in tecnica complessa di cui si coglie solo una angolata e parte del suo andamento rettilineo a causa sia dei successivi interventi bassomedievali che ne comportarono la distruzione, sia per gli stessi limiti di scavo (Figura 7). Osservando tali evidenze in planimetria si è spinti a cogliere un’analogia tra quello che sembra essere una sorta di ridotto fortificato e l’evidenza presente negli stessi decenni a Donoratico, con la differenza che qui, a causa della limitata estensione dello scavo e per la continuità di vita dell’abitato, non è possibile verificare l’esatto andamento e le dimensioni di questo presunto ridotto difensivo e soprattutto la presenza di una eventuale cinta più ampia che lo includesse come nel caso di Donoratico. I dati, emersi dalle recentissime indagini archeologiche e ancora inediti, evidenziano come perlomeno in una parte della porzione interna a questo ridotto si concentrassero attività produttive legate allo stoccaggio di derrate agricole e all’essiccazione di granaglie. In tema di confini, un altro interessante caso è poi quello del castello di Cugnano (GR) (Figura 8), oggetto anch’esso di una campagna di scavo ancora in corso iniziata nel 2002.9 Il sito è situato tra i boschi compresi tra Massa Marittima e Monterotondo M.mo all’interno del comprensorio delle Colline Metallifere. La penuria di fonti documentarie non consente di legare l’insediamento altomedievale, che presenta una continuità di vita perlomeno a partire dall’VIII secolo AD, a precise forme di potere a differenza, invece, del successivo castello che, almeno dall’XI secolo AD fu di pertinenza degli Aldobrandeschi. Resti di capanne sono al momento stati rinvenuti sia nel pianoro sommitale sia nei terrazzamenti sottostanti. Tra i dati ancora inediti ed in corso di revisione, suscettibili di future precisazioni, vi è comunque l’importante evidenza, attribuibile prudentemente ad un arco cronologico anteriore al X secolo AD, di una sorta di piccolo fossato scavato nella roccia che sembra delimitare in maniera abbastanza uniforme il ridotto sommitale, all’esterno del quale sono state riportate in luce profonde fosse antropiche forse per il ritrovamento di mineralizzazioni, ancora da appurare se coeve o precedenti allo stesso fossato. L’ultimo caso relativo ad evidenti sistemi di limiti insediativi è quello di Mirandolo, indagato archeologicamente dal 2001 e oggetto di una recentissima edizione (Valenti 2008). Qui, tra IX e X secolo AD, furono realizzati un’im-

Lo scavo si svolge con il sostegno dell’Amministrazione Comunale di Monterotondo Marittimo con la direzione scientifica di chi scrive ed il coordinamento sul campo di Jacopo Bruttini per i primi dati Bruttini, Grassi 2009.

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Lo scavo si svolge con il sostegno della Comunità Montana Colline Metallifere e con la direzione scientifica di chi scrive ed il coordinamento sul campo di Jacopo Bruttini. Per una preliminare edizione dei dati si veda Belli, Grassi, Francovich e Quiros Castillo, 2005.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean ponente palizzata e due fossati. Quest’ultimi presentano le medesime dimensioni, pari a 35m di lunghezza x 7m di larghezza, con una profondità media poco superiore ai 5m. La palizzata che circoscriveva la nuova area sommitale, realizzata con tronchi di olmo, assemblati attraverso intelaiature in rami di frassino, aveva pianta quadrangolare con angoli stondati e seguiva l’andamento delle isoipse più esterne. La realizzazione dei fossati e della palizzata coincise con la decisione di isolare e difendere gli spazi destinati alla famiglia a cui spettava il controllo dell’insediamento che, all’interno di questo spazio, aveva una residenza privilegiata oltre a strutture per l’accumulo di derrate e per la realizzazione di attività artigianali.

nota in buona parte dei siti citati, la comparsa di limiti rappresentati sostanzialmente da palizzate destinate a marcare lo spazio dell’area sommitale e, nel caso di Montarrenti, anche l’abitato sottostante. Tali chiusure, in concomitanza con l’ultima fase di dominazione longobarda, possono essere rapportate, perlomeno in alcuni casi, ad un controllo più marcato di queste proprietà fondiarie da parte dei possidenti nel loro graduale processo di affermazione e stabilizzazione che si traduceva in una maggiore definizione, tramite confini, di spazi destinati alla raccolta delle derrate alimentari e alla definizione di chiusure di un abitato, nell’ottica di un maggiore controllo della popolazione residente (Valenti c.s.). È però nel IX secolo AD, per citare ancora Francovich che ‘l’offensiva dei potentes per la loro affermazione sulle collettività di villaggio’ (Francovich 2004, XVIII) comportò ulteriori trasformazioni con più marcati processi di gerarchizzazione sociale. Al IX secolo AD avanzato, infatti, risalgono le più numerose attestazioni materiali di tali trasformazioni con i nuovi limiti che acquisiscono una pregnanza specifica espressa anche dagli stessi materiali da costruzione, dal momento che è proprio in queste imprese edilizie che fu utilizzata per la prima volta la pietra, o per tutto il paramento murario (nei casi di Donoratico e Montarrenti, in quest’ultimo solo però per l’area sommitale) o nel basamento a sostegno di un alzato in materiale deperibile (Scarlino). Si tratta in tutti i casi di impegnative operazioni, di differente portata a seconda della supposta committenza (a riguardo si vedano le considerazioni per il sito di Donoratico) sintomatiche anche di specifici saperi legati a capacità di progettazione e definizione di ampi spazi, portate in loco da probabili maestranze specializzate, forse recettive alle rinnovate traduzioni dei trattati agrimensori e di geometria di età classica eseguite in maggior numero proprio a partire dall’età carolingia.10 L’analogia di suddivisione e utilizzo degli spazi cintati in tutti i casi esaminati, con i ridotti, sommitali o meno, interni all’insediamento e destinati alla raccolta di derrate o all’impianto di strutture produttive è stata interpretata come un segno inequivocabile di radicalizzazione del controllo sulle economie locali incentrato, nel caso soprattutto di possidenti residenti nell’insediamento, sull’accumulo dei prodotti agricoli destinati sia al proprio uso personale sia ad essere immessi sui mercati (Valenti 2008, 148-15; Valenti 2010). Riprendendo la classificazione di Cella, quindi, i confini tra seconda metà VIII secolo AD e soprattutto nel IX secolo AD rappresenterebbero sia un concetto micro classificatorio nella definizione di nuclei insediativi che divengono elemento di riferimento geografico, sia distributivo, inteso come distribuzione di differenti sistemi insediativi collegati a definiti e nuovi sistemi economici interregionali. Pur, come sostenuto da Valenti, trovandoci di fronte a forme di potere miranti al consolidamento dei propri possedimenti, cercandone la maggior resa, e comunità residenti, impegnate a garantirsi ciò di cui vivere seguendo il flusso di una vita impermeabile a quelle dinamiche

Come sono stati interpretati o come sono in corso di interpretazione i siti sinora citati per l’Alto Medioevo e quale è il significato da dare ai confini espressi nelle forme materiali sopra descritte? In tutti i casi si tratta innanzitutto di siti in corrispondenza dei quali successivamente è attestato dalle fonti scritte e materiali un castello. Questi insediamenti erano posti all’interno di territori in parte legati a poteri vescovili, come nel caso dell’episcopio lucchese e populoniense, od a membri dell’alta aristocrazia, ad esempio il pisano Valfredo, ma anche a piccoli allodieri costituenti, soprattutto per il territorio della Val di Cornia, quella piccola-media élite caratterizzata da un limitato raggio di azione destinata peraltro, in questo ambito geografico, a scomparire quasi del tutto in età carolingia (Collavini 2007), quando nell’area costiera acquisisce anche estrema importanza per gli assetti insediativi l’influenza del monastero di S.Pietro in Palazzuolo. Per una sintetica interpretazione di questi siti bisogna rifarsi a quanto scritto da Francovich, in particolare nel volume Villa to Village edito a quattro mani con Hodges e nell’introduzione al volume di Marco Valenti (Francovich e Hodges 2003; Francovich 2004) dedicato all’insediamento altomedievale della campagna toscana, nel quale i concetti espressi da Francovich vengono ripresi ed ampliati dallo stesso Valenti che ha poi dedicato a questi argomenti una serie di contributi. Nei suoi scritti Francovich ha insistito molto sul dato, desumibile dalle fonti materiali, che ‘il periodo compreso tra la fine del VI e l’VIII secolo AD appare una fase cruciale nella formazione delle forme accentrate di popolamento rurale, all’interno delle quali è difficile, se non impossibile, cogliere indicatori archeologici che ci permettano di individuare diversificazioni sociali e si è spinti a pensare che nella formazione di questi insediamenti comunitari si seguano “logiche contadine” piuttosto che indirizzi di possessores. All’interno di questi villaggi si innescarono, soltanto a partire dalla metà dell’VIII secolo AD, processi di gerarchizzazione sociale nell’assetto “urbanistico”, simmetrici all’affermazione delle aristocrazie rurali’ (Francovich 2004, XVII). Se in relazione ai confini le tracce materiali non restituiscono dati per i siti sopra considerati nel periodo relativo al VII secolo AD, è appunto nell’VIII secolo AD ed in particolare nella sua seconda metà, in concomitanza con i processi storici a cui faceva riferimento Francovich, che si

Per una trattazione esaustiva della storia del cantiere di questi territori nell’Alto Medioevo con relativa bibliografia si rimanda a Bianchi 2008, 2010a; Bianchi e Valenti 2010a 10

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G. Bianchi: Spazi confinati tra signorie fondiarie e territoriali di scambio nei quali gli stessi possidenti potevano essere coinvolti (Valenti 2008, 200-201), è comunque possibile che, in questi secoli, i limiti rivestissero anche un concetto relazionale, andando a rimarcare quei caratteri di cui abbiamo scritto in apertura di questo contributo per la definizione di una identità comunitaria. La presenza di confini con all’interno un abitato, strutture produttive e in alcuni casi (Donoratico e Scarlino) edifici di culto per le funzioni liturgiche potevano costituire una fondamentale attrattiva per quegli individui, motore principale delle nuove aziende curtensi, ai quali tali confini potevano offrire quel senso di sicurezza derivante anche dalla consapevolezza di sapere come muoversi all’interno di limiti che costituivano anche un valido interfaccia tra i luoghi che separavano. Tale percezione poteva acquisire maggiore valore per territori, come quelli della Toscana meridionale, lontani da centri urbani e, nel caso dell’area costiera, a volte soggetti a pericolose incursioni, come quella avvenuta agli inizi del IX secolo AD nell’area populoniense ad opera di pirati saraceni (Dallai, Farinelli e Francovich 2005, 127). A differenza di alcuni ambiti urbani, come ad esempio Lucca ( La Rocca 2007, 58-60), non abbiamo fonti documentarie che ci aiutino a capire la reale percezione dei confini da parte di coloro che vi vivevano internamente, ma gli uomini e donne liberi, ad esempio, dell’area della Val di Cornia, dovevano avere una idea abbastanza chiara di cosa richiedere ai luoghi dell’abitare dal momento che tale territorio, come di recente rimarcato da Farinelli, presenta esempi di scelte ben precise da parte di chi vi risiedeva, che portavano questi individui sovente a spostarsi e preferire un luogo rispetto ad un altro, rendendo peraltro problematico, già nell’Alto Medioevo, il fenomeno dell’abbandono di molti siti (Farinelli 2007, 88-89). I confini, quindi, in questa fase storica non sembrano essere finalizzati a rimarcare uno status politico e sociale ma far parte del processo di costruzione di quelle basi economiche e politiche della signoria fondiaria, perlomeno in quei territori dove questa forma di potere era forte e preponderante. Anche dove le cinte sono costruite interamente in pietra, come a Donoratico, non sembra esserci una cura eccessiva nelle ‘forme esteriori’ dell’architettura, come invece ritroveremo negli elevati dei castelli dei secoli centrali. A Donoratico la tecnica applicata manifesta il lavoro di due gruppi di costruttori con competenze più o meno specializzate, con relativa convivenza di un modo di costruire più regolare e di un altro caratterizzato dall’irregolarità del paramento e dall’uso di pietre spesso di raccolta, analogamente a quanto riscontriamo nei basamenti delle cinte, ad esempio, di Montarrenti o Scarlino che presentano l’adozione di una tecnica ‘complessa’ (Bianchi 2008). Spesso tali muri erano parzialmente coperti, attraverso la spianatura della malta rifluente dai giunti e dai letti di posa, lasciando libera solo la parte centrale della superficie a vista della stessa pietra. Il confine tracciato dalla cinta doveva, quindi, rappresentare il dentro e il fuori di un possesso e rimarcare l’eventuale coesione sociale della comunità residente dipendente da signorie, come quelle presenti nella Toscana di seconda metà IX-inizio X secolo, per le quali i segni di

appartenenza al ceto aristocratico erano rappresentati dai titoli ufficiali e dall’associazione con i re, ottenibili grazie alle basi economiche costruite sui propri poteri fondiari (Wickham1990, 83). La realtà materiale relativa ai confini muta quasi radicalmente solo nel corso del XII secolo AD. Questo sebbene, come è stato di recente evidenziato, i castelli sorti in questo periodo nella Toscana meridionale rappresentino il fulcro decisionale di politiche produttive e economiche avviate da almeno due secoli, innestate su contesti insediativi già esistenti dall’Alto Medioevo (Valenti 2008, 206 e ss.). Sempre i dati materiali confermano come il processo di formazione della signoria territoriale e soprattutto di consolidamento della propria base economica fu diluito nel corso di un arco di tempo compreso tra il X e per tutto il secolo successivo. Riprova di tale processo sono i primi limiti dei castelli che non solo seguono i perimetri delle più antiche confinazioni altomedievali ma si caratterizzano per l’impiego spesso di materiali misti o deperibili (come nel caso di Miranduolo, Valenti 2008) chiudendo abitati ancora composti da capanne (come per il primo castello di Campiglia di inizio XI secolo AD) (Bianchi 2004). È solo però a base economica consolidata, in concomitanza con il declino del potere effettivo della Marca e delle sue relative circoscrizioni, che il significato del castello, nel XII secolo AD, muta e diviene, come più volte rimarcato da Wickham, chiaro segno della privatizzazione delle strutture di potere e della nuova ‘territorializzazione privata della politica e del potere signorile’ già iniziata però prima del XII secolo AD. Per questo ‘la chiave politica dell’incastellamento in Toscana’ deve essere ‘cercata non tanto nell’istaurarsi di centri di potere privato quanto invece nella ricerca di uno status symbol: il possesso da parte di una famiglia di una fortificazione, un castello, diviene sempre più la prova necessaria della sua appartenenza al ceto militare, e in tale appartenenza tende ad identificarsi nello stesso periodo il requisito di base per far parte della ‘nuova aristocrazia’’ (Wickham1990, 83). È in questo momento quindi che i confini acquisiscono un forte valore simbolico di autorappresentazione da parte dei committenti. Ciò appare chiarissimo nei processi produttivi connessi all’edificazione delle nuove cinte, adesso totalmente in pietra, anche in quei castelli che saranno poi abbandonati precocemente, all’interno di un paesaggio rurale ora costellato di centri fortificati, caratterizzati spesso, a seconda delle signorie territoriali a cui questi furono legati, da un abitato in pietra. Le maestranze specializzate, di nuovo chiamate seppure in ridotto numero, a gestire la progettazione e costruzione di questi rinnovati centri di potere, innalzarono muri privi di intonaco coprente, caratterizzati dall’impiego, perlomeno nelle parti più rappresentative, di conci ben squadrati e rifiniti superficialmente, mentre alla manovalanza meno specializzata, legata direttamente alla committenza, che coadiuvava nel lavoro gli specialisti, fu chiesto di costruire muri, non in base ai propri saperi maturati nel tempo, ma ad imitazione di quelli degli specialisti, con la lavorazione di bozze ben rifinite e poste in opera con regolarità (Bianchi 1995; Bianchi, Fichera, Paris 2009. sul tema dell’incastellamento Bianchi c.s.; 413

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Bianchi 2010b). L’archeologia sperimentale conferma i lunghi tempi di preparazione dei conci squadrati (dalle sei alle otto ore a seconda della grandezza del concio) e delle stesse bozze (Cagnana 2000, 62-64). La pietra lavorata e la posa in opera regolare divennero, quindi, agli occhi dei contemporanei, che dovevano conoscere le caratteristiche di tali processi produttivi, la più chiara manifestazione della consolidata signoria territoriale, più della stessa ampiezza dei circuiti che sembra spesso rimanere inalterata rispetto a quelli precedenti altomedievali. Cinte, residenze signorili, torri, case in pietra rappresentano ora, nel XII secolo AD, il principale manifesto di forza e potere coercitivo nei confronti degli uomini analogamente allo stesso significato simbolico che per altri aspetti del vivere quotidiano rappresentò il ‘candido manto di chiese’ di cui si ‘rivestì la terra’, come ci narra Rodolfo il Glabro, nel corso del nuovo millennio.

670, Spoleto. Bruttini, J. 2008. Ecclesia infra castellum de Montemasso constructa: la chiesa di S.Maria, S.Andrea e S.Genziano a Montemassi, in S. Campana, C. Felici, R. Francovich e F. Gabrielli (eds), Chiese e insediamenti nei secoli della formazione dei paesaggi medievali della Toscana (V-X secolo), 245-258. Firenze. Cagnana, A. 2000. Archeologia dei materiali da costruzione, Mantova. Cantini, F. 2003. Il castello di Montarrenti. Lo scavo archeologico (1982-1987) per la storia della formazione del villaggio medievale in Toscana (secc. VII-XV). Firenze. Cella, G.P. 2006. Tracciare i confini. Realtà e metafore della distinzione, Milano. Collavini, S. M. 2007. Spazi politici e irraggiamento sociale delle élites laiche intermedie (Italia centrale, secoli VIII-X), in PH. Depreux, F. Bougard e R. Le Jan (eds), Les élites et leurs espaces: mobilité, rayonnement, domination (du VIe au XIe siècle), Collection «Haut Moyen Âge» 5, 319-340. Turnhout, Brepols. Dallai, L., Farinelli, R. e Francovich, R. 2005. La diocesi di Populonia-Massa Marittima. Il contributo dell’archeologia alla comprensione degli assetti urbani e dell’organizzazione ecclesiastica medievale, in A. Benvenuti (ed), Da Populonia a Massa Marittima: i 1500 anni di una diocesi, 111-136. Farinelli, R. 2007. I castelli nella Toscana delle ‘città deboli’. Dinamiche del popolamento e del potere rurale nella Toscana meridionale (secoli VII-XIV), Firenze. Farinelli, R. 2004. Villaggi dell’altomedioevo: invisibilità sociale e labilità archeologica, in M.Valenti (ed), IXXXII. Francovich, R. e Bianchi, G. 2002. L’archeologia dell’elevato come archeologia, “Arqueologia de la Arquitectura” I, 101-112. Francovich, R. e Bianchi, G. 2006a. Capanne e muri in pietra. Donoratico nell’alto medioevo, in C. Marcucci e C. Megale (ed), Il Medioevo nella provincia di Livorno. I risultati delle recenti indagini, 105-116. Pisa. Francovich, R. e Bianchi, G. 2006b. Prime indagini archeologiche in un monastero della Tuscia altomedievale: S.Pietro in Palazzuolo a Monteverdi Marittimo (PI), in R. Francovich e M. Valenti (ed), Atti del IV Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Medievale, 346-352. Firenze. Francovich, R. e Hodges R. 2003. Villa to village. The transformation of the Roman Countryside in Italy, c. 4001000. London, Duckworth. Galetti, P. 1998. Abitare nel medioevo. Forme e vicende dell’insediamento rurale nell’Italia altomedievale, Firenze. Hodges, R. (ed.) 1993. S.Vincenzo al Volturno I. London. La Cecla, F. 2003. Mente locale. Per un’antropologia dell’abitare, Milano. La Rocca, C. 2007. Residenze urbane e élites urbane tra VIII e X secolo in Italia settentrionale, in A. Augenti (ed), Le città italiane tra la Tarda Antichità e l’Alto Medioevo, Atti del convegno (Ravenna, 26-28 febbraio 2004), 55-66. Lai F. 2001. Antropologia del paesaggio. Roma. Marasco L. 2008. La chiesa della Rocca a Scarlino: dalla

BIBLIOGRAFIA Belli, M., Grassi, F., Francovich, R. e Quiros Castillo, J.A. (eds), 2005. Archeologia di un castello minerario: il sito di Cugnano (Monterotondo M.mo, GR), Firenze. Bianchi, G. (ed) 2004. Campiglia Marittima: un castello ed il suo territorio. Ricerca storica. Indagini archeologiche, Firenze. Bianchi, G. 1995. L’analisi dell’evoluzione di un sapere tecnico, per una rinnovata interpretazione dell’assetto abitativo e delle strutture edilizie del villaggio fortificato di Rocca S. Silvestro, in R. Francovich e E. Boldrini (eds), Acculturazione e mutamenti. Prospettive nell’archeologia medievale del Mediterraneo”, 361-396. Firenze. Bianchi, G. 2008, Costruire in pietra nella Toscana medievale. Tecniche murarie dei secoli VIII-inizio XII, “Archeologia Medievale” XXXV 35 , 23-28. Bianchi, G. 2010a, Cantieri monastici, cantieri curtensi e cantieri castrensi tra altomedioevo e secoli centrali nella Toscana meridionale, in Cantieri e maestranze nell’Italia medievale, in 2° Convegno Internazionale, Chieti-San Salvo, 16-18 maggio 2008, a cura di M.C. Somma, 449-479, Spoleto. Bianchi, G. 2010b. Dominare e gestire un territorio. Ascesa e sviluppo delle ‘signorie forti’ nella Maremma toscana del Centro Nord tra X e metà XII secolo, “Archeologia Medievale“, XXXVII, 93-104. Bianchi, G. c.s.. Curtes, castelli e comunità rurali di un territorio minerario toscano. Nuove domande per consolidati modelli, in Villaggi, comunità, paesaggi medievali, a cura di P. Galetti, Spoleto. Bianchi, G., Fichera, G., Paris, F. 2010. Rappresentazione e esercizio dei poteri signorili nella Toscana meridionale attraverso le evidenze archeologiche, in Atti del V Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Medievale, a cura di G. Volpe, 412-415, Firenze. Bianchi, G. e Valenti, M. 2010. Dal legno alla pietra. Modi di costruire e maestranze specializzate nella Tuscia altomedievale, in I magistri comacini. Mito e realtà del medioevo lombardo, XIX Congresso Internazionale di Studio, Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 635414

G. Bianchi: Spazi confinati tra signorie fondiarie e territoriali curtis al castello, in S. Campana, C. Felici, R. Francovich e F. Gabbrielli (eds), Chiese e insediamenti nei secoli della formazione dei paesaggi medievali della Toscana (V-X secolo), 147-168. Firenze. Settia, A.A. 1984. Castelli e villaggi nell’Italia padana. Popolamento e sicurezza fra IX e XIII secolo. Napoli. Valenti, M. 2010. I villaggi altomedievali in Italia, in J. A. Quiròs Castillo (ed), The archaeology of early medieval villages in Europe, Coloquio Internacional Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spagna), 20 - 21 novembre 2008, 29-56. Valenti, M. (ed) 2008. Miranduolo in Alta val di Merse (Chiudusdino-SI). Archeologia di un sito di potere nel medioevo toscano, Firenze.

Valenti, M. 2004. L’insediamento altomedievale nelle campagna toscane. Paesaggi, popolamento e villaggi tra VI e X secolo, Firenze. Wickham, C. 1990. Documenti scritti e archeologia per la storia dell’incastellamento: l’esempio della Toscana, in Francovich R. e Milanese M. (ed), Lo scavo archeologico di Montarrenti e i problemi dell’incastellamento medievale. Esperienze a confronto, 79-102. Firenze. Wickham, C. 1992. Frontiere di villaggio in Toscana nel XII secolo, in Castrum 4. Frontière et peuplement dans le monde Méditerranéen au Moyen Âge, 239-251. RomeMadrid.

Figura 1 Toscana. Localizzazione dei siti a cui si fa riferimento nel testo.

Figura 2 Montarrenti (SI). Ricostruzione grafica del sito e delle sue palizzate tra seconda metà VII-VIII secolo (da Cantini 2003).

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Figura 3 Donoratico (LI). In basso, localizzazione in grigio delle buche di palo della prima palizzata e dell’estensione planimetrica di parte di una capanna. In alto, l’immagine di una delle buche della palizzata tagliate dal muro costruito nel IX secolo (da Francovich e Bianchi 2006).

Figura 4 Donoratico (LI). A sinistra in grigio e nero sono segnati le parti della cinta di IX secolo avanzato, corrispondenti alle due diverse tecniche murarie, a destra i tre miscelatori di malta (da Bianchi, Valenti c.s.).

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G. Bianchi: Spazi confinati tra signorie fondiarie e territoriali

Figura 5 Scarlino (GR). La nuova cinta sommitale costruita nel corso del IX secolo (da Francovich e Bianchi 2002).

Figura 6 Montarrenti (SI). Ricostruzione grafica del sito e dei suoi confini tra la seconda metà dell’VIII ed il IX secolo (da Cantini 2003).

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Figura 7 Monterotondo M.mo (GR), Rocca degli Alberti. In basso, parte del muro di IX secolo facente parte del ridotto sommitale su cui si impostano i perimetrali del palazzo bassomedievale.

Figura 8 Cugnano (GR). Parte dei resti del fossato altomedievale.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

UNO SPAZIO DI CONFINE. LA ROMANIA APPENNINICA DALLE RADICI BIZANTINE ALLA SIGNORIA COMITALE DEI GUIDI Chiara Molducci Università di Firenze

Abstract (2008) A boundary context: Apennine Romania from Byzantine roots to the origins of the seigniory of Counts Guidi. The border zone, which arose in an area of Romania between the 6th and 8th century, specifically between the valleys of Lamone and Montone, became the territorial base for the evolution and consolidation of the material frames of one of the most powerful seigniories of Italy in the span 10th-12th century , that of Counts Guidi. It is a real material boundary space, wherein a temporal boundary-space, specifically the passage from a historical period to another, can be realised: the passage from the Byzantine state system to the feudal system of the counts. Boundary ‘is that extraordinary space between things, that separates while connecting or, perhaps, connects while separating, different people, things, cultures, identities, spaces and times to each others’. The boundary under question originated within a part of the fortified limes, which arose in about the 7th century in the Alpes Appenninae, aiming at defending the exarchate and watching over the main arteries between the Tuscia Langobardorum and Ravenna, capital of the Exarchate. The castles of Rontana, Ceparano and Pietramora, situated on a mountain ridge which results in a real natural boundary, geologically marked by a particular lime vein, became the political, military and economic management strong points of the Byzantine central power in that border zone. By the decline of the central power of Ravenna in the limes region, a settling of the frontier area took place in the 7th-8th century , led by the aristocracies of Ravenna, who had been installed there by the exarch with ministrative and military functions. In that moment a slow process began, whereby ‘state castles’ and relevant territories will have become own assets of the military aristocracies themselves, who initially exercised a public function. Boundary space as region featured by castles, wherein, between the 8th and 9th century, the aristocracies controlled scattered (curtes and massae) and nucleated settlements, which there developed with defensive purpose and consolidated for exploiting natural resources, agricultural productions and commercial routes. In the course of strike for succession to the kingdom of Italy, the border castles, in particular Ceparano and Pietramora, took again upon themselves a consequent defensive role under the control of the Guidi family, and so they were very probably refortified. The power of Counts Guidi family therefore derives mostly from its original relation with the Byzantine military aristocracy, whereby they entered into possession of several castles upon the Byzantine limes, which favoured its economic rise between the 9th and 10th century. It is in this period that the seigniory of Counts Guidi developed, who then did not choose castra of the limes, nor the Palatium at Ravenna as central place, but a new castle, arisen from the fortification of a lord’s curtis: the castle of Modigliana. This castle would have become the heart of their seigniory, with which the title of Count was linked until the end of the 14th century , and remained the main power place even when, for wrong political and military strategies, the territorial expansion of the Guidi was turned towards Tuscany. The state boundary space of the limes here considered became from the 10th to the 14th century the boundary space between the county and the ex-area of the exarchate once, subjected to the bishop of Ravenna, and then the city-state of Faenza, always maintaining its inclination of land of commercial, military and cultural exchange.

mone e Samoggia2 che si collocano il castrum Cipariano3 (Torre di Ceparano) e il castello della della Petra4 (Castellaccio di Pietramora) da identificarsi quest’ultimo, molto probabilmente, con il castrum Samodiae della Descriptio di Giorgio Ciprio.5 Entrambi i castelli costituivano la difesa della strada che, seguendo il corso del fiume Marzeno, collegava la Toscana, passando per Modigliana, con Faenza, garantendo così la sicurezza di quest’ultima (Molducci 2005 -2006). I Castelli di Cipariano e della Petra rientrano in una linea difensiva più ampia e si collocano sulla cresta dei colli che si ergono fra Marzeno e Samoggia che costituisce un confine naturale e netto, geologicamente ben caratterizzato da una particolare vena di calcarenite organogena detta localmente ‘spungone’.6 (Figura 3)

Lo spazio di confine che si costituisce in Romania (Vespignani 2001) fra VI e VIII secolo nell’ area compresa fra la valle del Lamone e quella del Montone, diventa la base territoriale su cui si sviluppa e si afferma nelle sue strutture materiali una delle signorie comitali più importanti d’Italia fra X e XII secolo, quella dei conti Guidi (Figura 1). La lettura archeologica condotta con metodologie ‘leggere’ (Molducci 2009 e Vannini 2007) sulle strutture territoriali con cui è organizzata un’area connotata naturalmente e geomorfologicamente come spazio di confine, in un arco cronologico compreso fra il VI e il XII secolo, ha permesso di individuare una frontiera spazio-temporale, in cui è visibile, in molte sue sfaccettature e nella lunga durata, il passaggio dal sistema statale bizantino di gestione del territorio al sistema comitale feudale (Molducci 2005-2006) . L’area di confine qui considerata ha origine in una parte del limes bizantino fortificato che si costituì attorno al VII secolo nelle Alpes Appenninae a difesa dell’esarcato, e a controllo delle principali vie di comunicazione fra la Tuscia Langobardorum e la capitale esarcale di Ravenna.1 È infatti nella zona compresa fra il fiume (Figura 2) La-

Di questo sistema difensivo facevano parte altri castra vicini come castrum Tusinnianum (Tossignano) sulla valle del Santerno, il catsrum Tiberiaco fra la valle del Senio e del Sintria, e infine Rontana nella valle del Lamone: si veda Molducci 2007 e 2005-2006. 3 Cart. Rav. II, n.150, 169-170 e Cart. Mon. S.And, n. 26, 89-91 4 ‘curte qui vocatur Bubiano una cum ipsa Petra ubi castello esse videtur’, Reg.Chi.Rav., n.1, 3-8. 5 ‘Il castrum Samodiae attestato nella Descriptio di Giorgio Ciprio è da collocare nei pressi del torrente Samoggia, ma non quello Bolognese, bensì il torrente faentino, quello presso cui sorge il Castellaccio della Pietra’, (Bottazzi 1997, 27). 6 Il termine ‘spungone’ con cui è conosciuta è un neologismo dal dialettale ‘spugnò’, roccia spugnosa: localmente questa calcarenite è caratterizzata da un’abbondanza di cavità e pori, che in alcuni casi la rendono 2

1

Con alcuni testi di riferimento Carile 1994; Cosentino 1996 e 2000; Fasoli 1951; Ferluga 1991a e 1991b; Guillou 1969; Molducci 2002 e 2007; Vasina 1974 a; Vespignani 2001; Zanini 1998.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean I castra di confine sono i centri di controllo in cui il potere centrale bizantino, che risiede a Ravenna, colloca i membri delle più importanti aristocrazie militari al fine di amministrare, difendere militarmente e gestire economicamente lo spazio della frontiera. I nostri castelli furono infatti edificati in quest’area collinare per sopperire sì a ragioni strategico difensive e di controllo delle vie di collegamento, ma anche perché potessero avere una certa autonomia economica, poichè il pagamento delle milizie locali stanziate era garantito dallo sfruttamento di terre militari e fiscali date loro in concessione.7 (Figura 4) La linea difensiva sfruttò i caratteri geomorfologici di questa regione collinare, non solo per la posizione topografica, che permetteva alle fortificazioni poste a grande distanza di essere collegate fra loro sia visivamente che attraverso percorsi, ma anche per la facilità di reperimento del materiale da costruzione per gli stessi castelli. Questi ultimi dovettero essere edificati in breve tempo e con un progetto comune che rispettasse caratteristiche generali volute dalla gestione territoriale centralizzata dell’impero.8 La natura geologica del sistema collinare su cui sorgevano garantiva una veloce e semplice reperibilità del materiale da costruzione; materiale cavato in situ o nelle più prossime vicinanze. (Figura 5) La zona infatti è caratterizzata dalla presenza di cave di materiale edile, utilizzato nelle strutture murarie dell’ area ravennate-faentina, riferibili al periodo tardo-antico e altomedievale testimoniata da numerosi ritrovamenti.9 Interessante notare come lo ‘spungone’ ricordi la ‘pietra bianca’, citata da Procopio come materia prima delle fortificazioni del limes di VI secolo non solo per il colore, ma anche per la facilità di reperimento e di lavorazione10 che permetteva quindi una preparazione per la posa in opera abbastanza veloce che prevedesse una strumentazione semplice e competenze tecniche ridotte.11 I castelli qui considerati furono infatti costruiti con un lato affacciato sullo strapiombo e scavando il promontorio roc-

cioso nella parte non difesa naturalmente ottenendo così oltre al ridotto difensivo sub qurangolare, anche materiale costruttivo per l’edificazione della torre che era collocata al centro e nel punto più alto del ridotto stesso (Cagnana 2001a e 2001b, Zanini 1998 e Molducci 2005-2006). Un modo di procedere che ritroviamo indicato nel testo dell’Anonimo Strategista del VI secolo come condizione ottimale per l’edificazione di strutture castrensi del limes; l’autore infatti raccomanda di ricorrere a una cava vicina, da cui estrarre pietra tagliata, facilmente lavorabile e calce maggiormente resistente.12 Se i castelli di Cipariano e della Petra sono stati costruiti con materiale proveniente dalle cave in situ e nel territorio ad essi pertinente, che ebbero un uso ininterrotto delle attività dall’epoca romana a quella pienamente medievale, si può ragionevolmente ipotizzare una continuità della presenza, accanto all’arte del cavatore, di quella dello scalpellino in quanto figure artigianali strettamente connesse e specializzate nella lavorazione della pietra. L’esistenza di ‘una cava ancora funzionante e la presenza di un cantiere di maestranze specializzate con una serie articolata di figure professionali era un’organizzazione che in questo caso poteva essere garantita dalla vicinanza, non solo geografica di Ravenna, con il mondo bizantino, in cui un certo livello di produzioni era garantito dalla compagine imperiale’ (Cagnana 1994, 41). Questa continuità ‘artigianale’ fu garantita anche da un tipo di committenza elevata socialmente e culturalmente, come l’esarco e la sua corte, l’aristocrazia militare esso legata, il vescovo e la sua curia (Galetti 1994, 472; Maioli 1991, 244). È quindi possibile pensare che nell’ edificazione dei nostri castelli di confine abbiano lavorato maestranze locali di trizione romana e tardo antica accanto a maestranze specializzate, forse itineranti e provenienti da Ravenna, volute dai ‘committenti’ che qui erano stanziati dall’esarco stesso.13 Le maestranze itineranti dovevano intervenire non tanto nelle messa in opera delle murature, ma nelle principali linee costruttive, nella progettazione topografica e planimetrica del castello che doveva rispondere a precise caratteristiche comuni a tutte le fortificazioni e frutto di una pianificazione del governo centrale nell’edificazione dei castra imperiali.

apparentemente simile a un travertino. Questo aspetto bucherellato è il risultato più che altro dell’azione erosiva differenziata di vento e pioggia su zone di roccia a minor grado di cementazione. 7 Si veda in proposito oltre ai testi citati alla nota 1 si veda anche Carile 1983 e 1985; Cosentino 2000. 8 In proposito si veda Ravegnani1983; Zanini 1994 e 1998. 9 Le cave di spungone sembrano avere una continuità d’estrazione dall’età romana fino a quella moderna che non si interruppe nel periodo altomedievale come attestato dalle strutture murarie e alle fortificazioni di Faenza di questo periodo. Si veda in proposito in generale Rodolico 1953, 218-219; Guarnieri 2000 e la sintesi in Bentini 2003 . Interessante a questo proposito è la cronaca del XVII di Tonduzzi secolo dove si riporta che ‘Ravenna trà l’altre accrebbe non solo di splendore per la residenza della corte, ma di fabbriche ancora, al che applicando Teodorico, fece condurre da Faenza gran quantità di sassi quadrati molto atti agl’edifici, sì per fondamentarli, massime ove il fondo è molle, quale è, e tanto più in quei tempi era il ravennate, sì anco per altri lavosrieri grossi, dei quali se ne vedono oggi in gran numero, in moltissimi luoghi in Faenza e se scoprono talvolta nell’escavar terreno, come ivi prima sepolti nelle ruine degli edifici antichi, e si credono cavati dai prossimi monti, essendovi ancor le cave, onde furono estratti massime in Ceparano, e altrove. Leggesi la commissione di Anastasio consolare fattali Teodorico a tal effetto in Cassiodoro, Lib.5.Variar. cap.8.’ , (Tonduzzi 1675). 10 La pietra bianca che veniva largamente operata non era molto solida e si sfaldava con facilità, con evidente pregiudizio della garanzia delle difesa, ma aveva il vantaggio di una facile lavorazione in tempo breve, (De Aed, II, 5, 4.). 11 Si veda in proposito Parenti 1994 e Cagnana 2001 a e 2001b .

Il nucleo ‘civile’ dei castelli era organizzato in strutture rupestri le cui abitazioni (Figura 6) si aprono, con accessi di forma sub-qurangolare abbastanza regolari, articolandosi su uno o più piani, sulle pareti a strapiombo al di sotto delle fortificazioni. La presenza di ipogei con funzione abitativa si collega sicuramente alle cave infatti, sia per la realizzazione delle strutture abitative che per l’attività 12

‘In caso contrario la fortificazione degli insediamenti doveva creare grossi problemi è ciò significa il ricorso a materiali meno solidi o con lavorazione difficoltosa. Ciò implicava di conseguenza un’inefficacia della difesa’,(Ravegnani 1983, 85-89). 13 È interessante a questo proposito segnalare l’esistenza vicino a Cipariano del Numerus Iustinianorum, un nucleo militare ivi stanziato per la difesa del confine bizantino e proveniente dall’area mediterranea, Padovani 1996. In particolare nel ravennate sono attivi fra 571 e 592 i numeri Persoiustiniunorum e Persoarmeno (Ferluga 1991,380 e Guillou 1969 101). Probabilmente il numero stanziato presso Cipariano aveva una stretta attinenza con il numerus Persoiustiniunorum la cui provenienza dall’area orientale sembra indiscutibile.

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C. Molducci: Uno spazio di confine. la Romania appenninica stipiti dei conti Guidi, Ingelrada ducarissa e dux Martino, nipote del duca di Rimini e figlio del duca Gregorio, personaggi i cui titoli richiamano poteri effettivi di matrice pubblica strettamente legati ai castelli limitanei di Conke, Comacchio e Ferrara.20 Ingelrada era figlia del comes sacri palatii di Ludovico II da cui aveva ereditato il titolo. Con questo matrimonio furono garantiti i castelli e i poteri su di essi anche quando il territorio da noi preso in considerazione entrò a far parte del Regno Italico (Settia 1984). La ‘giovane’ famiglia dei Guidi con i castelli di Ciparano e della Petra controlla curtes, massae e insediamenti accentrati sviluppatisi precedentemente nella zona dell’antico limes e radicatisi come centri di produzione agricola e di sfruttamento di risorse naturali (Molducci 2005-2006). Quest’area si trova inserita all’interno del sistema economico dell’ampio territorio che i duchi si stavano ritagliando nella Romania a discapito del presule ravennate. I castelli infatti per eredità del sistema esarcale controllavano le vie di comunicazione dei centri di produzione con i principali mercati e punti di smistamento delle merci della zona, ma soprattutto di Ravenna. È il caso del Castellaccio di Pietramora presso cui era la vicina curtis di Bulbana centro in cui veniva prodotto, oltre ai cereali, materiale da costruzione proveniente molto probabilmente dalle cave di ‘spungone’ e che sappiamo essere diffuso in tutta l’area faentina e ravennate. Anche il centro di Ciparano gestiva la produzione di materiale edilizio. I prodotti venivano trasportati fino alla domus dei duchi a Ravenna21 e da qui partivano per Comacchio sul Po, ai confini del ducato, per poi essere immessi nei circuiti commerciali interregionali e marittimi. La famiglia possedeva infatti una serie di porti o ‘semplici punti di carico e scarico e centri di stoccaggio’ (Settia 1993, 206) nel quartiere di San Vittore a Ravenna, dove sono inoltre presenti stationes cum accesso ripe fluminis Teguriensis, e nel Ferrarese il portum de Seriniana. È in questo periodo che è attestata per la prima volta la curte di Mutiliana (896), proprietà della contessa Ingelrada il cui centro domnico si colloca nell’area dove sorge l’attuale castello di Modigliana, sul promontorio detto ‘roccaccia’(230m.s.l.), alla confluenza del fiume Ibola e Tramazzo, in corrispondenza del nucleo più antico del centro castrense. La curtis si articolava in fundi, con casalibus e appendicibus che fanno pensare sì ad aree coltivate, ma anche ad una colonizzazione recente di spazi incolti forse abbandonati per il carattere di confine della zona (Vasina 2000). Il centro sorse in un’area abitata dall’epoca romana fino al VI-VIII secolo, come attestato da un’estesa necropoli scavata in una località vicina.22 La struttura am-

estrattiva, si utilizzava lo stesso tipo di strumentazione.14 L’accesso all’insediamento rupestre si è conservato per le parti più alte della falesia, ma in origine doveva avvenire principalmente attraverso strutture lignee di cui restano visibili sulla parete rocciosa alloggi e incavi in prossimità delle aperture. L’origine e lo sviluppo del castello e delle strutture abitative sembrano strettamente connessi. I nostri ‘villaggi a parete’ di ascendenza mediterranea15 per la posizione a controllo della viabilità, per il sistema di accesso realizzato con elementi lignei facilmente asportabili in caso di pericolo e localizzato sotto della cinta muraria,16 sembrano avere un carattere eminentemente difensivo. L’esistenza di strutture rupestri è condizionata dalla formazione del territorio che doveva permettere una facile escavazione, per sopperire a necessità abitative e difensive in breve tempo; elementi che ben si conciliano con le esigenze difensive di questa zona fra VI e VIII secolo . L’attività economica che si svolgeva presso i nostri castra bizantini era quella agricola e dell’estrazione di materiale da costruzione; 17 una produzione che, come abbiamo visto prima, si pone nel solco di una trizione costruttiva di ‘lunga durata’ e a cavallo fra periodo romano e quello pienamente medievale, come attestato per lo stesso periodo in altre zone dell’Italia bizantina.18 Queste attività permettevano ai centri di avere un’ autonomia al momento in cui, a causa dell’avanzata del nemico, si fossero interrotte le vie di collegamento fra i castra e le città che difendevano. Con il decadere del potere di Ravenna nelle zone del limes dopo la conquista longobarda si avvia, fra VII e VIII secolo, una territorializzazione dello spazio del confine da parte delle aristocrazie ravennati che da tempo erano stanziate dal governo bizantino per conto del quale svolgevano ivi funzioni amministrative, di giustizia e militari. E’ in questa fase che si avvia un lento processo per cui i ‘castelli statali’ e le aree ad essi pertinenti diventeranno centri legati alle aristocrazie militari che vi esercitano funzioni pubbliche.19 I castra bizantini dopo la caduta dell’impero e durante la ‘crisi istituzionale’ che investì il territorio dell’esarcato come conseguenza degli scontri fra Longobardi, papa, re dei Franchi e vescovo di Ravenna, si ritrovarono fra VIII e IX secolo legati ai patrimoni delle famiglie in antico impegnate alla difesa del limes (Figura 7). Fra VIII e IX secolo i castelli di Torre di Ceparano e il castellaccio di Pietramora rientrano fra i beni e le pertinenze fino al ‘iugum alpium finibus Tusciae’ (Cart. Mon. S.And, n. 26, 89-91) dei capo14

Per il Castellaccio della Pietra in UT3 si segnala G2 e per la Torre di Ceparano in UT7 si segnalano G4 e G5, Molducci 2005-2006. 15 La ‘civiltà rupestre’ è un elemento peculiare dell’intera area mediterranea, specialmente nei secoli di passaggio dal primo al secondo millennio, e come tale caratterizza vaste zone dell’Italia bizantina e altomedievale come nel caso dell’area laziale per cui sono state individuate maestranze specializzate itineranti, nel sud Italia e nella più lontana, ma pur sempre bizantina, Cappadocia. Si veda sul tema Fonseca 1972, 1977, 1978, 1986 e 1988; De Minicis 2003 e 2008. 16 Per alcuni esempi di insediamenti rupestri accentrati con difficile accesso si veda Fonseca 1986, De Minicis 2003 e Dallai 2001. 17 Pini 1976, 529 . 18 Si veda in proposito Brogiolo 1994 , Cagnana 1997 e Raimondo 2004 19 Si veda in proposito nota 1 e 8.

20

Si veda in proposito Rinaldi 1996; Fasoli 1979; Vespignani 2001 e Bernacchia 2002. 21 Sull’utilizzo del materiale edilizio prodotto nel faentino a Ravenna è significativo il passo di Agnello Ravennate per cui nella prima metà del IX secolo, l’onere per le spese del restauro di Sant’Apollinare in Classe e di tutto il materiale utilizzato nella costruzione e ristrutturazione di edifici religiosi e civili cittadini spettassero alle città del territorio circostante come servitù, Agnello Hist, 185. 22 La necropoli si costituisce di 23 tombe di cui 6 riferibili a bambini o adolescenti. Una era matrimoniale e un’altra di carattere famigliare perchè conteneva sepolture multiple. La maggior parte delle deposizioni erano a fossa alcune delle quali con copertura in lastre irregolari di arenaria. Solo 5 tombe hanno restituito dei corredi. Si tratta di pettini in

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean gliana si costituisce come fortificazione della pars dominica della curtis di Mutiliana affermando il potere dei conti a Modigliana e nel territorio circostante con più forza. Il complesso attuale, posto lungo la strada che collegava Modigliana alla Toscana, è costituito da una serie di strutture costruite fra la fine dell’XI e il XV secolo (Molducci 20052006). Del castello di X secolo non sono state individuate, allo stato attuale delle indagini, strutture murarie, ma il ritrovamento di conci di recupero in ‘spungone’ nelle murature di XI-XII secolo , prevalentemente in arenaria, può fare ipotizzare che fossero presenti murature più antiche. Infatti, lo ‘spungone’ caratterizza le costruzioni dei castelli altomedievali dell’area esarcale. Oltre a ciò si consideri che non si tratta di materiale cavato in situ, ma a circa 15 km di distanza, ciò fa pensare che sia stato trasportato e utilizzato per richiamarsi alle strutture più antiche del limes come legittimazione ‘materiale’ di un nuovo potere comitale che aveva le sue radici nell’aristocrazia militare bizantina. L’impiego dello spungone forse si dovette anche a maestranze provenienti da Ciparano e castello della Petra che, per ragioni di corvée, probabilmente operarono per i conti nel trasporto del materiale edile e nella costruzione del nuovo castrum. Sulla base di un confronto con le fonti scritte e archeologiche su scala territoriale si può ipotizzare che nel punto più alto vi fosse una torre in muratura, probabilmente circondata da strutture murarie in pietra, che avesse una funzione sia residenziale27 che di luogo giuridico dove si rogavano atti,28 un segno tangibile che marca l’attività edilizia dei centri in altura e che ‘contrdistingue il processo di formazione della signoria territoriale’ (Settia 1988; Wickham 1989, 82-83). Durante lo scontro fra Berengario II e Ottone i Guidi (Figura 9), alleati del primo, dopo la sua sconfitta, forti di un comitato esteso su gran parte della Romania, che metteva in crisi il potere del presule ravennate, sfidarono quest’ultimo assalendo e distruggendo gran parte dell’episcopio. L’imperatore Ottone II con un placito del 967 confiscò al figlio di Guido I, Tegrimo II, e al fratello Rainerio la totalità dei beni nel ferrarese, nel riminese e nel faentino fra cui molto probabilmente vi erano i castelli di Rontana, Ceparano e Pietramora donandoli al vescovo di Ravenna (Rinaldi 1996; Rauty 2003; Vespignani 2001). I castelli segnano sempre uno spazio di confine e di difesa ma ora fra due aree di potere signorile ben distinte: i Guidi e il vescovo di Ravenna. La nostra famiglia sposterà la sua attenzione su Modigliana che diventerà la ‘capitale’ del loro comitato e a cui si legherà il titolo di conti fino alla fine della dinastia allontanandosi definitivamente da Ravenna.

ministrativa della contessa quindi si inserì presso un insediamento nella zona del limes coordinata dai vicini castelli di Ciparano e della Petra per cui non è da escludere che fosse stato un avamposto difensivo. Della curte non è rimasta alcuna traccia allo stato attuale delle indagini archeologiche, ma le fonti scritte testimoniano un’articolazione in aedificii, strutture con qualifica funzionale differente che comprendevano abitazioni, stalle, magazzini, fienili e canale.23 Lo spazio del confine recupera il ruolo strategico-militare quando la nostra famiglia si trova coinvolta con un ruolo di primo piano all’interno delle lotte di successione del regno italico per cui il Castellaccio della Pietra e la Torre di Ceparano vengono con molta probabilità rifortificati anche per le capacità economiche della famiglia stessa. A questo proposito è necessario richiamare qui la constitutio de expeditione Beneventana di Ludovico II dell’anno 866 in cui si ordina ai messi ‘in litore Italico ut populum eiciant et custodiam praevideant et populum in castella residere faciant etiam et cum pace’, (Azzara-Moro 1998, n.45, pp.210-215) intendendo con litore Italico le parti marittime dell’Esarcato e della Pentapoli24. Si tratta per lo più di castelli esistenti sin dall’epoca bizantina, rimessi in efficienza dalla ‘nuova autorità’ pubblica con l’invio di messi imperiali contro il pericolo saraceno fra i quali rientrano quelli della famiglia di Martino dux del limes bizantino costiero, come Conke, Gabicce, Tagliola, Granarola, Montecorbino e Croce, ma anche quelli più interni come Ceparano e il castello della Petra che consentivano un importante collegamento fra il nord Italia e la Toscana, e, di conseguenza, il litorale tirrenico anch’esso impegnato nella difesa contro i Saraceni.25 Le terre e i castelli di Martino e di Ingelrada svolsero una funzione strategica, ricoprendo il ruolo di ‘cerniera’ fra le due realtà territoriali, quella Toscana e quella Romagnola, garantendone le comunicazioni. L’importanza nodale di questi centri difensivi si riaffermò all’interno delle lotte di successione per il Regno Italico per tutto il X secolo. (Figura 8) Forse è proprio per il legame fra Tegrimo, marito della figlia di Ingelrada e Martino, Ingelrada II, e Ugo di Provenza, noto per le concessioni a famiglie alleate di costruire castelli, che la curtis di Mutiliana fu fortificata fra il 920 e il 992.26 Il castello di Modiosso a doppia dentatura, attestati sia in tombe maschili che femminili, un boccale in ceramica depurata. Interessanti sono frammenti e anelle di orecchini in bronzo, un bracciale e un coltello in ferro databili fra VI e VIII secolo,( Leoni, Montevecchi e Pini 1997, 199-223). 23 Per canale si deve intendere, non tanto un fossato o canale, ma piuttosto contenitore per la pigiatura e bollitura del mosto che per traslato sia passato ad indicare l’edificio o il locale adibito alla conservazione degli strumenti atti alla vinificazione,(Galetti 1991, 81-82) 24 Su quale sia il litore italico, se quello dell’Esarcato e della Pentapoli o quello della Liguria e della Toscana vi sono pareri discordanti. Per la prima ipotesi sembrano protendere Settia 1984, 50; Vespignani 2001, 9697 e Bernacchia 2002, 124-125. Per l’ipotesi opposta propende Settia 2003a, 11 e Settia 2003b,787. 25 Si veda in proposito Vespignani 2001 e Bernacchia 2002. 26 Nelle fonti cronachistiche il castrum è attestato nel 920 (Englerata, filia di Martini Ducis de Ravenna,..apud Mutilianum, suum honorabile castrum, Magistri Tolosani, Cap.XI, 19-20) e la torre nel 967 ( turri apud Mutilianum , Magistri Tolosani, Cap.VIII, 15-17 ). Le fonti documentarie

attestano il castello nel 992 in Rauty 2003, n.12, 47-48 27 Forse la torre nella quale fu imprigionato il vescovo di Ravenna, non doveva molto essre diversa da quella del Castallccio della Pietra. I Traversari, fra i maiores ravennati come i Guidi, sono attesti come ‘attivi’ committenti per la costruzione di una cappella e di una torre all’interno di un castello. Nel 976 Paolo dux di Traversara in un contratto di enfiteusi, riceve dal vescovo ravennate un castello, costruito dal presule, con una cappella e una torre in costruzione, con l’impegno di finirne l’edificazione, Cart.Rav.II, n. 188, 272-273. Si veda Molducci 2005-2006. 28 Il conte Lamberto nella turre maiore del castello di Bertinoro nel 994995 presiede un placito, Molducci 2005-2006. Si veda anche Rauty 2003.

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C. Molducci: Uno spazio di confine. la Romania appenninica fase il confine fra il comitato dei Guidi in Romania e la nuova realtà comunale di Faenza che, di recente costituzione, si stava rafforzando mettendo in discussione il potere dei nostri conti. Uno spazio di confine che, anche durante gli scontri fra comune di Faenza e i conti Guidi, acuitisi nel XIII secolo, non perderà la ‘vocazione’di area di comunicazione e scambio come attestato da un documento del periodo fra le due parti per cui sarà consentito ai Guidi di utilizzare strade del territorio pertinente al castello di Pietramora, sotto il controllo comunale, per la commercializzazione di prodotti provenienti dalla zona di Modigliana.30 Un confine che segna ancora oggi il limite fra il comune di Modigliana e quello di Faenza. Il territorio di confine fino ad ora descritto nel corso dei secoli del medioevo fu sì una frontiera militare, ma divenne area fluida di insediamento umano, di movimento di persone, di espansione per affermazione di poteri sugli spazi e di sperimentazione degli stessi, di scambio commerciale e culturale che altro non è che una chiave di lettura di una storia di ampio respiro, di limes mediterraneo. Siamo quindi di fronte a ‘un concetto di confine che è quello della liminarità, dal momento che si tratta di frontiere mobili, frattali, marginali’ (Accarino 2007) che potrebbe altresì definirsi come ‘quello straordinario spazio che si trova tra le cose, quello che mettendo in contatto separa, o, forse, separando mette in contatto, persone, cose, culture, identità, spazi e, soprattutto, tempi fra loro differenti’ (Zanini 2000).

Fra XI e XII secolo, con l’appoggio della marchesa Matilde di Toscana29 di cui sono nominati eredi, e più tardi, come alleati in armi del Barbarossa i Guidi estesero nuovamente il loro dominio in Romagna riaffermando il loro potere (Tabacco 1990; Molducci 2009) e riacquisirono i castelli persi per l’azione di Ottone II, fra cui Ciparano e della Petra (Figura 10) riattivando anche quel sistema viario e di scambio commerciale che caratterizzava la zona di confine già nell’altomedioevo. È in questa fase che il paesaggio del comitato fu ridisegnato per effetto di un imponente incastellamento con tecniche murarie e linguaggi architettonici nuovi portati da magistri provenienti dai cantieri del romanico padano e toscano (Molducci 2009). Il castello di Modigliana, (Figura 11) sede a cui si lega il titolo comitale, fu oggetto di un’imponente ristrutturazione ‘connessa’ al ruolo di primo piano che la famiglia dei Guidi rivestiva. Al posto della torre fu edificato un palatium articolato in più piani con stanze picte et ornate, (Molducci e Salvestrini 2010) con tecniche costruttive e materiali che si distaccano in maniera marcata da quella che era la tradizione altomedievale locale; un palatium centro di rappresentanza adeguato a una famiglia in procinto di ottenere la più grande signoria territoriale d’Italia. Nel palatium, nella prima e seconda cinta muraria del castello, è stato infatti riscontrato l’uso prevalente di conci di arenaria per la maggior parte squadrati, una tecnica di lavorazione comparsa per la prima volta nella zona (Tipo murario 4). Particolari rifiniture sono state individuate nelle aperture delle stesse strutture in cui le pietre sono perfettamente squadrate, spianate e poste in opera con giunti e letti molto sottili. In alcuni punti inoltre si riscontra la particolare rifinitura effettuata con l’ascettino usato perpendicolarmente alla faccia dei corsi; una finitura questa che indica la presenza di maestranze specializzate con una certa conoscenza tecnologica attive nella costruzione della terza cinta muraria per cui si nota, oltre alle particolari finiture dei conci, una posa in opera particolarmente accurata. I castelli dell’antico confine esarcale di Ciparano e della Petra vengono ricostruiti e rifortificati. È il caso di Ceparano di cui abbiamo testimonianza in una fonte cronachistica secondo cui fra il 1157 il 1167 il conte Guido Guerra III fece rifortificare il castello, all’interno del quale si trovava la pieve. Dalle fonti scritte sappiamo che il Castellaccio della Petra (Figura 12) fu ricostruito e distrutto più volte nel XII e XIII secolo (Molducci 2005-2006), periodo a cui sembra possibile ascrivere alcune murature della torre che si caratterizzano (Tipo Murario 3) per l’uso di materiali eterogenei e di conci di riutilizzo di piccole dimensioni, di un litotipo non selezionato, sbozzati e molti spaccati posti in corsi non regolari che, per rispettare l’orizzontalità, sono spesso sdoppiati. I castelli di Ciparano e della Petra segneranno in questa

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Nel trattato stretto da Guido Novello e dal comune di Faenza nel 1258 viene concessa al conte e ai suoi vassalli al comune di Modigliana la facoltà di poter liberamente trasportare nel comitato i prodotti dei beni da loro posseduti nella città e nel territorio di Faenza, pur avendo il comune di Faenza la piena giurisdizione sulla curia e sulla Pietra de Mauro, tutti i fumanti, tranne quelli con particolare carta d’immunità, mantengono l’obbligo di corrispondere al conte il censo annuale di frumento, Ragazzini 1912, 87-92.

29

In questa fase l’esperienza signorile guidinga assume caratteristiche più schiettamente pubblicistiche per il loro legame con i marchesi rispetto a quelle di altre famiglie comitali poste ai margini del sistema canossiano. Ampio raggio d’azione, forme di protezione basate sul bannum , grande attenzione all’amministrazione della giustizia e largo ricorso alla forza militare sono tutte caratteristiche che avvicinano in effetti il dominio canossiano in Toscana a quello dei Guidi, Collavini 2003.

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ziale tra V e VIII secolo. 4° seminario sul tardoantico e l’altomedioevo in Italia centrosettentrionale. MontebarroGalbiate (Lecco)2-4 Settembre 1993, 39-52. Mantova. Cagnana, A. 1997. La transizione al Medioevo attraverso la storia delle tecniche murarie: dall’analisi di un territorio a un problema sovra regionale. In S. Gelichi (ed. ), Atti del I Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Medievale. Prétirages (Pisa, 29-31 maggio 1997), 445-448. Cagnana, A. 2001a. Analisi architettonica e ipotesi di ricostruzione delle opere difensive del castrum tardoantico, in T. Mannoni e G. Murialdo (eds.), S.Antonino:un’insediamento fortificato nella liguria bizantina, 119-134. Bordighera. Cagnana, A. 2001b. Le strutture murarie in pietra: materiali, tecniche, ipotesi sulle maestranze, in T.Mannoni e G. Murialdo (eds.), S.Antonino:un’insediamento fortificato nella liguria bizantina, 205-209. Bordighera. Carile, A. 1983. Continuità dei ceti dirigenti dell’Esarcato fra VII-IX secolo. In Istituzioni e società nell’alto medioevo marchigiano : atti del Convegno, Ancona, Osimo, Jesi, 17-20 ottobre 1981, Atti e memorie della Deputazione di storia patria per le Marche, 86, 115-145. Ancona. Carile, A. 1985. Terre militari funzioni e titoli bizantini nel “Breviarium”, in A.Vasina, C.Curri e G.Rabotti (eds.), Ricerche e studi sul “Breviarium ecclesie Ravennatis”, 8193. Roma. Carile, A. 1994. Materiali di storia bizantina. Bologna. Cart.Rav.II. Le carte ravennati del X secolo Archivio Arcivescovile II (aa.957-976). In R.Benericetti (ed.). Imola. 2002. Cart. Mon. S.And.Le carte del monastero di Sant’Andrea Maggiore. In G.Muzzioli (ed.). Ravenna. 1982. Collavini, S. 2009. Le basi economiche e materiali della signoria guidinga (1075 c.-1230 c.). In F. Cannacini (ed.), La lunga storia di una stirpe comitale: i conti Guidi fra Romagna e Toscana, Atti del convegno di studi organizzato dai Comuni di Modigliana e Poppi, 315-348. Firenze, Leo S. Olschki. Conti, P.M. 1975. L’Italia bizantina nella “Descriptio orbis romani” di Giorgio Ciprio. La Spezia. Cosentino, S. 1996. Prosopografia dell’Italia bizantina 493-804, Vol. I. Bologna. Cosentino, S. 2000. Prosopografia dell’Italia bizantina 493-804, Vol. II. Bologna. Dallai, L. 2001. Grotte e castelli nel territorio massetano: il caso di Perolla. In Archeologia Medievale XXVIII, 149161. De Minicis , E. (ed.) 2003, Insediamenti rupestri medievali della Tuscia. I le abitazioni. Roma. De Minicis , E. (ed.) 2008. Insediamenti rupestri di età medievale: abitazioni e strutture produttive. Italia centrale e meridionale. Atti del Convegno di studio (Grottaferrata, 27-29 ottobre 2005), tomi 2. Spoleto.ill. Fabbri, P.1991. Il controllo delle acque tra tecnica ed economia. In A.Carile (ed.) , Storia di Ravenna, Voll. II 1, 9-25. Venezia. Fasoli, G. 1951-1953. Tracce dell’occupazione Longobarda nell’Esarcato. In Atti e memorie della R. Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Provincie di Romagna III, 35-55. Fasoli, G. 1979. Il dominio territoriale degli arcivescovi 424

C. Molducci: Uno spazio di confine. la Romania appenninica logia, 479-493. Firenze. Padovani, A. 1996. Il confine bizantino Longobardo sul Senio e uno sconosciuto “Numerus Iustinianus”. In Storie per un millennio. Solarolo e Romagna dall’epoca romana oggi, 17-33. Russi. Parenti, R. 1994. I materiali da costruzione, le tecniche di lavorazione e gli attrezzi. In G.P. Brogiolo (ed. ), Edilizia residenziale tra V e VIII secolo. 4° seminario sul tardo antico e l’altomedioevo in Italia centrosettentrionale. Montebarro-Galbiate (Lecco)2-4 Settembre 1993, 25-37. Mantova. Pini, A. 1976. Produzione artigianato e commercio a Bologna e in Romana nel medioevo. In A. Berselli (ed.), Storia dell’Emila Romagna II, 519-547. Imola 1984. De Aed-Procopio di Cesarea. De aedificis. In J.Haury (ed.), Procopii Caesariensis opera omnia, Lipsiae 1905-1906. Ragazzini, V. 1912. Modigliana e i conti Guidi in un lodo arbitrale del XIII secolo. Modigliana 1921. Raimondo, C. 2004. Per un atlante crono-tipologico delle tecniche murarie in Calabria fra Vi e XI secolo: il contributo del castrum bizantino di S. Maria del Mare. In Archeologia Medievale XXXI, 473-496. Rauty, N. 2003. Documenti per la storia dei conti Guidi in Toscana. Le origini e i primi secoli. 887-1164. Firenze. Rauty, N. 2005. Una nuova edizione di fonti per la storia dei conti Guidi in Toscana. Tremisse Pistoiese, 86/7, 3740. Ravegnani, G. 1983. Castelli e città fortificate nel VI secolo. Ravenna. Rinaldi, R. 1996. Le origini dei Conti Guidi nelle terre di Romagna (secoli IX-X). In Formazione e strutture dei ceti dominanti nel Medioevo: marchesi, conti e visconti nel Regno Italico (secc.IX-XII), Atti del secondo convegno di Pisa (3-4 Dicenbre 1993), Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo, Nuovi studi storici, 39, 211-240. Roma. Reg.Chi.Rav.-Regesto della chiesa di Ravenna, in V.Federici e F.Buzzi (eds.), Roma 1911-1931. Rodolico , F.1953. Le pietre delle città d’Italia. Firenze. Settia, A. A. 1984. Castelli e villaggi nell’Italia padana.

Popolamento, potere e sicurezza fra IX e XIII secolo. Napoli. Settia , A.A. 1988. Lo sviluppo di un modello: origini e funzioni delle torri private urbane nell’Italia centrosettentrionale in Paesaggi urbani dell’Italia pana secoli VIIIXIV, 155-171. Bologna. Settia , A. A.1993. “Per Foros italiae”. Le aree extraurbane fra Alpi e Appennini. Atti delle settimane di studio, Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Altomedioevo XL,187-233. Settia, A. A. 2003a. Strutture materiali e affermazione politica nel regno italico: i castelli marchionali e comitali dei secoli X-XI. In Archeologia Medievale XXX, 11- 18. Settia , A. A.2003b. Lo spazio della guerra in età carolingia e postcarolingia. In Atti delle settimane di studio, Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Altomedioevo L, 785-799. Tabacco, G. 1990. I rapporti fra Federico Barbarossa e l’aristocrazia italiana. In BISM 96, 61-83. Tonduzzi, G.C. 1675. Historie di Faenza. Faenza Vannini, G. (ed.) 2007. Archeologia dell’insediamento crociato- ayyubide in Transgiordania. Il Progetto Shawbak, Biblioteca di Archeologia Medievale 21, 56-69. Firenze. Vasina, A. 1974a . Romagna Toscana nel Medioevo. Faenza. Vasina, A 2000. Aspetti e problemi della organizzazione territoriale in Italia nel Medioevo: fra diocesi e pievi. In M. Montanari (ed.), Per Vito Fumagalli. Terra, uomini, istituzioni medievali, 359-378. Bologna. Vespignani, G. 2001. La Romania Italiana dall’Esarcato al Patrimoniumi. Spoleto. Wickham, C. 1989. Documenti scritti e archeologia per una storia dell’incastellamento: l’esempio della Toscana. In Archeologia Medievale XVI, 79-102. Zanini, E. 1994. Introduzione all’archeologia bizantina. Roma. Zanini, E. 1998. Le Italie bizantine. Territorio, insediamento ed economia nella provincia bizantina d’Italia. Bari. Zanini, P. 2000. Significati del confine. I limiti naturali, storici, mentali. Milano, Mondadori Bruno.

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Figura 1 L’area del limes base territoriale della signoria dei Guidi

Figura 2 Il sistema difensivo esarcale fra VI-VIII secolo

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Figura 3 Lo spazio di confine fra VII e IX secolo

Figura 4 I castelli del limes

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Figura 5 I castelli del limes : le cave

Figura 6 I castelli del limes : insediamenti rupestri

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Figura 7 Il ducato fra VIII e IX secolo (da Fabbri P., 1991, tav III)

Figura 8 Castrum Mutiliano

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Figura 9 Lo spazio di confine nel la seconda metà del X secolo

Figura 10 Lo spazio di confine fra XI e XII secolo

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Figura 11 Lo spazio di confine fra XI e XII secolo: Il Castello di Modigliana Tipo murario IV - particolare delle finiture

Figura 12 Lo spazio di confine fra XI e XII secolo: Il Castello della Pietra -Tipo murario III

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

NASCITA DI UNA FRONTIERA ALPINA. IL COLLE DEL PICCOLO SAN BERNARDO (VALLE D’AOSTA/HAUTE-TARENTAISE)1 Andrea Vanni-Desideri Università di Firenze Nathalie Dufour Patrizia Framarin Région Autonome Vallée d’Aoste Abstract (2008) Nascita di una frontiera alpina. Il Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo (Valle d’Aosta/Tarentaise) The Little St. Bernard Hill is a typical example of transit place, used for thousands of years and only become frontier in the Modern Time, as consequence of defensive necessities brought about by military conflict between the central European States. It arose from chance circumstances, but this new role rapidly transformed it into frontier between national States. Through this pass, cult place as early as prehistoric times and provided with service and cult places in Roman epoch, a much more considerable commercial flow than the Great St. Bernard’s crossed until the 13th century included, and until the 15th century it was an effective instrument of political control by Savoyards, as it was located fairly in the centre of their duchy. Its position really caused it to be late used as frontier from the beginning of the 17th century, in order to oppose French monarchy’s military initiatives. From that moment on, the territory around the Hill, realised by military engineers as the best position to defence, was actually progressively transformed into a unitary defensive complex. As a result, within about a century, taking the best advantage on the favourable natural conformation of those places, several undertakings transformed the area between the village of Petosan (La Thuile) and the Hillpass into Aosta Duchy’s most complex and jointed defensive system, which is actually its central core, flanked towards NW and SE respectively by the minor installations of the Allèe Blanche Glacier and Valgrisanche’s head. Archaeological analysis has allowed the building process to be followed, that is a simple front line, with exclusive outpost functions, which evolved by a second line and some infrastructures (barracks, depots and service roadnetwork), that progressively improved its functionality. As regards the second line, La Thuile Valley became a real citadel with imposing risen fortifications (between 1500 and 2700 meters a.s.l.), which featured the ridges for several hundred meters and overlooked wide entrenched plain fields, with triangular and pentagonal earthen ramparts, that also served to protect barracks and depots. The working of such complex defence system was ordered by means of specific rules, that stated any operation in case of attack, in order to block the access to the Aosta Valley. In this case, sapping activities were also expected, like bridge and communication trench demolition as well as mining at the head of the glaciers. However, the archaeological method, apart from the great constructions relevant to the organization of defence, has also allowed to check field structures (shelters, bivouacs, entrenchments), arranged by small groups of moving soldiers, while penetrating through Aosta Valley’s territory. The scenery, that can be outlined, is a militarily occupied land to such an invasive extent that, although regarding a span of three centuries only, the remains of defensive structures represent by far the most considerable and visible archaeological evidence of the whole history of that site.

ni’1. Si tratta in effetti di un luogo di passaggio utilizzato per millenni che viene trasformato in frontiera, materialmente e militarmente intesa, solo in età moderna, in conseguenza delle necessità difensive generate dai confronti armati degli stati centroeuropei. Il sistema difensivo occidentale del Ducato di Aosta si viene a creare, in circostanze occasionali, nella prima metà

Il colle del Piccolo San Bernardo, come ha recentemente sottolineato Paolo Sibilla è un esempio di limite culturale, oltre che fisico, che nel tempo è servito a porre in relazione genti diverse piuttosto che a dividerle. Per secoli facilitò il transito di viaggiatori, pastori transumanti, pellegrini, mercanti, contrabbandieri, someggiatori, e migranti d’ogni specie che dovevano superare difficoltà, pericoli e insidie frapposti dalla natura a cui, a seconda dei tempi, potevano aggiungersi le barriere e gli ostacoli imposti dagli uomi-

1 Sibilla 2004, 3. Si vedano le pagine che lo stesso autore dedica agli aspetti antropologici del confine (Sibilla 2004, 1-37).

1

Gli autori dedicano questo contributo alla memoria dell’amica e collega Antonina Maria Cavallaro che non ha potuto vedere concluse le ricerche che tanto aveva contribuito a progettare e condurre. Nel corso del progetto transfrontaliero italo-francese Interreg IIIA “Alpis Graia. Archéologie sans frontières au Col du Petit Saint Bernard”, diretto globalmente a livello istituzionale da Lorenzo Appolonia (Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta, capofila del progetto), Françoise Ballet (Conservation du Patrimoine de Savoie, Chambéry), Marie-Pierre Feuillet (Direction Régional des Affairs Culturels) e Dominique Herrero (Syndicat d’Initiative à Vocation Multiple de Haute Tarentaise), diverse équipe francesi e italiane hanno affrontato lo studio dell’area, su scala cronologica totale, attraverso più campagne di ricerca, sviluppatesi nel triennio 2003-2005. Una delle sezioni di ricerca ha affrontato per la prima volta in modo sistematico lo studio diacronico del sistema di difesa del colle del Piccolo San Bernardo conducendo ricerche su un ampio territorio tra Morgex (I), La Thuile (I), il Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo (I/F), Séez (F) e Montvalésan (F), compreso tra i 1400 e i 2500 m.s.l.m.. Andrea Vanni Desideri, del Dipartimento di Studi Storici e Geografici dell?università di Firenze, ha elaborato il progetto di ricerca archeologica, diretto le letture sul campo e le operazioni di documentazione. Nathalie Dufour e Patrizia Framarin, della Soprintendenza ai Beni Culturali della Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta sono le responsabili rispettivamente per la Sezione Medievale e Moderna e della Sezione Età Romana del progetto Alpis Graia. Nathalie Dufour ha inoltre condotto le ricerche d’archivio presso il Primo Reparto Infrastrutture dell’Esercito in Torino. Le ricerche storiche presso l’Archivio di Stato di Torino e l’Archivio Regionale di Aosta si devono a Paolo Palumbo. La produttività della Sezione Medievale e Moderna del progetto è stata incrementata dal confronto e dai risultati delle ricerche delle altre équipe e specialmente di quelle dirette da Pierre-Jérome Rey (UMR 5204, Chambéry), Franco Mezzena (Servizio Beni Archeologici della Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta), Philippe Leveau e Silvie Crogiez-Pétrequin (Université de Rouen-Centre Camille Jullian) e Laurence Pinet (UMR 6636, Aix-en-Provence). I risultati delle diverse ricerche di questa sezione del progetto sono comparsi in Dufour e Vanni Desideri 2003-2004, Dufour e Vanni Desideri 2006 e Palumbo 2006. Più organici lavori, sulla base di fonti archeologiche e d’archivio sono Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni Desideri 2006 e Dufour, Palumbo, Rey e Vanni Desideri, in corso di stampa. Una significativa sintesi storica sull’evoluzione delle fortificazioni sul versante francese è contenuta in Raffaelli 2006.

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A. Vanni Desideri, N. Dufour, P. Framarin: Nascita di una frontiera alpina del XVII secolo, in risposta alla politica espansionistica francese e dalla necessità di controllo delle vie che dalla Savoia penetrano nella Valle d’Aosta attraverso alcuni passi, ricalcando percorsi di età medievale, (Cancian 1999, 13-23; Sergi 1981; Sergi 2006; Vanni Desideri 1999, 4347) a volte di origine romana e pre-romana (Barocelli 1924; Mezzena 2006, 61-68; Mollo Mezzena 1991; Pinet e Sivan 2006, 69-75; Rey e Moulin 2006, 77-117). Si tratta di un’esigenza che emerge nelle relazioni contemporanee che evidenziano come il percorso più agevole per lo spostamento di truppe fosse quello compreso tra La Thuile e il Piccolo San Bernardo, corrispondente alla ‘grande route’ erede diretta della viabilità augustea, e di conseguenza quello maggiormente importante per la difesa del Ducato d’Aosta. Così, dalle prime e scarsamente organiche realizzazioni verrà portato a termine, nel corso di due secoli, un complesso sistema difensivo di frontiera la cui ossatura è già sostanzialmente stabilizzata dalla fine del XVII secolo e che perdurerà in uso fino alla fine del XVIII secolo.

territorio francese, e dei Salassi, in quello italiano. Queste stesse popolazioni esercitavano il controllo della viabilità per il Piccolo San Bernardo, come sembra sottolineare la recente individuazione di un villaggio fortificato presso l’orrido di Pré-Saint-Didier (Rey e Moulin 2006, 92-94). Del resto, le ripetute campagne militari augustee hanno lo scopo di assicurarsi il controllo dei passi, sostituendosi alle popolazioni autoctone e incaricando apposite unità militari di garantirne la sicurezza, come è esemplificato dal caso di Cneus Pinarius Cornelius Clemens, legato e propretore di Vespasiano e comandante dell’esercito della Germania superiore che sorvegliava i passi dell’Alpis Poenina e dell’Alpis Graia e che fu chiamato a risolvere una questione di confine nella primavera del 74 (Rémy 2004, 243-252). La recente ripresa delle attività di scavo e ricerca sul colle, programmate nell’ambito del progetto Interreg ‘Alpis Graia’(figura 1), ha posto le basi per una rilettura dei resti archeologici dell’insediamento mansio, già posti in luce o ancora interrati, ai lati della via pubblica (figura 2). Il rilievo critico dei resti del grande edificio orientale in territorio italiano, con l’esposizione dei piani d’imposta dei muri residui e il reperimento di ulteriori strutture non segnalate nelle planimetrie, ha mostrato la possibilità di una articolazione in fasi, certo complicata dai numerosi interventi di restauro susseguitisi nel tempo (Cavallaro e Girardi 2006, 119-124; Framarin e Girardi 2006). Lo studio dei materiali provenienti dai vecchi scavi Barocelli4 nell’area ha peraltro consentito al momento di fissare gli estremi di un arco cronologico di vita dell’edificio compreso, dopo alcune tracce di frequentazione nel I sec. a.C., tra la prima metà del I sec. d.C. e la seconda metà del IV. Diversamente, l’occupazione testimoniata dai reperti5 rinvenuti nell’ultimo edificio di età romana indagato ex novo sul colle si inscrive nel I sec. d.C. La pianta della costruzione con pilastri centrali, ubicata nell’area a monte della via antica (Cavallaro, Davite e Girardi 2002-2003, 26)(figura 2, n. 2), di fronte all’installazione orientale, sembra riferirsi ad un luogo di servizio, forse un deposito di supporto alla costruzione ed alle prime fasi di vita del sito, poi abbandonato e spogliato. Sul piano della destinazione, l’interpretazione del fabbricato a cortile (figura 2, n. 3), accessibile dalla via, risulta la meno problematica di tutto il complesso per l’indubbio riscontro dello schema planimetrico adottato in altri impianti di servizio alla circolazione viaria, come per esempio al Colle del Gran San Bernardo (Alpis Poenina)( Framarin 2008, 34-35, tav. A3; Galloro 2008, 40-41), e fuori della XI regio, a Egna/ Neumarkt (Endidae), esempio ubicato sulla strada dell’Adige (Cavada 2000, 386-387). Alle spalle di questa struttura ricettiva, attrezzata per ospitare uomini e animali, l’edificio interpretato come fanum per

I più recenti rinvenimenti di siti mesolitici d’alta quota stanno probabilmente cominciando a modificare le cognizioni sul più antico popolamento delle Alpi occidentali tra il Tardiglaciale würmiano e l’Olocene antico.2 Ciononostante, per i versanti del Piccolo San Bernardo, come hanno mostrato recenti ricerche, la più antica e maggiore densità di tracce archeologiche si situa, al momento e secondo la terminologia italiana, tra il Neolitico e l’Eneolitico (4500-2200 a.C.), cioè in corrispondenza di una fase climatica particolarmente favorevole e concentrate entro una fascia altimetrica intorno ai 1000 mslm, ma con isolati esempi di occupazioni temporanee in quota attorno ai 2000-2500 mslm, più abbondanti sui versanti meridionali in territorio francese (Rey e Moulin 2006). Spesso si tratta di focolari di probabili bivacchi che denunciano quindi permanenze stagionali temporanee, certo in relazione con lo sviluppo delle prime attività pastorali, ma da questo periodo si può cogliere un progressivo innalzamento in quota degli abitati che indicherebbero l’esistenza dei primi percorsi di attraversamento del colle. E’ da notare che lo stesso peggioramento climatico delle aree periglaciali, documentato tra l’età del Bronzo e l’Hallstatt antico, non sembra determinare una significativa flessione della frequentazione dell’area del colle.3 Il cromlech ubicato esattamente nel punto più alto del colle, a quota 2190 mslm, nonostante rimanga di problematica lettura anche dopo le recenti campagne di ricerca (Pinet e Sivan 2006), ha restituito una cuspide di freccia in selce, di una tipologia riferibile all’Eneolitico, che costituisce il manufatto mobile di più antica datazione mai rinvenuto sul valico (Mezzena 2006, 61-68). La posizione topografica del monumento, nel punto di colmo del passo, è sicuramente in relazione con la sua funzione, che si sarebbe estesa fino all’età del Ferro, quando i versanti del colle risultano occupati dalle popolazioni galliche dei Ceutroni, in

4

I materiali ceramici provenienti dagli scavi Barocelli (1924-1940) relativi alla mansio orientale e quelli reperiti nell’edificio C (probabile deposito), scavi Cavallaro-Davite-Girardi 1999-2002, sono stati oggetto della Tesi di Laurea di Nadia Ortolani, manoscritto inedito, Università degli Studi di Torino, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità, anno accademico 2008. 5 Vedi nota 2.

2 Per la Val d’Aosta vedi Mezzena e Perrini 1999, Mezzena e Perrini 2000

e, per un quadro esteso alle Alpi occidentali, Guerreschi 2004. 3 Rey e Moulin 2006. Sulla dinamica del popolamento nell’area del colle del Piccolo San Bernardo vedi ora anche Rey, Treffort, Moulin, Oberlin e André 2008

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean la peculiarità della pianta, sembra anch’esso interessato da diverse fasi murarie, ma l’impossibilità di conoscerne per intero lo sviluppo, risulta infatti parzialmente occultato dalla strada moderna, inibisce altre considerazioni in merito alla sua identificazione, ancora da confermare, così come incerta è la funzione del più settentrionale dei due.impianti costituenti la parte ricettiva della mansio in Alpe Poenina, oggetto finora di limitati saggi, anch’esso caratterizzato da murature concentriche. Il ritrovamento di un gruppo di ex-voto, da cui provengono notevoli attestazioni del culto di Giove e di Ercole, sepolti all’esterno di un ambiente allungato dell’edificio occidentale, l’altro fabbricato a corte posto lungo la strada ora in territorio francese, aveva fornito la base indiziaria per la localizzazione di un ulteriore luogo di culto (Barocelli 1924), oggi ricusata nell’impossibilità di riconoscere una pianta associabile al sacro in un settore del singolare impianto cruciforme (Canal 1996, 54; Crogiez-Pétrequin 2006, 140)(figura 2, n. 5). Anche per questi ambienti disposti intorno ad un’ampio cortile centrale, i dati offerti dagli scavi recenti testimoniano un’occupazione tra Tiberio-Claudio e il IV sec., in parallelo sostanzialmente con quanto riscontrato per l’edificio orientale (Crogiez-Pétrequin 2006, 137). Il completamento delle ricerche potrà forse chiarire l’improbabile unitarietà della pianta che sembra essersi sviluppata a partire da un nucleo analogo all’edificio orientale, con vani contrapposti ai lati di una corte. La determinazione dell’evoluzione cronologica dell’allestimento nelle sue parti potrebbe permettere di enucleare gli ambiti dedicati a nuove esigenze, non previste dal primitivo impianto ricettivo o solo sottostimate. E’ stata avanzata l’ipotesi di una relazione con attività pastorali (Leveau 2006), con conseguente necessità di spazi adeguati. La pratica del saltus ad alta quota in età romana è del resto attestata archeologicamente in Valle d’Aosta dall’ insediamento stagionale di Vétan, nel comune di Saint Pierre, posto a 1770 mslm, documentazione isolata, ma significativa di questa attività (Armirotti 2004, Mollo-Mezzena 1992, 279). Se il passaggio e le infrastrutture del transito, tra le quali è attestato indirettamente un luogo di culto6, sono state le principali motivazioni dell’articolata occupazione del Colle, resta da appurare attraverso l’acquisizione di una documentazione specifica e mirata, lo spazio che attività diverse, di tipo commerciale e pastorale possano aver richiesto, e quando e quanto a lungo possano aver inciso sulla vicenda insediativa del sito. Iniziative economiche di varia natura, potrebbero aver trovato presso la mansio in Alpe Graia l’appoggio logistico all’esercizio di attività supplementari, integrate con lo sfruttamento delle risorse dell’ambiente alpino di alta quota. Non sappiamo quanto e se il tracciato della via romana per il colle ricalchi più antichi percorsi, ma questa, nel tratto di attraversamento del passo, si svolge in modo tangente il cromlech, apparentemente per rispettarne il significato che doveva essere ancora vivo presso le popolazioni dei

due versanti. Inoltre, le due installazioni di appoggio alla strada, forse con funzioni diverse e cronologia in parte coincidente, sono disposte esattamente ai lati del monumento megalitico (Cavallaro, Mauriello e Vanni-Desideri 2006; Cavallaro e Vanni Desideri 2006, 181-191; Framarin, Tonelli, Vanni-Desideri e Viazzo 2006; Tonelli, VanniDesideri e Viazzo 2007)(figura 2). Alla strada di attraversamento del colle, di cui Plutarco attesta l’uso in età preromana, si riferiscono testi letterari di Strabone, Tacito, Cicerone e Plinio (Mollo-Mezzena 1992) ma anche la Tabula Peutingeriana e l’Itinerarium Antonini (Barruol 1975). Strutturata dopo la conquista del territorio dei Salassi (25 a. C.), si conoscono alcune epigrafi che ne documentano lavori di manutenzione ordinaria e straordinaria (C.I.L., XII). In età tardoantica, due fonti documentano l’uso del colle: il viaggio di San Martino di Tours (356) verso l’Italia7 e la traslazione delle spoglie del vescovo di Auxerre San Germano morto poco prima della metà del V secolo a Ravenna.8 In quest’ultima occasione, il prete Saturnino si recò ad accogliere il feretro sul colle, al confine tra le diocesi di Tarentaise e di Aosta, e vi fu costruita una cappella in memoria del transito, benché Costanzo di Lione, che scrive la Vita Sancti Germani nel 470480, non riporti nessuna notizia sull’eventuale luogo di sosta del corteo funebre e dia pochi indizi sul suo percorso e che il monaco Hèric nel IX secolo, nel suo Miracula Sancti Germani, non ne faccia menzione9. Secondo l’Abbé Henry che scrive nel 1929, una cappella dedicata a San Germano fu fondata sul punto più alto del passo in memoria delle sue spoglie, allineandosi ad una tradizione, di cui peraltro mancano riscontri archeologici, che ubica la cappella sul colle, dove sarebbe stata poi distrutta dai saraceni di Frassineto (Henry 1929, citato in Penna e Penna 1995). Anche il ruolo delle più prossime comunità dei due versanti appare chiaramente improntato al servizio di attraversamento del passo. Nel villaggio di Saint-Germain, l’eponima cappella figura dal 1177 come proprietà dell’Ospizio del Gran San Bernardo ed è ancora documentata nel 1206 come dipendente dalla prevostura di Saint Gilles di Verrès e nel 1466 fu restituita alla prevostura di Montjoux (Richemoz 1928 citato in Parron 1997, 5, nn. 4 e 5 e Penna e Penna 1995, 3, n. 3). Come per Saint-Rhémy presso il Gran San Bernardo, il ruolo del villaggio è strettamente legato all’assistenza ai viaggiatori nell’attraversamento del colle, compreso il recupero e la sepoltura dei corpi di coloro che perivano nell’impresa durante la stagione invernale, e a motivo di queste prestazioni, alla comunità di Saint-Germain erano riconosciute franchigie, le più antiche delle quali risultano essere quelle concesse dalla vedova di Amedeo IV di Savoia, Cecilia, nel 1259 (Borrel 1884, Million 1875). Il riconoscimento imperiale del Ducato di Savoia (1416) colloca il colle in una posizione centrale, quasi baricenSulpice Sévère, Vita Martini, Collection «  Sources Chrétiennes  », n. 133-135, t. I, 1967. 8 Constance de Lyon, Vita Sancti Germani, Collection «  Sources Chrétiennes », n. 112, 1965, VI, 31. 9 Heiric Antissiodorensis Monachus, Miracula Sancti Germani Episcopi Antissiodorensis, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Patrologia Latina, MPL124. 7

In attesa di approfondimenti sulla natura del fanum, sono gli ex voto la testimonianza più concreta della presenza di un edificio sacro. Si vedano inoltre le considerazioni di A. Canal a proposito della colonna che si erge alla sommità del colle sormontata dalla statua di S.Bernardo (Canal 1996, 55-56). 6

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A. Vanni Desideri, N. Dufour, P. Framarin: Nascita di una frontiera alpina rand.11 Il luogo più adatto per la costituzione della prima linea è identificato subito a valle dell’Ospizio del Piccolo San Bernardo, all’apertura della valle del torrente Reclus verso la Tarentaise, considerato il punto più efficace per la difesa. Sulla scorta di queste relazioni, nella prima metà del XVIII secolo viene portata a termine la realizzazione di un complesso sistema fortificato, articolato in tre nuclei principali, a difesa della frontiera occidentale del Ducato d’Aosta e che appare schematicamente rappresentato, oltre che in un documento cartografico, senza data ma certamente posteriore al 1691 (citato e riprodotto in Sibilla 1995, 102-103 e fig. 1), anche nella carta allegata al manoscritto del Receuil del de Tillier del 1737, conservata presso la Bibliotèque du Grand Séminaire di Aosta (figura 4) (de Tillier 1968, 96-97). L’eventualità di un’invasione dalla zona dell’Allée Blanche, in alta Val Vény, è contrastata da un nucleo fortificato dominante il Lago di Combal, esso stesso ottenuto, secondo il De Tillier, sbarrando i torrenti glaciali con una diga ‘mise en usage du tems (sic) des guerres, pour pouvoir avec plus de facilité garder les passages de cette gorge’ (de Tillier 1968, 93) che all’occorrenza poteva essere minata, allagando la pianura sottostante (figura 3, n, 1). Più a sud, nel settore di La Thuile (figura 3, n. 3), si concentrano le maggiori installazioni di tutto il dispositivo difensivo occidentale, in quanto il Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo è da sempre l’accesso più facile al Ducato di Aosta, a motivo dell’altimetria e della conformazione del suolo. In prossimità del colle, si interviene sulle posizioni trincerate precedenti di prima linea, la garde de l’Abbaye della fine del XVII secolo e i cosiddetti Retranchements Sardes, secondo la denominazione tradizionale, che rimasti in uso fino a tutto il XVIII secolo costituiranno di fatto il nucleo originario della frontiera italo-francese (figura 3, n. 2). Più a sud infine, la testata della Valgrisenche è l’ubicazione di un nucleo difensivo che permette il controllo della Val d’Isère (figura 3, n.4). La linea difensiva dei Retranchements Sardes (figure 5 e 6) presenta un impianto del tutto caratteristico, che rivela una speciale attenzione alla morfologia del suolo che infatti si esprime sfruttando gli elementi più utili (dislivelli, corsi d’acqua, canaloni, falesie), opportunamente integrati artificialmente con quelli adiacenti, in cui è perfettamente espressa sia l’urgenza delle difese che la scarsità di mezzi economici e tecnici. Apparentemente obbedendo alle indicazioni contenute nella Descrizione del Ducato d’Aosta e del regolamento da osservare per difenderlo che prevedeva che: ’Avanti l’apertura della gola che domina la discesa in Savoya, si costrurrà un trincieramento fiancheggiato da due ridotte disposte in modo da scoprire i pendii e radere il terreno’,12 si ottiene così una linea difensiva continua e trasversale, rispetto alla valle del Reclus che discende in Tarentasia, e composta da una linea frontale bastionata e due ali, dotate di ridotte, che ne impediscono l’aggiramento (figura 6).

trica, all’interno di una vasta signoria territoriale che lo utilizza a scopo amministrativo, un ruolo che manterrà sostanzialmente immutato fintanto che la capitale del Ducato sarà conservata a Chambéry (figura 1). Il 1563 costituisce il punto di svolta nella storia del colle, con lo spostamento della capitale a Torino cui, come è stato anche recentemente osservato, non è estranea la preoccupazione di eleggere le Alpi a barriera di protezione (Labarre 2001). Infatti, meno di settant’anni dopo (1629), questo ruolo appare in tutta la sua reale e drammatica portata. Rispondendo alle iniziative espansionistiche francesi, Carlo Emanuele I è infatti costretto a disporre il primo piano di difesa del settore, cercando di controllare i percorsi che scendono in Valle d’Aosta dal Piccolo San Bernardo (Sibilla 1995, 9). In questa prima fase, le difese vengono stabilite sui rilievi alle spalle di La Thuile, sui rilievi del Mont du Parc che permettono il quasi completo controllo visivo della via proveniente dal colle e presso le case di Thèraz. In questo stesso frangente, il principe Tommaso, incaricato dal padre della difesa, nella lettera del 31 maggio 1630 accenna alla necessità di eseguire difese sul Piccolo San Bernardo (Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 16-17 e n. 26), ma dal punto di vista archeologico non siamo in grado di identificare con certezza queste eventuali prime realizzazioni sul colle, che potrebbero corrispondere in via ipotetica alla sezione centrale dei Retranchements Sardes a valle dell’Ospizio (figura 6). In quegli stessi giorni, sull’altro versante del colle, in Haute-Tarentaise, Luigi XIII con Richelieu e i suoi marescialli di campo studiano e iniziano a realizzare un ben più poderoso impianto difensivo il cui baricentro è il forte Saint-Maurice, una piazzaforte con bastioni in terra, difesa da 3.000 uomini, presso l’attuale Bourg-SaintMaurice (figura 3) (Raffaelli 2006, 390-392). Quasi sessant’anni più tardi, la minaccia di Luigi XIV di Francia in occasione della Guerra dei Nove anni, costringe Vittorio Amedeo II a preparare la mobilitazione dei reggimenti, mentre il Conseil des Commis provvede a far eseguire ricognizioni e stendere relazioni per pianificare la difesa del confine occidentale del Ducato d’Aosta con la Tarentaise, uno spartiacque che di lì a poco si sarebbe trasformato in una vera e propria frontiera, militarmente connotata e che mantenne la sua funzione difensiva per più di un secolo.10 La Descrizione del Ducato d’Aosta, e de’ passi, per i quali li nemici possono entrare in Piemonte del 4 luglio 1691 descrive i caratteri fisici degli accessi alla Valle d’Aosta e delle conseguenti migliori prospettive di difesa e a proposito dei trinceramenti di Thèraz, fatti costruire da Tommaso di Savoia Carignano e restaurati nel 1690 dal d’Estienne, si osserva che ‘ le lieu est si vaste, et si commode, qu’une armèe peut aborder les retranchements en bataille, tant a pied qu’a cheval, et peut encor gaigner la montagne‘ (Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 19 e n. 41). Pertanto l’estensore osserva che in quel luogo non è possibile resistere senza un forte esercito e suggerisce di affrontare il nemico costituendo una prima linea a monte di Pont Ser10

11

ASTo, Sezione Corte, Materie Militari, Imprese Militari, Mazzo 2.2, Descrizione del Ducato d’Aosta, e de’ passi, per i quali li nemici possono entrare in Piemonte, 4 luglio 1691, c. 17. 12 ASTo, Sezione Corte, Fondo Carte topografiche e disegni, Serie carte topografiche segrete, c. 2.

Per gli eventi che coinvolsero il Ducato d’Aosta si veda Lucat 1898.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Un effetto paradigmatico dei lavori di fortificazione della frontiera è l’interruzione della viabilità tradizionale d’ascendenza romana che viene sostituita in questa occasione da un nuovo tracciato, rimasto in uso fino al completamento della Route Nationale 90 nel 1866 (Canal 1996; Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 55, fig. 6). A sud-ovest rispetto al settore occidentale della prima linea, il complesso campale del Dou de la Motte impedisce l’aggiramento dell’ala occidentale dei Retranchements Sardes, come evidenziato nella relazione del 1691.13 Si tratta di un piccolo nucleo fortificato in posizione dominante la viabilità in arrivo dal villaggio di Saint-Germain che, per la sua vantaggiosità, continuò ad essere sfruttata durante il secondo conflitto mondiale per battere l’accesso al Colle, come è stato dimostrato dal rilevamento di un nucleo di postazioni da mortaio (figura 8). Il complesso è composto da un ricovero sulla sommità del rilievo, da una cortina per fucileria e da un lungo edificio seminterrato e coperto da un tetto ad unica falda, in continuità con il pendio 8 (figura 8, UT612) di un tipo che si rese necessario per mantenere le truppe in posizione durante l’inverno, dopo il primo attacco francese condotto tra la fine di novembre e gli inizi di dicembre del 174214. Alle spalle di questa è invece organizzato il vasto complesso difensivo di seconda linea della conca di La Thuile, facilmente raggiungibile dalla grande route proveniente dal Piccolo San Bernardo, sostanzialmente coincidente con la strada antica – l’attuale Sentiero escursionistico n° 9 - oltre che con la difficile traversata del ghiacciaio del Ruitor (figura 13). La consistenza strutturale della grande route tra XVII e XVIII secolo è piuttosto variabile, come è stato documentato nel corso delle ricerche. Oltre al semplice sfruttamento di formazioni geologiche, come il deposito di travertino in località Eaux Rousses, descritto nel diario del De Saussure (de Saussure 1779, IV, 402), oppure i tagli e gli spianamenti della roccia di base, è attestata una pavimentazione con liste trasversali di pietra poste di taglio15. Altrove invece il piano stradale è addirittura in legno, come ancora nel 1862 il ponte di ascendenza romana di Pont Serrand (Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 47, n. 13; Promis 1862, 117), il cui taglio è previsto in caso di urgenti necessità difensive nella relazione del marchese di Pianerre del 21 aprile 1691 (Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 19, n. 43). Scendendo inoltre verso Pré-Saint-Didier, lungo la stretta valle della Dora tra La Thuile e il villaggio di La Balme, la strada ‘in molti luoghi è sostenuta da travi’16. L’elemento frontale di questo dispositivo di seconda linea è costituito dai Retranchements du Prince Thomas a Thèraz (figure 16 e 17),17 mentre le ali difensive latera-

li sono costituite dalle fortificazioni del Mont du Parc, a ovest, e del Col de la Croix, a est. Viene così garantito lo sbarramento della via di penetrazione nel Ducato, contrastando anche eventuali infiltrazioni provenienti dal ghiacciaio del Ruitor. In corrispondenza della seconda linea, alle spalle di La Thuile, contemporaneamente a migliorie al campo trincerato di Thèraz che includono la costruzione del baraccone Saint-Maurice, a monte delle trincee e a queste collegato da un’apposita viabilità (Sibilla 1995, 98). A questo si aggiunge nella fase VIII (1793) il baraccone Saint-Charles, che presenta infatti tipi murari del tutto diversi. Sul Col de la Croix (2450 mslm) vengono costruite due ridotte alle estremità del colle, secondo uno schema difensivo simile a quello realizzato al Col de Traversette (Minola e Ronco 1998, 101; Sibilla 1995, 98).18 Il baraccone è l’esempio meglio conservato tra quelli di ‘prima generazione’ e aiuta a comprendere i caratteri di questo tipo di edificio destinato ad accogliere gli uomini destinati ai trinceramenti (figura 18). La struttura, in origine dello sviluppo di due piani di cui sopravvive solo il piano terra, presenta una caratteristica pianta a C con piazza d’armi centrale. Un aspetto degno di nota è l’allestimento delle angolate che, nella parte posteriore dell’edificio, appaiono predisposte per successivi ampliamenti mediante prese sporgenti in modo da consentire agganci di ulteriori corpi di fabbrica, come avvenne per le latrine che furono però presto danneggiate dal disgelo e pertanto ricostruite in posizione più sicura.19 Il piccolo forte in località Plan Praz, la ‘Butta del Fogliero’ delle fonti scritte (oggi Folliex), ubicato a quota intermedia tra le trincee del Principe Tommaso e il complesso del Col de la Croix, presenta una cortina frontale a tenaglia con ampie feritoie, ottenuta con una muratura a secco di un tipo analogo a quello del baraccone Saint-Maurice e della ridotta orientale del complesso di Colle Croce che ne evidenzia quindi la comune progettazione e manodopera (figura 21). A ridosso della prima linea, sempre intorno al 1743 (fase VII) e di fronte all’Ospizio del Piccolo San Bernardo, viene realizzato il Baracon de l’Hospice, il cui documento più antico è quello del 1743 che contiene l’ordine di costruzione di tre baracconi: uno ‘all’Ospedale, uno alla Colonna, l’altro all’Acqua Rossa’.20 L’edificio, concepito per l’alloggio di un contingente di 150 uomini,21 è sopravvissuto fino al secondo conflitto mondiale. A questo cantiere è relativa l’apertura della cava per la realizzazione delle lose da tetto a nord-ovest dell’Ospizio (figura 9) che infatti, trattandosi di una coltivazione occasionale e al massimo per manutenzioni straordinarie,

13 ASTo,

18

Sezione Corte, Materie Militari, Imprese Militari, mazzo 2.2., c. 9, 4 luglio 1691, Descrizione del Ducato d’Aosta, e de’ passi, per i quali li nemici possono entrare in Piemonte. 14 Krebs e Moris 1895, 96, n. 2 che cita la testimonianza contenuta in Costa de Beauregard 1877, 155. 15 Per la viabilità vedi Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 43-47 e, per questa specifica tecnica di costruzione, il tipo 3. 16 ASTo, Sezione Corte, Materie Militari, Imprese Militari, Mazzo 13, fascicolo 6, Relazione e regolamento per difendere il Ducato, 1743, c. 13. 17 Un primo cenno a questo complesso è contenuto in Vanni-Desideri 1997, 149-150.

Si veda più oltre la descrizione del dispositivo di difesa del Col de Traversette da parte di Krebs e Moris. 19 ASTo, Sezioni Riunite, Azienda Fabbriche e Fortificazioni, Contratti in partibus, Registro 51, Relazione e calcolo delle riparazioni a farsi al Baraccone di St Maurizio. 25 agosto 1795. Per confronti per questo tipo di prese in area toscana in murature prive di legante o con allettamenti in argilla vedi Vanni Desideri 2002, 82-83, fig. 2. 20 ASTo, Sezione Corte, Materie Militari, Imprese Militari, Mazzo 13, fascicolo 6, Relazione e regolamento per difendere il Ducato, c. 7. 21 ASTo, Sezione Corte, Materie Militari, Imprese Militari, Mazzo 13, fascicolo 6, 1743, Relazione e regolamento per difendere il Ducato, c. 10.

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A. Vanni Desideri, N. Dufour, P. Framarin: Nascita di una frontiera alpina non troviamo più menzionata nel censimento delle cave da lose in quest’area pubblicato da Borrel alla fine del XIX secolo (Borrel 1891, 348-349.). La coltivazione sfrutta un affioramento di scisti del Carbonifero, con uno sviluppo frontale di circa m 10 per una profondità di circa m 5, in cui è ben visibile la larghezza di cm 120 dei blocchi da cui si realizzavano le lastre, determinata da intagli verticali realizzati a piccone. A giudicare dalle tracce sul fianco laterale nord della cava, i blocchi dovevano essere spessi in media cm 15, mentre la realizzazione e la finitura delle lose avveniva sul posto, considerato il loro impiego a breve distanza (Fougeroux de Bondaroy 1776). Di fronte alla cava è visibile la zona destinata alla preparazione delle lose, come indica la dispersione di scarti di lavorazione, la cui ubicazione ai margini della palude risponde bene alla necessità di conservare un’umidità costante al materiale cavato per evitare che asciugando diventi troppo fragile (Boucard 2002, 52).

La difesa si articolava quindi in due nuclei fortificati laterali al colle, di cui sopravvive solo quello nord-orientale (figura …), essendo stato cancellato il suo omologo dalla costruzione della Redoute Ruinée (1892-1894) (Coquet 1998). Completavano il dispositivo due piazzole semicircolari per artiglieria e una piattaforma quadrangolare per ulteriori pezzi di artiglieria a valle della cosiddetta Redoute Sarde, un edificio a pianta rettangolare in cui sono riconoscibili almeno due fasi e difeso, sul fronte di gola verso i contrafforti del Mont Valésan, da una duplice cortina per fucileria. Queste installazioni, oltre al Col de Traversette, controllavano anche la viabilità in arrivo dalla Combe des Moulins, in coordinamento funzionale con le trincee rettilinee collocate lungo la viabilità stessa. In questa stessa fase, nonostante la sua costruzione fosse prevista sin dal 1743 insieme a quello dell’Ospizio e quello della Colonne, viene costruito un ‘baracon aux Eaux Rousses en deça de l’Hospice du Petit Saint Bernard’, l’unico esempio sopravvissuto, in forma pressoché completa, di baraccone settecentesco di questo settore difensivo (Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 36-37, n. 110), di cui conosciamo anche le spese di costruzione (Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 32-33, n. 99). Per alcune delle installazioni maggiori del nucleo difensivo di seconda linea intorno a La Thuile, nonostante le fonti archivistiche testimonino l’esistenza di più fasi a partire dalla prima metà del XVII secolo, non siamo in grado di distinguere con sufficiente chiarezza sul terreno la documentazione materiale di queste. Così è solo possibile restituire l’assetto complessivo che queste opere presentano attualmente, come risultato finale di più fasi costruttive progressive che si conclusero entro la fine del XVIII secolo. Il vallone che da La Thuile, con un agevole percorso, conduce verso Pétosan e permette poi di discendere su Morgex, aveva costituito uno dei punti di maggiore attenzione da parte degli ingegneri militari fin dalla prima metà del XVII secolo, poiché da questa posizione è possibile controllare frontalmente la strada proveniente dal Piccolo San Bernardo, contribuendo alla difesa della conca di La Thuile, insieme alle fortificazioni d’altura di Folliex e all’imponente nucleo fortificato del Col de la Croix. La difesa frontale del fondovalle era garantita invece da più sistemi trincerati, ben visibili nella cartografia militare settecentesca (figure 14 e 15) ma delle quali non resta traccia sul terreno se non l’indicazione topografica della chiesa di Notre Dame du Carmel in località Thovex da cui presero nome le trincee di La Carmel. Più a est, le trincee di Foillex, sottostanti il forte in località Plan Praz, erano rivolte a contrastare una possibile infiltrazione nemica attraverso il ghiacciaio del Ruitor. Nella sua forma più tarda, il dispositivo intorno a La Thuile e l’assetto difensivo del Mont du Parc è ben descritto nella veduta del 1795 allegata al Plan de la Haute Val d’Aoste dove sono rappresentate più linee trincerate frontali, ubicate nelle località Thovex, Folliex e Théraz, che sbarravano la viabilità proveniente da La Thuile e dal ghiacciaio del Ruitor e da nuclei fortificati laterali (figure 14 e 15). Le ricognizioni archeologiche hanno tuttavia rivelato

A partire dal 1793, nel corso della fase archeologica VIII, le nuove iniziative militari francesi inducono alla realizzazione di una quantità di opere allo scopo di rendere più efficace il dispositivo di difesa. Mentre in seconda linea si rafforzano i Retranchements du Prince Thomas, nel settore occidentale dei Retranchements Sardes, si raddoppia lo spessore delle murature a secco dei bastioni, mentre il settore orientale viene completamente ridisegnato e ristrutturato con raddoppio del parapetto delle cortine e realizzazione di controscarpe da trincea in muratura a secco. Ai piedi della falesia del Col de Traversette, una lunga cortina difende l’ampio pianoro, utilizzabile anche per attendamenti temporanei e da questo momento percorso dalla viabilità di servizio, il cosiddetto Chemin des canons, approntato per portare in posizione i pezzi d’artiglieria a difesa del colle stesso (figura 10). La strada pavimentata in pietra collega inoltre il baraccone dell’Ospizio, e i suoi 150 uomini di riserva, con le fortificazioni del Col de Traversette mediante viadotti che permettono di superare i dislivelli conservando una pendenza costante, mentre la falesia è affrontata con rampe e tornanti, a monte scavati nella roccia e a valle con sostruzioni a secco, costruite con il materiale di risulta e a volte dotate di piccoli ponti (Krebs e Moris 1895, 96). Alla sommità della falesia, il dispositivo di difesa del Col de Traversette (figura 11) trova le sue linee progettuali in un documento del 5 aprile 1793 redatto dal maggiore del genio Marchetti (Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 29-30; Krebs e Moris 1895, 96) e più di un secolo dopo Krebs e Moris, che visitano il sito quando i resti erano ancora ben leggibili, così li descrivono: ‘deux ouvrages distants de 250 mètres, soit une portée de fusil de l’époque. L’ouvrage inférieur, à l’ouest du col, etait une petite redoute en pierre sèches, avec un baracon pour 50 hommes, et quelques bouts de retranchements à droite et à gauche, appuyés aux rochers. L’ouvrage supérieur, à l’est du col, consistait en une sorte de flèche au saillant arrondi, armée de canons, dont la gorge était fermée par une caserne, pour 50 hommes également, et couverte en lauzes ou grosses ardoises‘ (Krebs e Moris 1895, 96, n. 4). 437

Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean una serie di installazioni di minori o minime dimensioni diffuse sul territorio, soprattutto in prossimità della viabilità, oppure infrastrutture, dalle quali si deduce l’estrema articolazione delle difese e la varietà degli apprestamenti. Il complesso del Mont du Parc era servito dai tornanti della strada settecentesca che ha inizio, in posizione coperta, alle spalle delle case del villaggio di Les Granges. Oltre le posizioni avanzate attribuibili all’iniziativa di Carlo Emanuele I (per le quali vedi la prima fase archeologica), il nucleo difensivo maggiore è costituito da un trinceramento trasversale che sbarra totalmente il rilievo. Alle sue spalle si trovano le tracce di un baraccone, con murature dello stesso tipo di quelli impiegati nella Redoute Sardes e nel baraccone St-Charles, rappresentato nella veduta del 1795. Il trinceramento presenta le difese frontali più imponenti, realizzate da bastioni in terra, simili a quelli dei Retranchements du prince Thomas e difesi da un trinceramento, in parte scavato nella roccia e fornito di controscarpa in muratura. Poco lontano, verso est, sono ben visibili i fronti di cava che servirono per ottenere il materiale edilizio. Ad iniziare da questo punto, il pendio del terreno è fortificato da parapetti per fucileria, fino all’alta cortina che sovrasta il villaggio di Thovex. L’ubicazione di questa linea, in posizione mediana rispetto all’asse longitudinale del rilievo e apparentemente poco efficace per il controllo della viabilità proveniente dal colle, poiché troppo arretrata, è in realtà motivata dalla necessità di presidio dei percorsi che dalle case di Thovex raggiungono il rilievo aggirando le posizioni di testa del Mont du Parc, sovrastanti La Thuile. I Retranchements du prince Thomas in località Thèraz, alla cui abbondante documentazione d’archivio non corrisponde la possibilità di distinguere sul terreno le diverse fasi e che rappresentano ancora oggi uno degli elementi maggiormente visibili del dispositivo difensivo, si sviluppano, per diverse centinaia di metri, a sbarrare il margine meridionale della piana di Pétosan (figure 16 e 17). La linea consiste in un trinceramento rettilineo dotato di tre salienti a pianta triangolare e due bastioni pentagonali distribuiti in modo che questi ultimi occupino il centro della linea, contribuendo alla difesa del fossato. Queste strutture, che nelle fasi iniziali presentavano una controscarpa in terra battuta, rivestita nel 1795 con un muro a secco per resistere al disgelo (Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 78 e n. 218), vennero realizzate, come nel caso di quelle del Mont du Parc, aprendo cave da pietra direttamente sul posto e posteriormente alle trincee dove, una volta cessato la coltivazione, furono impiantati alcuni edifici di servizio. La realizzazione dei trinceramenti comportò l’intersecazione della strada per il villaggio di Pétosan (figura 17) sulla quale si intervenne, controllandola tramite un rivellino in terra battuta, in origine completato da elementi lignei. All’estremità orientale, i trinceramenti comunicano con due appositi percorsi che si sviluppano a quote diverse con il forte di Plan Praz (2050 mslm) e la linea difensiva di crinale d’alta quota del Col de la Croix (intorno ai 2450 mslm)(figura 20). Questi sentieri, realizzati tagliando la roccia e riutilizzando il materiale di risulta per la costruzione di parapetti, costituivano un integrazione delle difese frontali e all’occorrenza potevano essere utilizzati come

ripari per la fucileria. All’estremità nord-ovest, il sistema trincerato si prolunga con parapetti per fucileria che si adattano alla conformazione del suolo, aggettando sul sottostante villaggio di La Balme e del suo ponte e battendo la strada lungo il corso della Dora di La Thuile. In realtà, ciò che resta delle strutture difensive descritte costituisce solo la parte stabile del dispositivo che, come le stesse fonti indicano esplicitamente, era completato da elementi integrativi in legname (cavalli di Frisia, parapetti, steccati ecc.) in previsione di attacchi (Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 79 e n. 219). In posizione retrostante rispetto alle linee di fuoco composte da trincee, bastioni, parapetti e fuciliere, erano distribuiti magazzini, polveriere, macelli e alloggi organizzati in grandi baraccamenti in muratura ma anche in più contenuti edifici in legno o in alloggi temporanei da campagna (attendamenti e bivacchi) di cui restano solo tracce documentarie o, nei casi migliori, labili tracce archeologiche. E’ questo il caso di quanto rinvenuto nel corso dei saggi archeologici condotti alle spalle dei trinceramenti, tra cui particolarmente interessante è la serie di bivacchi con focolari in appoggio al costone di roccia presso le pendici del rilievo della Tête du Tsargian (Rey 2006, 109-112)(figura 19). A questa stessa fase è databile, soprattutto sulla base dei tipi murari, il baraccone Saint-Charles, ubicato a monte del colle eponimo. Si tratta di un edificio, originariamente assai ampio, del quale sopravvivono pochi lacerti di murature, esito della costruzione e demolizione della sottostante batteria in caverna (Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 83-102, figg. 84c e 85c ), che comunque documentano tipi murari assimilabili alle più tarde realizzazioni del sistema, ad esempio alcune cortine dei Retranchements du Prince Thomas. La cessazione d’uso del sistema di difesa seguì gli avvenimenti militari che, dalla fine d’aprile del 1794 e lo stesso mese dell’anno successivo, con alterne vicende, si conclusero con l’occupazione dell’area di La Thuile da parte dell’Armata delle Alpi comandata dal generale Kellermann (Fenoil 1887; Krebs e Moris 1895, II, 221-227; Sibilla 1995, 163). Le fortificazioni dell’intero settore, tranne quelle di Foullié e del Col de la Croix, furono infine dismesse dall’Azienda Fabbriche e Fortificazioni del Ducato nel corso del 1797, riconsegnandole ai proprietari dei suoli sui quali insistevano, che tornarono così a poterne disporre liberamente (Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 35-37). Dopo l’ultimo impiego di questi dispositivi di difesa alla fine del XVIII secolo, l’area del colle del Piccolo San Bernardo nel 1861 si trasforma definitivamente, in seguito alla cessione della Savoia alla Francia, in confine tra l’Italia e la Francia, una frontiera che, parallelamente all’esercizio del controllo del transito civile, verrà presto dotata, tra la fine del XIX e il primo cinquantennio del secolo successivo, di nuove strutture difensive applicando su entrambi i versanti più imponenti e moderni sistemi di fortificazione perma-

438

A. Vanni Desideri, N. Dufour, P. Framarin: Nascita di una frontiera alpina nente (Séré de Rivières, Maginot e Vallo Alpino).22 Dopo le drammatiche vicende del secolo trascorso, l’esemplare parabola storica di un luogo di passaggio trasformato in frontiera trova il suo epilogo nella definitiva destrutturazione dopo gli accordi di Schengen.

Cavallaro, A. M., Mauriello P. e Vanni-Desideri, A. 2006. Tracciati stradali antichi in direzione del valico: metodologie d’indagine, risultati, prospettive, Bollettino della Soprintendenza per i Beni Culturali della Valle d’Aosta, 2, 19-25. Cavallaro, A. M. e Vanni-Desideri, A. 2006. Archeologia del sistema viario per il Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo, in Alpis Graia. Archéologie sans frontières au col du PetitSaint-Bernard. Atti del Seminario di chiusura, Aosta 2-4 marzo, Aosta, 181-191. Coquet, H. 1998. Les fortifications de Savoie, “L’histoire en Savoie”, Société Savoisienne d’Histoire et d’Archéologie, 77, Chambéry. Costa de Beauregard, M. C. A. 1877. Un homme d’autrefois. Souvenirs receuillis par son arrière-petit-fils le marquis Costa de Beauregard, Paris. Crogiez-Pètrequin S. 2006. Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard. Les fouilles du bâtiment ouest 2003-2005. Epoque galloromaine, in Alpis Graia. Archéologie sans frontières au col du Petit-Saint-Bernard, Atti del Seminario di chiusura, Aosta 2-4 marzo, Aosta, 131-141. Demouzon, L. 2000. Savoie: juin 1940. L’ultime victoire, 2 voll., Saint-Juste-la-Pendue. Dufour, N. e Vanni-Desideri, A. 2003-2004. Le système défensif du Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard entre l’époque moderne et l’époque contemporaine, Bollettino della Soprintendenza per i Beni Culturali della Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta, 1, 9-20. Dufour, N. e Vanni-Desideri, A. 2006. Archeologia postclassica sul Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo, in Alpis Graia. Archéologie sans frontières au col du Petit-SaintBernard. Atti del Seminario di chiusura, Aosta 2-4 marzo, Aosta, 201-212. Dufour, N., Palumbo, P. e Vanni-Desideri, A. 2006. Le système de défense du Col du Petit-saint-Bernard entre XVIIème et XXème siècle, Aosta. Dufour, N., Palumbo, P., Rey, P.-J. e Vanni Desideri, A. in corso di stampa. Archeologia di una frontiera. la difesa del colle del Piccolo San Bernardo (La Thuile/Séez) tra XVII e XX secolo, Archeologia Postmedievale, Fenoil, F. 1984. La terreur sur les Alpes, edizione anastatica dell’edizione di Aosta 1887, Turin. Framarin, P. 2008. La ripresa degli scavi e l’aggiornamento della topografia del sito di Plan de Jupiter. I sondaggi tra 2000 e 2007, in Alpis Poenina, Grand Saint-Bernard. Una voie à travers l’Europe, Atti del Seminaro di chiusura, Bard 11-12 aprile, Aosta, 33-39. Framarin, P. e Girardi, M. 2006. La Thuile, col du Petit Saint Bernard. Campagne de recherche dans l’aire de la mansio: orientale: 2004-2006, Bollettino della Soprintendenza per i Beni Culturali della Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta, 3, 19-22. Framarin, P., Tonelli, A. M., Vanni-Desideri, A. e Viazzo, G. 2006. Lo studio della strada romana del colle del Piccolo San Bernardo, “Bollettino della Soprintendenza per i Beni Culturali della Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta”, 3, 13-18. Fougeroux de Bondaroy, 1776. Art de tirer des carrières la pierre d’ardoise, de la fendre et de la tailler, in Descrip-

Abbreviazioni A.P.R.I.E.To= Archivio del Primo Reparto Infrastrutture dell’Esercito, Torino. A.S.To= Archivio di Stato di Torino. BIBLIOGRAFIA Armirotti, A. 2004. Insediamenti d’alta quota in Valle d’Aosta in età romana : il caso di Vétan, in Actes du Xe Colloque sur les Alpes dans l’Antiquité, Cogne, Vallée d’Aoste, 12-14 septembre 2003, a cura di D.Daudry, “ Bulletin d’études préhistoriques et archéologiques alpines”, XV, Aosta), 271-282. Barocelli, P. 1924a. La strada e le costruzioni romane dell’Alpis Graia, Torino. Barocelli, P. 1924b. Piccolo S. Bernardo (Alpis Graja). Esplorazione della zona archeologica, Notizie degli scavi di antichità, vol. XXI, Fascicoli 10,11,12, Roma, 385-392. Barruol, G. 1975. Les peuples pre-romains du sud-est de la Gaule, Paris. Borrel, E. L. 1891. Notices historiques sur les mines de Savoie, Memoires de l’Académie de la Val d’Isère, Tome IV, 297-364. Boucard, D. 2002. Les utils de métiers, Clamecy. Canal, A. 1996. Etude du potentiel historique et archéologique du Col du Petit Saint Bernard. Rapport final de synthèse, rapporto non pubblicato presentato al Service Régional de l’Archéologie de la Region Rhône-Alpes. Cancian, P. 1999. Le Alpi confine permeabile, in G. Sergi e D. Tuniz (a cura di), Valle d’Aosta porta del Giubileo, Milano, 13-23. Cavada, E. 2000. Il territorio: popolamento, abitati, necropoli, in E. Buchi (a cura di), Storia del Trentino, II. L’età romana, 363-437. Cavallaro, A.M., Davite, C. e Girardi M. 2002-2003. Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard. Recherches archéologiques au nord-ouest du tracé routier d’époque romaine, Bollettino della Soprintendenza per i Beni Culturali della Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta, 0, 26. Cavallaro, A.M. e Girardi M. 2006. La Thuile – Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo. Documentazione della mansio orientale: campagne 2004-2005, in Alpis Graia. Archéologie sans frontières au col du Petit-Saint-Bernard, Atti del Seminario di chiusura, Aosta 2-4 marzo, Aosta, 119-124 22

Per gli aspetti archeologici di quest’ultima stagione della frontiera, ugualmente affrontata nel corso del progetto “Alpis Graia” e qui tralasciata per brevità, si ranvia a Dufour, Palumbo e Vanni-Desideri 2006, 79-102 e alla bibliografia fondamentale ivi contenuta, soprattutto per il versante italiano. Specificamente per il versante francese si vedano inoltre Coquet 1998 e Raffaelli 2006, 393-399; mentre per una dettagliata ricostruzione delle vicende delle difese e dei reparti frontalieri francesi durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale si veda Demouzon 2000, I, 35-67.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean tions des arts et métiers, faites ou approuvées par Messieurs de l’Académie Royale des Sciences de Paris avec figures en taille-douce, Nouvelle édition, Tome IV, Neuchâtel, 175-250. Galloro, S.. 2008. I sondaggi al Plan de Jupiter negli anni 2005-2007, in Alpis Poenina, Grand Saint-Bernard. Una voie à travers l’Europe, Atti del Seminaro di chiusura, Bard 11-12 aprile, Aosta, 40-47. Guerreschi, F. 2004. Rapporti tra ambiente naturale e presenze antropiche nell’Olocene antico nelle Alpi occidentali, Bulletin d’Etudes Prehistoriques et Archeologique Alpines, XV, Numéro spécial consacré aux Actes du Xe Colloque sur les Alpes dans l’Antiquité, Cogne, Vallée d’Aoste – I, 12-14 septembre 2003, 25-27. Henry, J. M. 1929. Histoire populaire, religieuse et civile de la vallèe d’Aoste, Aoste. Krebs, L. e Moris, H. 1891-1895. Campagnes dans les Alpes pendant la Révolution d’après les archives des Etats-Majors Français et Austro-Sarde, Paris. Labarre, C. 2001. La frontière franco-savoyarde: trois éxemples de frontières fluviales (XV-XVIII siècles), in Frontiere e fortificazioni di frontiera, Atti del Seminario Internazionale di Studi, Firenze-Lucca 3-5 dicembre 1999, a cura di Carla Sodini, Firenze, 35-46. Leveau, P. 2006. Le programme Alpis graia et l’archéologie de la montagne dans les Alpes. Eléments d’une synthèse, in Atti del Seminario di chiusura Alpis Graia. Archéologie sans frontières au col du Petit-Saint-Bernard. Les 2, 3 et 4 mars 2006, Aoste, Aosta, 17-27. Lucat, S. 1898. L’invasion française de 1691 dans la Vallée d’Aoste, Aoste. Mezzena, F. e Perrini, L. 1999. Prima segnalazione di presenze mesolitiche in Valle d’Aosta. L’industria litica in quarzo del Monte Fallère, Rassegna di Archeologia, 16, 85-95. Mezzena, F. e Perrini, L. 2000. ����������������������� Mont Fallére, des trouvailles mésolitiques au Val d’Aoste, in Premiers hommes dans les Alpes de 50.000 à 5000 avant Jésus-Christ, Sion, 187-188. Mezzena, F. 2006. Il cromlech al colle del Piccolo San Bernardo. Ricerche 2003-2004, in Alpis Graia. Archéologie sans frontières au col du Petit-Saint-Bernard. Les 2, 3 et 4 mars 2006, Aoste, Aosta, 61-68. Million, M. 1875. Le village de Saint-Germain de Séez et ses franchises, Mémoires et documents de l’Académie de la Val d’Isère, 3, 5-42. Minola, M. e Ronco, B. 1998. Fortificazioni nell’arco alpino. L’evoluzione delle opere difensive tra XVIII e XX secolo, Ivrea. Mollo-Mezzena, R. 1991. Viabilità romana in valle d’Aosta: il ruolo dei valichi alpini, in Viae publicae romanae, Roma, 235-242. Mollo-Mezzena, R. 1992. Augusta Praetoria tardoantica, viabilità e territorio, in Felix temporis reparatio. Atti del Convegno “Milano capitale dell’impero romano”, Milano 8-11 marzo 1990, Milano, 273-320. Palumbo, P. 2006. Le trincee del Principe Tommaso e il sistema difensivo del Piccolo San Bernardo, in Alpis Graia. Archéologie sans frontières au col du Petit-Saint-Bernard.

Les 2, 3 et 4 mars 2006, Aoste, Aosta, 213-217. Parron, I. 1997. Séez, Chapelle Saint-Germain (Savoie). Diagnostic archéologique, rapport presenté au service Régional de l’Archéologie Rhône-Alpes. Penna, B. e Penna, J.-L. 1995. Chapelle Saint-Germain à Séez (Tarentaise): suivi de travaux, rapport archèologique, Séez. Pinet, L. e Sivan, O. 2006. Le cercle de pierres dressées au col du Petit Saint-Bernard (Séez, Savoie; La Thuile, Val d’Aoste: étude des mégalithes, in Alpis Graia. Archéologie sans frontières au col du Petit-Saint-Bernard. Les 2, 3 et 4 mars 2006, Aoste, Aosta, 69-75. Promis, C. 1862. Le antichità di Aosta, Torino. Raffaelli, P. 2006. Les fortifications de montagne en HauteTarentaise, in Alpis Graia. Archéologie sans frontières au col du Petit-Saint-Bernard. Les 2, 3 et 4 mars 2006, Aoste, Aosta, 387-399. Rémy, B. 2004. L’apport des inscriptions à l’étude de l’èconomie pastorale dans la cité de Vienne, Bulletin d’Etudes Prehistoriques et Archeologique Alpines, XV, Numéro spécial consacré aux Actes du Xe Colloque sur les Alpes dans l’Antiquité, Cogne, Vallée d’Aoste – I, 12-14 septembre 2003, 243-252. Rey, P.-J. e Moulin, B. 2006. Occupations et circulations pré-romaines autour du col du Petit-Saint-Bernard; méthode et premiers résultats d’une étude archéologique et sédimentaire de la montagne alpine, in Alpis Graia. Archéologie sans frontières au col du Petit-Saint-Bernard. Les 2, 3 et 4 mars 2006, Aoste, Aosta, 77-117. Rey, P.-J., Treffort, J.-M., Moulin, B., Oberlin, C. e André, I. 2008. Archéologie des versants du Petit-Saint-Bernard. Première approche de la dynamique de l’occupation humaine autour d’un grand passage alpin, de la préhistoire au début du Moyen Age, Cahiers de Paléoenvironnement, 6, 209-224. Richemoz, F. 1928. Le Diocèse de Tarentaise des origines au Concordat de 1802, publié par J.-M. Emprin, I, Moûtiers. de Saussure, H. B. 1779. Voyages dans les Alpes, Neuchatel. Sconfienza, R. 2004. I trinceramenti sabaudi del Piccolo San Bernardo nel XVIII secolo. Note preliminari, Annales sabaudiae. Quaderni dell’Associazione per la Valorizzazione della Storia e Tradizione del Vecchio Piemonte, 1, 49-58. Sergi, G. 1981. Potere e territorio lungo la strada di Francia. Da Chambéry a Torino fra X e XIII secolo, Napoli. Sergi, G. 2006. I colli alpini: svolte insediative e sociali nel Medioevo, in Atti del Seminario di chiusura del progetto Alpis Graia. Archéologie sans frontières au col du Petitsaint-Bernard, Aosta 2-4 marzo 2006, Aosta, 315-319. Sibilla, P. 1995. La Thuile. Vita e cultura in una comunità valdostana. 1. Uno sguardo sul passato, Torino. Sibilla, P. 2004. La Thuile in Valle d’Aosta. Una comunità alpina fra tradizione e modernità, Firenze. de Tillier, J.-B. 1737. Recueil contenant dissertation historique et géographique sur la Vallèe et Duché d’Aoste, édition Aoste 1968, par le soin de André Zanotto. Tonelli, A. M., Vanni-Desideri, A. e Viazzo, G. 2007. Il ri440

A. Vanni Desideri, N. Dufour, P. Framarin: Nascita di una frontiera alpina lievo della strada romana del Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo, in Atti del Workshop in geofisica. Geofisica e tecniche di indagine non invasiva applicate agli ambienti estremi, Rovereto (Trento), 1 dicembre 2006, Rovereto, 137-148. Vanni-Desideri, A. 1997. L’archeologia postmedievale in Valle d’Aosta, Archeologia Postmedievale, I, Convegno Internazionale di Studi - Archeologia postmedievale: l’esperienza europea e l’Italia - Sassari, 17-20 ottobre 1994,

135-150. Vanni-Desideri, A. 1999. La via Francigena e il Piccolo San Bernardo, in G. Sergi e D. Tuniz (a cura di), Valle d’Aosta porta del Giubileo, Milano, 43-47. Vanni-Desideri, A. 2002. I saggi archeologici nel castello di Poggio della Regina: sequenze stratigrafiche e caratteri strutturali, in G. Vannini (a cura di), Fortuna e declino di una società feudale Valdarnese: il Poggio della Regina,

Figura 1. L’area delle indagini archeologiche territoriali con l’indicazione delle principali località menzionate nel testo (foto aerea Région Autonome Vallée d’Aoste). nel riquadro in alto, la posizione del Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo nel Ducato di Savoia nel XV secolo (base cartografica Rey 2006)

Figura 2. Carta archeologica del colle con il cromlech e gli edifici della mansio romana (foto da Tonelli, Vanni-Desideri e Viazzo 2007)

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Figura 3. Plan du Fort de Sainct Maurisses avec son peisage, 1630 (Collection du Département du patrimoine de la Savoie, inventaire 991-7-1) (da Raffaelli 2006). �������������������������������� Al centro si nota la pianta quadrangolare del forte alla confluenza della Val d’Isère e della valle del Reclus. In alto a sinistra si percepisce il colle del Piccolo San Bernardo.

Figura 4. Carte chorographique de la Vallée, Diocèse, Govvernement, et Duché d’Aoste, de ses confins, rivière, torrents et passages de ses montagnes (de Tillier 1737). Sono stati evidenziati i nuclei fortificati. 1, Lago di Combal; 2, Piccolo san Bernardo; 3, La Thuile (Retranchements du prince Thomas); 3, Valgrisanche.

Figura 5. Veduta del Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo dal Col de Traversette. Sono ben visibili, in basso a destra, i resti del settore orientale dei Retranchements Sardes (foto A. Vanni Desideri)

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Figura 6. Aerofoto e rilevamenti del sistema difensivo campale di prima linea dei Retranchements Sardes (foto IGN 1988, rilevamenti A. Vanni Desideri). Nel riquadro, lo stesso dispositivo alla fine del XVIII secolo nella Carta del Ducato d’Aosta (ASTo, Sezione Corte, Carte topografiche e disegni, Carte topografiche segrete, Aosta A 13 nero).

Figura 7. Séez (F), Baraque des Douaniers. Resti della linea trincerata nel settore centrale dei Retranchements Sardes (foto A. Vanni Desideri)

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Figura 8 . Séez (F). Aerofoto e rilevamenti della viabilità e delle postazioni campali del Dou de la Motte del XVIII secolo e quelle della Seconda Guerra Mondiale (Unità Topografiche 601, 603, 604, 605, 607, 609 e 618) (foto IGN, rilevamenti A. Vanni Desideri).

Figura 9 . Séez (F), Hospice du Petit Saint Bernard. La cava da lose per il cantiere del Baracon de l’Hospice (1743) (foto A. Vanni Desideri).

Figura 10 . Séez (F). Uno dei viadotti dello Chemin des canons (fine del XVIII secolo). Sulla sinistra, in alto sulla falesia, è visibile il forte della Redoute Ruinée (foto A. Vanni Desideri).

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A. Vanni Desideri, N. Dufour, P. Framarin: Nascita di una frontiera alpina

Figura 11 . Montvalésan (F), Aerofoto e rilevamenti del sistema difensivo del Col de Traversette tra XVIII e XIX secolo (foto IGN, rilevamenti A. Vanni Desideri).

Figura 12. Montvalésan (F), Col de Traversette. In primo piano la Redoute Sarde (XVIII secolo) e sullo sfondo il forte della Redoute Ruinée (fine del XIX secolo) (foto A. Vanni Desideri).

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Figura 13. La Thuile (I). Viabilità e opere difensive di seconda linea del XVII-XVIII secolo (rilevamenti A. Vanni Desideri).

Figura 14. Veduta del sistema difensivo di seconda linea alle spalle di La Thuile (ASTo, Sezione Corte, Carte topografiche e disegni, Carte topografiche segrete, Aosta 9 A 1 rosso, Plan de la haute Val d’Aoste et des deux principales positions de coté de la Savoie avec vue du Camp du Prince Thomas dessiné en 1795 de la Combe de Volla). 1, Baraccone Saint Charles; 2, Col de la Croix; 3, Baraccon Saint Maurice; 4, Butta del Fogliero; 5, Retranchements du Prince Thomas; 6, trinceramenti del Mont du Parc; 7, villaggio di La Balme.

Figura 15. Pianta delle fortificazioni di seconda linea presso La Thuile nel 1795 (ASTo, ibidem).

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Fig. 16. La Thuile (I). Veduta aerea dei Retranchements du Prince Thomas e sezione delle trincee (foto di P. Fioravanti, rilievi FT Studio).

Figura 17. La Thuile (I). Il complesso delle difese campali dei Retranchements du Prince Thomas (XVIIXVIII secolo) (rilevamenti A. Vanni Desideri).

Figura 18. la Thuile (I). Pianta e veduta aerea del baraccone Saint Maurice (1743) (Rilievi FT studio, foto P. Fioravanti)

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Figura 19. la Thuile (I). Pietre da fucile, proiettili e resti di fusione in piombo, chiodo e gancio da fascia mollettiera dal sondaggio 3 relativi a un bivacco militare francese del 1793-95. (da Rey 2006)

Figura 20. col de la Croix (I). Rilievi e veduta aerea della porzione sud del nucleo fortificato d’altura del XVII-XVIII secolo (rilievi e foto FT Studio)

Figura 21. la Thuile (I). Veduta aerea e rilievi del fortino di Plan Praz, la Butta del Fogliero del XVII-XVIII secolo (rilievi FT Studio, foto P. Fioravanti).

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

FORTIFICAZIONI URBANE DI FRONTIERA IN ASIA MINORE: LE DIFESE DI IASOS DI CARIA IN ETÀ BIZANTINA. Michele Cornieti Università degli Studi di Firenze L’antica città di Iasos, situata in territorio cario al termine di una delle profonde insenature che articolano il golfo di Mandelya (Tomasello 1991, 4), fornisce un vasto repertorio di strutture edilizie di carattere fortificato, che rappresentano un’interessante testimonianza archeologica dell’architettura militare e della sua evoluzione in area microasiatica. Nell’area urbana localizzata all’interno di una penisola, separata in antico dalla terraferma da un canale navigabile e nell’immediato entroterra, si localizzano infatti numerosi e consistenti resti riferibili ad impianti fortificati, profondamente diversi per tipologia ed ascendenza cronologica, la cui presenza, tuttavia, è indice dell’importanza strategica rivestita dalla città nel corso della sua lunga ed articolata vicenda storico-insediativa.1 Sebbene gli episodi più noti e grandiosi delle difese iasie siano quelli riferibili a programmi fortificatori promossi in epoca classica ed ellenistica – ci si riferisce in particolare alla cinta muraria dell’isola e alla cinta muraria di terraferma 2– ed esulino dunque largamente dagli orizzonti cronologici che inquadrano le tematiche di questo Convegno, è altresì ben documentata la presenza sul sito di fortificazioni più tarde, di grande interesse sia per la ricostruzione della storia urbana della Iasos ‘post-classica’, sia per lo studio dell’evoluzione dell’architettura della difesa in quest’area dell’Egeo. Le strutture di seguito prese in considerazione saranno pertanto il kastron dell’istmo, la torre del porto occidentale ed la fortezza dell’acropoli (Figura 1), tuttavia appare opportuno ricordare come la funzionalità di queste difese non possa che essere stata concepita in sinergia con quella della preesistente cinta muraria urbana, il cui mantenimento in efficienza da parte della comunità iasia è documentato dai continui interventi di restauro e rifacimento leggibili sulle strutture, susseguitisi presumibilmente fin dalla seconda metà del III secolo dell’era corrente. La cinta muraria insulare, il cui impianto risale probabilmente all’epoca del dominio ecatomnide (Pimoguet Pedarros 2000 291-292; Cornieti 2008, 93-144), vide infatti ripristinata l’originaria funzione di diaframma difensivo - dopo esserne stata esonerata per tutto il primo periodo imperiale - proprio a partire da quegli anni, che videro nei territori romani d’Asia Minore il verificarsi di scorrerie ed incursioni ad opera di Goti, Eruli ed altre popolazioni ostili. A Iasos una delle manifestazioni più rilevanti di tali pratiche di adeguamento alle mutate esigenze di sicurezza fu la sostituzione dell’originario emplecton in argilla e pietrame delle mura con un tenace nucleo in calcestruzzo,

mentre accanto ai paramenti isodomi in grandi blocchi di calcare o marmo riferibili alla cinta ecatomnide, comparvero segmenti di mura realizzati con elementi architettonici, anche decorati, di riuso.3 La funzionalità delle mura urbane, pienamente riattivata durante la tarda antichità, dovette essere mantenuta anche durante i secoli seguenti, nonostante la contrazione demografica e la predilezione di sistemi difensivi più concentrati, secondo un sistema ben attestato negli insediamenti fortificati dei territori dell’Impero d’Oriente,4 dove la difesa condotta dai circuiti urbani conservò, in generale, una fondamentale importanza tattico-strategica. Altri, più tardi, interventi di restauro delle mura, furono individuati dal Textier (Textier 1849, 137-138) che visitò il sito alla metà del XIX secolo, attribuendone l’opera a Veneziani o Genovesi probabilmente durante il secolo XII.5 Tuttavia la leggibilità di questo complesso palinsesto, che lo studioso francese ebbe modo di osservare ancora in discreto stato di conservazione, risulta oggi irreparabilmente compromessa. La sistematica attività di spoliazione intrapresa dalle autorità ottomane a partire dal 1861 ai danni della cinta muraria iasia, utilizzata per il prelievo di blocchi da destinare alla costruzione dei moli di Babek a Istambul, ha comportato infatti la perdita di gran parte delle strutture in elevato del circuito e di una porzione ancor più cospicua dei paramenti.6 IL KASTRON PRESSO L’ISTMO Il circuito fortificato del kastron cinge una vasta area pianeggiante situata lungo l’estremo settentrionale della penisola, in corrispondenza dell’istmo che lega quest’ultima alla terraferma (Figura 1), secondo un perimetro che si interfaccia lungo alcuni segmenti con la preesistente cinta insulare. Da un punto di vista spazio-funzionale, ci si trova verosimilmente di fronte ad una ‘cittadella’ fortificata, concepita secondo il modello insediativo del kastron ed atta a realizzare quella concentrazione di funzioni militari e politicoamministrative, che caratterizzerà molti territori dell’Impero d’Oriente già a partire dall’epoca proto-bizantina.7 Il 3

Lawrence 1983, 177, fa notare come il prelievo di blocchi da edifici di culto pagani sia divenuto lecito solo a partire dal 391 d.C., che costituisce pertanto, salvo eccezioni, un valido terminus post quem. 4 Ibidem, passim; Ward-Perkins 1996, 143-153. 5 Tomasello 1991, 133, n. 130, fa notare come i restauri attribuiti a Veneziani e Genovesi dal Textier riguardino più probabilmente le strutture del kastron presso l’istmo e quelle della fortezza dell’acropoli. 6 In alcuni settori delle mura sopravvive soltanto il nucleo, che ingloba numerosi diatoni il cui prelievo si dovette rivelare particolarmente ostico. Cornieti 2008, 93-108. 7 Sull’evoluzione spazio-funzionale e sui processi di militarizzazione nel

1

Laviosa 1994, 76 segg.; sul territorio iasio: ViscogliosiI 1995, 85-88; La Rocca 1993; da ultimo: Pierobon Benoit 2006. 2 Franco 1994, 178 segg.; si veda da ultimo: Cornieti 2008, con bibliografia aggiornata.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean diaframma difensivo, articolato da almeno dieci corpi in proiezione fra torri e bastioni differenti per forma e dimensioni, taglia l’estremo settentrionale dell’agorà di epoca adrianea, in corrispondenza dell’intersezione fra le stoai nord ed ovest, riutilizzando verosimilmente anche una delle estremità turrite dell’antica porta a tenaglia che si apriva al centro del portico occidentale ( Cornieti 2008, 99-100). Il circuito del kastron racchiude al suo interno un numero cospicuo di edifici, probabilmente a destinazione pubblica, quasi certamente preesistenti al castro, ma evidentemente ancora utilizzabili all’epoca della sua edificazione. I resti emergenti mostrano l’impiego di ampie strutture voltate e di articolazioni delle strutture in elevato, quali nicchie e corpi absidati che rinviano al linguaggio architettonico in uso nei territori dell’Asia Minore durante il medio e il tardo impero romano. Per quanto si attendano ancora studi sistematici di tali edifici, che possano contribuire a precisarne le funzioni, le evidenze finora raccolte hanno suggerito di ipotizzare per alcuni di essi originarie destinazioni a terme e a ginnasio (Levi 1967, 68; Mascione 1993, 947-954). I grandi ambienti voltati a botte in corrispondenza del settore occidentale del kastron sono invece più facilmente identificabili come cisterne di approvvigionamento idrico, per la presenza di tracce di sistemi a stramazzo e per la collocazione in diretta continuità con la terminazione dell’acquedotto romano che captava le risorse idriche dalle pendici dell’immediato entroterra. Sempre lungo questo tratto sono visibili i resti di quello che dovette essere l’accesso principale al castro dal territorio extraurbano (Figura 2). La porta costituiva con tutta probabilità un varco alternativo al monumentale ingresso a dipylon,8 immettendo dalla strada principale in un settore urbano a destinazione pubblica, in un’area che, secoli dopo, fu compartimentata dal resto del tessuto urbano attraverso l’edificazione del kastron. L’ingresso è costituito da un’apertura a fornice, oggi parzialmente interrata oltre la quota d’imposta, architravata nel suo fronte esterno9 e centinata in quello interno.10 L’arco che conclude l’apertura è realizzato da conci a cuneo finemente lavorati, con archivolto spartito in due fasce e finemente modanato in corrispondenza del filo d’estradosso. Quest’opera appare del tutto estranea al resto della muratura, tanto da suggerire l’ipotesi che si tratti di un ri-

assemblaggio di elementi asportati da un altro manufatto, congettura che la presenza di lettere incise su alcuni cunei, forse funzionale alla ricomposizione della sequenza dei conci, tenderebbe ad accreditare.11 Da un punto di vista tattico, il disegno a spezzata del circuito, che dà luogo a salienti e diedri concavi, consente un ottimale fiancheggiamento di ogni segmento di cortina; nondimeno, il numero, la dimensione e l’interasse fra torri e bastioni appare volto ad una copertura panoramica del terreno antistante. Il repertorio tipologico e tecnico-costruttivo delle torri è vasto, tuttavia dati i limiti del presente contributo, si ritiene opportuno soffermarsi soltanto su alcuni episodi peculiari. Nell’implementare il castro fortificato, in molti casi si recuperarono gli impianti pertinenti alla cinta ‘antica’, come nel caso della torre a pianta quadrangolare posta in corrispondenza del monumentale ingresso a dipylon e della torre a pianta poligonale (Franco 1994,175) con cinque lati in aggetto, collocata all’estremo settentrionale del perimetro fortificato. In corrispondenza del settore orientale della fortezza, venne invece riutilizzata una torre di pianta pressoché quadrata (5,26m × 5,50m), riconducibile alle fasi tardo-antiche della cinta urbana e che esibisce un paramento realizzato in grandi blocchi di riuso, fra cui spiccano frammenti di fregio dorico a metope lisce e triglifi. Questo settore delle fortificazioni mostra il susseguirsi di interventi di restauro ed irrobustimento delle strutture, che sul retro della torre si manifestano attraverso la presenza di due diversi setti murari, verosimilmente realizzati in un’epoca successiva all’erezione della torre.12 L’ultimo caso qui preso in esame riguarda l’angolo meridionale del castro, collocato all’interno del perimetro urbano di fronte alla stoà nord, in un settore che rivela i segni di una articolata vicenda stratigrafica. Esso, inizialmente protetto da una semplice articolazione a saliente delle cortine fu in un periodo successivo, munito di strutture in proiezione. In adiacenza al setto murario fu infatti realizzata una torre, con impianto planimetrico ad ‘U’, larga all’innesto con le mura circa 5,60m, ed in aggetto rispetto al filo della cortina originaria di circa 4,95m. In una fase ulteriore, forse già tardo-bizantina,13 furono invece inspessite le cortine e realizzato un ampio bastione circolare, dal diametro massimo pari a circa 10,85m, che andò a circondare interamente la torre appena descritta, consentendo così una più efficace concentrazione di difese. Alcune osservazioni possono essere condotte in merito

mondo bizantino fin dal VI secolo si vedano: Ward- Perkins 1996, 143153; Ravegnani 1983, 7-26. 8 La porta fu inquadrata come ‘romana’ dallo Judaich, Judaich 1890, 110. 9 La cortina muraria esterna del tratto di mura attraversato dalla porta si presenta attualmente priva di paramento, esponendo il nucleo in opera cementizia: le impronte rimaste su quest’ultimo al di sopra della quota dell’architrave, ne lasciano intuire la trama in grossi blocchi, allettati su filari orizzontali. 10 Il fronte interno, lungo la quale si apre il fornice estradossato, costituito da profondi cunei in pietra da taglio, si denota invece nel suo registro inferiore per l’uso di un paramento in grandi blocchi di reimpiego ed elementi più piccoli utilizzati come zeppature, disposti su corsi orizzontali a volte discontinui, con abbondante malta a sigillare i giunti. Questo tipo di paramento, dove alcuni spolia appaiono appositamente sagomati per accogliere il profilo semicircolare della ghiera, permane fino alla quota massima del concio di chiave, mentre al di sopra si osserva una muratura differente, caratterizzata da corsi disomogenei, con blocchi di modesta dimensione. I giunti sono zeppati con schegge litiche e con piccoli frammenti laterizi, inseriti lungo piani di posa orizzontali anche di consistente estensione e meno frequentemente lungo i giunti verticali.

11

Cornieti 2008, 106. Una diversa interpretazione dell’incongruenza tecnico-costruttiva e stratigrafica fra la struttura archivoltata e la struttura muraria soprastante, consiste nel considerare quest’ultima azione di sopraelevazione di un tratto di mura precedentemente dotato di un accesso di tipo celebrativo ad arco estradossato libero, secondo una soluzione a ‘trabeazione incurvata’ diffusa in Asia Minore, elaborata in un periodo in cui le mura urbane dovevano essere ampiamente dispensate da funzionalità realmente difensive. 12 La discontinuità fra le azioni costruttive si esplicita attraverso l’esistenza di una cesura fra il volume della torre ed il muro costruito in immediata adiacenza e di una sottile intercapedine fra quest’ultimo ed il muro retrostante, che mostra anche un tipo di paramento lievemente diverso. 13 Cornieti 2008, 99-100; Si vedano anche le brevi note in Serin 2006, 178.

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M. Cornieti: Fortificazioni urbane di frontiera in Asia Minore alla relazione fra il kastron e la terraferma. Occorre precisare che il braccio di mare che rendeva in antico Iasos una città insulare separandola dal continente, all’epoca di costruzione della fortificazione doveva risultare da tempo - almeno in buona parte - colmato, forse in conseguenza di azioni antropiche (Tomasello 1991, 51). Lo stato di insicurezza all’interno del quale fu concepita la fortezza rese evidente l’opportunità di una cesura fra l’insediamento urbano e la terraferma, che fu così ripristinata mediante lo scavo di un un fossato artificiale attraverso questa sottile striscia di terra. Tramite questo intervento venne così a realizzarsi quel tipo di difesa proteichismata teorizzata dalla trattatistica militare bizantina ed applicata in numerosi contesti, che aveva peraltro nei territori microasiatici una tradizione plurisecolare. L’individuazione delle diverse fasi edilizie che conformano il kastron appare oltremodo problematica sulla base delle sole tecniche costruttive, le cui variazioni dipendono in gran parte da un maggiore o minore ricorso ad elementi di reimpiego. La muratura prevalente negli elevati appare infatti caratterizzata da un uso diffuso dell’opera cementizia, con paramenti realizzati con blocchi di modesta dimensione sommariamente scapezzati e spianati, sovente rinzeppati con scaglie e - lungo alcuni segmenti con frammenti laterizi. L’utilizzo di zeppature in laterizio, abbastanza ampio nelle murature probabilmente pertinenti agli interventi più tardi, si estende anche ai giunti verticali, sebbene non si realizzi quella muratura cloisonné, caratterizzata da blocchi in pietra all’interno di ‘maglie’ in laterizio regolari o meno, tanto diffusa nei territori dell’Impero d’Oriente già a partire dall’età medio-bizantina e che diventerà elemento distintivo dell’edilizia dei periodi comneno e lascaride. Riguardo all’epoca d’impianto della piazzaforte, le osservazioni architettoniche ed i dati archeologici suggeriscono un periodo compreso fra il VII e l’VIII secolo d.C. In particolare, i saggi stratigrafici condotti in corrispondenza della terminazione dell’acquedotto e della strada principale d’accesso alla città che vi correva parallela, hanno evidenziato interventi di rifacimento di quest’ultima protrattisi fino al VII secolo,14 epoca che potrebbe coincidere con quella di edificazione del kastron. In questo caso sarebbe verosimile relazionare il programma fortificatorio alla ristrutturazione militare-amministrativa in temi (Moss 1978, 59-65) che coinvolse i territori bizantini a partire dal regno di Eraclio (610-641 d.C.) e che portò alla costituzione di distretti, stabilmente presidiati da guarnigioni di soldaticoloni il cui servizio si tramandava in via ereditaria.15 All’interno di queste circoscrizioni, si assistette inoltre alla progressiva scomparsa di ogni distinzione fra poteri civili e militari. Sembra che uno dei compiti principali di questi contingenti dislocati nelle regioni costiere dell’Asia Minore fosse quello di proteggere gli insediamenti dalle frequenti incursioni effettuate dalla flotta araba, che in questo periodo si era assicurata il dominio su vasti settori

del Mediterraneo.16 A quell’epoca il processo di contrazione del tessuto urbano di Iasos doveva essere già in stato avanzato, tuttavia l’edificazione del kastron ed il rifacimento della strada principale di accesso testimoniano l’importanza strategica del centro, in un momento in cui il litorale microasiatico divenne una vera e propria, turbolenta, frontiera. La conduzione di ulteriori e più approfondite analisi si dimostra però necessaria sia al fine di precisare e verificare gli orizzonti cronologici ipotizzati per l’impianto, sia per comprendere l’evoluzione di questo complesso fortificato, che rimase certamente in uso anche in secoli successivi.17 LA TORRE BIZANTINA DEL PORTO OCCIDENTALE L’insediamento urbano iasio, sviluppatosi lungo un affioramento calcareo circondato dal mare, si protende all’interno di due profonde e insenature, che già in antico furono destinate a bacini portuali comunicanti, secondo una prassi consueta nelle colonie greche d’Asia Minore.18 La baia occidentale, denominata ‘porto piccolo’ presenta le tracce di un massiccio molo in calcestruzzo19 che, staccandosi in prossimità della punta sud del promontorio corre in direzione della terraferma, emergendo dal basso fondale durante la bassa marea. Un’opera analoga, per quanto costantemente sommersa, è visibile lungo la sponda opposta, indicando così l’esistenza di un diaframma permeato da un unico varco centrale, concepito per il controllo dell’accesso e del transito al porto delle imbarcazioni.

Una poderosa struttura fortificata conclude il braccio orientale del molo emergendo dal pelo dell’acqua per una quota massima di oltre 7m (Figure 1 e 3). Si tratta di una torre difensiva, verosimilmente ascrivibile per tipologia e tecnica costruttiva al repertorio dell’architettura militare bizantina, poggiante sulla gettata in concreto ed in discreto stato di conservazione, grazie anche a recenti interventi di restauro.20 Le strutture supersiti, nonostante una generale consunzione della fascia inferiore, dovuta all’azione del mare, lasciano intuire una pianta pressoché quadrata, per quanto uno solo dei quattro fronti si sia conservato in tutta la 16

Lawrence 1983, 201-202. L’installazione di presidi militari residenti in molti territori d’Asia Minore contribuì anche alla rivitalizzazione del tessuto sociale e demografico. Su quest’ultimo aspetto si veda: Moss 1978, 65. 17 Serin 2006, p. 178; si veda anche. Masturzo1995, p. 173., secondo cui la costruzione del bastione nord occidentale è da mettere in relazione con la frequentazione del porto in periodo ottomano. 18 Tomasello 1991, 4. Erano caratterizzati da un doppio approdo gli insediamenti coloniali insulari o peninsularidi Pitane, Clazomene, Teos, Lebedo, Caunos, Patara, Phaselis. Il canale poteva essere anche del tutto artificiale, come nel caso di Alicarnasso, dove l’obiettivo fu perseguito attraverso il taglio dell’isola di Zephiria. A questi esempi, si aggiungano quelli di Samo e Cnido, dove fu realizzato un canale artificiale che rivestiva funzioni spiccatamente difensive. 19 I moli, è stato osservato in Masturzo1995, p.156, rimandano per tecnica costruttiva alle opere portuali realizzate in Asia Minore durante il primo periodo imperiale. Non è dato di sapere se strutture aventi la stessa funzione fossero state impiantate a Iasos già in periodi precedenti. 20 Questi ultimi furono eseguiti a cura della Missione Archeologica Italiana Iasos di Caria su progetto e supervisione dell’Arch. Nicolò Masturzo a partire dal 1989, al cui contributo già citato si rimanda per una descrizione esaustiva della torre.

Ibidem, 51 segg. Iasos ed il suo territorio furono inizialmente compresi nel thema marittimo dei Karabisianoi, poi, assieme a molti altri centri dell’Egeo sud-occidentale, nel drungariato di Cibyrreoti, che assurse al rango di thema durante i primi decenni dell’VIII secolo; Masturzo 1995, 179. 14 15

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sua lunghezza. Si tratta del lato settentrionale,21 quello meno soggetto all’azione del moto ondoso, che ha invece eroso ampi brani dei fronti occidentale ed orientale e cancellato quasi totalmente l’elevato meridionale. I muri perimetrali, costituiti da un doppio paramento di blocchi scapezzati, sommariamente spianati e da un nucleo in calcestruzzo, risultano articolati all’esterno, lungo i fronti nord ed ovest, da contrafforti, con funzione di irrobustimento e verosimilmente frangi-flutti; tutti quelli attualmente conservatisi presentano una terminazione inclinata che li raccorda con le pareti retrostanti. La torre si elevava su due livelli funzionali: quello inferiore poggiante su di una gettata in concreto, mentre la partizione superiore era verosimilmente costituita da una struttura solaiata, come indicano le tracce di travetti nella muratura. L’accesso al livello superiore era garantito da una scala in pietra, della quale si conservano i sei gradini di inferiori. La torre era forse conclusa da una copertura a padiglione, sorretta da puntoni angolari e da un telaio di catene lignee, le cui tracce si rilevano nel settore sommitale degli elevati meglio conservati. Da un punto di vista tattico, si rileva la presenza di un doppio registro di feritoie collocate lungo i fronti superstiti: al livello inferiore il fronte settentrionale mostra un’ampia feritoia centrale, mentre lungo quello occidentale si aprono due feritoie asimmetricamente strombate. Tutte queste aperture si rivelano atte all’impiego di macchine belliche, verosimilmente catapulte a dardi. Dispositivi tattici simili si ritrovano anche al livello superiore, lungo i fronti ovest ed est, mentre quella sul lato settentrionale non presenta strombature.

durante questo periodo (Tondo 2000, 411-412), tuttavia appare lecito supporre una consistente penetrazione turca nell’area già a partire dal 107023 ed un insediamento del dominio selgiuchide fino al passaggio della prima crociata nel 1097. LA FORTEZZA DELL’ACROPOLI L’area dell’acropoli, collocata in corrispondenza della sommità dell’affioramento calcareo insulare, è cinta da un vasto circuito fortificato (Figura 1), attualmente ben conservato per ampie porzioni di elevato. La cinta muraria della piazzaforte circonda un pianoro lievemente degradante verso ovest, che si interrompe bruscamente in corrispondenza di un alto strapiombo che si affaccia sul bacino portuale occidentale. Il circuito, di forma approssimativamente trapezioidale e orientato all’incirca in direzione nord-sud, si attesta in corrispondenza del ciglio del dirupo lungo tutto il fronte occidentale, sfruttando in maniera ottimale le difese naturali offerte dall’orografia del sito. Con uno sviluppo lineare esterno di circa 360m, delimita all’interno una superficie di poco più di 8.277mq . Gli accessi all’area fortificata sono due. Quello principale si colloca lungo il settore settentrionale, in posizione mediana rispetto alla base minore del trapezio suddetto ed è costituito da una porta rinserrata fra due torri ravvicinate a pianta quasi quadrata, fortemente in proiezione rispetto al filo delle cortine, a determinare un profondo recesso antistante l’entrata vera e propria (Figura 4).24 L’altro ingresso è invece posto lungo la base maggiore meridionale, nelle immediate vicinanze dell’angolo sud-ovest e della parete a strapiombo, che ne condiziona l’approccio.25 Il circuito fortificato è articolato da sedici torri di pianta alternativamente rettangolare e ad ‘U’, mentre una sola di esse, collocata in corrispondenza dell’angolo nord-occidentale, ha impianto planimetrico poligonale, con cinque facce in proiezione. L’interasse fra le torri, non omogeneo, appare dettato dalla diversa accessibilità e morfologia del terreno circostante.26 Le torri si conservano attualmente in elevato fino ad una quota che non supera quella che doveva avere il cammina-

Confronti tipologici hanno indotto ad ipotizzare una possibile configurazione simmetrica per il molo occidentale, sebbene non si individuino alla sua estremità i resti di strutture fortificate. In ogni caso occorre valutare la funzionalità della torre in relazione all’efficienza delle mura insulari, alle quali risultava quasi certamente connessa mediante una cortina fortificata che correva lungo il molo. Per quanto riguarda l’epoca di costruzione della torre, l’analisi delle tecniche costruttive e la comparazione con manufatti analoghi soprattutto di area cipriota ed efesina hanno fanno propendere per un periodo compreso fra il X e l’XI secolo. Questa collocazione cronologica, proposta dal Masturzo22 e che ci trova in accordo, relazionerebbe l’edificazione della torre iasia agli interventi volti a consolidare il dominio sulle rotte egee, faticosamente riconquistato da Bisanzio con la vittoria su Leone di Tripoli a Lemno (923-4). Una certa vitalità della comunità iasia durante il X-XI sembra peraltro attestata dall’edificazione di un complesso ecclesiale extra moenia, collocato lungo il litorale nordorientale dell’isola e dai ritrovamenti in varie aree della città che documentano una vivace circolazione monetaria

23

Si veda Ragia 2005, 218- 226. La porta, che reimpiega negli stipiti due grandi elementi architettonici antichi, forse frammenti di trabeazione, era conclusa da un fornice centinato, attualmente solo in parte conservato. I recenti scavi hanno riportato alla luce la soglia della porta – e di conseguenza la quota dell’originario piano di calpestio – evidenziando inoltre la presenza di tracce di combustione. 25 L’ingresso, per gran parte interrato, rielabora la tipologia della portatorre, con un volume appena in aggetto rispetto al filo esterno delle cortine costituito da una camera originariamente solaiata e da due aperture assiali, di cui la più interna, parzialmente interrata, conserva un rozzo arco estradossato. 26 Lungo i segmenti del fronte settentrionale, nel settore posto ad est della porta principale, caratterizzato da un terreno relativamente poco accidentato, la distanza massima fra le torri risulta sempre inferiore ai 12 metri. Un passo lievemente più ampio unito ad una maggior regolarità si riscontra lungo il fronte orientale, mentre in corrispondenza dei settori meridionali del circuito l’interasse fra le torri aumenta in maniera apprezzabile. Sul fronte occidentale la presenza di torri si fa invece decisamente rarefatta: due sole torri articolano il perimetro fortificatoche risulta tuttavia efficacemente protetto dalle balze rocciose sottostanti – prima di giungere alla torre poligonale prima menzionata. Cornieti 2008, 195-197. 24

21

Il fronte nord misura lungo il suo filo esterno 11,35m, mentre 7,44 m è la misura utile interna, al netto dei robusti spessori murari, che si attestano, rispettivamente, su valori di 1,86m (ovest) e 1,99m (est); Masturzo 1995, 161. 22 Masturzo 1995, 159, 170.

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M. Cornieti: Fortificazioni urbane di frontiera in Asia Minore mento di ronda; quest’ultimo risultava raggiungibile mediante frequenti rampe di scale singole o abbinate, ricavate all’interno delle compagini murarie con andamento parallelo alle cortine.27 L’esame delle torri indica che esse erano dotate di almeno due camere accessibili, tuttavia il disegno realizzato dal Couffier (Choiseul 1782, Figura 103) verso la fine del XVIII secolo, restituisce un’immagine della fortezza con torri ad ampio sviluppo verticale, svettanti ben oltre il probabile livello terminale delle cortine. I rilievi di dettaglio eseguiti all’interno della camera di una torre del fronte meridionale hanno inoltre segnalato la presenza di riseghe e fori a sezione rettangolare,quasi certamente tracce di partizioni orizzontali a struttura lignea. Questo dato, assieme alla presenza di fori di drenaggio praticati in prossimità del piede delle murature di molte torri, indica la presenza di camere più basse rispetto all’attuale piano di calpestio. Sul retro le torri presentano una gola aperta, che immette nella camera sopraelevata e che doveva garantire un rapido approvvigionamento di strumenti e materiali o un immediato accesso, forse tramite scale lignee, all’interno dell’ambiente. Da un punto di vista tattico si rileva, all’interno di alcune torri, l’oculata disposizione delle aperture di tiro, generalmente tre per ambiente: queste si denotano come strette feritoie fortemente strombate, a volte asimmetriche, per favorire un’adeguata copertura del terreno antistante. Nell’area interna a questo circuito fortificato non si registra la presenza di altri manufatti edilizi di tipo difensivo: l’unico edificio cui permangono fuoriterra resti cospicui è infatti una cisterna a pianta rettangolare (10,34m × 8,77m le dimensioni massime) ed originariamente voltata, costruita nel settore centrale della piazzaforte. Oltre a ciò, tracce di strutture murarie addossate alle cortine, a delimitare ambienti di modesta estensione planimetrica, sono state evidenziate da saggi stratigrafici condotti nel 2006/2007 nell’area della porta nord. Alla possibile esistenza di ambienti addossati ai fronti interni delle mura riconducono inoltre la grande quantità di incavi a sezione rettangolare, spesso allineati a quote costanti, che si rileva nel paramento murario lungo vasti tratti del perimetro interno. Sebbene la loro presenza possa essere messa in relazione con la realizzazione della muratura mediante applicazione di catene lignee profondamente inserite nel nucleo ( Foss 1996, 154-167, 182segg.), secondo una prassi costruttiva ben documentata in epoca tardo-bizantina, la scoperta degli edifici presso la porta nord induce a valutarne la possibile pertinenza ad altri ambienti dislocati lungo il circuito fortificato. Dal punto di vista della tecnica costruttiva, le strutture murarie della fortezza sono realizzate con un’opera cementizia racchiusa da un doppio paramento realizzato con blocchi di pezzatura eterogenea, sommariamente scapezzati, spianati e disposti in assise sub-orizzontali discontinue in abbondante malta, spesso rifluente a costituire una sorta di intonaco. Quest’ultima, tenace, è a base di calce e di raro cocciopesto. L’uso di scaglie litiche a zeppatura dei giunti è ovunque ampio, mentre la presenza di frammenti lateri-

zi si fa consistente soltanto in corrispondenza del settore nord-orientale. Lungo questi segmenti i frammenti laterizi formano a volte brevi ricorsi, volti ad omogeneizzare l’orizzontalità dei filari, o risultano disposti secondo giaciture verticali, dando origine in qualche caso a casi modeste porzioni di muratura cloisonné. In questo settore del circuito diventa generalizzato anche l’utilizzo di grandi blocchi architettonici di reimpiego, anche decorati. In particolare, alcune torri e cortine mostrano l’applicazione della tecnica dell’opus gallicum (Marino 2004, 38), realizzata attraverso l’inserimento di rocchi di colonne all’interno del nucleo della muratura (Figura 5).28 Questa variazione nella tecnica costruttiva è stata messa in relazione con un ipotetico intervento di rifacimento di alcune strutture del settore nord orientale, operato forse in periodo lascaride (Serin 2006, 78). Tale eterogeneità costruttiva potrebbe peraltro essere stata causata dalla presenza contemporanea di più cantieri, con artefici educati secondo differenti tradizioni costruttive. 29 In merito all’attribuzione e alla datazione della fortezza, le opinioni degli studiosi non sono unanimi, riferendosi di volta in volta all’ambito bizantino, crociato (concordemente alla tradizione) o turco-ottomano.30 L’ipotesi che si tratti di un caposaldo militare bizantino, cronologicamente ascrivibile al XII o al XIII secolo, appare la più verosimile, sulla base sia della tipologia spaziofunzionale, sia delle tecniche costruttive riscontrate. L’analisi della prima evidenzia infatti l’assenza di una struttura gerarchizzata della difesa, che contraddistingue invece le contemporanee fortificazioni elaborate dai ‘latini’ nei loro territori d’origine in occidente e ancor di più nei territori d’oltremare occupati in seguito all’esperienza crociata.31 28

Tale espediente costruttivo realizza, al pari dell’applicazione delle catene lignee prima menzionate, una miglior coesione fra l’emplecton in opera cementizia e i paramenti, già a partire dalle fasi di presa della compagine muraria. 29 A questo proposito, si veda Foss 1996, 182, dove si osserva, riguardo alle fortificazioni di periodo comneno: ‘…contemporary walls and towers display considerable variety, not only from one region to another, but even within the same structure’ 30 La piazzaforte dell’acropoli iasia è genericamente definita ‘medievale’ dallo Judaich (Judaich 1890, 141), mentre secondo il Guidi, (Guidi 1921, 345) si tratta di un impianto di origine bizantina. Bean e Cook (Bean e Cook 1957, 101) vi ravvisano invece un’opera turco-ottomana. Più di recente, le attribuzioni si sono alternativamente conformate alle ipotesi che vedevano nella fortezza un presidio dei Cavalieri di Rodi (come asserito dalla tradizione) o pertinente alle difese costruite dall’Impero d’Oriente durante il periodo comneno e l’Impero di Nicea. Un’attinenza del castello con la presenza degli ordini monastico-militari nella regione è infatti accolta da Doro Levi (Levi 1965, 549; Levi 1987, che riscontrò nell’area dell’acropoli la presenza di simboli identificabili con stemmi cavallereschi, oggi perduti. Dello stesso avviso, Elisabetta Pagello (Pagello 1991, 500). Un rapido riferimento alla fortezza dell’acropoli è fornito anche da Francesco Tomasello (Tomasello 1991, 133), che la ritiene un’opera che i Crociati avrebbero costruito durante la breve occupazione del sito. Propende invece per una matrice bizantina del castello ed un’ascendenza cronologica al XII-XIII secolo Nicolò Masturzo (Masturzo 1995, 182). 31 Questi elementi, d’altronde, non appaiono certamente sufficienti a precludere la possibilità di un rapporto fra il castello costruito sul promontorio e la presenza all’interno della regione di presidi militari direttamente riconducibili al movimento crociato, in particolare all’Ordine degli Ospitalieri o alle forze facenti capo alle repubbliche marinare italiane. La costruzione del castello, concepito come caposaldo di qualche dominio ‘latino’ in territorio anatolico, potrebbe ad esempio essere avvenuta attraverso un ampio reclutamento di maestranze locali,

27

La disposizione simmetrica di alcune di queste rampe ne suggerisce quella che doveva essere la quota massima, anche tenuto conto della necessità di un piccolo pianerottolo a conclusione delle scale.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean La configurazione del complesso, con un perimetro ritmicamente scandito da torri similari per morfologia e funzionalità tattica, accessibili da frequenti scalinate poste lungo le cortine, denuncia piuttosto la riproposizione su scala ristretta del modello difensivo del kastron, che godeva nel mondo bizantino di una tradizione plurisecolare.32 Anche la tecnica costruttiva rimanda al contesto culturale bizantino d’Asia Minore, dove l’impiego di un robusto emplecton in calcestruzzo nella realizzazione delle strutture murarie rappresenta una consuetudine costruttiva di lungo e ininterrotto corso. Per quello che riguarda la tecnica impiegata nella realizzazione dei paramenti, occorre osservare che essa poco si discosta da quella prevalentemente impiegata a Iasos a partire dal periodo medio-bizantino e che la più o meno diffusa presenza di elementi di reimpiego non può costituire di per sé un parametro utile all’identificazione di discriminanti cronologiche. L’utilizzo di frammenti in laterizio, che si concentra lungo fronte orientale del circuito, si rivela allo stesso modo un dato poco eloquente riguardo alla datazione della piazzaforte. Infatti, sebbene le murature tipiche delle fortificazioni di periodo comneno e lascaride si caratterizzino per un ampio utilizzo di tessiture murarie di tipo closoinné (Foss 1996, passim; Müller-Wiener 1961, 154), è pur vero che l’utilizzo del laterizio nell’edilizia iasia è da sempre stato piuttosto limitato. Inoltre, in molte altre fortificazioni tardo-bizantine di tardo XII e XIII secolo della costa occidentale anatolica (Foss 1996, 157-167, 182-201; Foss e Winfield 1986, 154) si registra una scarsa, o addirittura inesistente, applicazione di questa tecnica costruttiva. Allo stesso ambito rimandano le presunte tracce di incatenamenti lignei, così come la presenza seppur episodica di settori di muratura in opus gallicum,33 suggerendo pertanto una relazione fra il complesso dell’acropoli ed i programmi fortificatori intrapresi dall’Impero d’Oriente durante i periodi comneno e lascaride. La fortezza può essere pertanto considerata come un presidio militare bizantino del thema di Mylasa-Melanoudion, vera e propria zona di frontiera dell’Impero d’Oriente all’interno dei delicati equilibri che vedevano i territori di Bisanzio di volta in volta minacciati dai potentati selgiuchidi o dalla invadente presenza ‘franca’. È inoltre possibile suggerire con cautela quale terminus post quem non per la costruzione del complesso fortificato il settimo decennio del XIII secolo, quando, nonostante le campagne militari di Giovanni Paleologo, Bisanzio perse definitivamente questo settore della Caria.34

BIBLIOGRAFIA Bean, G. E. e Cook, J. M. 1957. The Carian Coast, III, in «The Annual of the British School at Athens», LII Berti, F. 2005. Le vicende di una torre di difesa, in «Bollettino di Numismatica», n° 40-43. Bertocci, S. 2003/2004. Indagine sulle murature di una torre del lato orientale della cinta di Iasos in Caria, in Iasos tra VI e IV sec. a.C. Miscellanea storico-archeologica, Supplemento al v. 81 «Atti dell’Accademia delle Scienze di Ferrara», 181, 2003\2004. Brogiolo, G. P. (ed) 1996. Early medieval towns in west mediterranean. Mantova. Choiseul, M. G 1782. Voyage Pittoresque de la Grèce. Paris. Cornieti, M. 2008. Le fortificazioni di Iasos di Caria. Strumenti per la conoscenza e la documentazione dell’architettura della difesa, Tesi di Dottorato in Rilievo e Rappresentazione dell’Architettura e dell’Ambiente, Firenze. Foss, C. e Winfield, D. 1986. Byzantine Fortifications. An Introduction. Pretoria Franco, C. 1994. Le mura di Iasos. Riflessioni tra archeologia e storia, in «Revue des Études Anciennes», Tome 96, n. 1-2. Guidi, G. 1921. Viaggio di esplorazione in Caria, parte I, Golfo di Bargylia e di Keramos, in « Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni italiane in Oriente », IV-V. Hussey, J. M. (ed) 1978. L’impero bizantino (the Byzantine Empire). Milano. Judaich, W. 1890. Iasos, in «Mittelungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Athenische Abteilung», 15. La Rocca, E. (ed) 1993. Sinus Iasius I. Il territorio di Iasos: ricognizioni archeologiche 1988-1989, Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, s. III, 23. La Rocca, E. 1997. Survey archeologica nel territorio del golfo di Mandalya, «Missioni Archeologiche Italiane. La ricerca Archeologica, Antropologica, Etnologica». Roma. Laviosa, C. 1994. Iasos, in Enciclopedia dell’arte Antica, II supp. III. Levi, D. 1965-1966. Le campagne di scavo 1962-64 a Iasos, in «Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni italiane in Oriente », n.s. XXVII-XXVIII. Levi, D. 1987. Studi su Iasos di Caria, suppl. «Bollettino d’Arte» 31\32. Levi Marino, L. 2004. L’opus gallicum nei castelli del Vicino Oriente, in «Firenze Architettura », a. VIII, suppl. 1. Mascione, C. 1993. Il complesso termale E di Alagün, in La Rocca E. (ed), Sinus Iasius I. Il territorio di Iasos: ricognizioni archeologiche 1988-1989, Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, s. III, 23. Mc Nicoll, A. W.1997. Hellenistic Fortifications from the Aegean to the Euphrates Oxford. Foss, C.1996. Cities, Fortresses and Villages of Byzantine Asia Minor. Aldershot. Lawrence, A. W. 1983. A skeletal history of Bizantine fortifications. In «Annual of the British School at Athens», 78.

che vi avrebbero così impresso la cifra della propria tradizione costruttiva. Più plausibile, l’ipotesi di un’occupazione da parte di guarnigioni ‘crociate’ della fortezza, precedentemente presidiata e già abbandonata o meno dai Bizantini. Tuttavia, riguardo a questi aspetti, i dati per ora a disposizione non permettono di muoversi al di fuori del campo delle pure congetture. 32 Sull’evoluzione tipologica di questi modelli e su alcuni caratteri distintivi della contemporanea architettura militare ‘franca’ si veda: Lawrence 1983, 171 segg. 33 L’inserimento di rocchi di colonna nelle murature era un espediente già adottato nei rifacimenti post-eruliani di Sparta (seconda metà del III secolo) e godrà di grande diffusione nell’edilizia militare bizantina dei secoli successivi: Lawrence 1983, 172 e passim. 34 Non è infatti possibile ecludere la pertinenza di questi interventi alle campagne militari intraprese dai Paleologhi in Asia Minore, in particolare

dal generale Giovanni Paleologo, fratello dell’Imperatore Michele VIII, negli anni 1264-1272; Ragia 2005, 221- 226; sui problemi relativi all’attribuzione all’età dei Paleologi di alcune fortezze tardo-bizantine in Asia Minore, si veda: Foss 1996, 157-167, 298-320.

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M. Cornieti: Fortificazioni urbane di frontiera in Asia Minore Passato», n°LX\2005. Napoli. Texier, CH. 1849. Description de l’Asie Mineure, III. Paris. Tomasello, F. 1991. L’acquedotto romano e la necropoli presso l’istmo. Roma. Tondo, L. 2000, Appunti sulla circolazione monetaria a Iasos, in «La Parola del Passato», LIV\1999. Napoli. Viscogliosi, A. 1995. Il territorio di Iasos, in Enciclopedia dell’arte Antica, II supp. III. Ward-Perkins, B. (1996). Urban survival and urban transformation in the eastern Mediterranean, in G.P. Brogiolo Man(ed), Early medieval towns in west Mediterranean. ���� tova.

Moss, H. S. T. L. B. 1978. ����������������������������� La formazione dell’impero romano d’oriente, in J. M. Hussey (ed), L’impero bizantino (the Byzantine Empire). Milano. Müller-Wiener, W. 1961. Mittelälteriche Befestigungen im südlicher Jonien, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaologischen Institut (Abt. Istanbul), XI. Pagello, E. 1991. I castelli di Iasos di Caria. Alcune considerazioni, in Castelli e città fortificate. Storia recupero valorizzazione. I sistemi difensivi del bacino del mediterraneo, Colloqui internazionali, Crotone – Rossano, 25-26 ottobre 1991 Pierobon Benoit, R. (ed) 2006. Iasos, nuovi studi e ricerche, in «La Parola del Passato», LX\2005. Napoli. Pimoguet Pedarros, I. 2000. Archeologie de la défense. Histoire des fortifications antiques de carie (époques classique et hellenistique). Paris. Ragia, E.2005. Les Turcs en Asie Mineure occidentale et la bataille de Mylasa: 1079 ou 1264?, in «Revue des Études Byzantines», 63. Ravegnani, G. 1983. Castelli e città fortificate nel VI secolo. Ravenna. Serin, U. 2006. Some observation on the middle byzantine church outside the east gate at Iasos, in «La Parola del

Figura 1. Planimetria del sito peninsulare, dove si individuano: 1. Il kastron bizantino presso l’istmo; 2. La torre difensiva presso il porto occidentale; 3. La fortezza dell’acropoli.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean

Figura 2. Disegno al tratto del fronte interno che inquadra la porta parzialmente interrata che garantiva l’accesso al kastro

Figura 3. La torre bizantina emergente dal molo del porto occidentale.

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M. Cornieti: Fortificazioni urbane di frontiera in Asia Minore

Figura 4. Fotopiano dell’accesso settentrionale alla fortezza dell’acropoli, fiancheggiato da due torri in proiezione.

Figura 5. Dettaglio della muratura di una torre collocata lungo il settore orientale della fortezza.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

L’ARCHEOLOGIA DEL LIMITE: UNA RIFLESSIONE FILOSOFICO-GIURIDICA Filippo Ruschi Università di Firenze

A stampa in/Published in Vannini G., Nucciotti M. (a cura di), La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, BAR, Oxford, 2011

lemma, non significa forse investigare la natura dell’ente che dal confine stesso è determinato? Rileggendo la Fisica aristotelica, Cacciari segnala come ogni ente sia collocato in un topos: non è possibile pensare ad una realtà totalmente despazializzata così come non è immaginabile uno spazio puramente vuoto. L’ente, dunque, è sempre riconducibile ad un topos, cioè ad uno spazio che è sempre definito, determinato da un limite, da un confine. Il limes, pertanto, è l’orlo estremo, il luogo dove l’ente avverte il proprio limite e, allo stesso tempo, entra in contatto con l’altro. Ora, conclude Cacciari, se si approfondiscono tutte le implicazioni connesse al ragionamento aristotelico, non si può fare a meno di considerare il limite come l’essenza stessa del luogo: è il confine a costituire il topos (Cacciari 2000, 74-75). Ecco allora che, ad esempio, pensare i limiti dell’umano è un modo per riflettere sull’antropologia o, ancora, interrogarsi sui confini politici è una maniera per indagare sulla polis stessa. Tutte queste interpretazioni, pur adottando differenti prospettive, concordano su due punti: l’importanza della nozione di confine e la sua ambiguità semantica. L’aporia è tanto evidente quanto all’apparenza insuperabile. Eppure, a meno di non voler frettolosamente dismettere il lemma ‘confine’ a causa della sua fuzziness, occorre sforzarsi di fare chiarezza su questo concetto. Questo, se non per assicurare al vocabolo un significato preciso, quanto meno per identificare le cause della sua patologica indeterminatezza. Ai fini di una tale anamnesi può essere utile fare riferimento al linguaggio giuridico. Si tratta infatti di un lessico particolarmente rigoroso sul piano formale. Frutto di raffinate tecniche definitorie, questo codice linguistico è il prodotto di una lunga serie di convenzioni che ne ridefiniscono costantemente il significato adattandolo alla realtà sociale. E dunque, se è vero che il linguaggio giuridico si segnala per la sua rigorosità, al contempo la sua struttura è artificiale e contingente. Questo duplice carattere permette da un lato di restringere il campo semantico del lemma ‘confine’, dall’altro di comprendere e spiegare la sua evoluzione.2 In quest’ottica è forse possibile ‘un’archeologia del limite’, ispirata alla lezione di Michel Foucault per un verso e di Marc Bloch per un altro (Cfr. Foucault 2007; Bloch 1973). È chiaro che un tale indirizzo di ricerca, hic et nunc, può essere appena abbozzato: eppure, nonostante questo approccio rapsodico, resta una suggestiva ipotesi di lavoro. Se si focalizza l’attenzione sul vocabolario giuridico classico, e in particolare sulla lingua latina che sotto questo

‘La linea dritta, il confine geometrico che contrassegna la territorialità statuale moderna’, ha osservato Franco Farinelli ‘è la cosa più sottile che esista. Ma proprio per questo anche la più misteriosa. Nessuno sa davvero che cosa essa sia’ (Farinelli 2000, 7). Si tratta di una constatazione che ha senza dubbio il dono della schiettezza, tanto più preziosa dal momento che il suo autore è uno dei più brillanti geografi contemporanei. Questa indeterminatezza, la caligine che sembra avvolgere il vocabolo ‘confine’ ed i suoi sinonimi -- frontiera, termine, limite -- ha delle cause precise: la sua ambiguità semantica, secondo Farinelli, deriva da una progressiva alterazione della relazione tra reale e simbolico. La dilatazione dell’immagine, la riduzione della complessità dello spazio fisico a nitida rappresentazione cartografica fatta di rigorose geometrie e astrazioni figurative, la perfetta equivalenza e commutabilità tra il mondo e la sua immagine, sono epifenomeni di questo slittamento di piani (Farinelli 2000, 8). Non è il caso di approfondire le implicazioni connesse a questa lucida diagnosi, ma è certo che le questioni sollevate da Farinelli si inseriscono a pieno titolo nel vasto dibattito sulla globalizzazione al quale partecipano sempre più ampi settori delle scienze sociali ed umane. Un dibattito, invero, spesso orientato ad identificare nel confine soltanto un ostacolo alla realizzazione della cosmopoli mondiale, l’ennesimo legato della discutibile eredità dello Jus publicum europaeum di cui sbarazzarsi senza troppi indugi.1 Eppure osservatori meno frettolosi della società contemporanea, come Franco Cassano, hanno richiamato l’attenzione non solo sulla polisemia del concetto di confine ma anche sulla sua persistente effettività. Questa nozione, una volta declinata in chiave sociopolitica, è sinonimo di divisione, di contrapposizione. Ma se il confine ha una straordinaria valenza identitaria, precisa Cassano, allo stesso tempo è occasione di riconoscimento dell’altro: ‘sul confine, sul limite ognuno di noi termina e viene determinato, acquista la sua forma. Accetta il suo essere limitato da qualcosa d’altro che ovviamente è anch’esso limitato da noi. Il termine de-termina e il confine de-finisce’ (Cassano 1996, 54) La frontiera, dunque, è interessata da una dinamica che è al contempo centripeta e centrifuga. Anche Massimo Cacciari, ha insistito sulla mutevole natura del confine, sulla sua indeterminatezza semantica, sull’essere ora limen, ora limes. Ma al di là di questa natura polimorfa e ambigua, ha rilevato Cacciari, ‘la difficoltà di definire il confine non può però farne cessare il bisogno’ (Cacciari 2000,74). D’altra parte riflettere su questo

2 La natura e la funzione del linguaggio giuridico sono tra i topoi prediletti

1

Per una esaustiva panoramica relativa al dibattito sul processo globalizzazione si veda Zolo 2004. In merito allo Jus publicum Euroapeum. si veda il classico Schmitt 2003.

dal dibattito giusfilosofico contemporaneo. Non è il caso di proporre indicazioni bibliografiche che risulterebbero inevitabilmente parziali ma si veda quanto meno Scarpelli e Di Lucia 1994 .

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F. Ruschi: L’archeologia del limite: una riflessione filosofico-giuridica profilo rappresenta un apparato linguistico singolarmente raffinato, si possono fare almeno due elementari considerazioni: da un lato lemmi come finis, limes, terminus, o ancora come pomoerium, limen, sulcus, alludono alla dimensione tellurica, dall’altra questi vocaboli fanno riferimento a quella magico-religiosa.3 Il dualismo, beninteso, è solo apparente e si risolve piuttosto in una dialettica circolare tra il fattore fisico e quello trascendente. Il diritto, dunque, nasce dal solco dell’aratro che traccia il pomoerium della città, ma questa scansione, a ben vedere, non fa che cogliere e riprodurre nello spazio fisico i segni celesti.4 La contiguità tra diritto, tellus e pietas, trova costanti conferme nell’esperienza giuridica romana, come noto caratterizzata da un marcato formalismo rituale. In questa prospettiva il regere fines, l’atto fondativo della civitas, è al tempo stesso rito civile e cerimonia religiosa. Certo, si tratta di qualificare lo spazio della comunità politica, di distinguere ‘ciò che è dentro’ da ‘ciò che è fuori’, ma al tempo stesso questo rito permette di discriminare tra sfera sacra e sfera profana. Émile Benveniste ha richiamato l’attenzione sul fatto che nella società romana arcaica, e più in generale nella tradizione indoeuropea, spettasse al rex tracciare il confine. È proprio attraverso questa linea che -- sottolinea Benveniste -- il monarca può ‘fissare le regole, può determinare ciò che è, in senso proprio, “retto”. Di modo che il rex, così definito, assomiglia più a un sacerdote che a un sovrano.’5 Se è vero che il potere regale poggiava su di un fondamento carismatico, è senza dubbio degno di nota il fatto che a Roma, ancora dopo il tramonto dell’istituto monarchico, si avvertisse la necessità di conservare l’istituto del rex sacrorum, depositario di pratiche giuridiche e religiose ormai sedimentate. 6 Il confine nell’antichità era dunque espressione di una ‘geografia sacra’, i cui elementi topografici -- solchi tracciati nei campi, alberi segnati da simboli, cippi consacrati al dio Termine -- alludevano tutti alla capacità ordinante della iustissima tellus.7 Resta da chiedersi se questa particolare concezione degli spazi, frutto di una costante sovrapposizione di piani differenziati, sia legata all’animismo panteistico che ha caratte-

rizzato le società arcaiche. Nella prospettiva di una coerente ‘archeologia del limite’ la risposta non può che essere negativa: per tutta l’età premoderna è difficile determinare una cesura nel modo in cui gli spazi giuridici e politici sono determinati e rappresentati. Per voltare pagina occorrerà aspettare quella che Carl Schmitt ha efficacemente definito la Raumrevolution, la rivoluzione spaziale inaugurata dai viaggi colombiani e dalle scoperte scientifiche.8 Certo, nell’Età di mezzo il quadro d’insieme si fa più complesso, arricchendosi di nuove figure e consentendo prospettive inedite. Se la tellus restava la matrice fondamentale tanto della proprietà privata quanto del potere politico, il pluralismo delle fonti del diritto e l’intreccio di iurisdictiones sovrapposte e concorrenti rendevano particolarmente ramificata l’articolazione della società medioevale. La respublica christiana, ha sottolineato Carlo Galli, ‘è al proprio interno pluralistica e al tempo stesso in linea di principio gerarchica: è uno spazio non liscio, nel quale si sommano e si incastrano innumerevoli spazi di innumerevoli realtà politiche’.9 Eppure la scansione degli spazi presenta una forte continuità con l’età precedente: non si tratta soltanto degli strumenti adottati per segnare i fines pubblici e privati: ancora per tutto il Medioevo è costante il ricorso a lapides e altri termini apparentes (Marchetti 2001, 141-181). Né questa continuità è visibile solo in quella ‘ricerca di concretezza’, in quella ‘aspirazione alla fattualità’ per cui, ad esempio, il castellum non è soltanto potente apparato militare e fondamento dell’economia curtense, ma sul piano simbolico è lo strumento attraverso cui scandire la iurisdictio e il dominium. Ed è appena il caso di insistere su quello che Paolo Grossi ha definito il carattere ‘ordinativo’ dell’apparato normativo medioevale: il diritto non deriva dal comando del principe ma promana piuttosto dalla realtà oggettiva, ‘è un ordine scritto nelle cose, nelle cose fisiche e nelle cose sociali’ (Grossi 2007). Ora, questa razionalità non è che altro che l’impronta del divino, il portato di una ratio superiore, che trascende e informa la dimensione concreta. Ancora una volta, dunque, lo spazio fisico rimanda ad un ordine trascendente, è un codice che va interpretato e decifrato con cuore puro e recta ratio. E se nelle società tradizionali era il re-sacerdote a detenere questa forma superiore di conoscenza, è quanto meno significativo che nella respublica christiana, sintesi di imperium e sacerdotium, fosse il papa il titolare dell’auctoritas di determinare l’ordinamento spaziale del mondo cristiano, mentre all’imperatore spettava piuttosto la potestas di realizzare tale ordine.10 In virtù di questa interfaccia costante tra trascendenza e immanenza non sorprende, quindi, che ancora in età alto-medievale si avvertisse la necessità di murare nella cinta cittadina reliquie religiose o di costruirvi a ridosso il tempio del Santo Patrono: il celebre complesso monumentale pisano della Piazza dei Miracoli, si è sostenuto, non farebbe che replicare una consuetudine già diffusa tra gli Etruschi. Ed è altrettanto significativo che ancora in età co-

3

Sulla costruzione dello spazio giuridico nell’antichità, resta valida la lezione di Carl Schmitt in Schmitt 1972; poi magistralmente ripresa in Schmitt 2003 e ancora in Schmitt 1999. Sul linguaggio giuridico romano si veda Carcaterra 1967. Per una originale rilettura della sua funzione magico-religiosa si veda Faralli 1992. 4 In merito al simbolismo religioso connesso ai segni di confine si veda poi Piccaluga 1974 nonché Sordi 1988. Per un confronto con il mondo greco Daverio Rocchi 1988. 5 Cfr. il classico Benveniste 1976, 295-296 . Sulla nozione di regere fines si veda Valvo 1988. 6 Circa il rex sacrorum si veda Momigliano 1987, 231-238 e in una prospettiva più propriamente giuridica Catalano 1960, in particolare 521-585. In merito alle ascendenze protolatine del rex sacrorum si veda poi Mazzarino 2001. La magistratura, ormai poco più che un fossile, fu definitivamente abrogata in epoca teodosiana ma, come ha sottolineato Aldo Schiavone, questo legame tra regalità e sacerdozio resta ‘una costante di lunga durata nella storia europea’ (Schiavone 2009, 58). 7 Mutuo questa locuzione da Le Bras 1974, declinandola però in senso analogo a quello di ‘geografia mitica’, di cui parla Franco Cardini, sulla scorta di Leonardo Olschki: si veda Cardini 1993c e in particolare 73-74. Una suggestiva panoramica delle differenti modalità di ripartizione dello spazio fisico e dei lessemi adottati per segnare una tale distinzione è in Milani 1988. Sulla speciale tutela giuridica attribuita ai cippi confinari si veda Santalucia 1989, in particolare sull’età arcaica 4-6. Sulla valenza religiosa della topografia urbana Rykwert 2002.

8

Schmitt 2002. In merito mi permetto di rinviare anche a Ruschi 2008. Galli 2001, 24. Più in generale sull’ordinamento della respublica christiana Grossi 1995. 10 In merito alla ‘Konkrete Ordnung’ della respublica christiana, Schmitt 2003. 9

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean munale l’imago urbis -- l’iconografia della città ma spesso anche la sua topografia -- ispirata ad archetipi celesti, fosse in costante relazione con una realtà superiore.11 Se si accetta la proposta di Schmitt contenuta in Der Nomos der Erde, la dimensione sacrale non scandiva unicamente gli spazi interni alla respublica christiana, differenziati tra loro solo quantitativamente: questa ‘geografia sacra’ era tanto più decisiva nella configurazione del limes esterno della respublica christiana, fino a determinare spazi qualitativamente differenziati. 12 L’ontologia cristiana fondata su una concezione gerarchica dell’essere, infatti, influenzava in maniera determinante il modo in cui l’ecumene era percepita: qui la respublica christiana, là le partes infidelium. Rispetto a questi spazi la teologia politica medioevale aveva elaborato risposte flessibili: laddove prevaleva la dilatatio Christianitatis si verificava una relazione dinamica, ma non necessariamente agonale. Secondo questo indirizzo la societas christiana si dimostrava permeabile, aperta all’esterno, schiusa verso nuovi orizzonti in funzione all’evangelico euntes docete omnes gentes.13 Del resto, secondo una prospettiva universalistica già saldamente affermatasi con la Patristica, il traguardo storico della Cristianità non era forse la fondazione di un’universitas mortalium organizzata in ecclesia universalis e in respublica generis humani? In un altro senso però, le relazioni esterne potevano assumere la fisionomia della tuitio Christianitis fidei irrigidendosi in guerre che, condotte contra infideles, non solo avevano eo ipso una iusta causa, ma che erano pure, qualora il papa lo avesse dichiarato, delle guerre sante.14 E dunque, se il lontano Oriente si configurava come una favolosa terra di missione, quello più prossimo era percepito come uno spazio altamente conflittuale.15 Al di là della dimensione geopolitica, al di là della distanza che separava la peregrinatio in armis alla volta di Gerusalemme dagli avventurosi viaggi alla volta del remoto Catai, quello che davvero rileva alla luce di una consapevole ‘archeologia del limite’ è la formazione di due differenti archetipi spaziali: l’uno refrattario e esclusivo, l’altro poroso ed espansivo.

Lucien Febvre, esaminando con competenza di storico e perizia di geografo la relazione tra l’uomo e lo spazio fisico, avverte che ‘un precedente, se chiarisce il presente, non lo condiziona’ (Febvre 1980, 360). Senza dubbio si tratta di un richiamo opportuno. La nascita dello Stato moderno, un archetipo spaziale totalmente inedito, ha impresso una svolta radicale. Il trionfo del pensiero scientifico ha prodotto una nuova percezione della realtà. Il tramonto della dottrina del diritto naturale ha costretto ad abbandonare strumenti normativi ormai obsoleti. Eppure, a fronte di questa formidabile ’rivoluzione spaziale’ rimangono permanenze sorprendenti, per cui appare legittimo domandarsi se le ambiguità connesse alla moderna nozione di confine, non sono forse il retaggio di epoche più antiche. BIBLIOGRAFIA Abulafia, D. e Berend, N. (eds) 2002. Medieval Frontiers: Concepts and Practices. Aldershot, Ashgate. Alphandéry, P. e Dupront, A. 1989. La Chrétienté et l’idèe de Croisade. Paris, Albin Michel, 1954, trad. it., La cristianità e l’idea di crociata. Bologna, il Mulino. Benveniste, E. 1976. Le Vocabulaire des institutions indoeuropéennes. II. Pouvoir, droit, religion. Paris. Editions de Minuit, 1969; trad. it., Il vocabolario delle istituzioni indoeuropee. II. Potere, diritto, religione. Torino, Einaudi. Bloch, M. 1973. Les caractères originaux de l’histoire rurale française, Paris 1968, trad. it., I caratteri originali della storia rurale francese. Torino, Einaudi. Cacciari, M. 2000. Nomi di luogo: confine, in “aut aut” 299-300, 73-79. Carcaterra, G. 1967. Struttura del linguaggio giuridico -precettivo: contributi. Bari, Cacucci. Cardini, F. 1993a. La guerra santa nella Cristianità, in Cardini F. (ed), Studi sulla storia e sull’idea di crociata, 169-180. Roma, Jouvence. Cardini, F. 1993b. I Domenicani nel XIII secolo fra crociata e missione, in F. Cardini (ed), Studi sulla storia e sull’idea di crociata, 307-315. Roma, Jouvence. Cardini, F. 1993c. Alla cerca del Paradiso, in S. Pittaluga (eds), Relazioni di viaggio e conoscenza del mondo fra Medioevo e Umanesimo, 67-88. Genova D.AR.FI.CL. ET (Dipartimento di Archeologia, Filologia Classica e loro tradizioni in epoca cristiana, medievale e umanistica “Francesco Della Corte). Cassano, F. 1996. Pensare la frontiera, “Rassegna italiana di sociologia” 36 (1995), 1, 27-39, poi in Id, Il pensiero meridiano, Roma-Bari, Laterza. Catalano, P. 1960. Contributi allo studio del diritto augurale. I. Torino, Giappichelli. Daverio Rocchi, G. 1988. Frontiera e confini nella Grecia antica. Roma, L’Erma di Bretschneider. Faralli, C. 1992. Diritto e magia. Il realismo di Hägerström e il positivismo filosofico. Bologna, CLUEB. Farinelli, F. 2000. Valerius Terminus. Introduzione, in M. Petricioli e V. Collina (eds), I confini nel XX secolo. Bar���� riera o incontro?,7-12. Milano, Mimesis. Febvre, L. 1980. La terre et l’évolution humaine. Introduction géographique à l’histoire. Paris, La Renaissance du

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Si veda il suggestivo Mantini 1995. Schmitt 2003, 39-42. Preferisco fare riferimento ancora al termine limes: come noto l’immagine del confine inteso come frontiera lineare si afferma solo agli albori dell’età moderna. D’altra parte non è un caso che nel Medioevo il sistema socio-politico si fondasse più su relazioni personali che su considerazioni territoriali. Si veda in tal senso Raffestin 1987, in particolare 21. 13 Mt. 28, 19. In merito allo spazio politico della respublica christiana si veda Galli 2001. Più specificamente sul valore politico e culturale del concetto medioevale di frontiera si veda Abulafia e Berend 2002. 14 Schmitt 2003, 41. In merito alla differente concezione degli spazi giuridici della Cristianità, cfr. Vismara 1974. Sul dibattito relativo alla nozione di bellum iustum si veda poi il classico Cardini 1993a. Per un inquadramento del problema in una prospettiva giuridica cfr. Grewe 2000 nonché Pietropaoli 2008. 15 Per una suggestiva ricostruzione del complesso sistema di relazioni tra contesti geografici apparentemente eccentrici come l’Europa cristiana e l’Estremo Oriente può essere utile fare riferimento a Philips 1998, nonché con particolare attenzione alla dimensione giuridica e canonistica Muldoon 1998. In relazione al duplice registro missio/crociata è illuminante Cardini 1993 b. Benjamin Kedar, per altro, ha suggerito che questa ambiguità è già presente nelle vicende stesse delle crociate, in tal senso, Kedar 1991. Sulle differenti motivazioni ideologiche, o meglio escatologiche, della crociata si veda quanto meno Alphandéry e Dupront 1989. 12

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Raffestin, C. 1987. Elementi per una teoria della frontiera, in C. Ossola, C. Raffestin e M. Ricciardi (eds), La frontiera da Stato a Nazione. Il caso Piemonte, 21-38. Roma, Bulzoni. Rykwert, J. 2002. The Idea of Town. The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy, and the Ancient World, Princeton (N.J.), Princeton University Press, trad. it., L’idea di città: antropologia della forma urbana nel mondo antico, Adelphi, Milano. Ruschi, F. 2008. Questioni di spazio. La terra, il mare , il diritto in Carl Schmitt. Torino, Giappichelli. Santalucia, B. 1989. Diritto e processo penale nell’antica Roma. Milano, Giuffrè. Scarpelli, U. e Di Lucia P. (eds) 1994. Il linguaggio del diritto. Milano, LED. Schiavone, A. 2009. Ius. L’invenzione del diritto in Occidente. Torino, Einaudi. Schmitt, C. 1972 Nehmen/Teilen/Weiden. Ein Versuch, die Grundfragen jeder Sozial- und Wirtschaftsordnung vom NOMOS her richtig zu stellen, “Gemeinschaft und Politik. Zeitschrift für soziale und politische Gestaltung” 1 (1953), 3, 18-27. trad. it. Appropriazione, divisione, produzione. Un tentativo di fissare correttamente i fondamenti di ogni ordinamento economico-sociale, a partire dal ‘nomos’, in C. Schmitt. Le categorie del ‘politico’. Saggi di teoria politica. 295-312. Bologna, il Mulino. Schmitt, C. 1999. Nomos-Nahme-Name, in S. Behn (hrsg.), Der beständige Aufbruch. Festschrift für Erich Przywara, s.J., 92-105, Nürnberg, Glock und Lutz, 1959, trad. it., Nomos-Presa di possesso-Nome, in C. Resta (ed), Stato mondiale o ’nomos’ della terra. Carl Schmitt tra universo e pluriverso, 107-131. Roma, Pellicani. Schmitt, C. 2002. Land und Meer. Eine weltgeschichtliche Betrachtung. Stuttgart, Klett-Cotta, 1954. trad. it., Terra e mare. Una riflessione sulla storia del mondo. Milano, Adelphi. Schmitt, C. 2003. Der Nomos der Erde im Völkerrecht des Jus Publicum Europaeum. Berlin ��������������������������� 1974, Duncker & Humblot ; trad. it., Il Nomos della terra nel diritto internazionale dello ‘jus publicum europaeum’. Milano. Adelphi. Sordi M. (ed) 1988. Il confine nel mondo classico, Milano, Vita e Pensiero. Valvo, A. 1988. ‘Finitor’: nota a Plaut. “Poen.” 49, in M. Sordi (ed), Il confine nel mondo classico, 166-177, Milano, Vita e Pensiero. Vismara, G. 1974. Impium foedus. Le origini della ‘respublica christiana’. Milano, Giuffrè. Zolo, D. 2004. Globalizzazione. Una mappa dei problemi, Roma-Bari, Laterza.

Livre.1922. trad. it., La terra e l’evoluzione umana, introduzione geografica alla Storia. Torino, Einaudi. Foucault, M. 2007. Les mots et les choses. Une archéologie des sciences humaines. Paris, Gallimard, 1966, trad it., Le parole e le cose: un’archeologia delle scienze umane. Milano, Rizzoli. Galli, C. 2001. Spazi politici. L’età moderna e l’età globale. Bologna, il Mulino. Grewe, W. G. 2000. Epochen der Völkerreschtgeschichte, Nomos, Verlagsgesellschaft, 105-118. Baden-Baden, engl. trans., The Epochs of International Law, Berlin–New York, de Gruyter. Grossi, P. 1995. L’ordine giuridico medievale. Roma-Bari, Laterza. Grossi, P. 2007. L’Europa del diritto. Roma-Bari, Laterza. Kedar, B. Z. 1991. Crusade and Mission: European ApPrinceton, Princeton Uniproaches Toward the Muslims. ������������������������� versity Press, trad. it., Crociata e missione. L’Europa incontro a l’Islam. Roma, Jouvance. Le Bras, G. 1974. Un programme: la géographie religieuse, “Annales d’histoire sociale” 1 (1945), 87-112. trad. it., Un programma: la geografia religiosa, in F. Braudel (ed), La storia e le altre scienze sociali, 31-74. �������������� Roma-Bari Laterza. Mantini, S. 1995. Un recinto di identificazione: le mura sacre della città, “Archivio storico italiano” CLIII, 2, 211261. Marchetti, P. 2001. De iure finium. Diritto e confini tra tardo Medioevo ed età moderna. Milano Giuffrè. Mazzarino, S. 2001. Dalla monarchia allo Stato repubblicano. Ricerca di storia romana arcaica. Milano, Rizzoli. Milani, C. 1988. Il ‘confine’: note linguistiche, in M. Sordi (ed), Il confine nel mondo classico, 3-12. Milano, Vita e Pensiero. Momigliano, A. 1987. Il Rex Sacrorum e l’origine della repubblica, in Aa. Vv. Studi in onore di Edoardo Volterra. Milano, 1971, Giuffré poi in Id. Storia e storiografia antica, 231-238. Bologna, il Mulino. Muldoon, J. 1979. The Avignon Papacy and the Frontiers of Christendom, “Archivum Historiae Pontificiae” 17 (1979), 125-195, poi in Id. Canon Law, the Canon Law, the Expansion of Europe, and World Order. Aldershot, Ashgate. Philips, J. R. S. 1998. The Medieval Expansion of Europe. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Piccaluga, G. 1974. Terminus. I segni di confine nella religione romana. Roma, Edizioni dell’Ateneo. Pietropaoli, S. 2008. Abolire o limitare la guerra? Una ricerca di filosofia del diritto internazionale. Firenze, Polistampa.

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Firenze, SUM (Altana di Palazzo Strozzi), Sabato 6 Novembre 2008: Tavola Rotonda a conclusione del Convegno

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Mario Citroni Direttore dell’Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane interesse di un archeologo e di uno storico, entrambi medievisti ed entrambi fiorentini: Guido Vannini, professore dell’Università di Firenze, e Franco Cardini, che dopo molti anni di insegnamento all’Università di Firenze è oggi professore dell’Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane. La loro iniziativa dette luogo prima a seminari nell’Università di Firenze, poi a campagne di scavo e a un lungo e attento lavoro di elaborazione dei risultati e di sintesi. Un ampio processo di ricerca che è ancora in corso e del quale possiamo constatare già con questo volume molti importanti frutti. La collaborazione tra questi due studiosi dà concreta sostanza scientifica alla cooperazione tra Università di Firenze e Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane nella realizzazione di questa iniziativa. Un particolare ringraziamento a Guido Vannini, che ha dedicato tante energie e tanto impegno al difficile compito di organizzare il convegno e di produrre questo volume, frutto di una ricerca collettiva di lunga durata, che ha dato gli straordinari progressi di cui questa pubblicazione è chiara prova.

L’Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane ha partecipato alla realizzazione del convegno da cui nasce questo volume nella chiara consapevolezza della rilevanza dell’iniziativa, e considerando molto significativo che proprio a Firenze si tenesse un grande incontro internazionale su un tema come quello delle frontiere del Mediterraneo medievale, affrontato a partire dal caso specifico della Transgiordania tra XII e XIII secolo, mettendo a confronto, con un approccio generosamente interdisciplinare, studiosi di provenienza e d’indirizzo scientifico molto vario, impegnati in ricerche originali su aspetti diversi. Rivisitare le linee contrapposte delle fortificazioni cristiano-occidentali (“franche” o “crociate”, come vengono sovente denominate) e musulmane su una lunga, duplice linea che costeggiando il Giordano e procedendo anche oltre essa, fino al Mar Rosso, e considerarle sotto differenti profili – storico, archeologico, militare, artistico – ha costituito una scelta molto impegnativa, e direi coraggiosa. Ed è motivo di soddisfazione per noi il ricordare che l’iniziativa di studiare il “limes” transgiordano partì in anni ormai relativamente lontani proprio da Firenze, dal convergente

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Guido Vannini

Spero, dopo avervi sinceramente ringraziato per come avete aderito all’invito a confrontarci su questo tema - i confini nel Mediterraneo medievale ed il loro ruolo storico – (e scusarmi per avervi dovuto chiedere interventi così di sintesi), che questo Convegno ci possa avere offerto un’occasione per fare il punto, in una prospettiva innovativa, sullo stato delle ricerche, soprattutto ma non solo archeologiche. Si è potuto constatare come si sia venuto profilando, soprattutto negli ultimi lustri, uno specifico contributo dell’archeologia ad un pur relativamente recente dibattito storico e questo convegno si prospetta, mi pare, come un incoraggiamento a coltivare il tema qui proposto, la frontiera indagata archeologicamente come problema storico ed opportunità di leggervi alcuni connotati identitari di fondo di numerosi contesti territoriali in area mediterranea, elettivamente colti nel lungo periodo. Ma, per saldare una rilettura storica profonda e condotta anche su nuove basi documentarie (e sulla conseguente, spesso, reinterpretazione delle stesse) dedicata a temi assunti come chiavi interpretative del passato (nel nostro caso, euro-mediterraneo) per comprendere (e vivere), con la concretezza (davvero postideologica) dell’archeologia, il nostro presente è, secondo noi, indispensabile un consapevole, meditato sulle esperienze più aggiornate, specifico approccio metodologico.In ogni caso, si tratta di un quadro di studi che certo dispone di una ‘sponda’ costituita da importanti analisi e riflessioni recenti di settori significativi di storici soprattutto di ambito medievista; ma anche un quadro che (e questo si può già affermare come un primo rilevante risultato del nostro Convegno) già ora può presentare importanti contributi (non solo medievisti) portati da una casistica ben precisa di matrice archeologica. Questa, fra l’altro, è stata la ragione per cui si è ritenuto di non articolare i contributi classicamente con relazioni di inquadramento o di sintesi tematiche su aspetti specifici, ma solo con la ‘raccolta’ di contributi, magari tematicamente ordinati, ma ‘sullo stesso piano’: come dire, materiali, documenti, idee, anche ‘modelli’ di interpretazione di specifiche situazioni, generalmente ancora nell’ambito di ricerche in corso. Se dunque è probabilmente ancora presto per proporre sintesi, almeno basate su di un approccio peculiarmente archeologico, non lo è affatto invece, lo abbiamo visto e sentito in queste giornate fiorentine, per una discussione – e non certo solo teorica: la messe di dati e di idee emersa è stata straordinaria – i tempi sono maturi e questa ‘tavola rotonda’ avrebbe proprio questo significato e costituire un invito a continuare un dibattito, ben oltre questa circostanza.Dopo il tema (la frontiera), il luogo (il Mediterraneo), un rapido cenno anche al tempo: certo il ‘tempo lungo’, sicuramente il medioevo, ma anche la focalizzazione ai secc XII-XIII. Crediamo che questa epoca, alle soglie del bassomedioevo e della connessa modernità, rappresenti un momento di particolare visibilità della trasformazione delle società rivierasche (schematizzando

molto: il versante euro-cristiano, quello arabo-islamico, il declino dell’’antichità’ bizantina) ed una sorta di ‘ricucitura’ del mondo mediterraneo tutto, concludendo un processo plurisecolare, dopo il collasso della koiné greco-romana. Un Mediterraneo quindi inteso non come una quinta, uno sfondo semplicemente geografico, ma come crogiolo di culture contaminate o destinate ad esserlo, molto più di quanto appaia a prendere sul serio la sola ‘crosta’ événementielle della storia; e così appare fra i secoli XII-XIII già riavviato a svolgere un ruolo di osmosi fra mondi diversi ma che ora appaiono condividere elementi culturali fondanti e strutturali.Certo l’occasione del Convegno muoveva da un caso specifico – la Transgiordania fra antichità e ‘medioevo’ , fra Limes e accezione ‘medievale’ di frontiera – che mi sono permesso di presentare qui brevemente, ma decisamente lo trascende, potendone rappresentare un aspetto, magari peculiare ma ben rappresentativo anche di alcune linee generali di ‘comportamenti culturali’ che fanno emergere una condivisione, estesa e profonda, di comuni riferimenti di civiltà, di radici, di valori e di sensibilità fra contesti ed ambiti territoriali apparentemente (a volte non solo, per la verità) distanti quando non addirittura contrapposti. In questo senso, spunti di discussione, calati nelle diverse realtà concrete, potrebbero essere rappresentate dallo stesso Mediterraneo, appunto come area culturale, fra integrazione (aspetti e tratti strutturali comuni fra le società euro mediterranee) e frantumazione, con la mutevolezza delle stesse identità medievali – uno solo degli aspetti più strutturali è la nota frammentazione e ricomposizione dei poteri centrali e periferici medievali (Wickham) - come carattere distintivo di un’epoca. Sotto un altro profilo, il territorio, come luogo e come tempo, come ambiente, scenario, obbiettivo ove collocare la lettura della fonte materiale e la ‘produzione’ di modelli di interpretazione storica. Il rapporto fra confini e viabilità (le strade come manufatti in età antica ed in epoca ‘industriale’ ma non nel Medioevo); aree di frontiera nel quadro del rapporto fra castello e città, come concreto emblema di un diverso (opposto?) modo di organizzare società e territorio, con sorprendenti tratti comuni e coincidenze di ‘tempi’ fra mondo musulmano ed euro mediterraneo, con il primo sec. XIII che vede l’urbanesimo affermarsi (e, non a caso, con la moneta della città che ci ha accolto (e, colgo occasione per rilevarlo, con calore, disponibilità ed efficienza), il fiorino, il ‘ritorno all’oro’ in Occidente. Un ultimo spunto potrebbe anche essere costituito da una riflessione sugli effetti concreti che tali radici (medievali in specie) e, corrispondentemente, dei temi qui trattati, esercitano sulla nostra stessa contemporaneità (da ruolo e destino dei confini alla funzione ed alla stessa realtà del fenomeno urbano, solo per esemplificare), che sembrano giunti nei nostri anni, come parte di un comune retaggio, ad un autentico punto di svolta. 464

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Khairieh Amr

Before I came to this conference in Florence, I was planning to see Michele Piccirillo here but unfortunately we buried him at Mount Nebo exactly a week ago, last Saturday. Michele has done a lot of work in Jordan and was very active in Italian-Jordanian cooperation. His passing away is a great loss to Jordan, where he will always be remembered. During the past two days in this conference, we saw some of the great and impressive work that is being done by the Italian universities. I truly hope that the cuts in the universities budget, which we were told of in the opening ceremony, will not affect the progress of this work. I also hope that we can have joint Italian-Jordanian research projects and have reciprocal benefit from our joint work. There was a lot of discussion during the conference on the definition of ‘frontier’, ‘limes’, ‘border’... and there were hints as to the people “behind” these frontiers: people in inscriptions and documents, and more common people in cemeteries, the cemetery at al-Wu‘ayra being of particular interest. Archaeology and history with modern science are getting together to give us a fuller picture of life during these turbulent times, which are in a way similar to our modern times in the Eastern Mediterranean. Spanning the 12th-13th centuries into our modern times, the closer we get to ‘us’ now, the less we seem to know or understand. A major concern is the Ottoman period: we know that several of the medieval castles in Jordan were used by the Ottoman army, and many of the sites were inhabited during the period, but we know very little about the material culture and remains thus a major period in our history is almost missing from our archaeological record. Here the proposal by local people for the study and conservation of the 19th century village of Shammakh is very interesting and reflects the growing concern for losing an important part of our heritage. Such direction of thinking is very refreshing, as our Law of Antiquities in Jordan does not protect anything that is later than the year 1750, and the new Law of 2005 for the Protection of the Architectural and Urban Heritage still has a long way to go before it becomes full understood and appreciated by decision makers and the community at large. This leads on to the question of the rehabilitation of sites. Other than Shammakh, interesting proposals were made for Shawbak and Montfort that are obviously undergoing serious scientific studies for their rehabilitation. We also saw some of the problems that occurred at Karak as part of its rehabilitation. Modern intervention is necessary for the conservation and presentation of sites, yet it implies some degree of effect on the integrity of the site. Maybe

it is worth having a good review, even a database, of problematic interventions at sites such as Karak and taking them into consideration when carrying out rehabilitations of similar sites. A major point of importance as well is the significance of multi-disciplinary studies, from the elaborate cooperation with scientists in the various fields of natural sciences, with specialists in information and communication technologies, to the basic getting together of archaeologists and historians. We are in dire need for such meetings of researchers together for widening our scopes, we need ‘inter-project’ communication. There is a real call for looking at our subject matters from as various perspectives as possible. Other than multi-disciplinary studies, this conference brought together different expertise from different countries, working at various regions around the Mediterranean, and beyond. Our exposure to such diverse work is exceptionally enriching. The importance of such a wide outlook cannot be over-stressed, as shown during the conference by the interesting and convincing comparison between Ghassanid and Yemeni architecture, for example. Concerning architecture, another significant aspect that was discussed during the conference was the importance of studying the materials, such as mortar, that other than their direct connection with the study of ancient technologies, they could be of great value when talking about “the archaeology of buildings” and the phasing of standing structures. Another need that came up during the deliberations is for more study of the effects of natural phenomena on historical occurrences and events, especially when we are dealing with fragile and sensitive regions, such as the badiya frontier. Such studies are common in pre-historic research and should be further adopted by researches of more recent times. I was very impressed with the use of modern technologies presented by several papers during the conference. We in Jordan need to have access to such tools, and they can be the focus of joint projects between Jordanian and Italian institutions. I know that we at the Jordan Museum would be very interested in having partnerships with Italian institutions in this subject, such as the Università degli Studi di Firenze. I hope that this meeting will open the possibility of such partnership. In the end, I would like to very much thank Prof Vannini and all his team, not only very getting this conference organised is such an excellent manner, but also for their hospitality and friendliness. Thank you very much.

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Lech Leciejewicz

Analizzando la questione della frontiera fra il mondo cristiano e musulmano nel Medio Evo, le sue mutevoli vicende storiche e, legata ad esse, il sorgere delle nuove strutture insediative, in particolare nel periodo del confronto (incontro) avvenuto nel Vicino Oriente nei secoli XII-XIII, merita ricordare che non fu quella l’unica frontiera fra le due civiltà. Nel Medio Evo sono diventate zona di frontiera anche la periferia orientale dell’Europa nel bacino medio e inferiore del Volga. Ci si può a dir vero domandare, se quella regione non debba essere considerata come parte dell’Asia, dal momento che nell’antichità i geografi sostenevano che l’Europa si fermava sul fiume Don, il Tanais greco e soltanto più tardi vennero considerati come suoi confini orientali i monti Urali e il fiume Ural. In ogni modo (al di là di queste considerazioni), il bacino del Volga è diventato luogo di contatti fra le popolazioni cristiane e musulmane, contatti che ebbero tuttavia un carattere completamente diverso rispetto a quelli del Mediterraneo. Le relazioni degli arabi con l’Europa orientale avevano un andamento diverso di quelle con l’Europa meridionale. Una popolazione della steppa, i Chazari avevano arrestato le incursioni arabe sui passi montani del Caucaso, ma lo sviluppo dello scambio di lungo raggio sulla via del Volga e sulle sue diramazioni terrestri favorì un avvicinamento. Secondo fonti arabe la capitale del khanato, Itil, sul delta del Volga, che fino ad oggi non è stato possibile localizzare esattamente, era un grande emporio frequentato da una popolazione multietnica. Secondo le stesse fonti a Itil gli ebrei, i cristiani e i pagani vivevano in zone separate e anche i musulmani disponevano di un proprio quartiere, in cui costruivano le moschee con annesse le proprie scuole. I Chazari preferivano tuttavia non entrare in rapporti politici troppo stretti con gli Abbasidi e con locali sovrani centro-asiatici; atteggiamento analogo tenevano nei confronti di Bisanzio, nonostante le frequenti alleanze militari di un tempo. Il sostegno dato agli ebrei e il riconoscimento del giudaismo come religione ufficiale dello stato fu un effetto dell’importanza dei contatti di lungo raggio. I musulmani trovarono tuttavia piena comprensione per la loro religione presso un ramo dei Bulgari turchi, che per difendersi dai Chazari si era rifugito un tempo presso la confluenza del Kama nel Volga; minacciati dal khanato, allacciarono contatti con Baghdad, e nel 921-922 un’ambascieria del califfo abbaside al-Muktadir si recò sul medio Volga. L’esponente più importante di questa delegazione era a quanto pare Ahmad Ibn Fadlan, un liberto proveniente da una famiglia greca islamizzata, che ci ha lasciato anche una preziosa relazione di questo viaggio. La parte araba offrì un sostegno finanziario alla costruzione di una fortezza per diffendersii dai Chazari, ma soprattutto era interessata alla diffusione dell’islam, dato che fra quei Bulgari vivevano già dal tempo dei musulmani. Gli sforzi furono coronati dal successo, e il paese dei Bulgari entrò a far parte definitivamente del mondo islamico. La capitale, la futura città di Bulgar, al tempo in cui vi sog-

giornarono gli ambasciatori, doveva esser solo un mercato sulla grande strada del Volga, nel punto in cui essa si incrociava con la via che dai piedi di Urali portava a Kiev. Nel bacino del Kama i dirham arabi affluivano già nel IX secolo, come dimostrano i tesori ritrovati, ma fu solo all’inizio del X che la regione in cui questo fiume sfocia nel Volga acquistò maggior peso economico. Quanto fosse importante l’economia di scambio nella vita di questo insediamento nel X secolo testimoniano alcuni tesori d’argento e l’emissione di una moneta propria, mentre le tracce di una produzione artigianale piuttosto vasta risalgono al secolo successivo. Presto sul luogo vennero costruite delle moschee, e le sepolture dei secoli XI e XII mostrano già un carattere indubbiamente musulmano. Bulgar ebbe nell’economia un ruolo assai importante come intermediario fra l’Oriente arabo e il Settentrione europeo. Come ha osservato una volta Georg Jacob, là terminava la zona meglio conosciuta dai geografi arabi; e il ruolo di intermediari nel commercio si trasferiva nelle mani dei mercanti indigeni e variaghi. Ibn Fadlan descrive in modo estremamente preciso il funerale di uno di loro. Bulgar aveva tuttavia anche un’importanza politica non secondaria: era la capiltale di uno stato che mostrava molti caratteri tipici della popolazione della steppa, governato da un “re” che esercitava un potere autocratico. Man mano che si consolidava il regime di vita sedentario e si passava a un’economia mista agropastorale, lo stato di Bulgar andava tuttavia sempre più assomigliando ai principati russi sull’alto corso del Volga e sul Dniepr. Questo paese, che si estendeva sull’area di confine della zona della steppa arborata e dei boschi, poco lontano dalla taiga a settentrione e della steppa a mezzogiorno, manteneva relazioni con il Khorezm e il Khorasan, da cui attingeva caratteri tipici della civiltà islamica; insieme ad al-Andalus non che alle isole mediterranee rappresentava un elemento importante della presenza musulmana al confine dell’Europa medievale. Nonostante la distruzione della capitale dei Bulgari del Volga nel 1236 da parte dei Mongoli di Batuchan e l’inserimento (l’inglobamento, l’assorbimento?) del paese nell’ Orda d’Oro, la città alla foce del Kama nel Volga fu, fino allla fine del XIV secolo uno dei più importanti centri economici dell’Europa Orientale rappresentativo per la civiltà dell’Islam. La frontiera nel bacino del Volga aveva un carattere completamente diverso rispetto a quella formatasi nella zona mediterranea. Dominavano qui non i conflitti politici come nel Vicino Oriente che portarono alla nascita delle strutture insediative con la prevalente funzione militare, ma gli scambi commerciali. Una delle carattrestiche della crescita economica dell’ Europa Orientale, Nord e Centarale fu, a partire dalla seconda metà del VIII secolo fino agli inizi 466

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del secolo XI, il flusso della moneta araba tesaurizzata su ampia scala. Lo attestano numerosi tesori che contenevano l’argento, oggetto delle numerosi analisi degli archeologi e numismatici. Si ritiene perfino che il sistema dei pesi nato nella zona baltica abbia preso come unità di misura il peso il dirham arabo.

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ad un dinaro carolingio degli anni 790-800 a Torcello, isola chiamata nella metà del X secolo da Costantino Porfirogeneta “un gran mercato” della Laguna Veneta. Nello stesso strato insediativo è stata trovata una conchiglia cauri, proveniente dalla regione del Mar Rosso. Sappiamo che le conchiglie del genere servivano come mezzo di pagamento, anche se non di gran valore, ma molto diffuso e la loro diffusione viene attribuita proprio ai Veneziani. Bisogna inoltre ricordare quanto gli abitanti delle città italiane erano utili come navigatori e conoscitori delle terre straniere nel corso delle successive crociate.

Indubbiamente questo fu il risultato dei, ricordati da me prima, vivaci contatti commerciali. Anche se i viaggiatori arabi non si spingevano nei loro viaggi, a quanto pare, oltre il paese dei Bulgari del Volga, tuttavia dello scambio si occupavano anche i commercianti locali nonche quelli di origine ebraica. I Rus’ europei, stando alle fonti arabe (Ibn Hordadbeh) giungevano perfino a Bagdad. Esisteva quindi un ambiente sociale per il quale i confini politici non costituivano in quella parte dell’Europa un rilevante ostacolo.

Nel dibattito sulla formazione nel Medio Evo delle frontiere, bisogna quindi tenere conto non solo dei cambiamenti nell’ambito dei sitemi politici con, derivante da essi, la formazione delle nuove strutture insediative, innanzi tutto militari. Si formavano anche gli ambienti sociali che perseguendo i loro interessi economici, facevano in modo che , nonostante numerose limitazioni e divieti dall’alto, le frontiere non erano del tutto impenetrabili. Pur esistendo importanti diversità nell’ambito politico e religioso veniva mantenuto costantemente lo scambio delle esperienze e dei beni culturali molto vantaggiosa per ambedue le parti.

Un ambiente paragonabile tuttavia esisteva anche nel Mediterraneo. Lì in primo piano si piazzano i Veneziani che già negli anni del pontificato del papa Zaccaria (741752) furono notati a Roma come mercanti degli schiavi destinati a essere venduti in Africa. Come è noto, nell’ 828 due abitanti della Laguna sono riusciti a rubare perfino le spoglie di San Marco in Alessandria. Una testimonianza archeologica dello scambio dei beni di quel periodo è un dihram della fine del II secolo di Hisdra, trovato insieme

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Elisa Pruno

I manufatti di epoca crociato-ayyubidi a Shawbak e l’idea di frontiera: alcune considerazioni Senza alcuna volontà sistematica, ma solo come canovaccio per future riflessioni maggiormente ponderate, si vuole proporre, al termine dei lavori di questo convegno, una possibile linea di indagine che guardi ai manufatti mobili di Shawbak come ad una chiave di lettura per cogliere, attraverso le differenze e le affinità dei corredi ceramici, l’idea di frontiera culturale in questo territorio e, in particolare, in questo sito, dapprima all’arrivo dei crociati e poi nella successiva fase ayyubide. Il punto è cercare di capire se e come la documentazione materiale costituita dai reperti ceramici possa essere interrogata per la comprensione delle differenze, delle peculiarità dei due diversi periodi presi in considerazione e che tipo di ambito produttivo, commerciale ed economico sia rappresentato in essa. In estrema sintesi, possiamo cogliere delle differenze significative nei contesti ceramici dei due periodi? Esistono markers univoci? Quale che sia la risposta che riusciremo a proporre, quali ne saranno le spiegazioni possibili? Essendo lo studio dei materiali dei contesti rinvenuti ancora in una fase iniziale, analitico-descrittiva, ed avendo a che fare con una regione dove ancora a fatica si riescono ad individuare confronti adeguati, lo studio dei manufatti di epoca crociato-ayyubide si sta rivelando un campo pieno di incognite. In letteratura i contesti ceramici crociati sino ad ora indagati e pubblicati fanno riferimento sempre alla cospicua presenza della ceramica fatta a mano che, però, si trova, con differenze talvolta scarsamente significative, anche nei periodi seguenti, particolarmente in quello ayyubide-mamelucco. Le tipologie ceramiche variamente e riccamente decorate, che fecero le loro prime apparizioni in Occidente come ornamento delle facciate di molte chiese, sino ad ora studiate sotto il profilo storicoartistico ed antiquario, iniziano ad essere meglio indagate anche secondo i criteri della ceramologia più recente ed avveduta, dando alcuni importanti riferimenti cronologici e di contatti economici. Ma quale è il quadro che si può ricomporre a Shawbak? In che modo questa documentazione materiale può aiutare la comprensione dei mutamenti etnico-sociali a Shawbak? Il mondo degli oggetti utilizzati per assolvere ad esigenze estremamente concrete e quotidiane, come quelle relative alla conservazione, preparazione e presentazione dei cibi, può riflettere le differenze delle due fasi storiche? Ma, soprattutto, cosa può raccontare riguardo alle possibili differenze culturali, di modi di vita, quali contrapposizioni sono rappresentate in esso? Ci si domanda, cioè, se questa documentazione, in gran parte ancora da costruire, possa aiutare a comprendere qualcosa delle dinamiche sociali che costituiscono, per così dire, l’ossatura vivente dei cambiamenti politico-militari. In primo luogo si deve cercare di mettere a fuoco di cosa possa essere lo specchio, più o meno fedele o deformante, la documentazione rappresentata dai resti ceramici. Per

quanto riguarda la fase crociata, sappiamo che, in realtà, essa ha avuto una durata relativamente corta, almeno dal punto di vista militare, essendo arrivato Baldovino con le sue truppe nel 1115 ed avendo avuto fine il dominio crociato sul sito già nel 1189 a favore dell’esercito di Saladino. Si tratta, quindi, di nemmeno un secolo, così come gli Ayyubidi stessi resteranno a Shawbak all’incirca un altro secolo, sino a che nel 1261 i Mamelucchi, dopo aver preso il potere in Egitto, arriveranno anche a dominare su questo territorio, lasciando a loro volta tracce assai cospicue nel castello. Ad oggi pare che la documentazione ceramica per il periodo crociato-ayyubide non presenti difformità estreme: mancano, cioè, tipologie che connotino in modo particolarmente evidente un periodo o l’altro. Di cosa si servirono i Crociati al loro arrivo a Shawbak? Cosa caratterizza esattamente i loro corredi domestici? Si può trovare nei manufatti mobili qualcosa che distingua le produzioni crociate da quelle ayyubidi? Seppure nell’ancora incerta fase di costruzione del documento archeologico pare non trovarsi alcuna sostanziale disomogeneità o, appunto, nessun fossile-guida che ci permetta di individuare una produzione tipicamente crociata o ayyubide sul sito. Questo dato, se fosse confermato dalle ricerche future, cosa potrebbe indicare? Un elemento abbastanza comune e, per certi versi, abbastanza nuovo rispetto ad orizzonti cronologici coevi riscontrati nella regione è quello di una presenza non percentualmente dominante della ceramica fatta a mano (handmade coarse ware) e, al contrario, di un’abbondanza notevole di ceramica tornita, declinata perlopiù in forme da dispensa o da trasporto. Solo un’accurata disamina dei contesti sino ad ora scavati ci permetterà di meglio definire le diverse presenze e attestazioni, ma sino da ora possiamo porci alcune domande. Da questo convegno, tra i molti possibili spunti di riflessione, due sono quelli che mi hanno maggiormente incuriosito e che mi paiono potenzialmente assai proficui per il settore di indagine in questione. Anzitutto è molto interessante quanto detto da Giovanna Bianchi nel suo intervento rispetto al concetto di frontiera, inteso in senso sociologico, come luogo di sovrapposizione di identità e di mobilità. In secondo luogo un altro importante spunto di riflessione è quello delle definizioni di great and little traditions, così come emergono dalle ricerche qui presentate di Oysten La Bianca. Ritengo infatti che possa essere interessante cercare da una parte di comprendere quanto nel concetto di rivitalizzazione dell’area di frontiera rappresentato dal territorio di Shawbak e di Petra si possa cogliere nelle affinità del contesto materiale rappresentato dalle ceramiche. Insomma, se sia possibile affermare la presenza di produzioni che, al di là delle caratterizzazioni specifiche nelle fasi diverse, possano testimoniare che ci si trovi in presenza di un terri468

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torio dove le successive entità politiche hanno rivitalizzato e dato nuovo impulso a strutture produttive presenti, anche se in forme probabilmente meno o diversamente organizzate. In questo senso interessante è lo studio condotto da Alessandro Neri su alcuni nuclei di ceramica fatta a mano proveniente dal sito petrano di Wadi Farasa, in cui ha potuto evidenziare uno sviluppo delle produzioni (con incremento quantitativo e maggiore organizzazione delle botteghe) a seguito dello sviluppo dell’insediamento crociato. Ed è in questa accezione che forse potrebbero innestarsi le little traditions locali, continuamente e variamente sollecitate dalle dinamiche politiche estremamente intense tra il XII e il XIV secolo in questo territorio. Infatti possiamo forse immaginare la presenza delle popolazioni nomadi o

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seminomadi, che non avevano mai abbandonato del tutto il territorio petrano né quello di Shawbak, a cui, inevitabilmente, fecero ricorso i Crociati al momento del loro primo insediamento, quando certo non avevano altro modo per procurarsi l’accesso ai beni di prima necessità. Interessante in seguito sarebbe capire se la presunta omogeneità della documentazione ceramica, almeno di quella riscontrata sino ad ora, per il periodo crociato-ayyubide possa essere intesa come un riflesso di una società che nonostante le indubbie differenze politico-militari facesse parte di una temperie non totalmente difforme, quella società feudale mediterranea che per un certo periodo ha costituito l’elemento dominante di ampi territori tra di loro anche assai distanti. Ma solo le ricerche future potranno darci ulteriori indicazioni.

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Denys Pringle The problems of defining borders therefore would have occurred not so much between the lands of Franks and other Franks, who on the whole adhered to the same system of laws and methods of settling disputes, but between Franks and Muslims, who did not share the same systems of arbitration, other than those leading to war. As we have seen, in some parts of the Latin East the area of contact – or potential contact – between Christian- and Muslim-held lands was separated by a frontier ‘zone’ governed by a treaty or truce, which defined the rights of both sides, usually for a fixed period since such truces were not normally permanent arrangements. In northern Galilee in the 1170s and 80s, this was the case in the area around Banyas and Jacob’s Ford, where in 1183 Ibn Jubayr observed that Muslim and Christian officials came at harvest time each year to divide the rents from the villagers of the district. A similar ‘condominium’ (or joint-lordship) existed in the lordship of Sidon in the early 13th century, when the lord of Sidon’s authority extended no further than the walls of the city. And a series of treaties from the 1260s to 1280s made similar arrangements for joint control over specified areas as the Franco-Muslim frontier was continually redefined, until Frankish territory consisted of no more than the hinterland of Acre itself, before even that was extinguished. In so far as the lord of Transjordan kept control of his lands and their people, Transjordan was not therefore itself a frontier zone, any more than the principality of Galilee or indeed much of the kingdom were. However, it played a vital role in the defence of the kingdom, because its position allowed troops gathered at either of the military bases of Karak or Montreal to control effectively the principal land route between Damascus and Cairo. With the coming to power of Nūr al-Dīn, followed by Saladin, this mission became ever more essential – something which Reynald of Châtillon evidently appreciated only too well. It was probably in the 1160s (not before) that a military base was also established at Ayla, at the head of the Gulf of ‘Aqaba. This fortress, which is only mentioned in Arabic sources and which Saladin took by force in 1170, stood not on the mainland but on Jazirat Fara‘un, an off-shore island on the Sinai side of the gulf, just south of the pass through which the road to Cairo rose from the valley floor up on to the Sinai plateau to the west. In later centuries this pass (Naqb al-‘Aqaba) was greatly feared by Egyptian pilgrims making the Hajj to Mecca and Medina as a place where the local bedouin would lie in wait to ambush and rob them: it could be held by a very few men. It seems , however, that the very existence of a castle in the area would have been enough to deter any but the most determined or wellprotected traveller on this road in the later 12th century. For more than ten years after Saladin’s capture of Ayla, when Ibn Jubayr travelled to Mecca in 1183 he crossed the Red Sea further south rather than take the land route around the head of the gulf, because it was rumoured that the Franks

During the last two days we have heard a large number of papers, which have presented us with a variety of ways of approaching the question of medieval frontiers. From all these it is hard to draw any simple generalizations – so I shall not attempt to do that, but merely to offer some observations. For most contributors, however, it is clear that a medieval frontier was not a fixed line or barrier – indeed, such frontiers, in barbed wire or concrete, are seen more as material constructions (or constructs) of the modern world, whose uselessness as a means of containment or exclusion has become all too apparent in recent times. In the medieval West of the 12th and 13th centuries, the boundaries of political entities such as kingdoms, principalities, counties or lordships represented the area over whose population a king, prince, count or lord could exert control and from which he could command respect and support. It has been suggested that such political entities did not necessarily have definable boundaries at all. But that would seem an overstatement. Indeed, the Latin word fines, which is often used by medieval writers, means both ‘boundaries’ and the land enclosed by them, hence ‘region’ or ‘territory’. Although their boundaries might sometimes be rather fuzzy or fluid, I would suggest that in the Frankish East, just as in the West, the geographical boundaries between different political entities were normally well known to contemporaries. In some cases this was because they corresponded to boundaries known from ancient times. In others it was because those who claimed control of them took care to defend their rights over them. In the charters of the kingdom of Jerusalem, for example, we hear even at local level of disputes over boundaries between village lands being submitted to the opinion of the ‘ancients’ (or sheikhs) of the village, who were able to trace the boundary on the ground. Boundaries between lordships often corresponded to those between ancient city territories (or even Biblical divisions – or at least perceived Biblical divisions). They were in any case well defined: thus the boundary between the territory of Jerusalem (which was royal domain) and the lordship of Nablus was at Khan Lubban; and the one between Nablus (for which read Samaria) and the principality of Galilee was at Janin. Moving up a level, the boundary between the kingdom of Jerusalem and the county of Tripoli was just north of Juniya, and that between the county of Tripoli and the principality of Antioch was just north of Maraclea. It was important in such matters as the administration of justice and the levying of rents and taxes that such boundaries were well known and understood. Furthermore, the boundaries between secular zones of administration often corresponded with religious ones, represented by dioceses and parishes – and for these we have a great deal of evidence from charters and papal documents recording the great efforts made by bishops to retain their rights to the tithes payable within their dioceses, the extents of which were evidently well known. 470

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had a castle there. At that date such a castle could only have been Montreal-Shawbak. This serves to illustrate the psychological value that a castle could have – though it may be noted that Ayla (by then rebuilt as a Muslim castle by Saladin) was also raided by the Franks on numerous occasions. Another aspect of the frontier in Transjordan that would repay serious consideration – though the evidence is probably slight – is the relations between the Franks and the bedouin. In later centuries, the Egyptian pilgrimage to Mecca was only made possible by the Mamluk (and later Ottoman) sultan paying large sums of money to the be-

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douin tribes through whose lands the pilgrims had to go and by sending an armed escort to protect them at ‘Aqaba itself. European travellers in the early 19th century also remark on the importance of visiting the governor of Aqaba in order to be assured of a safe passage through the bedouin tribal lands that lay before them on their way. The Ottoman ‘frontier’ in that period was not so much territorial as a question of continual negotiation between the sultan’s local representative and the local bedouin leaders. I suspect that similar problems also faced the lords of Transjordan in the 12th century, though direct evidence is hard to come by.

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Jorge López Quiroga Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

El concepto de frontera Sea cual sea el tipo de registro, material y/o textual, a través del que nos aproximemos al estudio y comprensión de la frontera ésta aparece siempre como una noción ambigua y más de carácter geopolítico y administrativo que como una realidad material tangible1. Es como si la frontera, y particularmente en el momento de creación y configuración de los grandes conjuntos territoriales en el marco del proceso que conocemos como Feudalismo/s, se percibiese mejor cuanto más lejos se esté de ella y fuese casi invisible cuanto más nos aproximamos. Esta ‘invisibilidad en la proximidad’ constituye, en mi opinión, una de las claves del éxito de este concepto, como categoría histórica y justificación político-administrativa en el tiempo y en el espacio, y muy particularmente en la configuración de las sociedades medievales occidentales.2 Justificación, excusa y argumento para diversos procesos de expansión político-territorial a lo largo del mediterráneo medieval. Sin duda, entre los países bañados por este mar, es la Península Ibérica uno de los laboratorios paradigmáticos de la frontera. Un espacio, el ibérico, en el que el uso y abuso de la frontera ha dado lugar a conceptos hoy día tan obsoletos como el de ‘Reconquista’, ‘Despoblación’ y ‘Repoblación’. Un territorio en el que la proliferación de uno de los signos más evidentes de materialización de la frontera, o así se ha querido ver tradicionalmente, como es la fortificación, y por excelencia el castillo, haya dado lugar a denominar un amplio marco espacial en el centro de la Península como ‘Castilla’.3

Y es, precisamente, a la hora de hablar de la realidad material de la frontera, y de la fortificación considerada como la visualización en el espacio de la misma, cuando el castillo (en sus diversas formas y/o tipologías) aparece sistemáticamente.4 Una noción de frontera y de la fortificación específicamente medieval que difícilmente se ajusta a otros arcos temporales. En efecto, es completamente extraña al mundo clásico, y concretamente al mundo romano, y no encaja en el concepto moderno y contemporáneo de la misma. De su carácter estático en época romana (el/ los limes en Occidente _el conocido como ‘muro de Adriano’ en Britania, el renano-danubiano en el centro y este de Europa_ y en Oriente5) hasta su práctica inexistencia en la actualidad (en la ‘aldea global’) el concepto medieval de frontera se define por su movilidad, plasticidad y versatilidad. De ahí que pretender cartografiar la frontera medieval sea un ejercicio casi imposible, puesto que el abuso en el empleo del concepto ha derivado en una verdadera inflación de fronteras, hasta el punto de prácticamente haber vaciado de contenido el significado de esta palabra, al menos en lo que a las ‘Españas’ medievales se refiere. Los tempos de la frontera. Se habla así, basándonos para esta breve reflexión en la Península Ibérica, de diferentes limes tanto en época romana como durante la Edad Media: el limes frente a los románticamente considerados ‘levantiscos pueblos del norte peninsular’, limes visigodos en el norte, noroeste y este de Hispania6, el limes alto-medieval del Duero,7 la ‘marca hispánica’ en el noreste de la Península,8 etc. Todos ellos absolutamente inexistentes y fruto más de la imaginación de los historiadores de finales del siglo XIX y la primera mitad del XX, que de una realidad material tangible y visible. Desde luego, completamente inoperante en época medieval, puesto que en la Edad Media la frontera, como tal no existía, y ello fruto de la propia indefinición territorial síntoma y consecuencia de la atomización del

1 Incluimos aquí, por su interés, el texto correspondiente a lo que la UE en

su VII PM considera como ‘el desafío’ en una línea de trabajo específica, en el ámbito de las Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, sobre ‘el concepto evolutivo de las fronteras’: “Borders can help in regulating neighbourhood and international relations through mutual recognition of sovereign countries, and can also help in developing accountability and solidarity by establishing the scope of citizenship rights or welfare provisions. Or they can exacerbate tensions and conflicts by dividing communities and imposing tight restrictions in ways that are resented as occupation or as discrimination of certain groups on ethnic, religious, economic, gender or other lines. Also, the nature of borders is changing. One may ponder the permeability or impermeability of the electronic frontier: the Internet may cross State lines providing information globally or attempts may be made to block this flow and introduce censorship, monitoring of citizens and protectionism. Globalisation also brings benefits or economic crises rapidly across borders without demanding any State permission though responses to economic crises or bank failures may be found firmly within a State but in other cases in international organisations and rescue packages. This variability gives rise to questions from ordinary citizens and policymakers as to the role and reality of borders in the 21st century”: COOPERATION, Theme 8: Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities, Work Programme 2011, p. 30. 2 Aunque, como ya hace unos cuantos años señalara el gran maestro de medievalistas que es Robert Fossier, hablar de ‘sociedades medievales occidentales’ es simplemente una tautología, puesto que no hay más sociedades medievales que las occidentales, al tratarse el concepto de Edad Media de una creación estrictamente europea y eurocéntrica en su visión del mundo. 3 De ahí deriva la conocida expresión francesa de ‘faire des châteaux en

Espagne’. 4 Al estudio del castillo, como paradigma de fortificación medieval, están dedicados los coloquios de Château-Gaillard, fundados por el doyen Michel de Boüard, ‘padre’ de la Arqueología Medieval francesa. 5 Los congresos cuatrienales sobre Frontier Roman Studies configuran un campo específico de investigación sobre la ‘frontera romana’ que ha derivado en una disciplina propia dentro de los especialistas del mundo romano. 6 Limes que servirían, en cierta medida, a hacer del reino godo de Toledo prácticamente una ‘isla entre fronteras’ hasta que Leovigildo realizó la unificación política, religiosa y territorial de la Península, bien avanzado el siglo VI. 7 El valle del Duero ha sido, y todavía perviven ecos de ello, considerado como la línea fronteriza que habría mantenido ‘libre’ de la presencia musulmana el norte de la Península Ibérica. Frontera que se consideraba, y todavía algunos consideran, heredera directa del limes romano frente a los pueblos del norte peninsular. 8 Justificación político-territorial de la denominada ‘marca catalana’ que, como la ‘frontera del Duero’, guardaría a ese espacio de la instalación de poblaciones musulmanas con carácter permanente.

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poder político característico del Feudalismo/s. Estos diferentes limes de la Hispania tardo-antigua y medieval conforman una frontera todavía imbuida del peso y tradición de la definición clásica, romana, de frontera: linear, estática y en la que los campamentos y/o torres de vigilancia levantadas en el espacio de forma equidistante constituyen la arquitectura visible de la misma. En estos limes, como en el mundo romano, el castillo está completamente ausente, porque, como decíamos, el castillo es una creación estrictamente medieval y occidental, aunque como sabemos, y este congreso es una buena prueba de ello, exportada más allá de las fronteras del occidente europeo en el marco de las Cruzadas como exponente de la expansión del feudalismo a lo largo y ancho de todo el mediterráneo. La evolución temporal de la frontera, los tiempos de las fronteras de las ‘Españas’ medievales, aboga por una perspectiva fundamentada en la longue durée, precisamente derivada de su plasticidad y versatilidad carente de estatismo y encorsetamientos de tipo cronológico. Hay un cambio evidente, aunque no definido exclusivamente por la cronología, entre la idea romana de frontera, estática y linear, y la percepción medieval de la misma: móvil, versátil y territorialmente restringida a un ámbito espacial de tipo local o, a lo sumo, supra-local. En estas ‘Españas’ de las ‘mil fronteras’ que caracteriza el medioevo peninsular, incluso sería posible (pero sin poder ir probablemente mucho más allá cronológicamente), desde un punto de vista temporal, diferenciar entre la frontera pre-feudal, marcada por la herencia romana y sus epígonos (la sucesión de limes internos en torno al reino godo de Toledo); y la frontera feudal, uno de los exponentes del nuevo concepto de territorialización del poder que caracteriza a lo que conocemos como Feudalismo/s.

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ximación a la estratigrafía de la frontera de tipo micro y macro espacial, conjugando ambos si no se quiere caer en la miopía o hipermetropía en el análisis de los territoria. Esta estratificación de la frontera construye un paisaje que se define y visualiza a través de su propia evolución espacial y temporal que, en lo que a la Península Ibérica se refiere, acaba dotándola de una personalidad propia que en muchas ocasiones ha sido denominada como una ‘sociedad de frontera’. Conclusión: ¿la frontera como categoría o paradigma? Hablábamos al comienzo de la ambigüedad en la noción de frontera y en ello tiene mucho que ver la distorsión generada por el tipo de registro, textual y/o arqueológico, a la hora de aproximarse a su estudio y comprensión. Resulta más que evidente que la imagen que los textos nos transmiten de la frontera condiciona en gran medida la lectura que hacemos de la realidad material de la misma plasmada en las estructuras fortificadas, y por ende en el castillo. Y viceversa, la arqueología eleva con demasiada frecuencia a la categoría de frontera restos y/o estructuras, y conjuntos de ellas, buscando en el registro textual la confirmación de dicho planteamiento. Se plantea así la cuestión de la operatividad de la frontera como categoría de análisis, especialmente cuando el abuso en el empleo de dicho concepto deriva en justificaciones identitarias de tipo regional, fruto de una visión contemporánea, y estrictamente política, de la frontera10. En las ‘Españas medievales’, y sin duda a lo largo y ancho del mediterráneo medieval, la frontera nunca ha constituido un elemento de separación sino de unión, porque, como indicábamos, no se trata de una frontera externa, frente a un ‘enemigo’ que viene de fuera, más bien al contrario. Será pues necesario profundizar en estudios de tipo diacrónico y sincrónico, a diferentes escalas espaciales y temporales, que permitan hacer inteligible el papel real y el significado de la fortificación11 (no olvidemos el incastellamento) como uno de los elementos definitorios de la frontera medieval. La frontera, elevada a la categoría de clave interpretativa para el estudio de las ‘sociedades medievales’ occidentales, ha acabado conformando un paradigma recurrente, de gran utilidad y enormemente cambiante en el tiempo y en el espacio, que se ha convertido igualmente en un elemento de análisis fundamental en el actual proceso de construcción europea12. La paradoja resulta obvia puesto que

Los espacios de la frontera. Es, precisamente, ese concepto de atomización del poder creando multitud de células autónomas en las ‘sociedades medievales’, lo que configura una verdadera estratificación de la frontera a lo largo de todo el Mediterráneo y, en el caso que nos ocupa, de las ‘Españas’ medievales. Una frontera pluriestratigrafiada en la que el espacio juega un papel fundamental, pasando de la simple torre y/o hisn9 que visualiza desde dónde y quién ejerce el poder sobre una comunidad aldeana a nivel local, hasta el castillo (ex novo y/o evolución de una pequeña estructura fortificada inicial) que gestiona política y económicamente un territorio más amplio (terra, comisso, mandatione, etc.). No estamos hablando de estructuras de tipo fortificado que jueguen un papel en función de un peligro y/o una defensa externa, sino de un control interno de las diversas comunidades en el contexto de la implantación progresiva de las estructuras de señorialización que definen y caracterizan el Feudalismo/s. El estudio de ese diferente arco espacial requiere una apro-

El estudio del concepto evolutivo de las fronteras (The evolving concep of borders) constituye una de las líneas específicas de actuación del VII Programa Marco de la UE: “For the European Union, the issue of borders has crucial implications for its key policy areas –from enlargement to security, migration, social policy and others- as well as for its own external policies, image and identity in a context of globalisation”: COOPERATION, Theme 8: Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities, Work Programme 2011, p. 30. 11 El incastellamento toubertiano en el Lazio y las radicales matizaciones de Francovich a partir del registro arqueológico en Toscana constituyen un buen ejemplo de la necesidad de ser extremadamente cautos ante las disparidades originadas por el tipo de registro (textual y/o arqueológico) y la necesidad de realizar un constante viaje de ida y vuelta entre ambos. 12 “For the European Union, the issue of borders has crucial implications for its key policy areas –from enlargement to security, migration, social 10

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Denominación que las fuentes árabes otorgan a las denominadas fortificaciones de carácter rural y estudiadas inicialmente por Patrice Cressier, André Bazzana y Pierre Guichard, creando una fructífera escuela de Arqueología de al-Andalus.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean mientras la supresión de las fronteras en la UE ha modulado, y sigue estimulando, la arquitectura de la construcción europea, surgen al mismo tiempo ‘nuevas fronteras’13, puesto que, reconozcámoslo, el concepto de frontera ha pasado de ser una categoría a constituirse en el paradigma explicativo por excelencia.

policy and others- as well as for its own external policies, image and identity in a context of globalisation. While sovereignty and territorial integrity remain key political and legal concepts, the metaphor of the ‘global village’, the spreading of communication technologies and transportation, of transnational corporations and global trade seem to make the notion of borders almost irrelevant. European integration itself may be considered as part of a process by which borders are re-defined and economic borders partly abolished through supranational law and the four freedoms of circulation of goods, capitals, people and services –with the fifth freedom of circulation of knowledge also on the table. While partly abolishing internal borders, the EU is moving and reshaping its

external borders through enlargement and variable competence –with the ‘variable’ geometry’ in Schengen, and the Eurozone (both external and internal borders since some EU MS are included and others are not) being cases in point”: COOPERATION, Theme 8: Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities, Work Programme 2011, p. 30. 13 “The EU Neighbourhood policy and the pre-accession mechanisms can be seen as ways of extending and limiting boundaries at the same time. In the broader global context, new borders emerge in terms of territorial, geopolitical, economic definition of state or regional integration entities, long standing conflicts over borders remain unsolved while others continue to erupt; some borders disappear or at least become more ‘porous’, while others become even stronger or emerge a new – with important implications for EU external relations and strategic perspective”: COOPERATION, Theme 8: Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities, Work Programme 2011, p. 31.

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La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le “frontiere” del Mediterraneo medievale, a cura di G. Vannini e M. Nucciotti , BAR, Oxford, 2012

“Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una frontiera” “From Petra to Shawbak. Archaeology of a Frontier” Cocktail for the presentation of the International exhibition

DAL PROGETTO MUSEOLOGICO ALLO STUDIO SUI VISITATORI. LA MOSTRA DA PETRA A SHAWBAK: UN CASO DI ARCHEOLOGIA PUBBLICA Chiara Bonacchi Institute of Archaeology, University College London Abstract This contribution endeavours firstly to present the museological plan elaborated for the exhibition From Petra to Shawbak. Archaeology of a Frontier within the boundaries of the field of study of Public Archaeology. Secondly, the objectives and methodology of this plan will be illustrated. The article will also explore how the international exhibition offered a unique opportunity for a comparative analysis of the museum experiences of archaeology lived by Italian and non-Italian visitors. Utilizing this investigation, the first typological classification of satisfying archaeological museum experiences will be elaborated. This will be achieved by matching elements pertaining to the personal, social and physical contexts of the visits with those experience types that were recognized as satisfying by the audience. Data was collected through a visitor exit study (21 September-11 October 2009), which succeeded in surveying a statistically significant sample of 501 respondents aged 18 and above. Methodologically, the study used face-to-face interviews of Italian respondents and self-filled-in questionnaires administered to non-Italians visitors.

Regno Unito (Ascherson 2000; Schadla-Hall 2006, 77).2 Qui è stato definito da Tim Schadla-Hall (1999, 147), Reader in Public Archaeology a University College London, come ‘any area of archaeological activity that interacted or had the potential to interact with the public’, mentre Neil Ascherson (2001, 2), editore della rivista Public Archaeology, ne sottolinea l’interesse etico-deontologico, presentandolo quale settore dedito ad approfondire i ‘problemi che sorgono quando l’archeologia si sposta nel mondo reale del conflitto economico e della lotta politica’ (traduzione dal testo inglese).3

PROGETTO MUSEOLOGICO E ARCHEOLOGIA PUBBLICA Negli ultimi dieci anni, autori anglosassoni hanno contribuito alla crescita di un nutrito corpus di letteratura sul tema della comunicazione archeologica.1 Tali studi si sono spesso riconosciuti parte dell’ambito scientifico dell’Archeologia Pubblica, che ha origine negli Stati Uniti dei primi anni ’70 (McGimsey 1972), ma è stato codificato più estesamente e istituzionalizzato alla fine degli anni ’90, nel 1

Tra i principali lavori pubblicati dal 2000 a oggi, Clack and Brittain (eds) 2007 affronta il tema del rapporto esistente fra archeologia e media; in particolare, fa parte della raccolta menzionata il contributo di Karol Kulik (Kulik 2007), che presenta il primo excursus storiografico sugli sviluppi della comunicazione archeologica nel Regno Unito. Gli studi di maggiore rilievo sulle rappresentazioni mediate dell’archeologia e sulle percezioni che di essa ha il pubblico sono Ascherson 2004; Fagan 2006, gale 2002; Hall 2009; Holtorf 2005; Holtorf 2007; Merriman 2000; Moser 2001; Russell 2002; Schadla-Hall 2003; Schadla-Hall 2004; e tre surveys (Paynton 2002; Pokotylo and Guppy 1999; Ramos and Duganne 2000) condotte, rispettivamente, sulla audience inglese, statunitense e canadese. La comunicazione è invece indagata come fenomeno, anziché dal punto di vista dei risultati che produce, in Copeland 2004; Merriman 2002 e Merriman 2004. La monografia di Swain, infine, sintetizza le principali fasi di sviluppo della museologia archeologica (2007, 18-34) e l’attuale assetto istituzionale, organizzativo e legislativo dei musei archeologici (2007, 35-68), oltre a discutere possibili modalità di gestione e interpretazione delle collezioni (2007, 91-192 e 195-287).

2

Per una trattazione più estesa dell’argomento si veda Bonacchi 2009b, 331-337. 3 Le definizioni presentate costituiscono la base teorica su cui si imposta la concezione di Archeologia Pubblica che si propone più avanti. Altri studiosi britannici cimentatisi nel definire il settore disciplinare sono Shanks, Merriman e Moshenska. Secondo il primo (Shanks 2005, 219), l’Archeologia Pubblica ha luogo quando ‘professional archaeologists work with public interests’. Per il secondo (merriman 2004, 5), ‘in being about ethics and identity … public archaeology is inevitably about negotiation and conflict over meaning’. Moshenska (2009, 47) la definisce come ‘that part of the discipline concerned with studying and critiquing the processes of production and consumption of archaeological commodities’. Si riporta poi, per completezza, una seconda definizione di Schadla-Hall (2006, 81), secondo cui la Public Archaeology è quella ‘area of study … that introduces a relatively narrow discipline into a far more complex world and ensures that archaeologists confront

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean di tre diversi contesti: personale, sociale e fisico. 6 La prima sfera consiste nel profilo socio-demografico del visitatore (sesso, età, provenienza, educazione e professione) e nell’insieme di interessi, conoscenze pregresse, familiarità nell’uso dello spazio espositivo, aspettative, motivazioni e preferenze che gli è proprio (Falk and Dierking 1992, 2 e 25-37). Il secondo contesto menzionato è dato invece dalla situazione sociale in cui viene esperita la comunicazione espositiva e comprende sia lo stato iniziale (se si arriva al museo da soli o in gruppo e se quest’ultimo è costituito dalla famiglia – adulti e bambini - dai co-partecipanti ad una visita organizzata, da amici, parenti, o dal partner), che quello risultante dalla visita stessa (eventualità e, in caso, modalità di interazione con altri membri del pubblico e con lo staff) - Falk and Dierking 1992, 3 e 41-54). Il contesto fisico, infine, è lo spazio allestitivo predisposto perché l’esperienza di visita possa avere luogo (Falk and Dierking 1992, 3 e 67-81). La metodologia espositiva si è basata sulla conoscenza delle classi di componenti formanti i ‘contesti personali’ che sono state definite e descritte per la museologia in generale e, talora, specificatamente per quella archeologica e archeologico-medievistica, in particolare.7 Nel progettare si è inoltre tenuto conto dei possibili tipi di situazioni sociali, al fine di creare i presupposti per esperienze che fossero, al contempo, integrate, accessibili e informative. Il principio dell’integrazione ha suggerito di progettare un percorso espositivo che risultasse unico, cioè privo di spazi riservati a determinati target di pubblico. In questo modo si è mirato a stimolare la fruizione contemporanea della mostra da parte dei visitatori in gruppo e l’interazione sociale, per un apprendimento nutrito da ampie possibilità di confronto interpersonale.8 Per le famiglie, ad esempio, è stata pensata una modalità di visita articolata in punti chiave di sosta (almeno uno per unità), corrispondenti ai nuclei espositivi ritenuti più efficaci nel sintetizzare il ruolo svolto dalla frontiera in Transgiordania in un determinato periodo storico. Alle ‘tappe’ così selezionate sono state aggiunte esperienze di gioco progettate con lo scopo di facilitare l’apprendimento (Figure 2-3). Come già illustrato da Bradburne (2005), infatti, entro il contesto comu-

Anche in Italia la comunicazione archeologica è da circa cinque anni oggetto di una attenzione crescente (sia da parte di professionisti, che di circoli accademici), che sta risultando nella sempre più frequente creazione di insegnamenti, corsi di specializzazione e gruppi di ricerca (Bonacchi 2009b, 329). Qui, tuttavia, tale dibattito non si è sino ad oggi nutrito del confronto con quanto elaborato dalla Public Archaeology inglese, con conseguenze più sostanziali che formali. In Gran Bretagna, infatti, la costituzione del settore disciplinare non ha avuto la sola funzione di dare ordine ad uno specifico indirizzo di ricerca, che, se pur in forma eterogenea, più sporadica ed empirica, comunque esisteva, ma anche quello di organizzarne sinergicamente le forze, sia dal punto di vista della promozione di collaborazioni scientifiche, che della designazione di appositi canali per la produzione e condivisione di conoscenza. Dal 2007, con la Cattedra di Archeologia Medievale dell’Università di Firenze, si è inteso operare in direzione di una ‘fondazione’ italiana dell’Archeologia Pubblica, che proporrei di ridefinire come impegnata nello studio e nel rafforzamento del ruolo che l’archeologia, come disciplina storica, e l’interpretazione e gestione del patrimonio archeologico svolgono, o possono svolgere, a beneficio della società e del suo sviluppo. In questa ottica è stato elaborato il progetto museologico della mostra Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una Frontiera, un lavoro che ha costituito l’esito creativo, anziché meramente restituivo, di oltre un ventennio di ricerche condotte dalla missione Petra ‘Medievale’-Progetto Shawbak, in Giordania (Vannini 2009, 22-27).4 L’evento espositivo ha infatti consentito di affrontare scientificamente il tema della comunicazione archeologica e del suo impatto socio-culturale in due modi. In primo luogo, ha offerto l’opportunità di approfondire le dinamiche di codificazione di contenuti archeologici (tramite la ricerca sul campo, prima, e il progetto museologico, poi), decodificazione e ricodificazione degli stessi (attraverso il progetto museografico) e decodificazione finale (da parte del pubblico). In secondo luogo, lo studio sui visitatori effettuato durante le ultime tre settimane di apertura della mostra (Figura 1) ha contribuito a fornire informazioni utili per comprendere le modalità di consumo esperienziale dell’archeologia entro contesti espositivi (si veda Infra, 7).5

Il costruttivismo concepisce la conoscenza come ‘constructed by the learner in interaction with the social environment’, piuttosto che ‘external to the learner, as a body of knowledge absolute in itself’ (Hooper-Greenhill 1997, da 1). Per approfondimenti sulla teoria educativa applicata a contesti museali si vedano anche Hein 1994 e 1998, 34-36; sul costruttivismo in relazione allo sviluppo di interpretazioni on-site si fa riferimento a Copeland 2004. Si noti poi come il modello di Falk e Dierking, elaborato nel contesto dei museum studies e degli studi sull’apprendimento, abbia punti di contatto con la definizione di esperienza data da Eugeni, nell’ambito della semiotica dei media. Nel chiarire come l’esperienza ‘vivente e vissuta dei soggetti’ debba esser presa in esame ‘quale luogo di svolgimento dei fenomeni di significazione’, Eugeni (2009, 30-31) la descrive infatti come ‘tre volte situata: in una nicchia socio culturale’, ‘in una nicchia ambientale’ e ‘nel corpo del soggetto’. 7 Tra i principali lavori che offrono visioni di sintesi sul tema, entro l’ambito specifico della museologia archeologica inglese si possono menzionare Clarke 1988; Prince and Schadla-Hall 1987; pearce 1990, 133-142 e Swain 2007, 195-209. Studi chiave per la comprensione del pubblico del museo in generale sono anche Hooper-Greenhill 1994a; Hooper-Greenhill 1994b; Hein 1998, 135-154; Kotler and Kotler 1998, 99-14; Merriman 2000 e Black 2005, 7-73. 8 Si veda Falk and Dierking 1992, 109-110. 6

IL PROGETTO MUSEOLOGICO: OBIETTIVI E METODOLOGIA La progettazione ha preso le mosse da una concezione di visita museale in linea con la teoria educativa del costruttivismo e intesa secondo il modello interattivo teorizzato da John Falk e Lynn Dierking (1992, 1-7), cioè come prodotto the implications of their work and the development of their studies’. 4 La mostra Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una Frontiera, organizzata dalla Cattedra di Archeologia Medievale dell’Università di Firenze, in collaborazione con il Dipartimento di Antichità della Giordania, è rimasta aperta al pubblico dal 13 Luglio all’11 Ottobre 2009, presso la Limonaia del Giardino di Boboli (Palazzo Pitti). 5 Tale studio è parte del dottorato di ricerca di chi scrive, in corso di svolgimento presso l’Institute of Archaeology di University College London (titolo provvisorio: The consumption and design of archaeological experiences. Towards new museum and television communications of archaeology in Britain and Italy).

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C. Bonacchi: Dal progetto museologico allo studio sui visitatori. La mostra Da Petra a Shawbak nicazionale dell’esposizione, il gioco e il linguaggio costituiscono i mezzi principali con cui promuovere esperienze caratterizzate, al contempo, da massima varietà, in modo da soddisfare i bisogni del visitatore, e coerenza, a garanzia dell’efficacia del ruolo educativo del museo. Si è poi previsto che fossero i bambini ad accompagnare gli adulti in mostra, predisponendo una guida cartacea rivolta ai primi e avente la funzione di creare un filo rosso narrativo tra i diversi ‘punti di sosta’. Il testo della guida, progettato per un pubblico dai 7 ai 10 anni, invitava i piccoli visitatori a interagire con gli adulti che li accompagnavano, nell’interpretare i contesti di reperti e di altri exhibits. Oltre all’accessibilità intellettuale, si è poi teso a garantire quella fisica (operando in direzione di una rimozione delle barriere architettoniche, soprattutto a livello di progetto museografico) e sensoriale, nel tentativo di rendere la mostra pienamente fruibile dai disabili visivi. Il percorso è stato attrezzato per poter essere agilmente esperito anche da parte di ipovedenti, grazie a testi di dimensioni non inferiori ai 18 punti (Rnib 2007). Ai non vedenti è stata assicurata la possibilità di toccare una selezione dei reperti più significativi, posizionati privi di teca, in primo piano e accompagnati da una didascalia ‘speciale’, provvista di pellicola trasparente con traduzione in braille (Figure 4-5). A guidare attraverso la selezione era una raccolta completa, sempre in braille, dei testi della mostra, corredati da cartografia a rilievo e da immagini tattili che rappresentavano quei reperti che, pur essendo estremamente importanti nel tessuto della narrazione, non potevano essere fruiti direttamente da parte dei disabili, per motivi di conservazione. La capacità, infine, di informare sui risultati conseguiti dalla missione archeologica ha costituito il fulcro, ma non il punto di arrivo degli obiettivi della comunicazione. Quest’ultima, infatti, ha mirato a offrire la possibilità di una esperienza che fosse innanzi tutto di apprendimento, ma potesse anche assumere valenze che Kotler e Kotler definiscono di ‘contemplation’ (‘musing’, ‘meditation’, ‘reverie’, ‘pondering’, ‘aesthetic experience’), ‘amusement’ (‘fun’, ‘gaming’, ‘pleasure’, ‘laughter’, ‘sociability’, ‘diversion’), ed ‘excitement’ (‘thril’, ‘adventure’, ‘fantasy’, ‘immersive experience’).9 L’apprendimento è stato inteso come processo attivo di costruzione personale di significato, definito da Falk e Dierking come ‘consolidation and slow, incremental growth of existing ideas and information’ (Falk and Dierking 1992, 98), mediante assimilazione e successivo accomodamento, entro schemata pre-esistenti, di nuove informazioni afferenti sia alla sfera affettiva che a quella cognitiva (due delle tre riconosciute dalla tassonomia degli obiettivi educativi elaborata da Bloom - Falk and Dierking 1992, 103).

Il materiale espositivo è stato quindi scelto e organizzato in modo da definire un discorso che potesse fondarsi sulle conoscenze pregresse verosimilmente possedute dal pubblico ed essere condiviso da target di audience dal diverso background etnico e culturale. 10 In particolare, tali conoscenze sono state stimate a partire dai risultati conseguiti dalle ricerche svolte dal Museum of London e dal Victoria and Albert Museum al fine di approfondire familiarità e interesse del pubblico riguardo ai concetti di ‘medioevo’ (Mol 2002a; Mol 2002b; Mol 2003; Mol 2004; Mol 2005a; mol 2005b; Mol 2006a; VandA 2002) e ‘architettura’ (VandA 2001). Le conclusioni raggiunte da tali indagini sono state estese al pubblico potenziale della mostra Da Petra a Shawbak sulla base di quello che, fondatamente, si prevedeva sarebbe stato il carattere internazionale e sociodemograficamente composito di quest’ultimo.11 L’attenzione alle emozioni, alle attitudini e ai valori si è espressa invece sotto un duplice aspetto. In primo luogo, si è infatti cercato di predisporre un discorso espositivo che rievocasse suggestivamente il contesto geografico e cronologico della Transgiordania meridionale, dall’antichità ad oggi. In secondo luogo, e più significativamente, è stato lo stesso tema principe della mostra, quello della frontiera come struttura storica, ad avere il potenziale di agire in modo incisivo sulla posizione dei visitatori in relazione al rapporto politico e culturale tra Occidente e Oriente mediterranei. Il carattere di attualità cui si è fatto riferimento ha però richiesto di essere reso evidente e rilevante per i diversi segmenti di pubblico. In questo senso, cura particolare è stata dedicata al testo della guida per famiglie e alla struttura delle esperienze interattive di gioco, attente a riferire concetti apparentemente ‘lontani’, come quelli della storia di una regione vicino-orientale, alla realtà con la quale i bambini potevano essere più direttamente in contatto. Gli obiettivi cognitivi, infine, relativi al “ricordare, combinare e sintetizzare informazioni” (Bloom 1956 citato in Falk and Dierking 1992, 103) hanno presentato una sfida considerevole dal punto di vista museologico, per il carattere pluri-specialistico e la densità della narrazione storica, caratterizzata, peraltro, dalla presenza di più soggetti. Questi consistevano, da un lato, nelle metodologie dell’archeologia, dall’altro nel tema storiografico della frontiera, attraverso il quale sono state interpretate le compagini di Shawbak, della Valle di Petra e della Transgiordania meridionale, nel più ampio contesto della Giordania tutta e del Mediterraneo e nella diacronia che dal IV secolo a.C. giunge sino al periodo mamelucco e, per cenni, alla contemporaneità. Nella parte finale della mostra sono state infatti citate le radici medievali della Giordania moderna (con

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10

Si utilizza il termine discorso nell’accezione semiotica proposta da Eugeni (2009, 37), intendendolo come uno dei tre campi in cui si articola l’esperienza mediale; il secondo e il terzo campo sono rispettivamente costituiti dal mondo diretto (il ‘mondo percepito direttamente’) e da quello indiretto (il ‘mondo percepito indirettamente’). Più precisamente, il discorso è quel ‘campo di oggetti con il quale il soggetto si confronta e stabilisce una posizione’ e consistente nella ‘serie di operazioni e di processi che hanno … il compito di costituire e guidare’ l’esperienza del mondo indiretto (Eugeni 2009, 37). 11 La previsione ha trovato conferma in quanto rilevato dallo studio sui visitatori.

Kotler e Kotler (1998, 139) descrivono i quattro tipi di esperienze menzionati (excitement, amusement, contemplation, learning) chiarendo come la differenziazione esperienziale dell’offerta costituisca una efficace strategia di posizionamento del museo. Pekarik, Doering e Karns (1999), invece, mettono a punto una classificazione che distingue tra esperienze di visita denominate ‘object’ (il punto focale è collocato all’esterno del soggetto, nell’oggetto ‘reale’ in ostensione), ‘cognitive’, (prevale l’aspetto interpretativo o intellettuale) ‘introspective’ (stimolato dall’esposizione, il visitatore si concentra sulla sfera dei sentimenti e su esperienze personali precedenti) e ‘social’ (l’interazione sociale emerge come tratto caratterizzante della visita).

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean una gamma varia di media e format di rappresentazione (il format simbolico, cui si riferiscono la proiezione di domande, i pannelli etc.; quello iconico, proprio di video, fotografie, elaborazioni grafiche, etc.; l’enactive, caratteristico di tavoli ipermediali, esperienze interattive di gioco, etc. – Copeland 2004, 137-139). 12 Delle motivazioni del pubblico è stato tenuto conto prevedendo una organizzazione gerarchica dei nuclei espositivi e dei testi al loro interno, perché i visitatori potessero discernere senza difficoltà i temi chiave della mostra dai ‘focus’ di carattere storico o metodologico.13 Nei testi, in particolare, tale gerarchizzazione è presente sia sul piano della struttura interna che del tipo. Sulla base di quest’ultimo sono stati distinti, oltre ai già menzionati pannelli di orientamento, quelli introduttivi di ciascun nucleo, i pannelli di approfondimento, le didascalie interpretative volte a stabilire collegamenti concettuali di dettaglio tra reperti esposti in prossimità e le didascalie identificative.14 Per ogni nucleo, si è poi cercato di prevedere un exhibit dal forte impatto scenografico, così da coinvolgere, attraverso esperienze di contemplazione estetica, quei visitatori motivati da curiosità generale e non da interesse specifico per l’archeologia. Da quanto detto emergerà con chiarezza anche l’approccio concettuale adottato per esporre gli ‘oggetti archeologici’ (Black 2005, 275; Dean 1996, 4). L’importanza della cultura materiale è stata affermata preminentemente in relazione alle informazioni che questa poteva contribuire a fornire, agendo ‘a sistema’ con altri mezzi di comunicazione. Si è voluto marcare così una corrispondenza precisa di significato e funzione tra il contesto archeologico, da cui il reperto proveniva, e quello espositivo di cui era divenuto parte.

riferimento alla funzione militare mantenuta da Shawbak durante la prima guerra mondiale) e l’attività svolta dalla Missione Archeologica Petra ‘Medievale’ – Progetto Shawbak, nell’ambito dell’accordo stretto tra Università di Firenze e Dipartimento delle Antichità di Giordania, per la ricerca, conservazione e valorizzazione del sito di Shawbak. La natura dei contenuti ha suggerito di optare, sul piano della metodologia espositiva, per una organizzazione di macro-livello (per sezioni), medio-livello (unità) e micro-livello (nuclei-espositivi). L’esposizione è stata quindi strutturata in tre sezioni: introduttiva, narrativa e di feedback. La prima consentiva un avvicinamento emozionale e sensoriale all’esperienza espositiva, una discesa nel contesto ambientale e cronologico di riferimento e una prima presentazione, per cifre, dei temi che sarebbero stati poi sviluppati articolatamente nella sezione successiva. Per questo sono state scelte soluzioni museografiche di forte impatto scenografico, tali da riuscire a riproporre, nella sua monumentalità, la sala delle udienze del Palazzo fatto costruire da Al-Mu’azzam ‘Isa (nipote di Saladino), simbolo dell’importanza politica e amministrativa mantenuta da Shawbak e dalla Transgiordania meridionale in epoca ayyubide e recuperata nel precedente periodo crociato attraverso la funzionalizzazione del territorio in frontiera, seguita alla fase di abbandono attestabile al primo periodo arabo. L’ultima sezione, invece, era dedicata ad un ‘ascolto diretto’ del pubblico, mediante due postazioni informatiche per il feedback, di cui una predisposta per consentire ai visitatori di lasciare un commento in forma non strutturata e una seconda, invece, contenente un questionario da compilare, comprensivo di domande chiuse e aperte. La sezione centrale era articolata in unità, ciascuna delle quali aveva la funzione di comunicare un diverso ruolo svolto dalla frontiera in Transgiordania, dall’età nabatea ad oggi. Pur procedendo cronologicamente, quindi, epoche accomunate da una stessa funzione della struttura storica presa in esame sono state trattate congiuntamente (es. nabatei, romani, bizantini; omayyadi, abbasidi e fatimidi), in modo da far emergere con forza la chiave di lettura utilizzata per interpretare i contesti materiali. Per favorire una immediata identificazione delle unità, queste sono state fatte precedere da un pannello di orientamento, utile nel guidare la contestualizzazione tematica (nei termini già spiegati) e spazio-temporale. Ciascuna, infine, si componeva di nuclei espositivi che illustravano i caratteri della frontiera mediante reperti (oltre ad altri exhibits) capaci di documentare la funzione abitativa, produttiva e commerciale, amministrativa e militare di Shawbak e dei siti della Valle di Petra. La parabola discendente conosciuta da quest’ultima tra il periodo antico e il mamelucco e quella ascendente di Shawbak, nello stesso arco cronologico, sono state richiamate dal numero progressivamente crescente, all’interno di ogni unità, di nuclei espositivi dedicati al sito noto nelle fonti franche come Crac de Montréal, rispetto a quelli incentrati invece sulla Valle di Petra. Per soddisfare visitatori con diversi stili di apprendimento si è provveduto ad assicurare l’equilibrata distribuzione di

DAL PROGETTO MUSEOLOGICO ALLO STUDIO SUI VISITATORI: CAPIRE COME COMUNICARE Il carattere innovativo del progetto museologico risiede nell’aver teso a creare un percorso integrato potenzialmente in grado di offrire, a partire dalla presentazione di tematiche archeologiche, l’intero spettro esperienziale definito da Kotler e Kotler (1998). Solo entro un simile contesto fisico di visita è stato infatti possibile esaminare comparativamente i diversi modi in cui il pubblico italiano e straniero ha vissuto la comunicazione espositiva dell’archeologia. Studi sulla audience finalizzati ad indagare i tipi esperienziali di visita museale sono stati svolti in precedenza (Ferrari and Veltri 2007; Packer and Ballantyne 2002; Packer 2008; Pekarik, Doering and Karns 1999;), ma nessuno di essi si è concentrato sul particolare ambito delle esposizioni di argomento archeologico. 12

Riguardo agli stili di apprendimento si veda Black 2005, 134-138. Sulle motivazioni dei visitatori del museo, si vedano ad esempio, Black 2005, 28-32; Falk and Dierking 1992, 104-106; Falk and Dierking 2000, 16-22; Packer and Ballantyne 2002. 14 Per la costruzione dei testi è stata tenuta presente l’impostazione teorica proposta da Ravelli (2006, 6) e fondata sulla visione socio-semiotica della comunicazione di Halliday. L’autrice (2006, 6-9) analizza i testi del museo riferendosi a tre frameworks di significato: ‘representational’, ‘organizational’ e ‘interactional’. La gerarchizzazione dei testi attraverso una organizzazione di ‘macro-livello’, ‘medio-livello’ e ‘micro-livello’ si riferisce al secondo dei frameworks già citati (Ravelli 2006,19-48). 13

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C. Bonacchi: Dal progetto museologico allo studio sui visitatori. La mostra Da Petra a Shawbak Tra tali ricerche, quella di Pekarik, Doering e Karns (1999, 162-164) risulta comunque interessante ai fini di questo contributo, perché, dopo aver definito sperimentalmente quattro categorie di esperienze ritenute soddisfacenti dai campioni di visitatori presi in esame (si veda Infra 4), sottolinea come la ricorrenza di ciascuna sia condizionata da fattori quali la natura del museo o della mostra e le caratteristiche personali dei visitatori stessi.15 Nello studiare il comportamento della audience, però, gli autori prescindono da una analisi dello specifico mondo indiretto a cui il discorso espositivo consente di accedere.16 Allo stesso modo, indagando i fattori motivazionali che incidono sulla visita in tre diversi contesti di ‘free-choice learning’ (un museo, una galleria d’arte e un acquario), Packer e Ballantyne (2002, 183 e 185-186) operano una distinzione dal solo punto di vista del tipo di istituzione senza considerare i contenuti comunicati da ciascuno.17 Una delle conclusioni da essi raggiunte consiste infatti nell’evidenziare la tendenza del pubblico del museo, in generale, a vivere esperienze di apprendimento motivato con più frequenza rispetto ai visitatori della galleria d’arte e dell’acquario (Packer and Ballantyne 2002, 195). Diversamente dai lavori citati, in una ottica di archeologia pubblica, anziché di antropologia culturale, marketing turistico o comunicazione e didattica museale, i consumi esperienziali sono stati indagati a partire dalle specificità dei temi archeologici trattati. Si è inoltre tenuto conto delle componenti del contesto personale del visitatore che ne descrivono il rapporto con la disciplina. Pertanto, lo studio sui visitatori della mostra Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una Frontiera ha rilevato e misurato anche dati relativi all’interesse per l’archeologia, alla percezione e alla conoscenza che di questa ha il pubblico e ai media utilizzati abitualmente per acquisire informazioni di tipo archeologico. Lo scopo ultimo è quello di giungere all’elaborazione di una prima classificazione tipologica delle esperienze di visita a esposizioni archeologiche, associando i tipi di esperienze di cui il pubblico si è ritenuto soddisfatto alle componenti dei contesti sociali e personali di visita.18 Si

otterrà così una sorta di segmentazione ‘a posteriori’ della audience internazionale della mostra da cui sarà possibile evincere le modalità più efficaci per coinvolgere specifici gruppi di pubblico in esperienze di comunicazione espositiva dell’archeologia. Poiché l’analisi dei dati raccolti è ancora in corso, dei risultati raggiunti, così come di una descrizione di dettaglio della metodologia, si darà conto in interventi successivi. RINGRAZIAMENTI Si ringrazia Tim Schadla-Hall, Reader in Public Archaeology a University College London e supervisor della tesi di dottorato di chi scrive, per l’assistenza offerta in fase di definizione del progetto museologico della mostra Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una Frontiera e di design dello studio sui visitatori. Per aver sostenuto e autorizzato quest’ultimo si è grati al Professor Guido Vannini e alla dott.ssa Cristina Acidini, Soprintendente per il Polo Museale Fiorentino. Si ringraziano Marta Ricci, Giulia Basetti, Andrea Biondi, Lorenzo Fragai e Sonia Turi, per avere svolto operativamente la survey, come attività di Archeologia Pubblica riconosciuta dal Laboratorio di Archeologia Medievale dell’Università di Firenze. Infine, per aver generosamente fornito parte della documentazione fotografica presentata in questo contributo (Figure 4-5), si è grati ad Anna Marx. BIBLIOGRAFIA AA.VV., 2009. L’archeologia e il suo pubblico. Firenze, Giunti Alivizatou, M. 2007. Intangible cultural heritage: a new universal museological discourse [online]. Disponibile all’indirizzo web: http://www.museumsnett.no/alias/ HJEMMESIDE/icme/icme2007/AlivizatouProof.pdf (consultato il 2 Febbraio 2010) Ascherson, N. 2000. Editorial. Public archaeology 1 (1), 1-4 Ascherson, N. 2004. Archaeology and the British media, in N. Merriman (ed), 2004. Public archaeology, 145–158. London and New York. Routledge. Black, G. 2005. The engaging museum. Developing museums for visitor involvement. London and New York, Routledge Bonacchi, C. 2009b. Archeologia Pubblica in Italia. Origini e prospettive di un ‘nuovo’ settore disciplinare. Ricerche storiche XXXIX (2-3), 329-350. Bradburne, J. 2005. Game on. Individual emergence in informal learning environments [online]. Disponibile ������������������� all’indirizzo web: http://www.bradburne.org/downloads/learning/Game-on3.pdf (consultato il 14 Gennaio 2009) Clack, T. and M. Brittain (ed), 2007. Archaeology and the media. Walnut Creek, California, Left Coast Press. Clarke, D. 1988. Poor museums, rich men’s media: An archaeological perspective, in J. Bintliff (ed), 1988. Extracting meaning from the past, 44-49.Oxford, Oxbow Books.

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L’indagine di Pekarik, Doering e Karns (1999, 161) ha preso in esame i seguenti contesti espositivi, facenti parte della Smithsonian Institution: National Zoological Park (NZP); National Museum of Natural History (NMNH); National Museum of American History (NMAH); National Museum of American Art (NMAA); National Portrait Gallery (NPG); Twelve Centuries of Japanese Art from the Imperial Collection (mostra allestita alla Arthur M. Sackler Gallery); Puja: Expressions of Hindu Devotion (mostra allestita presso la Arthur M. Sackler Gallery); Geology, Gems and Minerals (evento espositivo organizzato al National Museum of Natural History); Mammals (mostra aperta al National Museum of Natural History); Amazonia Habitat and Science Gallery (mostra allestita al National Zoological Park); Where Next, Columbus? (evento espositivo organizzato presso il National Air and Space Museum). 16 Si veda la nota 10. 17 Un approccio simile è stato adottato anche da Ferrari e Veltri (2007), che individuano le categorie di esperienze (come delineate da Kotler e Kotler) attese dalla visita e dalla fruizione dei servizi di Palazzo Vecchio, a Firenze. 18 La popolazione presa in esame, consistente nel pubblico adulto della mostra, è stata studiata quantitativamente e qualitativamente attraverso un campione statisticamente rappresentativo composto da 501 rispondenti di età non inferiore ai 18 anni. L’indagine ha fatto ricorso allo strumento del questionario, costituito da domande chiuse e aperte. Questo è stato utilizzato per condurre interviste ai visitatori italiani e distribuito, invece,

ai rispondenti stranieri, perché lo compilassero personalmente.

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean Kreps, C. F. 2003. Liberating culture: cross-cultural perspectives on museums, curation, and heritage preservation. London, Routledge Kulik, K. 2007. A Short history of archaeological communication, in T. Clack and M. Brittain (eds), Archaeology and the media, 111-124. Walnut Creek, California, Left Coast Press. Mcgimsey, C. R. 1972. Public archaeology. New York and London, Seminar Press Merriman, N. 2000. Beyond the glass case. The past, the heritage and the public. London, Leicester University Press Merriman, N. 2002. Archaeology, heritage and interpretation, in B.Cunliffe, W. Davies and C. Renfrew (eds), Archaeology. The widening debate 541-566. Oxford, Oxford University Press/British Academy. Merriman, N. 2004. Introduction, in N. Merriman (ed), Public archaeology, 1-17. London, Routledge. Mcquail, D. 2002. Origins and development of the field of study. General introduction, in D. McQuail (ed), McQuail’s reader in mass communication theory, 1-20. London, SAGE. Moser, S. 2001. Archaeological representation. The visual convention for constructing knowledge about the past, in I. Hodder (ed.), 262-283. Archaeological theory today. Cambridge, Polity. Moshenska, G. 2009. What is public archaeology?. Present Pasts 1, 46-48. Museum of London (MOL), 2002a. Focus groups of family users on the new Medieval gallery contents [report]. London, Museum of London Museum of London (MOL), 2002b. Medieval London. Report on a pilot evaluation exercise [report]. London, Museum of London Museum of London (MOL), 2003. Interim report on the first focus group, investigating public attitudes to the Museum of London’s planned new Medieval Gallery [report]. London, Museum of London Museum of London (MOL), 2004. Report on the second focus group, investigating public attitudes to the Museum of London’s planned new Medieval Gallery [report]. London, Museum of London Museum of London (MOL) 2005a. SIASID Evaluation report, stage 1. Museum of London Medieval gallery [report]. London, Museum of London Museum of London (MOL), 2005b. SIASID Evaluation report, stage 2. Museum of London Medieval gallery [report]. London, Museum of London Museum of London (MOL), 2006a. Medieval London gallery visitor evaluation. Adult and family visitors exit questionnaires and gallery tracking [report]. London, Museum of London Museum of London (MOL), 2006b. Learning strategy. London’s burning: the Great Fire of London 1666 [Learning strategy document]. London, Museum of London Packer, J. 2008. Beyond learning: exploring visitors’ perceptions of the value and benefits of museum experiences. Curator 51 (1), 33-54. Packer, J. and Ballantyne, R. 2002. Motivational factors

Copeland, T. 2004. Presenting archaeology to the public. Constructing insights on-site, in N. Merriman (ed), Public archaeology, 132-144. London and New York, Routledge. Dean, D. 1996. Museum exhibition: theory and practice. London, Routledge Eugeni, R. 2009. La semiotica contemporanea. Una beve introduzione [online]. Disponibile all’indirizzo web: http://ruggeroeugeni.wordpress.com/papers-on-mediasemiotics/ (consultato il 10 Febbraio 2010) Fagan, G. 2006. Archaeological fantasies. London, Routledge . Falk, J. H. and Dierking, L. D. 1992. The museum experience. Washington D.C., Whalesback Books Falk, J. H. and Dierking, L. D. 2000. Learning from museums. Visitor experiences and the making of meaning. Walnut Creek, Alta Mira Press Ferrari, S. and Veltri, A. R. 2007 L’approccio esperienziale ai beni culturali come strumento di differenziazione dell’offerta turistica [online]. Disponibile all’indirizzo web: http://www.fizz.it/home/sites/default/files/allegati/ articoli/pdf_articoli_completi/2007-ferrari_veltri.pdf (consultato 30 Gennaio 2009) Gale, J. 2002. Are we perceived to be what we say we are? in M. Russel (ed), 2002. Digging holes in popular culture. Archaeology and science fiction, 1-7. Oxford, Oxbow Books. Gjedde, L. and Ingemann, B. 2008. Researching experiences: exploring processual and experimental methods in cultural analysis. Cambridge, Scholars Publishing Hall, M. 2009. Making the past present: Cinematic narratives of the middle ages, in R. Gilchrist and A. Reynolds (eds), 2009. Reflections: 50 years of medieval archaeology. Society for medieval archaeology monograph series, 489-511. Leeds, Maney Publishing. Hein, E. G. 1994. The constructivist museum, in HooperGreenhill E. (a c.), 1994. The educational role of the museum. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 73-79 Hein, E. G. 1998. Learning in the museum. London, Routledge Holtorf, C. 2005. From Stonehenge to Las Vegas. Archaeology as popular culture. Walnut Creek, California, AltaMira Press Holtorf, C. 2007. Archaeology is a brand: the meaning of archaeology in contemporary popular culture. Walnut Creek, California, AltaMira Press Hooper-Greenhill E. (ed), 1994a. The educational role of the museum. London and New York, Routledge Hooper-Greenhill E. 1994b. Who goes to museums? in E. Hooper-Greenhill, Museums and their visitors, 54-68. London, Routledge. Hooper-Greenhill E. 1997. Museum learners as active post-modernists: contextualizing constructivism. Journal of education in museums 18, 1-4. Jameson, J. H. 2004. Public archaeology in the United States, in N. Merriman (ed), Public archaeology, 21-58. London, Routledge. Kotler, N. and Kotler, P. 1998. Museum strategy and marketing. San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass. 480

C. Bonacchi: Dal progetto museologico allo studio sui visitatori. La mostra Da Petra a Shawbak the small screen – from fact to faction in the UK, in S. MacDonald and M. Rice (eds), Consuming ancient Egypt, 195-214. London, UCL Press. 2004. The comforts of unreason: the importance and relevance of alternative archaeology, in N. Merriman (ed), Public archaeology, 255-271. London and New York, Routledge. Schadla-Hall, T. 2006. Public archaeology in the twentyfirst century, in R. Layton, S. Shennan and P. Stone (eds), A future for archaeology: the past in the present, 75–82. London, UCL PressCavendish Publishing Shanks, M. 2005. Public archaeology/museology/conservation/ heritage, in C. Renfrew and P. Bahn (eds), Archaeology. The key concepts, 219-224. London, Routledge Swain, H. 2007. An introduction to museum archaeology. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press Vannini, G. (ed) 2007. Archeologia dell’insediamento crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania. Il progetto Shawbak. Firenze, All’Insegna del Giglio Vannini, G.2009. Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una frontiera, in G. Vannini and M. Nucciotti (eds), 2009. Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una Frontiera. Catalogo. Firenze, Giunti Victoria and Albert Museum (VandA), 2001. Visitor views on architecture and potential architecture exhibitions at the VandA [online]. Disponibile all’indirizzo web: http:// www.vam.ac.uk/res_cons/research/visitor/galleries/index. html (consultato il 10 Marzo 2007) Victoria and Albert Museum (VandA), 2002. What do Medieval and Renaissance really mean to people? Front end qualitative research. Disponibile all’indirizzo web: http://www.vam.ac.uk/res_cons/research/visitor/galleries/ index.html consultato il 10 Marzo 2007)

and the visitor experience: A comparison of three sites. Curator 45 (3), 183-198 Paynton, C. 2002. Public perception and ‘Pop Archaeology’: A survey of current attitudes toward televised archaeology. The SAA archaeological record. The magazine of the society for American archaeology 2 (2), 33-36 Pearce, S. M. 1990. Archaeological curatorship. London and New York, Leicester University Press Pekarik, A. J., Doering, Z. D. and Karns, D. A. 1999. Exploring satisfying experiences in museums. Curator 42 (2), 152-173 Pokotylo, D. and Guppy, N. Public opinion and archaeological heritage: views from outside the profession. American antiquity 64 (3), 400-416 Prince, D. and Schadla-Hall, T. 1987. On the public appeal of archaeology. Antiquity 61 (1987), 69-70 Ravelli, L. 2006. Museum texts: communication frameworks. London, Routledge Ramos, M. and Duganne, D. 2000. Exploring public perceptions and attitudes about archaeology [online]. Disponibile all’indirizzo web: http://www.saa.org/ Portals/0/SAA/pubedu/nrptdraft4.pdf (consultato il 31 Gennaio 2010) Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), 2007. Large print [Online]. Disponibile all’indirizzo web: http:// www.rnib.org.uk/professionals/accessibleinformation/ text/Pages/large_print.aspx (consultato il 10 Novembre 2007) Russell, M. (ed.) 2002. Digging holes in popular culture. Archaeology and science fiction. Oxford, Oxbow Books Schadla-Hall, T. 1999. Editorial, public archaeology. European journal of archaeology 2 (2), 147–158 Schadla-Hall, T. and Morris, G. 2003. Ancient Egypt on

Figura 1: Visitor study: intervista

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Trans - Jordan in 12th and 13th Centuries and the ‘Frontiers’ of Medieval Mediterranean

Figure 2-3: Esperienze di gioco

Figure 4-5: Didascalie ‘speciali’ in Braille

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CONVEGNO INTERNAZIONALE (Firenze 6-8 Novembre 2008)

LA TRANSGIORDANIA NEI SECOLI XII-XIII E LE ‘FRONTIERE’ DEL MEDITERRANEO MEDIEVALE TRANSJORDAN IN CENTURIES 12-13 AND THE ‘FRONTIERS’ OF MEDIEVAL MEDITERRANEAN PROGRAMMA 9,00-13,00; 15,00-19,00 6 Novembre Palazzo Vecchio (Salone ‘dei 500’)

9,00- Saluti: Eugenio Giani (Assessore alla Cultura del Comune di Firenze), Sandro Rogari (Prorettore Università di Firenze), Adnan Alsawair (Vicepresidente della commissione parlamentare Esteri e per il Turismo del Regno di Giordania), Ugo Caffaz (Dir. Attività Culturali, Regione Toscana), Franca Pecchioli (Preside Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università di Firenze), Giovanni Cipriani (Dip. di Studi St. e Geogr.)

S1

Il ‘test’ sud-giordano - The Southern Jordan test

S1a Una frontiera mediterranea A Mediterranean frontier

10,00 Chairman: Fawwaz Krayisheh (DoA of Jordan) 10,10: *Michele Piccirillo (Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, Jerusalem) Gli Arabi cristiani a difesa dei confini di Arabia e di Palestina 10,15: Guido Vannini (Università di Firenze) Archeologia di una frontiera mediterranea 10,35: Ariel S. Lewin (Università della Basilicata, Potenza) Le frontiere orientali dell’impero romano e le tribù arabe 10,55: Ignacio Arce (Missione archeologica spagnola in Giordania IPHE-AECID) Romans, Sarracens, Ghassanids and Umayyads. Transformation of the ‘Limes Arabicus’ from the 4th throughout the 8th C. AD. The case study of Qasr Hallabat in context 11,15: Franco Cardini (Istituto di Studi Umanistici) Frontiere e insediamenti vicino orientali fra documento e monumento 11,40: Pausa caffé

S1b Un’antica ‘terra di frontiera’ An ancient ‘frontier land’

11,50: Chairman: Paolo Liverani (Università di Firenze) 11,55: Stephan Schmid (Humboldt University of Berlin) From the Nabataeans to the Crusaders. The Transformation of the Wadi Farasa East at Petra 12,00: Patricia Bikai (ACOR, Amman)-Megan Perry (East Carolina University) The Abandonment of Petra. Remains of the Invisible: Post-Byzantine Archaeology of Petra’s North Ridge 12,20: Luigi Marino-Massimo Coli (Università di Firenze) Il ‘Limes’. I condizionamenti delle risorse locali nella difesa dei confini 12,40: Roberto Parenti-Piero Gilento (Università di Siena) Il ‘limes arabicus’ e le strutture materiali 13,00: Hug Kennedy (SOAS) Patterns of Settlement in Transgiordania between the Muslim Conquest and the Crusades 13,30: Buffet Palazzo Vecchio (Salone dei 200)

S1c L’età ‘crociato-ayyubide’ e la nascita di una frontiera ‘medievale’

The ‘Crusader-Ayyubid’ age and the birth of a ‘medieval’ frontier

15,00: Chairman: Franco Cardini (Istituto di Studi Umanistici) 15,10: Guido Vannini-Michele Nucciotti (Università di Firenze) Shawbak: strutture materiali di una frontiera 15,30: Giuseppe Ligato (Soc. for the Study of the Crusades and Latin East) Rinaldo di Châtillon, signore dell’Oltregiordano 15,50: Robin Brown (Ind. Scholar) Karak in the Crusader Period: The Premiere Castle of Oultrejourdain 16,10: Joseph Greene (Harvard University) From Jericho to Karak by Way of Zughar: Seafaring on the Dead Sea in the 12th-13th Centuries 16,30: Jerome Rose (University of Arkansas)-Ali Khwaleh (Yarmuk University) Biological Consequences of Migration as Evidenced by Skeletons from the Twelfth Century Frankish Castellum Vallis Moysis, Jordan (Al-Wu’ayra) 16,50: Basema Hamarneh (Università ‘Kore’ di Enna) Rural Settlements in Southern Transjordan Prior and Throughout the Ayyubid-Mamluk Periods 17,10: Pausa caffé

S1d La prima età mamelucca e il consolidarsi di una tradizione The Early Mamluk age and the strengthening of a tradition

17,20: Chairman: Jorge Lopez Quiroga (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid) 17,30: Bethany Walker (Grand Valley State University) Transjordan as the Mamluk Frontier: Imperial Conceptions of Authority and Space 17,50: Johnny De Meulemeester (Ghent University -Reem Al-Shqour - Islamic Aqaba Project) The Castles of Aqaba 18,00: Hani Falahat (Dept of Antiquities of Jordan) The Cultural Role of Shoubak Castle during the Medieval Periods 18,20: Francesca Dotti (Ecole Pratique Des Hautes Etudes, Paris) Qal’at al-Shawbak: studio dei dati epigrafici di epoca islamica 18,40: Cedric Devais, Ludovic Decock, Sylvain Vondra, (IFPO) Trois campagnes de prospections dans l’hinterland de Shawbak de la mission archèologique de l’Institut Français de Proche Orient (IFPO) 19,00: Mohamed Al-Marahleh (DoA of Jordan) Il memoriale di Abu Sulaiman Al Darani 20,30: Cena 7 Novembre

S2

Un Mediterraneo ‘Medievale’ - A ‘medieval’ Mediterranean

S2a

Archeologia dei castelli nell’Oriente mediterraneo Castles of the Mediterranean orient

9,00: Chairman: Zbigniew Fiema (Helsinki University) 9,10: Adrian Boas (University of Haifa) Montfort Castle Project: Developments and Future Objectives 9,30: Ronnie Ellenblum (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Borders, Frontiers and Medieval Defense 9,50: Sauro Gelichi (Università ‘Ca’ Foscari di Venezia) Harim: un castello di frontiera tra Crociati e Musulmani 10,10: Cristina Tonghini (Università ‘Ca’ Foscari di Venezia) Il caso di Shayzar, Siria: ‘castello’ o città fortificata 10,30: Stella Patitucci Uggeri (Università di Cassino) I castelli di frontiera del Principato di Antiochia 10,50: Pausa caffé

S2b Castelli e frontiere mediterranee: archeologia, storia, architettura

Mediterranean castles and Mediterranean frontiers: archaeology, history, architecture

11,00 Chairman: Michele Nucciotti (Università di Firenze) 11,10: Juan José Larrea (Universidad del Pais Vasco) Des barbares de Dar al-Islam : le rôle d’al-Andalus dans la structuration des sociétés chré tiennes périphériques (VIIIe-Xe siècles)

11,30: Josè Enrique Ruiz Domenec (Universitat Autònoma de Barcellona- UAB) Considerazioni sulla frontiera nella Spagna medievale 11,50: Marco Bini-Cecilia Luschi (Università di Firenze) Motta e chemise, due archetipi dei castelli crociati 12,10: Pierre Drap-Julien Seinturier-Gilles Gaillard (CNRS-LSIS , Marseille) Rilievo e documentazione archeologica: un GIS basato sulla fotogrammetria per l’analisi stratigrafica degli elevati 12,30: Pietro Ruschi (Università di Pisa) Il ‘castello’ di Shawbak, fra restauro e conservazione 12,50: Oystein La Bianca (Andrews University) Great and Little Traditions of Transjordan: The View from Tall Hisban during Medieval Times 13,10: Amer Bdour (Dept of Antiquities of Jordan)-Mansur Shquirat (al-Hussein Bin Talal University) The 19th century villages in the Shawbak Region: Shamakh as a case study 13,30: Buffet

S2c Insediamento e confini: una casistica archeologica dell’Italia medievale Settlement and borders: archaeological case studies from medieval Italy

15,00: Chairman: Letizia Pani Ermini (Università La Sapienza di Roma) 15,10: Francesca R. Stasolla (Università ‘La Sapienza’ di Roma) Attraverso le frontiere: gli itinerari di pellegrinaggio per la conoscenza del Mediterraneo medievale 15,30: Alessandra Molinari (Università ‘Tor Vergata’ di Roma) La Sicilia tra XII e XIII secolo: conflitti “interetnici” e frontiere interne 15,50: Marco Milanese-Franco G.R.Campus (Università di Sassari) Archeologia e storia delle frontiere del Giudicato di Torres nella Sardegna medievale 16,10: Philippe Pergola-Daniel Istria (CNRS) La Corse du haut Moyen Age: une marche-frontière au coeur de la Tyrrhénienne 16,30: Fabio Redi (Università dell’Aquila) L’Abruzzo come frontiera culturale dal VI al XIV secolo. Fra Goti e Bizantini, Spoleto e Benevento, Normanni e Papato 16,50: Elisabetta De Minicis (Università della Tuscia) Dati materiali e influenze culturali da “luoghi di frontiera” della Tuscia meridionale 17,10: Pausa caffé

S2d Il confine medievale come struttura storica The medieval border as historical structure

17,20: Chairman: Lech Lecejewicz (PAN, Breslavia) 17,30: Francesco Salvestrini (Università di Firenze) La scrittura del confine. Alcuni esempi dall’Italia comunale

17,50: Giovanna Bianchi (Università di Siena) Spazi ‘orientati’ e confinati tra signorie fondiarie e territoriali nella Toscana meridionale 18,10: Chiara Molducci (Università di Firenze) Uno spazio di confine: la Romania appenninica dalle radici bizantine alle origini della signoria comitale dei Guidi 18,30: Andrea Vanni Desideri-Nathalie Dufour-Patrizia Framarin (Régione Autonome Vallée d’Aoste) Nascita di una frontiera alpina. Il Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo 18,45: Fawzi Zayadine (DoA of Jordan) Visitors to Aaron’s tomb south of Petra from the 13th century to modern times 21,00: Cena

8 Novembre - Palazzo Strozzi (SUM)

S3

Tavola rotonda - Round table

10,00-13,00: Chairman: Mario Citroni / Aldo Schiavone (SUM) Guido Vannini (Università di Firenze), Khairieh Amr (Museo Nazionale della Giordania) , Ignacio Arce (Miss. arch. spagn. in Giordania IPHE-AECID), Lech Lecejewicz (P.A.N, Breslavia), Paolo Peduto (Università di Salerno), Dennys Pringle (Università di Cardiff), Jorge Lopez Quiroga (UAM) 11,30-12,00: Discussione 1 12,30-12,50: Discussione 2 13,30: Buffet

S4

Programma di chiusura – Closing programme

Palazzo della Signoria – Uffizi – Corridoio Vasariano – Palazzo Pitti

15,00: Oltre i ‘confini’ di una città rinascimentale. Dal Palazzo della Signoria alla Reggia di Palazzo Pitti: il ‘corridoio vasariano’ con Pietro Ruschi (Università di Udine) Palazzo Pitti (‘Saletta da ballo’)

17,00: Cocktail di presentazione della mostra internazionale ‘Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una frontiera’ Cocktail for the presentation of the International exhibition ‘From Petra to Shawbak. Archaeology of a Frontier’ con Chiara Bonacchi (Università di Firenze)

Il Convegno Archeologia dei castelli nell’Europa angioina (secoli XIII-XV). Profili archeologici della società feudale europea e mediterranea organizzato dall’Università di Salerno – in collaborazione con la Regione Campania - nei giorni a seguire (Salerno, 10-12 novembre) è stato programmato in parallelo (ne sono appena usciti gli Atti: ‘Archeologia dei castelli nell’Europa angioina (secoli XIII-XV)’, Atti del Convegno internazionale di Salerno (10-12 novembre 2008), a cura di P. Peduto, A. Santoro, Firenze, All’Insegna del Giglio 2011). Le parole-chiave suggerite per il Convegno furono: *Transgiordania / Terrasanta crociato-ayyubide / Mediterraneo medievale / frontiera; *Spazio (territorio-paesaggio-risorse)/tempo (‘strutture’ diacroniche, culture)/identità locali; *Archeologia - storia / architettura - restauro / nuove tecnologie - comunicazione. Comune di Firenze: Cerimoniale: Natale Mancioli, Paola Colella; Assessorato alla cultura: Emanuela Sforzini, Stefania Sacconi, Antonella Zagli; tipografia: Stefano Magni, Renzo Cencetti; Servizi tecnici: Sergio Tellini; Servizi informatici: Marco Masi. Regione Toscana: Ufficio Cultura: Veronica Campinoti; SUM: logistica ben curata da Francesco Giorgetti. Marchesi de’ Frescobaldi S.r.l: Francesca Poggiali, Nicoletta Piccini, Deborah Domeniconi (ospitalità) al castello di Nipozzano, cocktail in Palazzo Pitti di presentazione della mostra Il servizio di catering è stato organizzato in modo eccellente dall’Ufficio Diritto allo Studio: Dir. Enrico Maria Peruzzi, Pres. Marco Spinelli e Silvia Fissi, Mafalda Viviano. Fra le iniziative di accoglienza, la collaborazione del Museo del figurino storico di Calenzano, anche con la realizzazione del ‘Fiorino’ offerto ai relatori (Fabrizio Trallori, Angelica Degasperi).

488

Firenze, Palazzo della Signoria, ‘Salone dei 500’; Giovedì 6 Novembre 2008: apertura del Convegno.

489