A new session of research started in 2011 seeking to match maximum preservation of the site to maximum archaeological productivity, aiming at reconstructing the artificial modifications of the landscape, as the result of the changing needs of the inhabitants. The following is a summary of the results achieved by the mission “Medieval Petra” by the University of Florence on the site of the Crusader castle of al-Wu’ayra, pointing out its wide chronology (Nabataean to Late Islamic) and the radical changes in the landscape there. In fact, these monastic-hermitic settlements located in segregated spots of the peri-urban area, surviving the abandonment of the major churches of the town, can help to understand in a more realistic way the articulated forms of Christian presence and its duration until the late 19th century. The new program of research which started in 2017 aims at registering, surveying, and studying various hermitic installations around the perimeter of the town in order to contextualize this early medieval phase of al-Wu’ayra in the topography of Petra and contribute to the knowledge of a ‘minor’ and underestimated aspect of the town in early Christian time. The Crusaders profited by the presence of a Christian fortified settlement, easy to transform into a military installation by a simple addition of a number of buildings, which are identifiable by a chrono-typology of building techniques. In particular, in early mediaeval time, a monastic community at al-Wu’ayra and a number of hermitic cells surrounding a central fortified coenobium preceded the later military castle keep. The new interpretation of the pre-Crusader phase of the site follows from the identification of a pre-Crusader rock-cut chapel.

Petra smith tower