House II Earthquake
Jones (2021) re-evaluates earthquake attributions that
have been linked to the Urn Tomb area at Petra, arguing
that a key chronological pillar—al-Zantur I Spätromisch II
ceramics—should date at least a century later than the
traditional 363–419 CE range. If this revised dating is
correct, it weakens the case for assigning destruction at
ez-Zantur and other Petra contexts to the 419 CE
Monaxius and Plinta Quake, including a structure outside
the Urn Tomb (House II) and Structure I in the
NEPP area. On this
basis, Jones suggests that a later event is more likely,
specifically a late-6th-century CE earthquake such as the
Inscription At Areopolis Quake.
Within the Urn Tomb complex, earlier interpretations had
proposed earthquake destruction in multiple
loci, including
damage attributed to a 363 event in a
cave below the tomb
and in House II. House II was then partly rebuilt, and by
the 6th century it was reportedly being “used as a quarry”
(Zeitler 1993:256–257, as discussed by
Jones 2021). Kolb’s proposal of a second destruction in
419 relied largely on analogy with al-Zantur I, but
Jones notes that the archaeological evidence for House II
cannot be independently evaluated because only a
preliminary report has appeared. Jones further raises an
alternative historical explanation for a 5th-century shift
in House II’s use: it may relate to the modification of the
Urn Tomb for use as a church in 446 (Bikai 2002:271, as
summarized by
Jones 2021), rather than requiring a discrete 419
earthquake destruction horizon.