Nisa
The Red Building
The Red Building, which earned its name because of the red plasters found in the inner rooms and on the façade, has been entirely excavated over the course of six campaigns. In most recent years, the Italian mission’s efforts in Nisa were concentrated on the monumental complex whose importance is evident from its size (over 40 m on each side), from its position (overlooking the central courtyard) and by several architectural and decorative features (stone friezes, coloured plasters). However, while the importance this building must have possessed is easy to imagine, recognising its specific purpose is more difficult; the building’s architectural features generically suggest that it was used for ceremonial purposes, like all other buildings in the central sector of the citadel.
2000-2001 Campaigns
The resumption of excavations in the sector north of the Round Hall identified poorly preserved beaten clay structures on top of the Arsacid structures starting with the first levels, just under ground level. From the beginning, it was obvious that, in addition to Parthian buildings, structures built in later periods, presumably in Islamic times, were also being brought to light.
The walls of the Islamic complex are made of beaten clay (pakhsa); the use of a mixed technique contemplating the use of bricks (30x30x5-6 cm) alternated with pakhsa blocks was observed only sporadically. A good part of the structures was built directly on the Parthian walls, and it is likely that some of the oldest walls were reused (as the base of the walls’ grade plane) because they were still in good conditions. The entire area where the Medieval building was erected was prepared for the complex’s construction: the filling – possibly artificial – of several rooms and the vertical laying of several rows of reused Parthian bricks attest to a construction that was planned in order to create a solid platform on which the Islamic complex’s walls could rest.
The floor plan of the Medieval building comprises a rectangular central courtyard measuring approximately 13 x 10 metres, overlooked by three iwans to the north, west and south. On the east side, research has uncovered two rectangular rooms and a long corridor facing north and south. Fragmented structures to the sides of the iwans attest to the presence of rooms and structures all around the central courtyard, whose dismal conditions unfortunately did not make an analytical survey possible.
The dating of the Islamic complex is based exclusively on small ceramic fragments that would place the building between the 12th and 16th centuries.
2002-2003 Campaigns
The 2002-2003 excavation campaigns almost completely brought to light the very large (approximately 42 m on each side) Red Building, whose walls are preserved up to a height of approximately four metres.
The Arsacid building is made from mud bricks, but some of its architectural details reveal the special care and importance it was always given.
It overlooks the citadel’s large central courtyard and has a quadrangular shape, characterized by a large central hall with 4 columns surrounded on three sides by rooms and corridors and preceded, on the north side, by a front portico.
The courtyard’s elevated portico was accessible through a stone staircase with three steps, at the centre of the façade. It measured approximately 13 x 17 m and was delimited to the west and east by two projecting rooms (24 and 27); it was decorated with a frieze of astragal and grooved stone slabs. Finally, four stone bases supporting wooden columns rested on the portico.
Two entrances opened at the sides of the façade, which led to side rooms 24 and 27. They protrude beyond the building’s perimeter by approximately 8 metres and constitute the side wings of the elevated portico. The two rooms, that were closed in a late stage of the building’s use, had plastered walls. The lower part of the walls was decorated with red plaster, which was more resilient than simple white plaster and was obtained with a preparation containing clay, sand and gravel.
The building’s façade ran behind the portico; it consisted of projections and recesses that however were probably concealed by the plaster finish. An exceptionally well-preserved second frieze made from sandstone slabs ran along the base of this façade wall. The original ochre and red colours, which, alternated with the stone’s natural grey-green colour livened the façade, may still be seen on several slabs. These colours were probably also used on the upper part of the walls, as attested by the fragments of coloured plaster.
The entrance to the building, almost at the centre of the façade, led, through a vestibule, to the central hall: a large quadrangular room with four columns with stone bases and anchor rings and wooden shafts. The remains of traces of colour and gold leaf on wooden fragments (of the columns and of the roof’s beams) give only a pale idea of how lavish this great hall’s decorations were; its walls, however, were smooth and whitewashed. Only the room’s west wall, probably the main one, revealed the presence of niches. The room’s floor, as in most of the rooms of the complexes in Nisa, is simply beaten clay and covered by a thin layer of plaster. Curiously, the large central hall with the columns is not connected to the rooms that delimit it on the east and west sides. In addition to the façade’s vestibule (and the south corridor), the only other space connected to it was room 21, which must have been especially important.
In fact, room 21 displays a peculiar coloured plaster finish (red on the
walls, as in the portico’s side rooms) that is also applied to the floor’s surface (here the plaster was ochre). A large half niche was recessed into the room’s west wall: this may suggest that the room served a cultural (or anyhow specific) purpose.
All of the other rooms along the east and west sides of the building were not connected to the central room. They are characterized by access from the outer corridors and their sizes vary, but they are anyhow quite small. Room 15 of the west wing stands out, once again because of the distinctive decorations of its walls. it is a small quadrangular room that does not contain any special structures or installations, apart from a niche in its north wall. However, what set it apart from the other rooms was the lavish decorations of its walls, which comprised a red band on the lower half and coloured bands on the top half.
2004-2005 Campaigns
The 2004-2005 excavation campaigns entirely uncovered the east, west and south corridors of the Red Building. It is now clear that entrances from the outside, in almost all cases off-centre, opened onto each corridor. The stratigraphy inside the rooms highlighted the presence of two or three main phases of frequentation that roughly correspond to those observed in the complex’s inner rooms. The most recent missions sounded the northeast corner of the building’s façade, where restorations and reconstructions that were probably made during the final phases of the complex. The most significant element is given by the building’s south façade, which is also distinguished by a fine red plaster finishing.
The collaboration with the National Museum of Ashkhabad has also made possible a parallel project of documentation, analysis and restoration of the main classes of materials from the new and old excavations in Old Nisa in these most recent campaigns and simultaneously with the excavation. A team of specialists peformed chemical and physical analyses (spectrophotometric X-ray) on possible traces of colourings in the artefacts: marble and clay statues, rhyta and architectural decorative elements.
2006 Campaign
The 2006 campaign saw the conclusion of work on the ground in the Red Building’s sector. The main excavation operations concerned the area in front of the building’s two façades, to the north and south.
The works enabled the layout of the fronts of the lateral overhangs, on which restorations and reconstructions performed over the long period in which the Arsacid building was used are visible, to be better defined. A temporary shelter dug directly into the ground, which most likely dates to the late Medieval phases of the site’s frequentation, was also brought to light.
The excavation established that an ample uncovered area between the citadel’s fortification walls and the nearby Round Hall extended in front of the south façade. An ostrakon inscribed in Pahlavi and several fragments of a stucco eagle that was probably part of the inside decorations of the Red Building, as also attested by other similar findings during previous campaigns, originate from this sector.
Another limited sounding was made at the boundary between the Red Building and the Tower Building, where the walls belonging to the latter’s complex rest against the building site examined by the Italian expedition.
The excavations were complemented by a geophysical survey carried out with an electromagnetometer and a magnetometer on almost all of the citadel’s inner area by experts from the University of Siena together with the Centro Scavi di Torino.
In the ongoing acquisition campaign, the EM83 electromagnetic probe was interfaced to a portable GPS through an Allegro handheld computer; this way it was possible to georeference each individual point of acquisition, an essential basis for accurately mapping the area. The final objective is that of obtaining two maps of the area under investigation (one of its electrical conductivity and one of its magnetic susceptibility), in order to then reconstruct the ground’s properties and to identify the anomalous areas ascribable to possible archaeological objectives to study in future campaigns.