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Monks across the desert. Hermitic life in Christian Petra A new interpretation of the pre-Crusader phase of the site follows from the identification of a pre-Crusader rock-cut chapel. 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 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.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’ayrain the topography of Petra and contribute to the knowledge of a ‘minor’and underestimated aspect of the town in early Christian time. In fact, these monastic-hermitic settlements located in segregated spots of the peri-urbanarea, 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 rural area of Aluniş-Colţi-Nucuand Bozioru, Buzău region is the centre of a rock-hewn vestige complex which spreads across the entire northern part of Buzău County. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, this area was home to a large monastic community, concentrated around the rock-hewn vestiges. The hermitages which existed there have confronted with harsh geographic conditions and endless conflicts with local landowners, therefore many of them were decommissioned or have been moved. Having also disappeared from historical documents, some hermitages have vanished completely and their old locations are currently difficult to identify. The present study aims to establish some theoretical aspects regarding the rock-hewn vestiges, as well as the context in which the monastic life appeared and to reunite all the known information about the lost hermitages in order to have a better understanding of their distribution across time and space.