The Crusader Palace

In this building, the east and west walls—the latter partially corresponding to the castle’s inner enclosure—and the vaulted ceiling date back to the Crusader period, while the wall closing off the northern side was built during the Ayyubid era.
Archaeologists reached this conclusion by analyzing the masonry and identifying construction techniques characteristic of each historical phase.

_{To learn more:}

• ^{Nucciotti, Michele. “Analisi stratigrafiche degli elevati: primi risultati.” In Archeologia dell’insediamento crociato-ayyubide in Transgiordania. Il progetto Shawbak, edited by Guido Vannini, 27-55. Firenze: All’Insegna del Giglio, 2007.}
• ^{Nucciotti, Michele, and Elisa Pruno. “Great and Little Traditions in medieval Petra and Shawbak: contextualizing local building industry and pottery production in cc. 12-13.” Archeologia Medievale 43 (2016): 309-320.}

The excavation of the Crusader Palace revealed at least five distinct phases in the building’s history: an earlier, likely pre-Crusader phase; a Crusader phase; two Ayyubid phases related to the construction and use of the monumental staircase; and a Mamluk phase, later modified by subsequent interventions.

_{For further details:}

• ^{Ranieri, Raffaele. The Wheel Thrown Pottery in Southern Bilad al-Sham (12th-13th c.): production and consumption. The case-study of Shawbak (Southern Jordan): 51-58. Sesto Fiorentino (FI): All’insegna del Giglio, 2024.}
• ^{Pruno, Elisa, and Raffaele Ranieri. “Medieval Pottery in Southern Jordan: The case study of HMW in Shawbak castle.” Studies in History and Archaeology of Jordan 13 (2019): 223-230.}
• ^{Pruno, Elisa, and Raffaele Ranieri. “Shawbak all’arrivo di Baldovino: i contesti ceramici.” In Atti del IX Convegno nazionale di Archeologia Medievale, edited by Marco Milanese, 339-42. Firenze: All’Insegna del Giglio, 2015.}
• ^{Pruno, Elisa, and Raffaele Ranieri. “Ceramiche da cucina nella Transgiordania meridionale (secc. XII-XIII): l’osservatorio stratigrafico di Shawbak.” Temporis Signa: Archeologia della tarda antichità e del medioevo 11 (2016): 37-46.}

Evidence of occupation prior to the arrival of the Crusaders is also confirmed by the discovery of substantial quantities of so-called “residual” ceramic fragments—materials found within Crusader and Ayyubid layers that actually originate from older, underlying strata.

_{To learn more:}

• ^{Ranieri, Raffaele. “I materiali ‘pre-crociati’ di Shobak: il problema della residualità nei contesti ceramici.” In Studi in onore di Guido Vannini, edited by Michele Nucciotti, and Elisa Pruno, 501-514. Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2024.}