Overview
Bathing culture was one of the pillars of Roman society and bathhouses are one of the largest categories of a particular type of construction excavated in the Roman world. The large number of surviving remains and their regional variety make bathhouses vital for the study of the local societies in the Roman-Byzantine period. This book presents the archaeological evidence of close to 200 Roman-style bathhouses from the region of Iudaea/Syria-Palaestina and Provincia Arabia, part of the provinces of the Roman East, constructed from the reign of Herod the Great (second half of the 1st century BCE) to the end of the Umayyad rule (mid-8th century CE). The bathing complexes of the Roman, Byzantine, and the Early Islamic periods, ranging from large public thermae to small bathing suites, are for the first time analysed as unified data with an unprecedented amount of detail, considering a variety of parameters - from dating and setting, through building techniques and materials, to plans and decorations. Typologies of the bathhouses and their components are supplemented by exploration of the socio-cultural insight provided by this particular type of construction. The historical narrative of the regional bathing facilities is updated in the light of new information. The full raw data used for the study is provided in the expandable open-access online database.
Full Product Details
Author: Arleta Kowalewska
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Imprint: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 9781789256574
ISBN 10: 1789256577
Pages: 176
Publication Date: 05 June 2021
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.
Reviews
All in all this is a sound study applying the results of the latest scholarship on Roman bathhouses to a particular region and considering all of the obvious questions on the basis of a substantial collection of buildings. The online catalogue especially will become an invaluable help to further scholarship on the subject and showcases the extremely high density of bathhouses in the study region, which is remarkable in itself. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
Author Information
Arleta Kowalewska is Research Fellow at the Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, and since 2016 she has co-directed the Hippos-Sussita Excavation Project. She completed her PhD at the University of Haifa in 2020. Her main research interest is Roman architecture, with a particular focus on bathhouses and masons' marks.
