Archaeological studies on Graeco-Roman and Late Antique housing in Egypt . Analysis of ground plan typology, locking-systems and accessibility, and a comparative study of domestic bread ovens

Abstract

This dissertation concentrates on houses in Graeco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt. To date, this topic has been considered mainly from a papyrological point of view. The existing literature remains very unsatisfactoryon the archaeological level and is descriptive rather than analytical and chronologically and geographically restricted. This dissertation attempts to offer a new and analytical approach towards the housing of a period that covers 11 centuries. The basis is a corpus of 284 houses from excavations conducted in different regions of Egypt. The research concentrates on four aspect of housing culture, which are analysed based on an exhaustive literature study. Each study approaches a different aspect ofthe daily living circumstances of the common Egyptian from the Ptolemaic Period to the Arab conquest. Each study poses specific questions and has specific aims. Therefore, they are presented separately. Study 1: Typological and comparative study of the ground plans. On the basis of the houses from Karanis (Fayum oasis), the plans of other sites are analysed. Their popularity, regional and chronological spread are investigated. An important point in this study tracing the origin of the different plans : were they Egyptian, Greek, Roman or the result of a cultural and melting pot? Study 2: An archaeological study of locking-systems and keys. This study aims at answering the question how the houses and their rooms could be locked. On the basis of a corpus of 134 locks and158 keys from all over Egypt a typology is established and the different mechanisms are studied. This enables to functionally relate key types to certain locking systems and vice versa. Attention is also given to their geographical and chronological spread. On the basis of the location of locks on the ground plans it is investigated whether a certain pattern can be deduced in the locking of certain rooms and from which side a door was locked. Finally, on the basis of frequent notifications of housebreaking in papyri, it is deduced how efficient these locking systems were. Study 3: Access-analysis of the ground plans. This study aimsat investigating on the one hand the accessibility of the houses as experienced by a visitor (visitor-inhabitant relation) and on the other hand the internal communications between the different spatial entities (inhabitant-inhabitant relation). The following aspects are investigated: the privacy the rooms offered, the transitional function of the rooms within the internal communication, the social control over the main entrance, the amount of control spatial entities exert, the structural depth ofthese entities within the house, the identification of main and minor transitional spaces and the potential ability to lock certain entities. Starting from Hillier and Hanson#s social-anthropological method, a new approach has been developed which is applicable to the archaeological source material under study. In the final section a specific analysis is made of the accessibility of the largest ground floor room. Through the introduction of additional architectural and papyrological information, anattempt has been made to identify the function of this room. Study 4: A comparative study on the construction and use of the bread oven. This study is not directly related to the ones just discussed but treatsan essential aspect of housing culture in this period. Bread ovens wereimportant in the daily reality and linked with the houses. The aim of this study is to investigate, on the basis of a large corpus (113 specimens) from all over Egypt, which types occurred and how they were used. The study also attempts to look whether types are chronologically distinctand whether there was a technological evolution from the New Kingdom onwards.