Posted on 11/05/2018 1:36:20 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Classical scholars from the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" at the WWU have explored a rare bathing facility in southeastern Turkey from the time of the Roman Empire, and a magnificent basilica from Christian late antiquity... says classical scholar and excavation director Engelbert Winter... "The bath, decorated with splendid mosaics, was built in the 2nd or 3rd century AD, when public baths in Syria, unlike in the Latin West, were exceedingly rare. However, the bath was no longer in operation from as early as the 4th century AD". People left the town as a result of wars and economic crises... The excavation team has been conducting research since 2001 in ancient Doliche, which in the time of the Roman Empire housed the sanctuary of the prominent city god Jupiter Dolichenus. Up until 2016, the researchers published findings from all epochs of the 2,000-year history of the place of worship. Since last year, they have concentrated on the neighbouring urban area... At first, Doliche changed dramatically through its integration into the Roman Empire. "The bathing facility shows how Roman customs were adopted and shaped the townscape". Comprising around 2,000 square metres, the bathing facility was of considerable size. "It has the sequence typical of Roman times: cold, warm and hot baths". An approximately 150-square-metre room with swimming pool has now been partially uncovered, along with parts of the heating system under the floor. The finds, as well as mosaics, date the facility to the 2nd to 3rd century AD. When the bath fell into disuse in the course of Christianization, the lime and marble building material was processed in a large lime kiln, and then used for new constructions.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
Remains of underfloor heating in the area of the bath. The supports made of tiles carried the floor, with warm air circulating in the space between [Credit: Peter Jülich]
hypercaust
Also used instead of hypocaust; that is, a reference to "underfloor heating".
The air was heated by a furnace (outside the rooms) and once it had circulated underneath the flagstone floors, it escaped via flues in the walls of the rooms, or spaces in the walls, for heat to travel upward. [WordInfo]
I'd resisted posting this article, because I thought it might lead to gratuitous insults of modern Syrians and Turks. I'm sure we're all above all that. Or just make sure the shots are really, really funny.
Interesting...
Probably a popular gift back then was fullonum on a funem.
A fun gift.
That’s gonna need to be completely re-grouted. New tiles too - I’d go with ceramic this time.
;^)
And that was the LAST time they bathed ... </gratutuous insult>
In the days before chlorine those baths must have been Petri dishes!
:^D
Hilarious! I looked that up to find out it was soap (fullonum) on a rope (funem.
That must have been a concern, for sure, "pee soup", typhus, but hey, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. The Empire lasted from the Roman conquest of Ostia to the Fall of Constantinople. Mary Beard discusses bath hygiene in one of her Roman vids (look on YT).
Interestingly, the old Roman way of bathing took hold among the Turks, to the extent that the term "Turkish baths" crept into the idiom.
[long pause]
And that was the least of what might crawl up into the idiom if you tried using one today.
Glad someone did! :^) Now it's time for...
:^) I just give thanks for online translation.
That's a little too close for home nowadays for any Hollywood writer to use. :^)
In ancient times it was an important crossroads. After Christianization of the Empire it became a Bishopric with a basilica. During the wars between the Byzantines and Muslims and later Crusades it was in a border zone fought over by both sides until the ultimate Muslim conquest, after which the burg went into decline. Apparently, bathing went out of style, too.
I think I went to school with Bishop Rick.
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![Remains of underfloor heating in the area of the bath. The supports made of tiles carried the floor, with warm air circulating in the space between [Credit: Peter Jülich]](https://media.eurekalert.org/multimedia_prod/pub/web/184570_web.jpg)
