The Archaeology of a Byzantine City

Bathing in Ephesus

Introduction

The Harbour baths, or Baths of the Emperor, were constructed in the late 1st century AD under the emperor Domition.

The Harbour baths, the Harbour Gymnasium and the Xystoi were destroyed by earthquakes somewhere around the mid-4th century and only the baths were rebuilt.

It is uncertain, however, when the baths fell out of use, as they are located within both the Hellenistic and Byzantine walls.

Image of the remains of the Varius / Scholastikia baths at Ephesus

(flickr.com/ photos/10429032@N08)

Image of the Harbour baths (http://www.ephesustoursguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/harbour_bath_ephesus.png)

In the Hadrianic period, the theater-gymnasium containing a bath complex was built adjacent to the Harbour bath complex in the east. Some minor reconstructions were carried out already in the second half of the 2nd century. Some work was likewise carried out in the 4th century: however it remains uncertain if the complex was still in use as a place for public bathing.

The bath-complex of the East-Gymnasium can be dated to the early 2nd century based on its ground plan. Because of the lack of archaeological research carried out at this bath, it is unclear what happened to the complex after the 2nd century.

This is unfortunate, for this complex is the only one of the gymnasium-bath complexes that was located in the far end of the Hellenistic walled-area and well outside of the area surrounded by the Byzantine city walls.

Plan of Ephesus. The red line represents the Hellenistic city wall, the yellow line follows the early Byzantine wall around the Ayasoluk Hill, and the green line follows the Byzantine city wall (After Noedl 1997).

It is not known when the baths lost their function and thus if the baths were still in use after the Byzantine walls were built in the 7th century. With the construction of the Byzantine walls, the Scholastikia baths were secluded from the walled area of the city.

Although not public, an interesting bath-complex was found in the Byzantine Governor’s palace that was built in the 5th/6th century. This bath-complex is known as the Sarhos Hammam.

Conclusion

Summarizing, public bathing in Ephesus happening from the 2nd century until the around the 5th century, is attested to rather well archaeologically. However, from the 5th century onwards, the archaeological evidence becomes very thin and eventually dies out altogether until the construction of the Isabey Hammam in the 14th century.

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The youngest of the four complexes, is the Vedius gymnasium, built to the north of the Stadion between 147-149 AD.

A large-scale rebuilding took place over the course of the 5th century. The complex was destroyed by a great fire in the middle of the 6th century and was never rebuilt.

Already before the fire, the complex had lost at least some of its function. Evidenced by the integration of the north façade into the Byzantine city walls as they were built.

Finally, the building was sporadically used for housing purposes until up in the 8th century (image from the Ephesus Foundation)..

In the first half of the 2nd Century A.D. ,P. Quintilius Varius Valens, an Ephesian citizen, had a public bath built on the northern side of the Kuretenstrasse: the Variusbaths. In the first half of the 6th century, the baths – at that point no longer in use - were rebuilt by a wealthy Christian named Scholastikia using spolia from the Prytaneion.

After the reconstructions, the baths were named the Scholastikia baths. These baths differ slightly from traditional Imperial baths, for the cold bath was now made up of a single basin and attention shifted towards the warm rooms and hot baths (image source: flickr.com/ photos/10429032@N08).

Back of a bronze mirror, depicting two women bathing before a statuette of Venus dated to the 2nd century AD. Original context unknown (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts).

Mosaic from Sabratha, Libya, showing bathing sandals, three strigils and the inscription., the text stating: SALVOM LAVISSE: bathing is beneficial (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/92/ee/a1/92eea1a4341843451dc2cb95dd5e9398.jpg)

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Four large bath-gymnasium complexes are known to have been built in Ephesus during the Roman imperial period (displayed in red) together with 2 other large bathing complexes (in blue ). From the Byzantine period, no public baths are known, but a private bathing complex had been present in the Byzantine Palace (in orange). Finally, the Isabey Hammam, an early ottoman complex, is known (in green).