THE POST-CLASSICAL GREEK AGORA - (C.P.) Dickenson On the Agora. The Evolution of a Public Space in Hellenistic and Roman Greece (c. 323 bc – 267 ad). (Mnemosyne Supplements 398.) Pp. xviii + 480, b/w & colour ills, maps. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2017. Cased, €175, US$194. ISBN: 978-90-04-32671-2.

Abstract

The lack of baths and latrines is probably related to the question of water supplyas the whole insula had only two cisterns, which were probably shared. It is possible that the large bath complex at the Acropolis Palace was publicly available and that there were public latrines at Jebel Khalid, although toilet vessels must have been used for private provision. Chapter 14 analyses the activities that took place in the houses on the basis of the material evidence, and is followed by a chapter with concluding remarks. There is ample evidence of processing grains (basalt implements and grinders, pebble pounders and querns usually in the courtyard) in the houses and the large deposits of loomweights in three houses (South-West House, NorthEast House 1 and NorthWest House 1) indicate that there was significant weaving activity in the insula. None of these activities were, however, carried out on an industrial scale. The architecture of the Jebel Khalid houses presents an amalgamation of local and Hellenistic traditions. The three-room oikos suite is the most prominent feature and seems to have been an oriental influencethe Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian tradition of the broad room with its associated group of roomsadapted to Hellenistic function and taste, evidenced by the Masonry Style decoration in the House of the Painted Frieze. From a well-organised military outpost in the middle of the third century BCE (phase A), with optimum orientation and large-sized rooms, the insula flourished after 150 BCE (phase B)a period of major renovation in many areas within the insula, including the Masonry Style decoration. This activity at Jebel Khalid is roughly contemporary with the revised dates for the urbanisation of Dura-Europos as well as the expansion of Beirut and follows the creation of a new quarter in Antioch by Antiochus IV. After the end of the second century (phase B+), a downgrading of living standards (smaller houses and rooms) takes place. The low provision of water storage, which required large service staff, was probably one of the reasons for the abandonment of the site along with the protracted demise of the Seleucid empire. This publication is an invaluable contribution to Hellenistic housing studies, presenting a full and detailed account of the excavation results of the insula as well as a concise analysis of the architecture of the houses that elucidates their cultural significance and historical implications of their evolution over time.