The So-Called Villa Dionysos at Knossos

Abstract

The excavated part of the building known as the Villa Dionysos consists of a peristyle court with rooms on three sides. The rooms have fine mosaic floors, found in a remarkable state of preservation. The excavator, Michael Gough, believed that the building was an isolated structure intended for the practice of Dionysiac cult, and he interpreted his finds in the light of this conviction. After his last season of work in 1971, his views were expressed in a short report (Catling 1972, 21–2). Gough died in 1973 having published no further details of his four seasons of work on the site and, except for some diaries and photographs, many of the records are lost. The pottery from his excavations was, however, fully published in 1983 by John Hayes, and the mosaics were published by Rebecca Sweetman in 2013. Further study of the site, together with the pottery evidence, indicates that the peristyle and its associated rooms were the public reception area of an elaborately decorated Roman domus of the second century AD, and that adjacent buildings to the south may have been the private quarters of this house. A large cistern, connected to the aqueduct, provided a copious water supply. The Dionysiac imagery of the mosaics, together with the extraordinary range of imported wine amphorae found on the premises, suggest that the owner may have prospered through the wine trade.

The Roman Aqueduct of Knossos, a Model for Nineteenth-Century Aqueduct Design

“…As noted above, the area around the so-called Civil Basilica (KS 112; see Fig. 24) has long been identified as an affluent civic focus (Cadogan 1992, 134; Paton 2004b, 453–5; Sweetman and Grigoropoulos 2010, 349–50; Paton 2022, 1). Sweetman and Grigoropoulos (2010, 350) report on ‘buildings of an increasingly monumentalized nature the nearer they were to the Civil Basilica’ along a line of DEYAH trenches leading from the Venizelion hospital.…”

“…At least in the second century, water from the public supply may have been conducted to a robust cistern, W27, in the south-west corner of the Villa Dionysos (Paton 2022, 28–9, fig. 17).…”

“…Paton (2022, 34–5) suggests that this supply may have serviced a private bath suite within the villa, along its southern extent, part of which may still be in place. Another shallow brick-built tank, lined with opus signinum , was located immediately south-west of the villa (Paton 2022, 35–6, fig. 21).…”

“…The villa's placement, the level of its central courtyard at roughly 100 m amsl, the substantial cistern to the south-west of the oikos , and the elevated tank located to the south-west of the site, would all suggest connection to the public supply (Paton 2004a, 282). The water feature in the courtyard and the lead pipes enclosed in stone-built channels below the surface of the peristyle point to a sophisticated water network within the house (Paton 2022, 11). The presence of wells in the villa, notably Well A, present a supplementary supply with limited, or even specific, application; Paton (2022, 10) attributes Well A to watering the courtyard garden.…”

“…The water feature in the courtyard and the lead pipes enclosed in stone-built channels below the surface of the peristyle point to a sophisticated water network within the house (Paton 2022, 11). The presence of wells in the villa, notably Well A, present a supplementary supply with limited, or even specific, application; Paton (2022, 10) attributes Well A to watering the courtyard garden. That well water would have to be manually hauled up points to the presence of servants within the household.…”