1. Identity of the monument Bath E of Antioch on the Orontes was discovered in 1934, during the archaeological excavations of the American mission. In terms of architectural plan, it belongs to the Angular Row Type baths, in which the halls are arranged in a row over an axis, in such a way so that the warm and the cold rooms form an angle. The rooms of social activities were decorated with mosaic floors with geometric decorative patterns or figurative representations. Based on pottery and numismatic finds, the bath can be dated to the early 4th century. Pottery finds date in the 3rd and 4th century, whereas most of the coins in the second half of the 4th century. Two coins found underneath the floor of the central room place the construction of the monument after 305.1 2. Architectural description 2.1. The plan of Bath E The general plan of the bath complex is L-shaped. The entrance is located in the inner angle of the L, where a rectangular anteroom is formed. From there, through an opening facing the main entrance, the visitor is led into the central hall of the baths, the largest of the complex. This hall of gatherings and social activities was the core of the baths, centrally located on the plan and dividing the warm from the cold houses. Around it, and communicating with it, the rest of the halls are arranged, whereas in its north-western side there is an auxiliary room for item storage. 2.2. Main and auxiliary rooms of the cold house The central part of the south side opens to the pool of the (cold house), whose western wall forms a niche. The entrance from the central room to the frigidarium was marked by steps and two grand columns. The rest of the auxiliary rooms are arranged in a row, parallel to the main axis of the central room and occupy the whole western part of the complex. On the northwest side of the frigidarium there is a square hall, which communicates only with the central one, and which is paved with a fine mosaic floor with geometric motifs. On the frigidarium’s southeastern side the two changing rooms, the wardrobe and the toilets (room 4) are arranged in a row. 2.3. Main and auxiliary rooms of the rest of the houses The entrance to the warm halls of the (warm house) is made also through the central room, which operates as a knot concerning the organization of the plan. A central opening on its northeastern side, placed in its perpendicular axis, leads to the warm hall. The entrance is made through a square vestible, which is flanked by two daubing rooms where bathers were daubed with floral oils before entering the warm halls from this door. The largest of these rooms, the north one, is oblong and its narrower side also forms a semicircular niche. Returning to the vestibule the bather heads for the halls of the (room 31: the warming house) and from there he continues his course towards the three halls of the caldarium (warm house). These three warm rooms communicate with each other. Some of them are connected to and some are characterized by the semicircular ending of their walls, both on the inside and on the outside. 3. Comparisons-Typology F. Yegül2 noted the similarity of Bath E with the baths of Dura Europos (E-3, M-7, C-3) concerning the following attributes:
- the cohesive composition of the architectural elements of the plans
- the limited size of the cold and the warm houses
- the existence of auxiliary rooms of various uses (changing rooms, rooms for storage, wardrobe, spaces of social activities etc.). In this type of baths, the “Row” type, some of the architectural characteristics of the Hall Type baths appear; this type is attested in Cilicia and eastern Pamphylia (Bath II-11B and Bath II-7A in Anemourion, and Bath I-12A in Antioch on Kragos).3 A common attribute of all these baths is the increase of their social role, which is manifested in the extension and the multiplication of the gathering rooms against the space available for the frigidarium,4 which is limited to only one room.5 |