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Hillside Villas of Ephesus : At
the beginning of the 3rd century BC the Emperor Lysimachos had a new city
plan drawn up for Ephesus. This plan envisaged residences to be
constructed on the slopes of Bülbüldağ and Panayır mountains
overlooking Curetes street, but construction only began two hundred years
later. The site was divided into blocks by narrow streets in the form of
flights of steps, and terraced. On each terrace two houses were built with
access to the streets to east and west respectively. Although
archaeological excavations of ancient cities have revealed innumerable
houses, none are as beautiful or sophisticated as the hillside villas
discovered at Ephesus. No labour or expense was spared for the convenience
and pleasure of their occupants. Every wall was painted with frescos, and
the floors decorated with mosaics. |
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| They had heating systems in no way
inferior to those of modern houses today, and hot and cold running water
in the bathrooms, kitchens and dining rooms.The location chosen for these
houses was the most desirable in the city, conveniently close to the
theatre, the bouleterion (senate house), library, public baths and agora
for the wealthy patricians of Ephesus who lived here. From the outside all
that would have been visible would have been a series of roofs at
different levels and the central opening of the small colonnaded courtyard.Most
of the houses had two or three floors and numerous rooms. On the ground
floor was the main room where visitors were received, a dining-room,
bathroom, fountain, cistern, kitchen and servants
rooms, while the
bedrooms were on the upper floors.The subjects of the frescos were in
keeping with the function of the room. For example, those in the kitchen
depicted fish and game, rooms for children flying cherubs representing
Eros, and those in the reception rooms theatre scenes and the Muses. |
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| There
were no stables attached to the houses, which is an interesting omission
in view of the fact that medieval and earlier grand houses and palaces
always included this feature. Saddle animals, like the others, were kept
outside the city, and the inhabitants of the hillside villas could only
get as far as the corner of the street on horseback. There they would have
had to dismount and walk up the flight of steps to their home, instead of
riding or being drawn in a carriage right up to their door or into their
own courtyard, as a medieval grandee would have expected to do.The
bathroom was spacious and comfortable, with room for all the family to
bathe together. |
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| Hot air from the furnace circulated through pipes in the
walls heated the bathroom and the rest of the house in winter.In the
centre of the peristyle (courtyard) were two pools of water, from one of
which water flowed into the other. The soothing sound of water would have
lent a peaceful atmosphere to the courtyard. The master of the house spent
the hot afternoons resting in the deep vaulted alcove in one wall of the
courtyard.Excavations of two of these residential blocks at Ephesus have
so far been completed. All the frescos and mosaics, as well as the small
movable finds from Block 1 were taken to the museum, leaving only the
walls in situ. However, according to an admirable decision taken by the
Ministry of Culture in 1979, all the finds from Block 2 were left in place.
Protective roofs were constructed over two of the six houses in Block 2
and these were opened to the public. Known as houses A & B they stand
on the same terrace, and are reached via the steps opposite the
Scholastica Baths on Curettes Street. Upon entering the house there are
steps to the right which led up to the second floor. The fountain in the
vestibule shows that people arriving from street washed before progressing
further. |
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| The vestibule opens onto the
peristyle, in the centre of which
are the four columns of the central area that was open to the sky.The
fairly large room along the east wall of the peristyle of house A is the
reception room where visitors were entertained. Here the frescos depict
life sized naked and half naked men and women, masks, and two theatre
scenes, one from Skynioi, a comedy by Menander, and the other Orestes by
Euripides. The actors are shown wearing masks and in the act of speaking.
Evidently the owner of this house, which was built in the 2nd century AD,
was a cultured man fond of theatre. A steep staircase leads from the
peristyle up to what remains of the second floor.House B is accessed via
the bedrooms on the west side of house A. This second house has all the
features of a typical Ephesus peristyle villa, but it is larger and finer
than the first. Finds show that the house was inhabited until the 6th
century AD and underwent many repairs and alterations over the centuries. The floors are entirely covered by black and white
mosaics. There is a
polychrome mosaic panel next to the staircase in the southwest corner of
the peristyle which led up to the second floor. |
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| This mosaic depicts Triton
carrying Amphitrite away on his seahorse Hippocampus. Next to this is the
tablinium, a vaulted alcove. The glass mosaic on this vault is the most
spectacular of any of its kind found in the Roman world. The mosaic was
found on ground in pieces and has been painstakingly put together and put
back in place. This polychrome mosaic depicts paradise, with fruits,
flowers, a cockerel, peacock, panthers and Eros-like
figures. In the centre, set in a double red cartouche are the heads of Dionysus and
Ariadne. At the western end of the house is the kitchen, atrium and
lavatory.A new project has been launched to preserve the hillside
villas,
and is scheduled for completion in 1999. The houses will be covered by a
membrane which will protect the frescos in particular from light, dust,
damp, acid and heat. |
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