Aphrodisias Atrium House

About

An Aphrodisian family built this residence north of the Sebasteion in the early 1st century AD, centered on a monumental four-columned Ionic atrium. Later generations kept remodeling it, eventually adding an apsidal courtyard and a second colonnaded wing. On 11 August 117 CE the atrium already stood roughly a century old, home to a family prominent enough to build beside the city's temple to the emperors. Its famous marble shield portraits of philosophers came only in the 5th century.

What happened here

A working estate with a comfortable house attached, and the proportions vary with how rich the owner is and how often he visits. The farm side has presses for oil and wine, threshing floors, storage sunk into the ground, stables and quarters for the workforce. The residential side has baths, dining rooms sited for the view, mosaics, and a garden with water in it. A manager runs the place year-round and reports; the owner arrives for the vintage and for the summer. Produce goes to market or to the owner's town house, and the accounts are kept in detail. Some villas are pure retreat with no farm at all, built on a cliff or a lake specifically to be looked at from a boat.

Sources

• https://aphrodisias-excavations.com/atriumhouse/
• https://aphrodisias-excavations.com/houses/

Nearby

Aphrodisias Bouleuterion

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Aphrodisias Theatre

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Aphrodisias Sculptors Workshop

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Aphrodisias Tetrapylon

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Temple of Aphrodite, Aphrodisias

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Aphrodisias Civil Basilica

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