greek baths and bathing culture

neW discOVeries and aPPrOaches

edited by
sandra k. lucore and Monika trümper

Peeters
leuven - Paris - Walpole, Ma
2013
cOntents

sandra k. lucOre and MOnika trüMPer

acknowledgments Vii

MOnika trüMPer
introduction 1

adrian stähli
Women bathing
Displaying Female Attractiveness on Greek Vases 11

rebecca FleMMing
baths and bathing in greek Medicine 23

MOnika trüMPer
urban context of greek Public baths 33

Fikret k. Yegül
thermal Matters: intersected legacies of the greek and roman baths and bathing culture 73

Vassilis tsiOlis
the baths at Fregellae and the transition from Balaneion to Balneum 89

giOVanna grecO and carMelO di nicuOlO

the hellenistic baths at Velia 113

Maria teresa iannelli and FrancescO cuteri

caulonia – Monasterace Marina: hellenistic baths in the building near the ‘casamatta’ 131

claudiO sabbiOne
a newly identified greek bath building at locri epizefiri 143

sandra k. lucOre
bathing in hieronian sicily 151

daniele naPOlitani and ken saitO

archimedes and the baths: not Only One eureka 181

christian russenberger
a new bathtub with hypocaust in Peristyle house 2 at Monte iato 189

POlYxeni adaM-Veleni
the hellenistic Balaneion at the roman Forum of thessaloniki 201

eManuele grecO and PaOlO Vitti

the bath complex in hephaistia (lemnos) 211

cOrnelia röMer
the greek baths in the Fayum at euhemeria and theadelphia: a Preliminary report 229
thibaud FOurnet and bérangère redOn
heating systems of greek baths
New Evidence from Egypt 239

thibaud FOurnet
Map: location of greek Public baths 264

MOnika trüMPer
catalog of greek baths
Introduction 265

thibaud FOurnet, sandra k. lucOre, bérangère redOn, MOnika trüMPer

catalog 269

bibliography 335

list of contributors 349

Heating Systems of Greek Baths
New Evidence from Egypt
Thibaud Fournet and Bérangère Redon

Abstract

In 2003, the French Mission of Taposiris Magna (Egypt, west of Alexandria) renewed the study and excava-
tion of an exceptionally well-preserved bathing complex which dates to the Hellenistic period and which was
abandoned by the end of the Ptolemaic era. Partly cut into the rock, the building comprises a cleansing section,
with two tholoi for individual bathing in hip-bathtubs; and a relaxing section, with one room equipped with
individual immersion bathtubs. Since 2008, the mission has focused on the heating system, a rare feature of
Egyptian baths but one that is comparable to those of certain Sicilian/south Italian and Greek contemporary
establishments. Consisting of a deep and large underground furnace, it was used both to produce hot water in
a boiler and to heat the surrounding rooms. In particular, a heating wall heated the room with immersion bath-
tubs by the process of convection. This important discovery led the authors to re-examine the issue of heating
devices in Greek baths, in Egypt as well as in the rest of the Mediterranean world, through papyrological sources
and archaeological remains. Finally, they attempt to define the place of the baths of Taposiris Magna, and more
generally of the Egyptian baths, in the series of technological innovations that led to the full development of
hypocaust systems in the Mediterranean from the 3rd century BCE onwards.**

The French Archaeological Mission of Taposiris STATE OF THE QUESTION

Magna (MFFTM), directed by Marie-Françoise
Boussac (Univ. Nanterre Paris Ouest) and funded
by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, started,
in 2003, under the direction of the authors, the
archaeological and architectural examination of
an exceptionally well preserved bath building.1
Since 2008, we have focused our work on a com-
plex heating system (fig. 1), which has led us to
re-examine the issue of the heating techniques of
Greek baths in Egypt, based on papyrological
sources and archaeological remains.
Thanks to the discovery of this heating system,
it is now possible to critically reassess the gener-
ally accepted view that Greek baths in Egypt were
heated minimally, or not at all, in contrast to their
equivalents in Greece and Sicily. Indeed, the re-
view of the still poorly known Egyptian examples
allows distinguishing a real Greco-Egyptian bath
type, whose originality is essentially based on its
heating devices.
Thus, Egypt finally finds its place in the long-
standing discussion about the transition from
Greek to Roman baths. We will try to clarify the
role that the bath in Taposiris Magna, and Egyp-
tian baths in general, played in the chain of tech-
nological innovations that resulted in the wide-
spread appearance of hypocaust systems in the
Mediterranean area.
René Ginouvès, in his fundamental work Balaneu-
tikè, provided the first overview of the heating
system of Greek baths.2 Since then, other scholars
- particularly Janet DeLaine, Garrett J. Fagan,
Fikret Yegül, Inge Nielsen, Henri Broise and Yvon
Thébert - have discussed this issue, often focus-
ing on the Greek heating system and its relation
to the evolution to the Roman bath.3 Recently,
Monika Trümper presented in 2006 in Alexandria4
a stimulating synthesis of the Greek baths and
their evolution in the Hellenistic period, mainly
thanks to advances in the scholarship due to the
early work of Henri Broise on Sicilian baths,5 and
more recently the multiplication of discoveries and
the renewed excavation of previously partially
excavated buildings.6
She has identified three bath models, each
characterized by their relaxing bathing forms,
more or less directly dependent on heating:
- The first model is developed in the eastern
Mediterranean, mainly in Greece, in the 2nd
century BCE (or late 3rd century BCE).7 It com-
bines two types of relaxation bath, both heated
(by subterranean ring-shaped installations or
channels): individual immersion bathtubs on
the one hand, and a round sweat bath on the
other. The best-known example of this type is

239
 located at Gortys (usually dated to the mid-3rd
century BCE, but Trümper has proposed a date
in the 2nd century BCE);8 the other examples
are found also in Greece, including Olympia
(‘Speisepavillon’, middle of the 2nd century
BCE) and Thessaloniki (end of 3rd/early 2nd?
century BCE).
- The second type is exclusively established in
Egypt and its sphere of influence; it is charac-
terized by the presence, alongside tholoi with
hip-bathtubs, of unheated individual immer-
sion bathtubs. Two subgroups are emerging: on
one side, small baths, with few hip-bathtubs
and immersion bathtubs, placed in the same
room or separated into two rooms; on the other,
large tholos-baths, with a variable number of
hip-bathtubs (6 to approximately 50), accompa-
nied by numerous individual immersion bath-
tubs located in rectangular rooms (from one to
ten, averaging three to five in a room). The date
of the introduction and spread of this Egyptian
model, as well as of its abandonment, cannot be
determined securely because only a very few
buildings have been securely dated by archae-
ologists.
- The third type developed in the western Medi-
terranean and is characterized by the presence,
in addition to hip-bathtubs, of large collective
immersion pools, heated by a hypocaust sys-
tem (a simple subterranean heating channel).
Immersion basins are located in large rooms
that could also be provided with a labrum. This
type includes the Sicilian buildings of Megara
Hyblaea, Syracuse Morgantina (North Baths),
and possibly also Gela; the example in Velia
(south Italy); and probably also the baths of
Fregellae (Latium, phase 1) and Marseille (France,
phase 2).
Fig. 1. Taposiris Magna Baths:
All scholars mentioned above agree that the sys- overview of heating system; from southeast.
tem of heated floors (sometimes called ‘proto-
hypocausts’) appeared during the 3rd century BCE and would become the default bathing form of
in Greece and in the West, whereas Egypt seems Roman baths.9
to be characterized by the absence of comparable While the discussion of heating systems is usu-
installations. ally confined to technological studies, its assess-
Although the precise modalities of the transi- ment significantly helps to reconstruct bathing
tion between Greek and Roman baths are still practices and their development, as the following
being debated, all scholars emphasize the signif- reassessment of the archaeological and papyrolog-
icance of Hellenistic technological inventions in ical evidence from Egypt will show. Comparing
the development of the ‘Roman’ hypocaust sys- the Egyptian examples with their equivalents in
tem during the 2nd century BCE. The develop- Greece and the western Mediterranean allows us
ment of ‘Roman’ hypocausts was preceded by to reconsider the development and distribution of
the introduction of heated collective immersion the different Mediterranean models and add an
pools for relaxing baths in the 3rd century BCE, ‘oriental chapter’ to the history of Greek and
which appear in Greek as well as Roman baths early Roman baths.

240
PAPYROLOGICAL DATA10
Fuel
In the Roman Imperial period, numerous papy-
rological sources mention the delivery of straw
(achyron) or more precisely of straw waste for the
purpose of heating baths. In the Ptolemaic period,
however, no explicit mention of straw can be
identified in connection with baths.11 The only
two papyri which mention fuel for baths use in-
stead the neutral term τ νκαματα (ta enkau-
mata, ‘fuel’). Thus, a papyrus from the middle of
the 3rd century BCE indicates that donkeys which
brought fuel to a bath building were provided
with barley, at the expense of the owner of the
bath.12 In the middle of the next century, the
owner of a loutronidion (small bath) of Busiris, in
the Herakleopolite nome (Middle Egypt), also
refers to fuel used in a bath, in a tax declaration.13
He refuses to pay the amount being asked for
taxes on his establishment, and deducts from his
revenues - which are taxed by the state up to a
third - the cost of fuel (ta enkaumata).14 This refusal
indicates that the supply of fuel constituted a sig-
nificant expense for the owners of baths and
could put a heavy strain on his revenues.
Equipment
The papyri also mention equipment for heating
water for the baths, mostly cauldrons or boilers
charged with supplying water in the bath), para-
chytai (bath assistants), and an attendant of the
cauldrons (chalkiophylax).20 The latter was undoubt-
edly responsible for ensuring that water used in
the baths was consistently warm. Perhaps he also
guarded against customers taking water from the
cauldrons on their own, like the uneducated bather
described by Theophrastus in his Characters (9, 8).
The employees of Zenon’s bath also included a
donkey driver who was most likely in charge of
delivering the fuel needed for heating the bath.
Tony Reekmans furthermore has proposed re-
storing the term hypokaustais in this list of em-
ployees. The term hypokaustes, ‘responsible for the
hypocaust’, is mentioned in another papyrus of the
Zenon archives dating to the mid-3rd century BCE21
and again in a papyrus of the mid-2nd century
BCE.22 It clearly refers to a subterranean heating sys-
tem. The nature of what was heated is unknown,
however, and perhaps these were still cauldrons.
The system called hypocaust (heated floor with sus-
pensura and tubing), which is named in Greek
hypokausterion or hypokaustra, is not mentioned in the
papyri before the beginning of the Roman period.23
Thus, if the texts show that Egypt certainly
knew hot baths, it is nevertheless unclear if the
bathing installations themselves were heated, as
in Greece and Sicily. New archaeological discov-
eries fortunately complement the texts in this
regard and demonstrate the existence of real
proto-hypocaust systems and heated walls in
Egypt in the later Hellenistic period.
(χαλκεα). They were made either of bronze or
lead.15 In order to prepare the bath for full oper-
ation in the morning, the cauldrons could be
heated during the night: one papyrus refers to the
supply of oil for lamps that were used by those
responsible for preparing the chalkeia of a bath.16
These cauldrons contained the hot water used
in baths that risked scalding customers, as is obvi-
ous from Philista’s complaint.17 She stated very
clearly that Petechon, a bath assistant (parachytès)
of the women’s tholos, was carrying a vase (aru-
taina) filled with hot water for the bathtubs in the
tholos. This clearly shows that hot water was used
for cleansing in the hip-bathtubs of Greek baths.18
Heated Structures
References to the heating system itself are much
less clear and numerous in papyri. An important
document comes from the Zenon archives: it in-
cludes a list of employees of a bath building
located in Philadelphia that belonged to Zenon.19
This mentions four antletai (drawers of water,
TAPOSIRIS MAGNA
The Site
The site of Taposiris Magna/Abusir is located 45
km west of Alexandria.24 It covers the southern
slopes of a rocky ridge, the Taenia, which sepa-
rates Lake Mareotis from the Mediterranean Sea.
The city was founded in the first half of the Pto-
lemaic era by Greek colonists, who came to settle
the Mareotic region. The strategic location of Tap-
osiris Magna in the center of this region permitted
the city to control the traffic of people and goods
coming from the west and probably accounts for
the wealth of the city, which prospered through
the end of the Byzantine period. The settlement
developed from various clusters, notably around a
harbor on the lake in the south, and at the foot of
a temple dedicated to Osiris in the north, which
dominates the city. One of the shrines of the tem-
ple was founded by Ptolemy IV at the end of the
3rd century (221-205) BCE.25
241
 The area located close to the southern gate of
the Osiris Temple was explored in 1905-1906 by
Evaristo Breccia,26 director of the Greco-Roman
Museum in Alexandria from 1905 to 1930. In ad-
dition to two tholoi with hip-bathtubs carved into
the rock, he discovered the remains of luxurious
Hellenistic Greek-type buildings such as a house
with a central courtyard and heart-shaped columns,
but also structures related to Egyptian practices,
such as a necropolis with mummified animals
(ibises, falcons and fish)27 and an Egyptian ‘chapel’.
As is the case for the baths of Cyrene and Pi-
raeus, the cavelike character of the bath and its
immediate proximity to the temple of Osiris, the
south gate of which is located about 10 m north
of the baths (fig. 2), have prompted scholars to
assign a cultic function to the bath.28 The artifacts
discovered during our excavations provide no
conclusive evidence to confirm this hypothesis,
however, and it was probably rather the nature
and morphology of the stone, a very soft sand-
stone, that motivated the location and particular
Fig. 2. Taposiris Magna Baths: overview from southwest.
242
construction technique of the baths.29 The bath is
located in an area that has yielded remains of
Hellenistic houses that were certainly built when
the city developed around the sanctuary.
First Phase of Baths (before Mid-2nd Century BCE)
The French mission resumed Breccia’s excava-
tions in 2003 in the area of the baths (figs 2-3).30
The baths make use of an escarpment: while the
northern part of the complex was carved into the
rock, further rooms were added in the south,
abutting the rock; the northern rock-cut and the
southern built rooms were located at the same
level (fig. 4). Breccia discovered in 1905-1906 most
of the rock-cut rooms, and we began our work,
notably an architectural study of these rooms, by
removing the sand that had accumulated in them
over the intervening years. As the Italian archae-
ologist had not touched upon structures built out-
side the rock, we concentrated our efforts in this
sector.

Fig. 3. Taposiris Magna Baths:
southeastern part of Tholos 2; from north.
Before reaching the structures that belonged to
the baths proper, we had to excavate the Byzan-
tine and Roman levels on top of them, which con-
siderably slowed down our work. These levels
postdate the abandonment of the baths and con-
sist of a huge fill, which is more than 6 m high in
the western zone. In the eastern section, several
rooms of Roman and Byzantine date were in-
stalled directly above the structures of the bath.
Since these could not be dismantled entirely the
areas of the bath located below these rooms have
been excavated only in very restricted areas.
Therefore, the bath cannot be fully recon-
structed, although its rock-cut rooms are perfectly
well preserved. There is, however, evidence of sev-
eral transformations of the baths, which allow for
a reconstruction of the development of this bath
before its abandonment. Thus, the original state of
the building, as well as a second phase that is char-
acterized by the inclusion of a sophisticated heat-
ing system, can be largely reconstructed (figs 5-6).
In their original state (fig. 5), the baths occupied an
area of approximately 150 m2 and consisted of at
least seven rooms arranged around a central
oblong room that was carved parallel to the face of
the rock (Room 3). The building was entered from
the southeast, notably from the minimally revealed
Room 12 (entrance/cloakroom?). Largely hidden
by Roman and Byzantine buildings, only 0.50 m2
of the northwest corner is visible, but the western
wall continued for a length of over 2 m.
Room 12 was connected with Vestibule 8 to the
north that abuts the rock. This small room (1.30 m
x min. of 1.30 m) was covered with an arch whose
northern support is cut in the rock. It was con-
nected with the northern rock-cut rooms through
an arched doorway that was carved into the rock.
The door between Rooms 12 and 8 could not be
found, however, because the excavation trench was
too small. It was probably situated in the eastern
part of the partition wall, in an off-center position
and thus not aligned with the door between Rooms
8 and 3. Thus, a direct view from the entrance
Room 12 into Room 3 would have been prevented
and the loss of heat would have been limited.
After reaching the central room (Room 3, fig.
7), several options were available to the bather.
He could either enter one of the two rotundas
with hip-bathtubs to the north (Rooms 1 and 2,
fig. 3), or head west to the room with individual
immersion bathtubs (Room 7, fig. 1), or enjoy the
facilities available in Room 3 itself. The northern
wall of Room 3 includes, between the entrances
to Rooms 1 and 2, a niche with fittings that prob-
ably served the installation of a metal fountain.
An oblong reservoir of uncertain function (Room
5) was installed in the west. The location suggests,
however, that it was used for storing cold water
rather than as a facility for immersion baths.
The two rotundas (Rooms 1 and 2, diameter
5.15 m) were entirely carved into the rock and
each originally was provided with 16 hip-bath-
tubs. Each bathtub was built of fired bricks cov-
ered with stucco, and over each bathtub a niche
was carved into the rock (fig. 3). The domes that
cover the two tholoi have a low profile and
include an oculus at the center that probably
served more for ventilation than for lighting.
Further south, the room with immersion bath-
tubs (Room 7) is only partly carved into the rock,
its southern part being built of rubble masonry
(each course is on average 22 cm high). This rel-
atively small room (approximately 2.80 m x 4.20 m,
irregularly shaped north end) was provided with
two individual immersion bathtubs (fig. 1), which
were built against the western wall and served for
relaxing baths.
243
 Fig. 4. Taposiris Magna Baths: north-south cross section of Rooms 1, 3, 3a and 6.

1 2

5
?
10 4
3

7
? 8
3bis
?

12
18 6

Preserved walls
0 1 5 10 m
Reconstructed walls

Fig. 5. TaposirisMagna Baths:partially reconstructed plan of the first phase.

244
 1 2
5
3
10
7
18
0 1
Fig. 6. Taposiris Magna Baths:
partially reconstructed plan of the second phase with reconstruction of the heating system.
Fig. 7. Taposiris Magna Baths: Room 3; from southwest.
The excavation of the destruction layers of this
room has helped to restore the vaulted roof of the
built southern part. The interlocking voussoirs
were found in their collapsed position (fig. 8). This
unusual design was probably used here to rein-
force the stability and cohesion of the arch that
was built of relatively brittle sandstone. The pro-
file of the vault is identical to that of the northern
?
4
8
12
Preserved walls
Reconstructed walls
5 10 m
Heating system
rock-cut part of the vault.31
The last room that belonged to the initial state
of the baths is located directly to the south of
Room 7 (Room 18). Only two courses of its walls
remain. It was most likely not accessible to the
public because it lacks the pavement of marble
chips that was found in all other rooms of the
bather’s circuit. Access was presumably in the
east, now hidden under later structures, and it
probably functioned as a service room.
Some gaps remain in the reconstruction of the
original state of the baths. For example, the cur-
rently visible east wall of Room 3 (figs 5-7) is not
carved out of the rock, in contrast to the other
walls of the rock-cut chambers. While it has a
similar decoration and cornice as the other walls
of Room 3, the east wall does not belong to the
original state of the room, the stuccoed vault of
which is partially visible under the masonry of the
east wall. Room 3 therefore originally extended
further east, and was reduced in size by the con-
struction of this wall in order to create a large
reservoir in the former eastern part of Room 3
and the adjacent room (Room 4). The function of
Room 4 in its initial state, or even whether it be-
longed to the baths at all, is not known. If it ever
245
 Fig. 8. Taposiris Magna Baths: reconstruction of the vault with interlocking voussoirs of Room 7.
had any installations, they must have disappeared
under the still visible thick layer of hydraulic
mortar. The wall that initially separated Rooms 3
and 4 is now completely destroyed; it may be
reconstructed at the point of a slight deviation in
the line of their southern wall (fig. 5).
The other question concerns Area 3bis and
Room 6, located in the heart of the heating sys-
tem installed during the second phase. It is now
impossible to know the original layout of this
central area.
Despite these uncertainties, it is clear, however,
that in the first phase the bath of Taposiris Magna
featured a standard plan, with two tholoi and a
radial circuit, with Room 3 serving for distribution.
The construction date of the baths is not yet known
because we have not yet reached the foundation
levels, but the building is probably earlier than
the middle of the 2nd century BCE.32
The Heated Structure (End of 2nd-Mid-1st Century BCE).
The second phase of the baths is mainly charac-
terized by the installation of a heating system that
included subterranean structures (proto-hypocaust)
and a heating wall (proto-tubuli) in three differ-
ent rooms (fig. 6): the furnace itself (combustion
chamber) installed under Area 3bis, the service
room where the fire was fed (Room 6), and the
chimney for the evacuation of the fumes, built like
a heating wall against the eastern wall of Room 7.
The underground structure installed in Area
3bis consists of a circular chamber built of fired
246
bricks that sits on the rock and is inserted between
Rooms 8, 3 and 7 (figs 4, 9). Presenting a tapered
profile, its diameter varies from 2.70 m in the
upper part to 1.60 m at the lowest point, located
1.70 m below the circulation level in the baths.
However, this is not the bottom of the structure,
which could not be reached in our excavations
because of the limited width of the sounding. This
circular space has a pillar located approximately
at its center, only one side of which could be
assessed. Another structure (pillar, lateral sup-
port?) was excavated in the north, built against the
rock, but like other structures uncovered in this
sounding, it is mainly hidden or destroyed by the
foundations of a Roman building constructed after
the abandonment of the baths. A second sound-
ing opened to the south of the Roman foundations
(figs 4, 10) revealed the opening of the heating
chamber, accessible from a service room (Room 6)
that is also inserted between Rooms 18 and 12.
Again, the small size of the sounding provided
only a partial view of Room 6, of which only the
northern and eastern walls are known so far. A
crudely made staircase in the southeastern corner
most likely gave access to this room. The floor,
consisting of a succession of layers rich in ash, is
located below the circulation level of the bathing
rooms. The blocks of the lower courses of the east-
ern wall are les carefully worked than those of the
upper wall because they originally constituted the
foundation of the wall in its first state. They
became visible only later, when Room 6 was con-
structed with its lower part now underground.
Fig. 9. Taposiris Magna Baths: overview of circular heating chamber, largely obscured by later structures; from above.
The furnace opening (fig. 11), located in the cen-
ter of the northern wall of Room 6, is lined with
bricks (lining: 0.25 m wide; passage: ca 0.40 m
wide). Leveled by later foundations, the opening
was originally most likely covered by a voussoir
arch. The latter was lined with bricks, many frag-
ments of which have been found in the destruc-
tion levels.
The upper part of Area 3bis completely disap-
peared with the installation of a Roman building
(fig. 12). Room 3 opens to Area 3bis through a large
arch carved into the rock (ca 2.20 m wide). Area
3bis is thus attached to Room 3, and it is clear that
the heating device in Area 3bis was also used to
heat by radiation all of the rock-cut rooms in which
it was difficult to install a subterranean heating
system.
It is impossible to reconstruct in Area 3bis the
structures built immediately above the proto-hypo-
caust. This space (2.50 m east-west, 2.80 m north-
south) was probably, like Rooms 7 and 8, covered
by a vault. Its other facilities or functions can only
be conjectured: sweat room, heated pool, or, more
likely, heated water tank (of open-boiler type) for
supplying the hip-bathtubs and immersion bath-
tubs with hot water. This tank could have occupied
the southern part of the Area 3bis, closest to the
furnace. In this case, the brick pillar, only the south-
ern face of which has been discovered, would
have supported the tank. Because parallels are
lacking, the water tank cannot be reconstructed in
more detail and it must remain open whether at
least part of the tank was made of metal, or
whether it was completely made of brick.
The heating system in Area 3bis is comparable
to round heating structures (‘couronnes chauf-
fantes’), known in Greek baths since the excava-
tions of Ginouvès at Gortys33 and also recalls the
heating channels in Sicilian baths.34 However, the
system uncovered in Taposiris Magna is distin-
guished by the smoke evacuation system in Room
7. At Taposiris Magna the smoke was drawn into
a hollow wall built against the east wall of Room 7
(fig. 13) and did not evacuate through a vertical
flue at the end of the hypocaust system, as was
common in Greek baths of Greece and Sicily.
This wall in Room 7 (2.70 m long) communicates
with the circular underground Area 3bis via a 0.35
247
 Fig. 11. Taposiris Magna Baths:
opening of the furnace in Room 6; from south.

Fig. 10. Taposiris Magna Baths: north and east bound-

ary of Service Room 6, south part of Area 3a; from
northwest.

m wide channel, located approximately in the cen-

ter of the circular structure. This channel, built of
fired bricks, seems to have suffered as much from
its exposure to high temperatures as from transfor-
mations in the Roman period. The bad state of
preservation makes it difficult to distinguish
between elements found in situ and those destroyed
and re-agglomerated. It seems that the bottom of
this channel presented a steep ascending slope to
connect the bottom of the underground structure to
the bottom of the hollow wall, located at the ground
level of Room 7 and thus much higher than the Fig. 12. Taposiris Magna Baths:
ground level of the proto-hypocaust in Area 3bis. A Area 3bis from Room 3; from northwest.
second communication channel between the fur-
nace and the heated wall may have existed further
south, where a gap in the brick wall is visible.

248
 Fig. 13. Taposiris Magna Baths: hypothetical reconstruction of the heating system.
The hollow wall in Room 7, whose brick foun-
dation (ca 0.20 x 0.10 m) is preserved to a height
of 0.20 m (fig. 14), can be completely reconstructed,
because it collapsed when the building was de-
molished. Protected by the blocks of the collapsed
vault of Room 7, the remains of this wall were
found in their collapsed position on the floor of the
room (fig. 15). The wall included 15 Corinthian
tiles,35 on average 0.60 m high and 0.46 m wide.
Twelve of these tiles have been reconstructed (fig.
16), and a fragment of one of them, preserved in
situ at the base of the wall (plate H in fig. 16), in-
dicates that they were originally set vertically on
their long side. These tiles were superimposed
vertically in four courses, with help of a mortar
that is still visible on some of the tiles. The thicker
edge on the long side of the tiles improved the
stability of the superimposed tiles and functioned
as a horizontal reinforcement.
The reconstruction of the built vault that con-
tinued the rock-cut vault to the south suggests a
total height of the heating wall of 2.05 m. If the
0.20 m of brick construction at the base of the
heating wall is deducted, the part of the wall
made of superimposed tiles should be ca 1.85 m
high, which corresponds exactly to four courses
of tiles. The heating wall is 2.70 m wide, including
in the northern part a structure made of two
square bricks (0.20 x 0.20 m), on which the tiles
would have been set. The remaining 2.50 m cor-
respond again exactly to four tiles set side by side.
Thus, the whole wall was probably made up of
16 tiles.
The heating wall was, however, more complex:
three tiles (fig. 16, A, F, G) seem to have been cut
before firing to make them smaller or intention-
ally incomplete and thus were obviously made
for a specific place in the wall system. These tiles
249
 Fig. 14. Taposiris Magna Baths: Fig. 15. Taposiris Magna Baths:
base of the heating wall in Room 7; from north. Room 7 during excavation; in situ collapsed heating
wall; from north.

Fig. 16. Taposiris Magna Baths: reconstructed tiles of the collapsed heating wall; fragment H, preserved in
situ at the base of the heating wall (tile H) is circled.

250
 were probably used in order to ‘cross’ the vertical
joints and improve the stability of the whole sys-
tem. Alternatively, the wall could have been built
with a light incline, again to improve stability and
avoid collapse. The wall thus would have been
shorter than if it had been vertical, which would
explain the use of incomplete tiles in a course.
The device for the evacuation of smoke and
gasses at the top of the wall can be reconstructed,
thanks to the anastylosis of the voussoir vault (fig.
8). Some of the voussoir blocks show traces of soot,
confirming that the heating wall of tiles extended
from the floor to the vault. The two voussoirs nos
7 and 8 located in the northernmost part of the
vault, which was set against the rock, give evi-
dence of a carved channel (diameter of ca 0.20 m)
that is also covered with soot (fig. 17). This chan-
nel must have been the chimney, cut into the roof
to allow the smoke and gasses to escape after
having heated Room 7.
The cavity between the east stone-built wall of
Room 7 and the tile wall was about 0.15 m wide.
A little wider at the base, it may have narrowed
at the top (see above). Some tile fragments found
in the destruction layers do not belong to the

Fig. 17. Taposiris Magna

Baths: vault of Room 7;
northeast corner voussoirs
with reconstruction of the
chimney.

Fig. 18. Taposiris Magna

Baths: Remains of the suc-
cessive doors between the
Vestibule 8 and Room 3
(from Room 3).

251
reconstructed tiles. They were probably used as
spacers in order to keep the tile wall at a fixed
distance from the stone wall and to strengthen the
stability of the structure. Five amphora necks
found in the destruction debris of the wall, many
of which were covered with soot, may also have
played the role of spacers.
The evidence of tiles cut before firing suggests
that they were produced locally and on demand.
The architects used a material (tiles) that had not
yet been processed, but could be adapted to a new
function, notably here as a kind of proto-tubuli. In
contrast, similar devices developed in the western
Mediterranean in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE,
namely, tegulae mammatae and tubuli, were pur-
pose-made. The tiles used at Taposiris Magna are
closer to the more refined system of tubuli than to
the simpler tegulae mammatae, in allowing for a
wider space for the circulation of gasses.
Other transformations of the building were
most likely related to the installation of the heat-
ing device. The passageway between Rooms 8
and 3 that was originally 0.80 m wide and 1.95 m
high was reduced by the construction of added
piers and a new arch to a very narrow (0. 52 m)
and much lower (1.43 m) door (fig. 18). The doors
between Room 3 and the two tholoi were similar-
ly reduced in width and heigth. This triple reduc-
tion of the passageways must have been carried
out at the same time, most likely with the aim to
improve thermal insulation of the underground
rooms.
To conclude, the device uncovered in Taposiris
Magna heated first Area 3bis and the rock-cut
Rooms 1-3 by radiation, and second the bathing
Room 7 through the heating wall. Finally, it cer-
tainly also produced hot water accessible to bath-
ers. This system is actually quite similar to that of
our contemporary bathrooms, in which the room
and the water are heated, but not the bathtub itself.
Date
The study of the archaeological material associ-
ated with levels that covered the destruction of
this heating device has not yet been completed.
Some conclusive diagnostic finds allow, however,
for dating the construction of this wall as well as
the abandonment of the baths. Three coins found
in the preparatory mortar of the last floor of Room
3, which corresponds to the construction of the
heating system in Area 3bis, are dated to the peri-
od of 113 to 40 BCE. In addition, five Egyptian
amphora necks, of type AE2 or AE2/AE3, which
served as spacers and thus constitutive parts of
252
the heating wall, can be dated to the second half
the 2nd to the 1st century BCE. Finally, the analysis
of the pottery discovered in the destruction levels
of Room 7 revealed the absence of pottery from the
Roman period.36 All of these elements allow for
the safe conclusion that the heating system was
installed between the late 2nd century and the
middle of the 1st century BCE, and that Room 7,
and with this most likely the use of the building
as a bathing facility, were abandoned before the
end of the Ptolemaic period.
Late Changes (End of Ptolemaic Period)
The baths, however, were once more transformed
before being entirely abandoned, which will not
be discussed in full detail here. Late changes dur-
ing the complex’s use as baths included the above
mentioned installation of a large cistern at the
expense of the eastern part of Room 3; the relo-
cation of the door between Rooms 8 and 3 to the
west (fig. 18); and a significant change in the cir-
culation pattern: the two tholoi, initially accessible
by two separate doors, were now connected by a
newly opened door (fig. 6). The latter was installed
at the expense of one hip-bathtub in the western
Tholos 1 and two hip-bathtubs in the eastern
Tholos 2. This remodeling took place most likely
at the same time when Cistern 4 was installed in
the eastern part of Room 3, because the cistern’s
west wall obliterated the original southern door
of the eastern Tholos 2. Since the cistern’s west
wall could easily have been shifted about 0.30 m
to the east in order to save the original access to
Tholos 2, the latter’s door must have been blocked
for another reason, notably an intentional signif-
icant change of the circulation pattern throughout
the entire complex. The radiating plan (with Room
3 as distributive central room) was abandoned in
favor of a retrograde circuit (with the eastern
Tholos 2 as the objective), which also occurred in
other contemporary Egyptian baths.37
EGYPTIAN PARALLELS
Taposiris Magna has always been presented as an
exception in the corpus of Egyptian baths, which
is explained by its proximity to Alexandria and
Cyprus.38 But the discoveries in the baths of Tap-
osiris Magna stimulated a review of other Egyptian
tholos baths which in turn now allows for a much
more comprehensive reassessment of the exam-
ple from Taposiris Magna.
From the literature on Egyptian baths and
archival photographs39 we identified at least five
Fig. 19. Comparison of large Egyptian tholos baths.

253
other baths that probably included the same heat- difficult to support this hypothesis. But the defin-
ing device as the example from Taposiris Magna ition of a heated room for unction fits quite well
(fig. 19). The main feature of these buildings is a with the Area 3bis discovered in the Taposiris
furnace that is located close to (and often oppo- baths.
site) the entrance to the tholoi and either between The heating system described above was most
the rooms with the immersion bathtubs, or - if likely included in many other large tholos baths
there is only one room with immersion bathtubs - discovered in Egypt. Furthermore, the same sys-
next to this room. tem is also found in small baths, some of which
The examples that can be securely identified incorporated in the same room facilities for both
based on excavation notes or archival photographs hygienic and immersion baths, and some of which
of furnaces include the baths of Arsinoe/Kroko-
dilopolis/Kiman Fares (fig. 20, Ptolemaic?) and
Xois (date unknown); the probable examples are
located in Qasr Qarun/Dionysias (dated vaguely
to the Ptolemaic period), Athribis (the first phase
is dated to the Ptolemaic period, the transforma-
tion of one of the two tholoi into a pool or sweat
bath to the Roman period) and Tell el-Herr (1st or
2nd century CE).
While the only well-dated example of this cor-
pus is provided by the baths of Taposiris Magna,
a recent discovery at Karnak suggests that the
system of a subterranean heating ring was known
in Egypt, and far away from Alexandria, before
the middle of the 2nd century BCE.40
All of these examples provide better insight into
the passage from a papyrus, which is often cited
for its anecdotal content, but which is, above all, Fig. 20. Kiman Fares/Krokodilopolis, ‘Serapeion’ Baths:
instructive for the circulation system in Egyptian view of furnace; from south (el-Khachab 1978, pl. 58).
baths and the different spaces they might contain.
The episode described in this papyrus took place
in the baths of Trikomia in the Fayum, and con-
cerned a woman, Philista, who accused a bath
attendant, Petechôn, of having burned her in the
baths while she was bathing.41 The attendant was
working in the women’s tholos, and while distrib-
uting hot water in this room, he spilled some from
the jug on the bather, thereby severely burning her
thigh and belly. This papyrus shows that the fur-
nace used to heat the water for hip-bathtubs was
located outside the tholos. Philista also stated in her
complaint that she was leaving (ekbainô) to rub
down herself (smaô) when the incident occurred.
She was either leaving a hip-bathtub to rub down
herself in the center of the tholos, which as a major
traffic space would not have been very appropri-
ate for this purpose, though; or, more likely, she
planned to perform the soaping and scrubbing
process outside the tholos. Maybe she was going to
the pyriaterion, or perhaps even better, to the aleipte-
rion, a room that was reserved for unction with oil
and, according to literary and epigraphic sources
from the 4th to 3rd centuries BCE, was also heated.42 Fig. 21. Edfu, small private bath; from west (Institut
In Egypt this term does not appear in the papyri français d’archéologie orientale archive PV_2004_03055;
of the Hellenistic period, however, which makes it courtesy of Institut français d’archéologie orientale).

254
were attached to private houses. Thus, they attest
to the existence of a true Egyptian model of the
Greek bath type.
AN EGYPTIAN STANDARD?
The clearest case for this Egyptian standard is
provided by a bathing facility in Edfu which prob-
ably dates to the 1st century CE and includes one
bathroom, equipped with two hip-bathtubs and
one immersion bathtub.43
Archival photos44 allow for a clear assessment
of the heating system of this small bath (ground
floor surface area of 36 m2; figs 21-22). The furnace
was located in Service Room 8 and supported a
boiler, providing hot water for the bathers in the
Bathroom 7 via a small tank that was set up on top
of the boiler. Bathers could also draw cold water
from a reservoir that was situated further west and
could be supplied with water from Service Room 9.
The furnace also sent hot air through a duct to a
heating wall, located in the eastern wall of Room 7,
in order to heat the bathroom by convection. The
Fig. 22. Edfu, small private bath: hypothetical reconstruction of the bath and its heating system.
photos clearly show the slabs that formed this
heated wall. While Kazimierz Michalowski called
them ‘thin bricks’, they were most likely terracotta
tiles like in Taposiris Magna. They measure 0.35 m
in width (0.15 m less than those at Taposiris
Magna) and were, as at Taposiris Magna, mounted
vertically. Their height is not preserved, but can be
reconstructed as c. 0.60 m. Since the upper parts of
the building are not preserved, the system for the
evacuation of smoke and gasses cannot be recon-
structed with certainty, but it was most likely sim-
ilar to that of the bath at Tebtynis.
The Tebtynis bath is dated slightly earlier than
that of Edfu, notably to the end of the 1st century
BCE/beginning of the 1st century CE.45 It included
two clearly separate parts, both accessible from a
central courtyard, which also housed a large cis-
tern. Both parts were organized similarly, although
the southern bath had two rooms and the northern
only one room. Within a small space they included
facilities for both cleansing and relaxing baths,
which took place in hip-bathtubs and immersion
bathtubs, respectively. The better preserved south
255
bath was provided with a furnace located in a ser-
vice room adjacent to the bath, similar to the con-
figuration of the Edfu bath. This heating system
heated first the water used by bathers in the small
tholos with hip-bathtubs, probably in a boiler over
the furnace; and second Room E with immersion
bathtubs, via a heating wall installed along the west
wall (fig. 23). According to Gisèle Hadji-Minaglou,
the heating wall was made of tiles. The smoke
was evacuated by two flues located in the west
and south walls of Room E. The currently visible
system is dated to the Augustan period, but a
predecessor of similar type could go back to the
2nd century BCE. (fig. 23).
The baths of Tebtynis and Edfu provide the
two best-known examples of this type of bath,
which obviously developed and became popular
in Egypt in the 2nd century BCE. We have identi-
fied eight further examples, reassessing them in
analogy to the examples from Tebytnis and Edfu
(fig. 24). These are located in Asafrah (late 3rd/2nd
century BCE), Medinet Watfa/Philoteris (2nd cen-
tury BCE), Kom Trougah (late Ptolemaic/early Ro-
man coins found at the site), Xois (late Ptolemaic
period), Kom Sabakha/Memphis (end of the Pto-
lemaic period), Karm el-Baraasi (1st century CE),
and Hermopolis Magna/Ashmunein (2nd cen-
tury CE?).46 Almost all of these baths seem to date
to the period from the 2nd century BCE to the
1st or 2nd century CE. While a bath in Bawit, accord-
ing to design, belongs to this group, it was built
within a Byzantine church and thus is obviously
more recent.47
All these buildings share a reduced size (the
ground floor surface of the largest bath, that of
Karm el-Baraasi, is about 70 m2) and a retrograde
circulation pattern, including the hip-bathtubs
and the immersion bathtubs in a single space or
at most in two rooms. Furthermore, these baths
were most likely provided with the same type of
heating device as found in Tebtynis and Edfu,
notably a furnace located in a service room that
adjoined the single existing bathing room or was
installed between two bathing rooms.
This heating system of these small baths is sim-
ilar to that uncovered in the large baths of Taposiris
Magna, both in function and construction. Thus,
the heating system indicates the existence of a
Greco-Egyptian type of bath. At all of these loca-
tions, indeed, it was used both to heat the room
with immersion bathtubs and to produce hot water
for the hip-bathtubs and the immersion bathtubs.
In the small baths it was no longer used to heat a
room from below and the heating ring disap-
peared. However, it should be noted that the hip-
256
bathtubs are preserved in this type of small bath,
unlike in the Italian examples of the same time,
where they are replaced by a simple labrum (see
Musarna, Via Sistina).48
The latest example of this heating system comes
from Medinet Habu in Upper Egypt (fig. 25) where
two private bathing facilities were found, located
in Houses B3 and B5, dated to the period from the
end of the 1st to the 3rd century CE.49 The heating
system of these facilities included a single furnace
for both heating water in a tank and the bathroom
itself, with tubi located in the walls and with a
network of subterranean heating channels. Both
facilities include only a single immersion bathtub
for relaxation, and latrines.
CONCLUSION
Heating System: Definition and Purposes
This study has shown that the heating system in
Greek baths and especially its role in the build-
ings must be carefully reassessed. Heating often
served several functions simultaneously.
First of all, and from the beginning, heating
systems were used to heat water for bathtubs,
requiring the existence of boilers and hot water
tanks accessible to bathers (or, more precisely, to
the attendants, as suggested by a passage from
Theophrastus).50 These heating devices could be
located inside the bath,51 as at Edfu, Tebtynis and
other small Egyptian baths, and in the ‘Younger
Sitz-Bath’ in Olympia.52 In all these cases how-
ever, the furnace was outside the bathroom to
avoid the intrusion of unpleasant fumes. Therefore,
it seems difficult to reconstruct a centrally placed
furnace with cauldron in the center of tholoi, as
often suggested. Heated tanks and boilers were
more frequently placed outside the bathing rooms
proper and the water was then transported man-
ually to the bathtubs. In the baths of Gortys and
probably also of Taposiris Magna and other Egyp-
tian settlements, a heated basin can be recon-
structed close to the entrance of the tholos. The
oblong (‘bottle-shaped’) spaces of the Greek baths
in Sicily that were located at the transition between
the distributive central room and the tholos and
which were heated by a hypocaust channel may
also have been used to heat water for the nearby
hip-bathtubs.53
Second, the heating system was also used to
heat individual or collective immersion basins
with hypocaust channels.54
Finally, heating was used to heat spaces, most
likely in order to induce sweating and/or facilitate
Fig. 23. Tebtynis, South Bath: schematic plan; overview of service section, from west;
Room E; from east (after Hadji-Minaglou 2009, 189, figs 8, 10).

Fig. 24. Comparison of small Egyptian baths and their heating systems.

257
 Fig. 25. Medinet Habu, domestic baths: perspective views (after Hölscher 1954, 37-38)
and schematic plans, highlighting the heating system.
unction. In these rooms, which served as sweat
rooms or included immersion basins, the floors
and/or walls were heated. That rooms with hip-
bathtubs were never heated is particularly evi-
dent in the case of the Egyptian small baths: when
the bathroom included both hip-bathtubs and
immersion bathtubs, it was heated, but when the
two bathing forms were separated, only the room
with immersion bathtubs was heated by a wall,
while the room with hip-bathtubs was supplied
with hot water from a tank.
In baths that were provided with proto-hypo-
caust systems, several functions can be assigned
to the heating system. It was often used to heat
simultaneously a space, water, and basins, and
the same furnace supplied both a boiler and a
hypocaust system (fig. 26).
- In Egypt, the heating system of large baths
such as the example in Taposiris Magna heated
water for the various bathtubs, the room with
immersion bathtubs, and a space that may
have been used as a sweat or steam room.
- At Gortys, the heating system heated first water
for the hip-bathtubs, located close to the furnace;
then individual immersions bathtubs placed on
top of a hypocaust channel; and finally a sweat
room with a subterranean heating ring.
- In Sicily and southern Italy, two different hypo-
caust heating systems heated on the one hand
collective immersion pools, and on the other
hand oblong spaces in front of the tholoi with
hip-bathtubs. While the latter certainly pro-
duced hot water for the adjacent hip-bathtubs,
258
this function does not sufficiently account for
the form and sophistication of this heating sys-
tem. Thus, the oblong heated spaced most like-
ly also served as a sweat or steam room and/or
room for unction.
In sum, heating systems seem to have been intri-
cately linked to the relaxing bath, for obvious rea-
sons. The Egyptian baths show, however, that
heating systems were also connected with the
cleansing bath, improving its quality by supply-
ing hot water and steam for sweating.
Regional Patterns and Trends
This study has revealed that three regionally
defined groups - baths in the western Mediter-
ranean; the northeastern Mediterranean, notably
Greece; and the southeastern Mediterranean,
notably Egypt - differed significantly in their
heating systems, thus confirming the typology
recently established by Monika Trümper.55
- Hellenistic baths in the western Mediterranean
constitute the most homogeneous group. They
included collective immersion pools heated by
hypocausts and a second heating system, which
produced hot water for hip-bathtubs and most
likely also heated the superimposed room, as
well as, indirectly, the adjacent tholos with hip-
bathtubs.
- Baths in Egypt had the same thermic qualities
as those in the western Mediterranean and
developed similarly, showing the same trend
Fig. 26. Comparison of Greek baths in three different regions of the Mediterranean and their heating systems.

259
 towards greater complexity and comfort from
the 2nd century BCE onward. In both cases, the
cleansing bath, consisting of tholoi with hip-
bathtubs and spaces for sweating, was pro-
vided with hot water in the immediate vicinity
of the tholoi and heated floors, respectively.
While in the west, the relaxing collective immer-
sion pools were heated by a separate furnace
directly from below, rooms with immersion
bathtubs in Egyptian baths were heated by
heating walls from the same furnace as the
cleansing bath.
- Baths in Greece represent an intermediate model
and constitute a less homogeneous group. The
most developed sub-group in terms of heating
system is best represented by the example in
Gortys. Like in the two aforementioned groups,
in this bath heated water for hip-bathtubs was
provided in the immediate vicinity of the tholos.56
While the sweat room and the immersion bath-
tubs were heated by a hypocaust system, thus
approaching western practices, immersion bath-
ing was performed in individual rather than in
collective facilities, which is comparable with
Egyptian practices.
These models evolved over time and one can fol-
low the parallel developments of two of these
three models, while the northeastern model is not
sufficiently known and homogeneous: the west-
ern model developed hypocausts and collective
immersion pools, whereas the Egyptian model
refined and diversified the heating system with
one single central furnace.
Both models adopted the same retrograde cir-
cuit and had similar technical standards, notably
heating systems, to either serve collective bathing
forms in the west or individual ones in Egypt.
These models are, however, clearly distinguished
in the Hellenistic period by the obvious reluc-
tance of the eastern populations to bathe com-
munally; this is supported by the fact that in the
Middle East, any form of collective bathing, even
cleansing bathing, was rejected before the Roman
Imperial period.57 In Egypt, hip-bathtubs and
individual immersion bathtubs persisted well into
the Roman period in direct continuation of the
Greco-Egyptian bath type.58 Contemporaneously,
the western baths prefigured the traditionally
defined Roman bath,59 which would become the
standard model in the Roman Imperial period
and would successively spread to conquered ter-
ritories.60 The Egyptian type disappeared only
when the Roman bath became an identifying
marker of the dominant culture.
260
Except in military contexts,61 there are, to date,
no examples of typical Roman baths in Egypt that
date to the early phase of Roman domination of
Egypt. The construction of large thermal com-
plexes seems to have flourished only in the 2nd
and 3rd centuries CE, when Egypt was munici-
palized and local elites were eager to acquire the
most prestigious and emblematic facilities of a
Roman city, notably temples and baths.62 How-
ever, the Roman model of collective baths was
popular in Egypt only for a short time in the
Roman Imperial period. It quickly reverted, in the
Byzantine period, to a model that focused on in-
dividual practices; thus, bathing facilities were
reduced in size to serve only individual bathing.63
This practice continued with the development of
the hammam, which fostered, in direct continua-
tion of Byzantine eastern thermae, the practice of
individual bathing in collective buildings. Thus,
the Roman bath type with its truly collective
bathing forms, notably vast collective pools, con-
stituted only a parenthesis of some centuries in
the long history of Egyptian collective baths, and
more broadly Eastern collective baths.64
ADDENDUM (2012 June)
Since the writing of this article, new data have
come to light at Taposiris Magna concerning two
rooms newly excavated to the south of room 18:
an access corridor leading to the furnace from the
west, which was discovered full of ashes from the
cleaning of the firing chamber; and a latrine
room. Both facilities belong to the second phase
of the building, when the furnace was built. Other
Egyptian baths include latrines (Tell el-Herr and
Buto, North, second phase), but these date to the
beginning of the Roman period. Thus, the Taposi-
ris latrines are the earliest known in Egypt, and
they attest to the important role this building
played as a focus of architectural developments
and innovations at the end of the Hellenistic
period.
In addition, new information on heating sys-
tems of Greco-Egyptian baths has become avail-
able thanks to new excavations, new publications
and our own survey of baths in Egypt. This
involves the baths at Buto, North, East and South;
Dionysias North; Karnak (baths north of the first
pylon); Kom el-Khamsin; and Taposiris Magna.
The most spectacular discovery was made at
Buto, where the SCA found a perfect example of
the Greco-Egyptian bath type (Abd el-Rafa Fadl
et al. forthcoming). Another well preserved exam-
ple of this same type at Kom el-Khamsin was
recently published (Helal 2009-10). Finally, at Kar-
nak the ongoing excavations have uncovered the
heating system, in particular the well preserved
furnace (Boraik et al. forthcoming).
This new information confirms the hypothesis
presented in this article, verifying the existence of
a true Greco-Egyptian bath model that appears to
have spread throughout Egypt during the 2nd cen-
tury BCE at the latest. Commonly the plan
includes two tholoi and at least one room with
individual immersion bathtubs. The heating sys-
tem is located between this room and a water
tank, opposite the entrances to the two tholoi, and
comprises a large and deep furnace that was
probably used to heat one or more boilers sup-
plied with water from the nearby tank. Thus far
the heating wall at Taposiris is unique; the newly
discovered heating system at Karnak does not
include this feature, an indication that heating
walls were a later refinement to the original
Egyptian system. All relevant catalog entries and
bibliography have been updated to reflect this
new information on Egyptian baths.
NOTES
* Unless otherwise stated, photographs and drawings are
by the authors.
** We would like to thank Sandra Lucore and Monika
Trümper for their invitation to attend the conference in
Rome, which was extremely rewarding. The issues dis-
cussed at the meeting partly cover those developed in
recent years by the Balnéorient program, a research
group concerned with bathing history in the East, from
antiquity to the present. For more details on this pro-
ject, see http://balneorient.hypotheses.org.
1 For a summary of the MFFTM excavations, cf. Boussac
2009; on the baths excavations since 2002, cf. Fournet
and Redon 2009. We thank the Supreme Council of
Antiquities (SCA), and specially the General Secretary,
Zahi Hawass, who kindly support our work in Taposiris
Magna. We are also thankful to Emily Nessim, respon-
sible, for the SCA, for the foreign excavations in the
Alexandria area, who, since 1998, has continuously and
efficiently helped us.
2 Ginouvès 1962, 199-209, esp. 208-209
3 DeLaine 1989; Nielsen 1990, 1:6-36, esp. 14-22, 25-35;
Yegül 1992, 48-91; 2010, 81 (‘the systematic use and con-
trol of heat in different spaces constitutes the funda-
mental difference of Roman from Greek bath technol-
ogy and design’); Broise 1994; Fagan 2001; Thébert
2003, 75-88.
4 Trümper 2009.
5 Broise 1994; see also DeLaine 1989.
6 See, in this volume, the articles by Adam-Veleni on the
bath building discovered in the 1990s in the Roman
Forum of Thessaloniki (Greece); and by Lucore on
Sicilian baths, in particular the North Baths of Morgan-
tina. See Lucore 2009a on particular innovative aspects
at Morgantina and other Sicilian baths, with reference
to earlier studies. See also the many ancient Egyptian
examples that were recently discovered or re-examined
in Boussac et al. 2009, passim. In order to continue the
reassessment of Egyptian baths, a conference, held in
Cairo in November of 2010, gathered scholars to dis-
cuss new discoveries on Egyptian baths (Redon forth-
coming-a).
7 See now Adam-Veleni in this volume for the date of the
baths in Thessaloniki.
8 Ginouvès 1959; Trümper 2009, 146-147. We systemati-
cally refer to the tables presented by Trümper in her
study for the literature on the buildings that we discuss
in this article.
9 See the important baths of Fregellae which contained a
collective heated immersion pool in their first phase
(second half of the 3rd century BCE) as well as second
phase (first half of the 2nd century BCE, ca 185-150 BCE);
in the second phase, however, a ‘Roman’ hypocaust was
introduced in a small rectangular sweat room; Tsiolis
2006, 252-253; 2008b, 133, 136; and in this volume.
10 The papyrological evidence was compiled by Beatrice
Meyer during the 1980s and 1990s. We thank her for
allowing us generous access to this work and for her
kind help. In this article we take into account only the
Ptolemaic documents because the evidence of the Ro-
man period could refer to baths with heating systems
that differed from those of Greek baths. Indeed, the ter-
minology does not always allow for a clear distinction
between Greek and Roman baths because there is a
remarkable continuity from the Ptolemaic to the Roman
period in the vocabulary related to baths and bathing.
11 In February 2012 Ch. Bouchaud and B. Redon began
the study of furnaces in Greek baths in Egypt. For an
analysis of Roman baths in Syria, see Bouchaud forth-
coming.
12 P.Cair.Zen. IV, 59292 (250 BCE, Philadelphia). Until the
Roman period, transportation by donkey seems to have
been the preferred means of transport for the supply of
baths; Meyer 1989, 568-569.
13 P.Hels. I, 12 (163 BCE).
14 He even invites the tax farmers on trite balaneiou (tax
on the third of the income of a balaneion), if they do not
agree with his calculation, to pay the 4000 drachmas he
reckons he has earned by operating his bath, and to run
the bath themselves, including the provision of the fuel
(Redon 2011, 303-304, 308-309).
15 P.Mich. I, 65 (245 BCE). During the Roman period, the
owners of baths provided the renter with cauldrons;
due to the lack of evidence, it is impossible to know if
this was also the case in the Hellenistic period (Redon
2011, 304).
16 P.Col.Zen. I, 37 = P.Col. III, 37 (254-250 BCE, Philadel-
phia). See Reekmans 1978, 340. This recalls the Roman
papyrus from the Heroninus archives, in which a certain
Alypios asks to have the bath heated in advance of his
arrival at his villa (P.Flor. II, 127 = Sel.Pap. 140, 266 CE).
17 P.Enteux. 82 (221 BCE, Trikomia).
18 Literary sources (e.g. Theophr. Char. 9.8) provide simi-
lar information, as already highlighted by Ginouvès
1962, 204-205.
19 P.Cair.Zen. IV, 59799 (254-250 BCE, Philadelphia).
20 This term does not appear elsewhere in the papyrus,
but it is mentioned in a fragment of the philosopher
Zeno of Kition who lived in the 3rd century BCE (Stoi-
corum veterum fragmenta I, ed. J. von Arnim, Leipzig,
1905, Fr. 25, l. 3).
21 P.Col. III, 5 = P.Col. IV, 63, col. 2, l. 26-27 (257 BCE,
Philadelphia): ‘to Psenobastis, hypokaustes, for the reeds
261
 that were used for the kiln, 1000 bales, 3 drachmas of
copper.’
22 A hypokaustes appears in the accounts of the Sarapeion
in the mid-2nd century BCE: P.Mil. II, 27 = SB V, 7617 (158
BCE, Memphis). In the same accounts (UPZ I, 98 and
99, 158 BCE, Memphis) water described as hypokauste
appears twice; this most likely referred to heated water,
similar to Zenon’s accounts in which water is called
thermos (i.e. P.Cair.Zen. IV, 59704).
23 P.Lond. III, 1166 R, 104 (42 CE, Hermopolis Magna). The
term hypokausis appears in a Delian inscription dated
after 166 BCE (ID 1406), cf. Hellmann 1992, s.v.
πκαυσις.
24 Boussac 2001; 2009.
25 Hawass and Goddio 2010, 202.
26 Breccia 1914.
27 Dhennin 2008.
28 First by Ginouvès, who examined the baths of Piraeus;
Ginouvès 1962, 384. The excavations have recently been
resumed under the direction of Carmelo Di Nicuolo
(Italian Archaeological School at Athens): cf. Di Nicuolo
forthcoming.
29 The buildings scattered on the Taenia slopes in the
‘Upper Taposiris’ are partly or entirely rock cut.
30 For a summary of the campaigns up to 2006 and for
more detailed presentation of the different areas of the
baths, and its successive transformations, cf. Fournet
and Redon 2009.
31 This technique is usually used for jack arches. The par-
allels seem relatively rare: at this early stage of the
study, the only similar example of the Ptolemaic Period
is to be found at Kom Abu Billou (Western Delta), for
covering a tomb. Another example, this time used in a
dome approximately dated to the 2nd century CE, is
preserved at Ezbet Bashendi. We thank George
Soukiassian (Institut français d’archéologie orientale/
IFAO) for these details; cf. Fournet 2011.
32 Soundings made outside the building have mainly con-
cerned contexts contemporaneous with the second
phase of the baths, dated fairly precisely to the late 2nd
century BCE. The first phase is not yet precisely dated,
but the changes it underwent suggest a long period of
occupation.
33 Ginouvès 1959; 1962, 198-199.
34 Broise 1994; Greco in this volume; Lucore 2009a; in this
volume.
35 We thank Marie-Françoise Billot (IRAA, Nanterre) for
sharing her expertise on this topic with us.
36 We thank Thomas Faucher for the study of the coins,
and Anne-Éloïse Auger, Pascale Ballet and Sylvie Mar-
chand for the preliminary study of the pottery from
these contexts.
37 Fournet and Redon 2007, 123-124.
38 Trümper 2009, 150, 159-160. It is also one of our former
conclusions, which we should now reconsider (Fournet
and Redon 2009, 126-127).
39 The IFAO archives (Cairo) include first, a part of the
archives of the Franco-Polish mission at Edfu that
explored a small bath under the direction of Kazimierz
Michalowski; and second, the records and photographs
of Henry Wild who excavated the baths at Dionysias in
the context of the Franco-Swiss mission at Qasr Qarun
(Schwartz and Wild 1950). He visited many bath build-
ings which were discovered at the same time, includ-
ing those excavated by Abd el-Mohsen el-Khachab. We
would like to thank the archives service of the IFAO
and its director for access to and use of the archives. We
262
also thank Karol Myśliwiec, who kindly examined the
archives of Warsaw University concerning the excava-
tions at Edfu, unfortunately without positive results for
our topic.
40 We thank Mansour Boraik (co-director of Centre franco-
égyptien d’étude des temples de Karnak and director
of the Supreme Council of Antiquities for Upper Egypt)
for this important information.
41 P.Enteux. 82 (221 BCE, Trikomia).
42 Delorme 1960, 301-4; Ginouvès 1962, 138-39, 205, n.6;
Foss 1975; and recently Pont 2008. The aleipterion means,
in Theophrastus in the 3rd century BCE, a space for
sweating and unction (De Ign. 13). This link is also
attested to in the text of the mysteries of Andania (IG
V, 1 1390, l. 107-111, early 1st century BCE). On this last
text see Deshours 2006, esp. 40 and 91.
43 Michalowski 1937; Redon 2009a, 420-422.
44 The IFAO archives do not include any unpublished
photographs, but details are still much clearer in the
originals.
45 It was excavated in 1996-1998 by the IFAO and the Uni-
versity of Milan; for a preliminary publication, Hadji-
Minaglou 2009; the final publication is in progress, under
the direction of Gisèle Hadji-Minaglou (IFAO) who
kindly provided information about the heating wall in
Room E, with the participation of Bérangère Redon.
46 See, respectively, Riad 1975 and Rodziewicz 2009, 196;
Römer 2004; el-Khachab 1956, 131-132; el-Khachab 1949,
34, 55-56; Jeffreys 1985, 17-18; Rodziewicz 2009, 196;
Roeder 1959, 128-132; dates given in brackets are taken
from published literature, but may have to be revised.
47 Grossmann 2009, 292-293. It is hard to believe, however,
that this type of bath continued to exist into the
Byzantine era. We thank Grégory Marouard, who has
participated in surveys in Bawit, for fruitful discussion
of this building.
48 Hölscher 1954, 37-38.
49 See the numerous examples in Broise 1994.
50 Theophr. Char. 9.8.
51 Plutarch, narrating the episode of the young Democles’
suicide, suggests that the boiler (chalkoma) of the bath,
in which the young man threw himself to spurn Deme-
trius Poliorcetes’ advances, was accessible to bathers
(Plut. Dem. 24.4-5).
52 According to Kunze and Schleif 1944, 46-51, pls. 16, 18,
the ‘Younger Sitz-Bath’ dated to the 3rd century BCE
and included a rectangular room with hip-bathtubs; the
latter was provided with heated water by a small basin
in the room’s east wall, which, in turn, was supplied by
a large boiler set up over the adjacent furnace.
53 See Broise 1994; Greco in this volume; Lucore in this
volume.
54 This is the case in Sicily and southern Italy; see supra
n. 53.
55 Trümper 2009.
56 Also note the discovery in Greece (Delphi and Eretria)
of two private bathing facilities equipped with heated
walls near a hip-bathtub; Ginouvès 1952, 555-561; Reber
1998, 55-57, 137-139.
57 See Hoss 2005. Bathing facilities with hip-bathtubs were
only found in domestic architecture; no collective tholos
building has yet been identified in the Middle East.
58 See Gräzer 2009, on hygienic practices in Pharaonic
Egypt. See also Fournet and Redon 2009, 127; Trümper
2009, 160-162 on the peculiarities of the Egyptian model.
Egyptian conservatism is particularly obvious in the
buildings of Athribis (el-Khachab 1949, 7 n. 3; 1978, 12-
 13; Schwartz and Wild 1950, 60-61 n. 2, pl. XV) and Buto,
which is now being reexamined by Guy Lecuyot (UMR
8546 CNRS-ENS) and Bérangère Redon, as part of the
French mission of Buto, led by Pascale Ballet (University
of Poitiers). For a summary of previous work and first
results of the recent excavations, see Lecuyot and
Redon 2011, and forthcoming.
59 The Fregellae Baths may illustrate the transition from a
Greek to a Roman bath; while the bathing complex of
the first phase may still have been influenced by Greek
baths, this was replaced in a second phase (ca 180-150
BCE) with a typical Roman building. See Tsiolis 2001,
2006, 2008b; and particularly in this volume. We would
like to thank Vassilis Tsiolis for discussion of these
important baths and for providing extensive docu-
mentation.
60 We agree with Yvon Thébert that the popularity of typ-
ical Roman baths in the entire Mediterranean is owed
to dynamic innovative local elites, rather than to any
directives from Rome, attempting to ‘Romanize’ con-
quered territories by imposing a ‘Roman’ lifestyle on
them; Thébert 2003, 11-41.
61 Redon 2009a.
62 Redon forthcoming-b.
63 See, for example, the baths of Ezbet Fath’Allah, a good
example of a Roman-Byzantine bath of northern Egypt,
which flourished in the 4th to 7th centuries CE; Abd el-
Fattah et al. 2009.
64 For a similar development in the Middle East between
the Roman and Byzantine era, see Fournet 2012.

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