Page 111 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

A Walk to Caesarea: A Historical-Archaeological Perspective 97

and even earlier, a private bath house was a standard Fig. 101
facility of luxurious houses. The entrance was from cardo
W1 through a wide opening that led to a reception room Mosaic in the reception
and a waiting room. North of the waiting room was located hall (oikos) of the Herodian
an apsidal hall, which probably served the owner as a residence
reception hall for the clients who used to come daily to
the house of their wealthy patron, as was usual in luxurious a b
homes of landlords.
Fig. 102a–b
Nearby, in the fenced and shaded area, one can see in a. The courtyard of the
a deeper layer the remnants of a large palatial house from
the Herodian and the Early Roman period. Uncovered bathhouse wing of the
here was a reception hall of the oikos type, open to the northern palatial mansion,
north, with two columns between two pilasters (di stylos in with a fountain at its
antis) set in its façade. The hall was paved with a mosaic center. The paving is made
floor depicting a peacock-feather (opus pavonaceum) of colorful marble tiles
medallion set within a rectangle in whose corners are (opus sectile) of which
stylized octopuses (Fig. 101). Flanking the hall were only traces remained in
two additional rooms that constituted an entire wing on the mortar bedding
the southern side of an extensive garden that extended b. Bust of a woman found in
further north. A circumvallating corridor, paved with a the bathhouse courtyard
simple mosaic, which was bordered by a wall with engaged
half-columns, surrounded the garden. (The northern
part of this garden as well as the western wing of the
complex, holding a bathhouse and a miqveh [bath for
ritual immersion] were uncovered beneath the warehouse
complex, attached to the villa on the north [see below];
after exposing and documenting it, it was re-buried).

The bathhouse and privy wing of the Late Roman
palatial mansion extended on the southern side of the
complex. A small courtyard adorned with fountains
separated the bathhouse from the latrine (Figs. 102a–b,
103). The bathhouse comprised three units, each holding

Fig. 103

The latrine of the bathhouse
wing in the palatial mansion