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Gymnasium or Khan? A Hellenistic Building at Babylon1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Extract

In the spring of 1904 the German excavators at Babylon unearthed the remains of a group of buildings on the mound Hornera in the east of the city (Fig. 1). The northern part is a Greek theatre, constructed principally of crude brick, though brick rubble laid with gypsum mortar is used in some special places.

‘An das Bühnengebäude schliesst südlich ein grosses Peristyl mit anliegenden, meist ziemlich gleichwertigen Zimmern an. Die südliche Reihe dieser Zimmer ist grösstenteils vernichtet. Vom Peristyl liegen noch die Bruchziegel-Fundamente soweit, dass nach ihnen die Hauptmasse genommen werden konnten. Die umlaufende Halle war im Süden zweischiffig, wie das bei Palaestra-Peristylen häufig ist. Von den Säulen, die auf diesen Fundamenten standen, haben sich ziemlich zahlreiche Reste in der Form kreisförmig zugehackter Barnsteine, von denen einige roh gehauene, sicher einst feiner verputzte Profile trugen, erhalten. Im Osten öffnete sich, ebenfalls in Säulenstellung, gegen die Halle des Peristyls eine langgestreckte Exedra.’

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , October 1935 , pp. 223 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1935

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Footnotes

page 223 note 1

Olympia: Olympia, Die Ergebnisse der … Ausgrabungen. B.C.H.: Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique. A.M.: Athenische Mitteilungen. Milet: Milet, Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen. A.J.A.: American Journal of Archaeology. C.A.H.: Cambridge Ancient History. O.G.I.S.: Ditten-Berger, Orientis Graecae Inscriptiones Selectae. Daremberg-Saglio: Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités. Comptes Rendus: Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions. R.M.: Römische Mitteilungen. N.S.: Notizie degli Scavi. Πρακτικά: Πρακτικὰ τῆς ἐν Ἀθηναῖς ἀρχ. ἑταιρίας.

My thanks are due to Mr. A. W. Lawrence, Professor D. S. Robertson, and Mr. Sidney Smith for reading this paper and suggesting improvements.

References

page 223 note 2 Koldewey, , Das Wieder Erstehende Babylon (4th ed., 1924), 293 ff.Google Scholar

page 223 note 3 C.A.H. VII. 188 Google Scholar.

page 223 note 4 O.G.I.S. No. 253.

page 223 note 5 Vitr. v. 11, the locus classicus, for whom the palaestra consists of changing-rooms, &c., for the athletes and a wrestling-floor, while the gymnasium provides open and covered running-tracks (xysti) for practice. This is exactly the disposition found at Olympia. Cf. Daremberg et Saglio, S.VV. Gymnasium, Palaestra. The hot bath included by Vitruvius in his palaestra is a Roman feature, rare in Hellenistic palaestras; but cf. Lawrence, A. W., Herodotus (1935), IV. 75 n. 2Google Scholar. The terms gymnasium and palaestra are generally used without distinction, and the ‘palaestra’ at Iassus in Caria ( Texier, , Asie Mineure, III, pl. 145Google Scholar) is actually a ‘gymnasium’.

page 224 note 1 Though his plan is correct, the text of M. H. Morgan's Vitruvius mistranslates this: ‘but let the fourth, which is on the south side, be double’; and Koldewey, loc. cit., appears to have made the same mistake: ‘Die umlaufende Halle war im Süden zweischiffig, wie das bei Palaestra-Peristylen häufig ist.’ The italics are mine.

page 226 note 1 Koldewey, Op. cit., 297.

page 226 note 2 Klio, ix. 352, No. I (Babylon. The date is A.s. 202 = 111/10 B.c.). The Susa inscription ( Comptes Rendus, 1933, 264 ff.Google ScholarPubMed) is probably of the first half of the first century B.c., and refers to a στε]φανίτης and γυμ]νασίαρχος who πόλε[ι κατεσκεύασεν (?).

page 226 note 3 Rostovtzeff and Baur, Excavations at Dura-Europos, passim; Waterman, Tell Umar, First and Second Preliminary Reports; Andrae, and Lenzen, , Die Partherstadt Assur (W.V.D.O.G. LVII)Google Scholar; Andrae, , Hatra (W.V.D.O.G. IX and XXI)Google Scholar.

page 226 note 4 Bieber, , Denkmäler zum Theaterwesen, p. 15 Google Scholar, Abb. 9 (Athens), Abb. 58 and 59 (theatre of Pompey), Abb. 61 (theatre of Marcellus), Abb. 60 (Ostia), p. 65 ff. (Orange), Abb. 70 (Aezani).

page 226 note 5 Gsell, , Monuments antiques de l'Algérie, 1, fig. 65Google Scholar.

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page 228 note 2 Petersen, (R.M. 1899, 103)Google Scholar; cf. Sogliano, (N.S. 1906, 103)Google Scholar, and Mau, , Führer durch Pompeji (6th ed.), 157 Google Scholar.

page 228 note 3 Air photograph of a khan at Ras el-‘Ain, not far from Jaffa, said to date back to the first century A.D. in Illustrated London News of May 12th, 1934.

page 229 note 1 Tavernier's Six Voyages, made English … (London, 1678), 45 Google Scholar.

page 229 note 2 .

page 229 note 3 Apparently unpublished. Mentioned without a reference in B.C.H. 1933, 98 Google ScholarPubMed, and summarily outlined in B.C.H. 1916/18, pl. I-IV.

page 229 note 4 Kavvadias, , Τό Ἱερὸν τοῦ Ἀσκληπίου, 162 Google Scholar.

page 230 note 1 Olympia, II. 83, pls. LXII-LXVIGoogle Scholar. Pausanias, v. 15. 2, and Frazer, ad loc. III. 568.

page 230 note 2 Olympia, II. 107, pl. LXXIGoogle Scholar.

page 230 note 3 Robertson, , Greek and Roman Architecture, 317 Google Scholar.

page 230 note 4 Olympia, II. 58, pl. XLIIIGoogle Scholar.

page 230 note 5 Butler, H. C., Architecture and Other Arts (American Exp. to Syria, Part II), 155 Google Scholar.

page 230 note 6 Butler, H. C., Early Churches in Syria, 88 Google Scholar.

page 231 note 1 Koldewey, Tempel von Babylon und Borsippa (W.V.D.O.G. XV), Taf. XI (Etemenanki, Babylon), Taf. XII (Ezida, Borsippa).

page 231 note 2 Cagnat, , L'Armée romaine d'Afrique (2nd ed., 1913), 465 Google Scholar; Bonner Jahrbuch, CXXII (1912/1913), Taf. XLIGoogle Scholar.