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The So-Called Villa Dionysos at Knossos

Bibliographic Data

ID10965611
AuthorsSara Paton (corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume117
Pages311-351
Publication date2022-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Annual of the British School at Athens (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0068-2454 • E-ISSN: 2045-2403
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0068245421000137
OpenAlexW4223424225
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited19

The excavated part of the building known as the Villa Dionysos consists of a peristyle court with rooms on three sides. The rooms have fine mosaic floors, found in a remarkable state of preservation. The excavator, Michael Gough, believed that the building was an isolated structure intended for the practice of Dionysiac cult, and he interpreted his finds in the light of this conviction. After his last season of work in 1971, his views were expressed in a short report (Catling 1972, 21–2). Gough died in 1973 having published no further details of his four seasons of work on the site and, except for some diaries and photographs, many of the records are lost. The pottery from his excavations was, however, fully published in 1983 by John Hayes, and the mosaics were published by Rebecca Sweetman in 2013. Further study of the site, together with the pottery evidence, indicates that the peristyle and its associated rooms were the public reception area of an elaborately decorated Roman domus of the second century AD, and that adjacent buildings to the south may have been the private quarters of this house. A large cistern, connected to the aqueduct, provided a copious water supply. The Dionysiac imagery of the mosaics, together with the extraordinary range of imported wine amphorae found on the premises, suggest that the owner may have prospered through the wine trade

Ancient history · Aqueduct · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Cult · Excavation · Pottery · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis · History

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    Open Access•Amanda Kelly, Brendan O'Neill•The Annual of the British School…•2023

  • The Mosaics of Roman Crete

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    Open Access•Jill Carington Smith•The Annual of the British School…•1994

  • Roman Crete

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  • The relationship between agricultural production and amphora manufacture on Roman Crete

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    Open Access•John W Hayes•The Annual of the British School…•1983

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    Open Access•Antonis Kotsonas•The Annual of the British School…•2016

  • A Roman Corinthian Building at Knossos

    Open Access•Sara Paton•The Annual of the British School…•1991

  • The Roman mosaics of the Knossos Valley

    Open Access•Rebecca Sweetman•The Annual of the British School…•2003

  • The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture

    Elise A Friedland, Melanie Grunow Sobocinski et al.•Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture•2015

  • The Social Structure of the Roman House

    Open Access•Andrew Wallace-Hadrill•Papers of the British School at…•1988

  • Food surplus and archaeological proxies

    Scott Gallimore•World Archaeology•2017

Citations per year0.33
Citation span2023 - 2023 (1)
Highly citedNo

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