A comprehensive archaeological study of the ceramic finds from a house
in Amheida
The House of Serenos: Part I: The Pottery (Amheida V) is a
comprehensive catalog and analysis of the ceramic finds from the late
antique house of a local notable and adjacent streets in Amheida. It is
the fifth book in the Amheida series.
Amheida is located in the western part of the Dakhla oasis, 3.5 km south
of the medieval town of El-Qasr. Known in Hellenistic and Roman times as
Trimithis, Amheida became a polis by 304 CE and was a major
administrative center of the western part of the oasis for the whole of
the fourth century. The home's owner was one Serenos, a member of the
municipal elite and a Trimithis city councillor, as we know from
documents found in the house. His house is particularly well preserved
with respect to floor plan, relationship to the contemporary urban
topography, and decoration, including domestic display spaces plastered
and painted with subjects drawn from Greek mythology and scenes
depicting the family that owned the house. The archaeology from the site
also reveals the ways in which the urban space changed over time, as
Serenos's house was built over and expanded into some previously public
spaces. The house was probably abandoned around or soon after 370 CE.
The pottery analyzed here both helps to refine the relationship of the
archaeological layers belonging to the élite house and those below it,
and to shed light on the domestic and economic life of the household and
region, from cooking and dining to the management of a complex
agricultural economy in which ceramics were the most common form of
container for basic commodities.
The book will be of interest to specialists interested in ceramology,
Roman Egypt, and the material culture, social history, and economy of
late antiquity.
