TRIPOLIS ad MAEANDRUM

ROMAN TABERNAE (SHOPS)

To the east of the Early Byzantine Church 4 is a row of tabernae extending between the Colonnaded Street and the Arched Building (Fig. 1); three of them have been uncovered. They cover an area of 12x7 m with a roof height of 4.85 m (Fig. 2). The walls were built with stone at the bottom and topped with mud bricks; they are painted in polychrome frescoes arranged in panels (Fig. 3). The shops were covered with a portable roof system in order to protect the frescoes (Fig. 4).

Archaeological materials uncovered in the Rooms A, B and C indicate that the rooms go back to the Late Hellenistic – Early Roman period but it can be said that they had their heyday in the third century AD. The tabernae were abandoned with an earthquake in the latter half of the third century AD but some remained in use for a while more in the fourth-fifth centuries.

ROOM A

Room A is located to the east of Early Byzantine Church 4 and west of the taberna called Room C; it measures 7x1.80 m on the inside.

The Room A was shrunk from the west when the church was built in the fifth-sixth centuries; actually, what is visible today is only a small portion of the original Room A.

There is a doorway in the southeast corner of the Room A opening into the Room C. The main entrance of the Room A should have opened into the Colonnaded Street but when the fortification wall was built it was blocked on the south and because of the church in its west there is no doorway opening out is discernible.

The hypostyle, strigilis and other archaeological evidence uncovered altogether indicate that the Room A actually was part of Room C and probably served as a balnea (baths) for bathing.

ROOM B

The second taberna measuring 7.05x4.45 m on the inside is located to the south of the Arched Building and east of the taberna called Room C.

The room is embellished with frescoes on its east, north and west walls; the panels framed in black, red and yellow feature incised graffiti and Greek letters on cream main background.

The archaeological work has shown that the room was in constant use during the third century AD. However, when the defensive fortification wall was built in the portico of the Colonnaded Street in the late fourth century some arrangements needed to be made in this room. When the main entrance from the south was cancelled a bench was built and a new layer of fresco was applied over the former one; and these indicate that the room remained in use for a while more after the fourth century. Furthermore, the doorway opening into the Arched Building to the north was not cancelled; this shows that Room B remained in use together with the Arched Building in the Early Byzantine period.

ROOM C

This room measuring 7.05x4.45 m on the inside is located in between the Rooms A and B. It originally opened into the Colonnaded Street but it also communicates with the Room A on the west. However, the construction of the fortification wall at the end of the fourth century blocked the main entrance.

Before the east wall of the room, a pier was built with stone, bricks and travertine to support the wall (Fig. 5). There are polychrome frescoes within panels measuring 1.20 m tall and 0.85 m wide on the west wall (Fig. 6), east wall (Fig. 7) and north wall. On a cream background are a parrot (Fig. 8), a partridge (Fig. 9), pigeon, pheasant and leopard (Fig. 10) and other animals (Fig. 11) in green, black, red and yellow as well as fruit and vegetables such as squash (Fig. 12), pomegranate (Fig. 13), apricot (Fig. 14) and flowers like poppies and roses.

Polychrome frescoes on its walls, that it opened into the Colonnaded Street, that it adjoins the Arched Building, which served as an agora, all indicate that this room was used as a taberna just like the adjoining the Room B on the east.