45 research outputs found
Domestic spaces
This chapter discusses Jewish domestic space in Egypt, Syria, Judaea, Asia Minor, and Italy from the third century BCE to the end of the second century CE using material and literary evidence. Domestic spaces vary along geographical but especially socioâeconomic lines. Wealthy households lived in large mansions while poor families crammed into small rooms in highârise buildings. Elite and nonâelite domestic spaces doubled as areas for work and business. A persistent difficulty is identifying markers of religious or cultural identity in domestic architecture that might distinguish Jewish and nonâJewish homes; for the most part, Jewish homes have more in common with other homes of similar status than with coâreligionists of different status. Jews lived in the same kind of homes as their nonâJewish neighbors