Residential Architecture

Abstract

For more than thirty-five years, the story of Phoenician-Punic residential architecture has always taken its cue from the 1982 volume of Frank Braemer that dealt with the Iron Age Levant. In the West, a similar source had been virtually absent. A remarkable number of new studies and publications of archaeological discoveries over the last decade, however, have allowed us to complement this eastern perspective. This chapter addresses a wide range of aspects of domestic architecture: urban vs. rural; the relations between residential and artisanal, commercial, and religious functions; the special contribution of Carthage; house typology and size; the relation between exterior and interior space; and constructive elements and techniques. Phoenician-Punic domestic architecture emerges as characterized by a high level of functional permeability in which residential, agricultural, artisanal, commercial, and religious spheres mingled, all the while often with no evidence of strict separation between private and public space. Moreover, in a comparative Mediterranean perspective, Phoenician-Punic residential architecture shows a high level of technical ingenuity and sophistication.