Macedonian Houses, Furnishings and Household Objects: Domestic Space in the Kingdom

Excavated houses at Pella show how domestic life developed in the Macedonian capital during the fourth and third centuries BCE. A courtyard brought light and movement into rooms sheltered from the street, while separate reception spaces allowed affluent owners to entertain guests. Smaller dwellings and household objects reveal work and daily needs alongside these impressive interiors.

On this page5 sections

Residential blocks in a planned capital

Pella’s city was laid out on a regular grid during the first half of the fourth century BCE. Streets crossed at right angles to form rectangular blocks, generally about 45 metres wide and between 111 and 152 metres long. The main east–west street was wider than the others and led towards the central agora, the city’s principal public square. Each block contained at least two houses.

The largest houses at Pella occupied substantial parts of a city block and could contain more than one courtyard. Their scale accommodated reception halls, storage and service spaces as well as the residents. Smaller dwellings used less elaborate plans. The difference was practical as well as decorative: a wealthy household could separate entertaining from other activities and maintain more rooms.

Courtyards, rooms and household activities

Many of Pella’s larger houses were organised around a courtyard with a peristyle, a colonnade running around the open space. The columns could be in the Doric or Ionic style. Rooms opened behind the colonnade, making the courtyard a central point in the house’s layout. Some homes also had an upper storey.

In the richest houses, large rooms used for banquets commonly opened onto the north side of the courtyard. This arrangement connected a formal dining space to the house’s central open area. It also shows that some rooms had specialised uses, rather than every space serving the same purpose. Yet the plans do not identify the function of every room, and the elaborate houses are not a guide to how all Macedonian families arranged their homes.

Water and drainage at home

Water reached Pella through a network of pipes, with supplies delivered to buildings and drainage carrying used water away. Wells and cisterns also formed part of the city’s water provision. Within a household, drawing, storing and carrying water connected cooking, washing and cleaning with the layout of the courtyard and service spaces.

Mosaics and painted interiors

Floors and walls could make the interiors of wealthy houses visually elaborate. Pella’s pebble mosaics used coloured stones to form images and patterns. Some floors showed mythological scenes, while entrance rooms could have geometric designs. In certain mosaics, strips of lead or terracotta outlined figures, and inscriptions identified characters in the scenes. The subjects and workmanship point to skilled mosaic production in the city.

The House of Dionysus is named for a mosaic of the god riding a panther in a banqueting room. The same house had two courtyards with colonnades, one Doric and one Ionic, and other mosaic scenes included a lion hunt and a pair of centaurs. Another wealthy residence, the House of the Abduction of Helen, takes its name from a large mosaic depicting Theseus carrying off Helen. These rich mosaic floors distinguished the houses of prosperous owners and supplied their modern archaeological names.

Painted walls added another layer of decoration. In one house, surviving wall paintings reached a height of about five metres. Together with the mosaics, they show that some residential interiors were finished with extensive visual programmes, not just decorated floors.

Vessels, lamps and work inside the house

A Hellenistic house excavated at Lete, near Thessaloniki, contained a courtyard well, a portico and several rooms. Its pottery included plates and handled drinking cups, alongside plain vessels and clay lamps. Such a group brings the functions of a home into view: water was drawn and carried, food served, drinks poured and rooms lit after dark.

A clay oil lamp held fuel in a small reservoir, with a wick projecting through a nozzle. Lighting the exposed wick gave a portable flame, useful where daylight from a courtyard no longer reached. Bowls, cups and jars could be moved between rooms as tasks changed, unlike a mosaic fixed in a reception floor. These portable objects made a house usable as well as impressive.

Pella’s many loom weights also connect domestic space with textile work. On a weighted upright loom, groups of hanging warp threads were kept taut by clay weights while the weaver passed a cross-thread between them. Preparing yarn and weaving cloth required equipment, working room and repeated labour. The weights are small objects, but they point to activities that occupied much more time than the making or viewing of a decorated floor.

For the wider setting, see Macedonian Homes, Families and Social Status in the Kingdom of Macedon.