Houses, Furnishings and Everyday Objects in the Attalid Kingdom

Homes in Attalid Pergamon brought living space, water storage and household work onto a steep hillside. Courtyards connected rooms, admitted light and collected runoff from roofs. Pottery supplied containers for serving and keeping food, while civic rules made the upkeep of domestic water supplies a public responsibility. The kingdom’s expanding capital depended on these small operations as well as its monumental buildings.

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Houses in a city shaped by the hillside

Pergamon’s residential areas changed as the Attalid city expanded. Philetaerus, or a successor, enclosed the upper city and some housing within an early wall, while other houses lay beyond it. Under Eumenes II and Attalus II, construction spread across more of the hill. A new circuit of walls enclosed a much broader urban area, and settlement extended down the slopes towards the Selinus River.

The terrain made a regular grid difficult. Streets turned sharply to climb the hill, and builders cut terraces into the slopes to create level ground for buildings and open spaces. Earlier construction also limited where new streets and houses could go. Residential blocks and houses therefore varied in size and arrangement rather than following one consistent plan.

Courtyards and movement through the house

Many Hellenistic houses at Pergamon were organized around a small, roughly square courtyard. Rooms opened onto the courtyard from one or two sides. The principal rooms were often on its north side, sometimes on two levels. A passage or colonnade there could lead into foyers and onward to other rooms, making the courtyard a central point of movement within the house.

Some houses used a broad columned hall in front of the principal rooms, while others fitted a more confined court between irregular boundaries. Adding an upper floor created useful space without requiring more ground on the slope. Stairs connected that floor with the court and entrances below. The size and arrangement of a property shaped the routes available for carrying water, food and possessions.

Water storage and the city supply

Roof runoff could be directed into a cistern, a tank that stored water below or beside the courtyard. Its waterproof lining kept the collected water from draining into surrounding ground. The stored supply could then be drawn when required, reducing repeated journeys to a public source. Keeping dirt out of the inlet and tank was part of maintaining a usable supply.

In the Hellenistic period, a ceramic conduit brought water from the Madradağ mountains, more than 40 kilometres away, towards the citadel. Near the city, water collected in a pool before continuing through a lead pipe. The pipe was pressurized to carry water across a deep valley and raise it to the height of the acropolis. This system shows the scale of engineering behind the city’s water supply; domestic cisterns, meanwhile, offered a way to collect rain locally.

A municipal regulation known as the Astynomoi Law gives water storage a practical administrative setting. It survives in a Roman-period inscription generally understood to preserve an Attalid law. The astynomoi, officials responsible for streets and urban infrastructure, had to register private cisterns and report to senior civic officers. Maintenance of household tanks thus mattered to the city’s collective water security.

Vessels, furnishings and household use

Hellenistic pottery from Pergamon includes mould-made bowls with raised decoration. Clay pressed into a decorated mould took up its design; after removal and firing, the vessel displayed repeating leaves, flowers or figures. The finished bowl combined a practical container with a patterned surface that could be reproduced for different buyers.

The manufacture of a bowl involved several operations: preparing clay, shaping the body, drying it sufficiently for handling and firing it in a kiln. A decorative mould reduced the need to carve each finished vessel individually. Differences between drinking or serving ware and large storage containers reflected their intended handling and capacity, as well as choices about appearance.

Domestic life beside markets and streets

Homes formed part of a city where residential, civic and commercial spaces developed alongside one another. The main uphill street had shops and warehouses, linking different parts of the settlement. Pergamon’s upper marketplace also took on a stronger commercial role as the city grew. Its halls included back rooms thought to have been used for trade. The lower marketplace occupied more than one level, with small shop spaces and other rooms opening from a large columned hall.

Markets placed domestic provisioning within the city’s network of streets and shops. A household could obtain vessels and other goods through specialists whose work also supplied sanctuaries and public settings. Imported bowls from centres such as Athens and Ephesus occur alongside local production. The objects used within homes therefore belonged to an economy extending beyond a single neighbourhood.

For the wider setting, see Life in the Attalid Kingdom: City, Household and Countryside.