Homes and Living Spaces in the Parthian World

The Arsacid dynasty ruled the Parthian Empire from 247 BCE to AD 224. Houses at Susa in southwestern Iran and Dura-Europos on the Euphrates show how courtyards linked rooms, how families managed visitors’ movement, and where cooking, storage and reception took place. These arrangements shaped daily life under Arsacid rule and differed with household resources and property and dependency.

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Courtyards, entrances and reception

At Susa, excavators uncovered residential neighborhoods across the Apadana and Royal City mounds from the second half of the second century BCE. Houses commonly placed rooms around a courtyard. One substantial residence included a large room on the south side and an upper floor; nearby houses were altered or replaced during the first half of the first century BCE. A courtyard brought light and air into the rooms around it and gave household members a shared route between them.

Dura-Europos, in modern Syria, came under Roman control in 165 CE. Many of the houses still standing when the city fell in 256 had been built under Parthian rule and were modified during later occupation. The excavated plans therefore preserve both earlier layouts and third-century use. In those neighborhoods, blocks measured about 35 by 70 metres, but houses occupied very different amounts of land: some used only a quarter of a standard plot, while a wealthy residence could take up half a block. A street doorway led through an entrance passage that turned before opening onto the central court. This bent route screened the rooms from a direct street view, while the court distributed movement to adjoining rooms. The court-centered layout joined household circulation to the building’s structure.

The principal reception room often stood on the south side of the court and could have a built-in bench along its walls. Visitors could be received there without being led through every part of the home. In third-century Dura house plans, preparation and storage rooms also opened onto the court, so residents could carry supplies and serve guests without using the street as an internal passage.

Cooking, storage and household work

In the third-century houses preserved at Dura, cooking did not depend on a single standardized kitchen room. Excavated homes contain clay ovens called tanurs, fire pits and brick hearths. Ovens could stand in a courtyard, while a portable brazier, a pan for burning fuel or holding coals, could be carried where heat was needed. These installations let residents bake and cook close to the court, where fuel and vessels could be brought in and prepared food carried to adjoining rooms. Storerooms, jars and other containers kept food and household supplies close to the places where residents prepared and served them.

Some Dura houses also included stables, making space for animals part of the domestic plan. At Susa, one excavated residential complex had a bathhouse, an installation that required extra space and water.

Upper floors, roofs and water

Stairs in Dura houses led to upper rooms and flat roofs, extending household space beyond the court and ground-floor rooms. Many third-century houses also had a cistern, a storage tank, in the courtyard. These tanks probably collected rainwater; residents may also have used water carriers to bring Euphrates water uphill to the city. The court made the stored water accessible to rooms around the house.

An Arsacid-period document from Dura records four brothers dividing two houses. They shared an entrance and courtyard. Each brother held ground-floor rooms and the upper rooms directly above them; selected doorways were blocked to separate their assigned spaces.

Burials within Susa houses

Some Susa homes also held burials within the residential plot. Archaeologists found infants buried in jars inside houses, alongside other burials in the city’s Parthian-period cemeteries. Jar burials placed children within the same plots where families lived, joining domestic space with worship and burial.