Hanghaus 2 in Ephesos, WE 6

In this publication, a detailed description of the building including the architectural elements, the water system, the heating and the interior fixtures such as the doors is presented. Following this, are the reconstruction of the building periods and the interior decoration (floors, marble revetments, wall paintings and stucco work) and the presentation of all finds (sculptures, terracotta figurines, small finds, glass and ceramic objects, archaeozoolocical remains) as well as graffiti and stone inscriptions. Apart from the art historical and typological examination of the interior decorations and finds, the priority of the publication lay in a contextual analysis. Especially this analysis led to new results in regard to housing and daily life in the Roman Imperial period, not only for the antic metropolis of Ephesos, but also in general. In addition to Dwelling Unit 6, built in the early Imperial period, fragments of wall paintings and remains of floors, which can be attributed to the Hellenistic period, led to a reconstruction of a dwelling on the area of the later Unit 6 already in this time. It can be compared with a peristyle house on the area of the neighbouring Terrace House 1, whereby both houses testify living quarters of the Ephesian elite already in this period. Due to ceramic find complexes, this pre-building was destroyed in the early Imperial period, presumably at the time of the earthquake of 23 AD. The erection of Dwelling Unit 6 can be dated by the architectural décor (capitals) and by ceramic find complexes to the 2nd quarter of the 1st century AD. Enormous rebuilding occurred in building period II, which took place in early Hadrianic times as we know through stone inscriptions in the house itself. For the first time, we have an exact date for building period II in Terrace House 2. The rebuilding in this building phase and of the following building period III can be attributed to the house owner C. Fl. Furius Aptus, whom we know from inscriptions in the Unit 6 as well as from the public space of the town. The rooms 8 and 31 were enlarged to splendid decorated halls, which reflect the high social rank of the house owner, who held the offices of an alytarch and a priest of Dionysos. The building and decoration program initiated by Furius Aptus is not only visible in the above mentioned large rooms, which have their models in palaces and villas of the Roman emperors in Rome, but also in the sculptures und stone inscriptions as well as in the stucco works of room 8a. Beyond that, some building and decoration elements let us assume that Dwelling Unit 6 was not only used for habitation, but also for meetings of the Dionysic association, of which Furius Aptus was a priest.