Pottery and architecture of Insula X and pottery from the “Shop with the Columns” in Delos

The project focuses on Insula X in the Theatre Quarter of Delos, which consists of a complex of Hellenistic houses that, during the Roman period, were converted into metallurgical workshops. In its eastern section, a water tower was erected in the 2nd century AD, which channeled water from the Inopos dam to the baths of the agora. The pottery, marble statuettes, channels, and traces of copper slag offer crucial insights into the social and economic life of Delos during the Late Hellenistic and Roman periods. Similar conversions of domestic spaces into workshops are documented elsewhere in the Theatre Quarter as early as the mid-1st century BC, suggesting a broader restructuring of the urban space with an emphasis on artisanal production.

The study of Insula X aims to explore the chronological and functional relationship between the workshops and the water tower. At the same time, the study of finds from the 2015 excavation continues, within the framework of the French School at Athens’ research program “Study of Commercial Buildings on the Western Coast of Delos,” with forthcoming publications on the commercial amphorae and the overall archaeological material.