Domestic spaces

This chapter discusses Jewish domestic space in Egypt, Syria, Judaea, Asia Minor, and Italy from the third century BCE to the end of the second century CE using material and literary evidence. Domestic spaces vary along geographical but especially socio‐economic lines. Wealthy households lived in large mansions while poor families crammed into small rooms in high‐rise buildings. Elite and non‐elite domestic spaces doubled as areas for work and business. A persistent difficulty is identifying markers of religious or cultural identity in domestic architecture that might distinguish Jewish and non‐Jewish homes; for the most part, Jewish homes have more in common with other homes of similar status than with co‐religionists of different status. Jews lived in the same kind of homes as their non‐Jewish neighbors.