Houses of Ill Repute: The Archaeology of Brothels, Houses, and Taverns in the Greek World ed. by Allison Glazebrook and Barbara Tsakirgis (review)

Ancient testimonia assure us that prostitution was widespread in the ancient Greek world, but its traces are hard to spot in the archaeological record. The eight papers in this collection probe this issue, developing, examining, and testing criteria that have been, and might be, used to identify taverns, inns, and purpose-built brothels, and discussing structures for which such an identification has been proposed.

Prostitution was opportunistic, adapting to a variety of settings, and there was no paradigmatic plan for a Greek brothel. It is an open question whether or not the Greeks ever constructed a building intended from the beginning for this function, but it can be assumed that there were certain settings in which prostitution was likely to flourish. Drinking, gambling, and sex-for-hire go together, so one might first scrutinize inns and taverns for evidence of this additional activity. But how does one recognize a tavern? In what essentials does it differ from a house, or from any other commercial enterprise? As a baseline for comparison, Barbara Tsakirgis begins the collection with an admirably clear discussion of the Greek house, laying out both architectural conventions and theoretical concerns. With this “norm” established, one can examine other structures for anomalies that might point to different uses. The next two chapters establish other baselines, addressing the ways in which the ceramic inventory of a house might differ from that of a tavern/brothel. Kathleen Lynch finds few easy distinctions between the assemblages of a house, a putative tavern, and a probable brothel; indeed, drinking cups turn out to be proportionally more common in the house than elsewhere. Mark Lawall focuses on transport amphoras, finding that deposits associated with commercial establishments generally have more jars than do domestic assemblages. Concentrations of jars bearing commercial graffiti are the best indicators of the presence of taverns, bars, and wine shops.

The next three chapters address specific buildings that have been identified as brothels or as places where prostitution took place. Bradley Ault examines Building Z in the Athenian Kerameikos; location, plan, size, and contents combine to make this the best candidate for a tavern-inn-brothel that archaeology has so far unearthed in Greek lands. The excavator suggested as much for the fourth-century phase of the building, but Ault pushes this function back to its beginnings in the fifth century. If he is right, this may be the only purpose-built Greek brothel in captivity. On Delos, a port city where we should expect plenty of prostitution, Monica Trümper cautiously accepts a recently excavated pair of rooms as a taverna vinaria with a prostitute living upstairs, but argues convincingly against the identification of the House of the Lake as a brothel. As likelier candidates she suggests the Granite Palaestra and the warehouses south of the main harbor. Finally, David Scahill returns to Oscar Broneer’s notion that the South Stoa at Corinth may have functioned as an upscale brothel. Scahill’s thorough exploration of this possibility is valuable, but in the end he is unable to move beyond conjecture, and the famous prostitutes of Corinth remain elusive.

Turning to vase painting, Amy Smith sidesteps prostitution itself, examining instead the visual signs painters used to indicate the private, interior spaces in which the activity took place. The imagery is fraught with ambiguity, but suspended objects, ladders, and certain architectural features convincingly set an interior scene.

Allison Glazebrook concludes the volume with an overview, posing the question “Is there an archaeology of prostitution?” If you are looking for signposts to the Greek brothel, this is the chapter to which you should first turn. She discusses each of the possible indicators (location, access, number of entrances, multiple small rooms, courts, dining rooms, water sources, inventory) and reviews the handful of structures that have been interpreted as...