Bathing Culture in Budapest

The present volume is another publication of a Frontinus-conference edited by Gilbert Wiplinger as a BABESCH supplement volume on historical water science. This time the conference was held in Budapest from September 8-15, 2022 under the title “Bathing Culture in Budapest” and dealt first of all with bathing and bathing culture through the ages. For the first time, the organizer of the conference and editor of the volume wanted to take a new path by introducing the participants to Roman and Ottoman bathing leisure through active visits on site to two baths in Budapest. There are 20 contributions published in this volume. The first section is dedicated to the award of the Frontinus Medal to Christer Bruun, who was honoured during the conference in recognition of his foundational work on Roman water systems, in particular his research on hydraulic epigraphy, and to acknowledge his vast contribution to larger social questions in the Mediterranean world. The second section is dedicated to bathing and baths from ancient Egypt up to the Islamic hammam. After a general introduction (first opening lecture) on the development of baths it moves on from Egypt to Ottoman period baths followed by baths in Pannonia and Aquincum. Then the section provides an overview of baths in Roman Macedonia along with a discussion of different baths from Pompeii, Heerlen/Coriovallum and Antiochia ad Cragum. Another contribution is included that deals with texts about bathing in Roman literature and the section is then closed with the second opening lecture on the hammam in the pre-modern Islamic city. The topics of the third section are thermomineral baths from Roman times to Ottoman kaplıca. Some Roman examples from the western provinces of the Empire in context were followed by Baiae, Baden and the Roman “Kleopatra Güzellik Ilıcası” in the micro-region of Pergamon. The section is closed with the connections between Ottoman baths in Hungary and the center of the Ottoman Empire to Budapest spas of today. The last and fourth section deals with various water related topics not in direct connection with bathing culture such as the repair of a stone siphon of Patara, water control in Hierapolis and Laodicea and a used water aqueduct at Ephesus. The conference programme was impressively complemented by several full-day and half-day excursions. It offered the opportunity to visit monuments that are otherwise not accessible to the public. Once again it became clear that neither a lecture, nor a publication or pictures can replace the encounter with real archaeological findings. The presentation of new research results on ancient hydraulic engineering and the enhancement of knowledge by visiting comparative examples on site is the declared aim of this conference series.