An ancient Roman bath in southern Türkiye had an unexpected second life. Archaeologists investigating the ruins of Antiochia ad Cragum have uncovered a remarkably well-preserved agricultural production complex, complete with an olive-crushing mill, a substantial press system, and a former bathing pool capable of holding approximately 2,900 liters. The discoveries reveal how a building once devoted to public bathing was transformed into a facility likely used to produce wine and olive oil.
The findings, published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology, offer a rare glimpse into the changing economy of a Mediterranean city during Late Antiquity. Rather than abandoning the bath entirely, its later occupants adapted its rooms, water infrastructure, and decorative architectural elements for agricultural production. The result was the largest-capacity agricultural processing facility yet recorded at Antiochia ad Cragum.
A Roman Bath Finds an Unexpected Second Life
Antiochia ad Cragum, near modern Gazipaşa in Antalya Province, was founded by Antiochus IV of Commagene during the Julio-Claudian period. Overlooking the Mediterranean, the city occupied a landscape well suited to agriculture, with fertile hillsides, freshwater springs, and access to maritime trading routes.
The building at the center of the discovery, known as the Small Bath, stands approximately 90 meters outside the ancient city’s main gate. Constructed around the late second or early third century AD, it once offered visitors cold and heated rooms, marble-lined surfaces, and mosaic floors decorated with geometric patterns in red, black, and white.
Researchers Emlyn Dodd and Leticia R. Rodriguez identified substantial modifications in at least four areas of the complex. The former bathing rooms and central hall had been adapted for agricultural processing, with new walls, channels, collection vats, and heavy machinery installed within the existing structure.
The decision to reuse the bath was practical. Its surviving roof provided sheltered working areas, while a nearby spring and the original cistern continued to supply water needed for production and cleaning. Instead of constructing an entirely new facility, the occupants made use of a building that already offered much of the infrastructure they required.
A 2,900-Liter Bathing Pool Becomes a Production Vat
One of the most striking discoveries was made in Room 3, where a former cold-water pool had been converted into a large processing vat with a capacity of approximately 2,900 liters. Its original marble-lined steps remained in place, but the interior had been coated with waterproof mortar to accommodate its new purpose.
The neighboring room provided another clue. Its mosaic floor showed noticeable wear, particularly near a channel cut through the wall separating the two spaces. The channel directed liquid into Room 3, where it divided into two branches leading to separate collection vats.
The arrangement closely resembles wine-production facilities elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. Researchers suggest that workers may have trodden grapes on the mosaic floor, allowing the extracted juice to flow through the channel into the adjoining room. The particularly worn sections could also indicate that stone rollers were used to crush dried grapes.
Such a technique would fit the production of passum, a raisin wine associated with ancient Cilicia and mentioned by classical authors, although its production at this particular facility has not been conclusively established. The two collection vats may have allowed workers to separate different qualities of grape juice, with the smaller basin receiving the first, particularly valued juice.
What had once been a space for bathing could therefore have become a busy working area, where harvested grapes were crushed and their juice collected. The surviving floors and channels provide an unusually detailed picture of how that transformation may have worked.
Ancient Marble Reused to Build an Olive Oil Press
The central hall revealed a different set of discoveries. Archaeologists uncovered components of a Roman olive-crushing mill known as a trapetum, including an intact grinding stone and approximately half of its stone basin.
The mill occupied the eastern section of the hall, which had been separated from the remaining space by a newly constructed wall. Beyond it, researchers found a substantial stone press bed, a marble counterweight, and an opening designed to accommodate the wooden beam of a lever-and-screw press.
The equipment revealed how extensively the building had been adapted. A marble architrave was transformed into a press bed, with a slightly pear-shaped channel and five additional outlets carved into its surface to direct extracted liquid away from the pressing area.
Another architectural block was reshaped into a heavy counterweight and installed in an open ing cut directly through the bath’s original mosaic floor. Its lowered position helped increase the force exerted by the press, while the alignment of the surviving components allowed researchers to reconstruct how the machinery probably operated.
The discovery of the trapetum provides strong evidence that olives were processed at the site. However, the press itself may have served more than one purpose, since similar equipment was also used to extract juice from grapes. Wine and olive oil production took place at different times of the year, making seasonal use of the same machinery a possibility.
Wine, Olive Oil, and the Changing Economy of Roman Cilicia
The transformation of the Small Bath was not an isolated development. Previous excavations at Antiochia ad Cragum have revealed a winery built into the podium of an imperial temple, kilns installed inside the Great Bath, and numerous components associated with olive oil production scattered throughout the ancient city.
These discoveries suggest that spaces originally intended for public or monumental purposes increasingly accommodated agricultural and artisanal activities. The new facility provides particularly valuable evidence because several components of its processing equipment survived in their original positions.
The surrounding region offered favorable conditions for agriculture. South-facing slopes, well-drained soils, and natural springs supported grape and olive cultivation, while the city’s coastal location connected local producers to wider Mediterranean markets. Cilician wine was known beyond the region, and archaeological studies of locally produced amphorae indicate that agricultural products circulated through extensive trading networks.
Nevertheless, some questions remain unresolved. Organic residue analysis of the collection vats produced inconclusive results because of environmental contamination, preventing the researchers from definitively identifying every substance processed in the building.
The most plausible interpretation is that wine and olive oil were produced in separate areas, although the equipment may have been shared between activities. Further investigation may clarify how the different rooms operated and whether their functions changed over time.
From Public Bath to Workshop, Burial Ground, and Hidden Treasure
The Small Bath’s agricultural phase was only one chapter in its long history. Researchers suggest that Shapur I’s invasion of coastal Cilician cities during the AD 260s may have disrupted its original function, particularly because the building stood outside the city walls. However, the exact circumstances surrounding its abandonment as a bathing complex remain uncertain.
The later production facilities reflect the growing importance of agricultural activity at Antiochia during Late Antiquity. Their installation required considerable effort, from modifying existing rooms to transporting and positioning heavy stone machinery.
The building continued to serve different purposes in subsequent centuries. Human remains discovered in several rooms indicate that parts of the complex were eventually used for burial, with radiocarbon analysis dating the individuals to the tenth and eleventh centuries AD.
Archaeologists also recovered two separate coin hoards containing more than 3,000 coins, predominantly silver, alongside bronze and gold examples. These deposits date to the 1620s or later, adding another unexpected chapter to the building’s history.
For Dodd and Rodriguez, the agricultural conversion illustrates how the inhabitants of Antiochia adapted their surroundings as economic priorities changed. The surviving machinery and altered mosaic floors reveal that the bath’s transformation involved deliberate investment in existing infrastructure rather than the simple occupation of abandoned ruins.
At Antiochia ad Cragum, a Roman bath did not disappear when people stopped using it for bathing. Its rooms became part of a different kind of daily life, one centered on the production of two of the Mediterranean’s most important agricultural commodities.
Dodd, E., & Rodriguez, L. R. (2026). Bathing in wine and olive oil: Late Roman agricultural production in the Small Bath at Antiochia ad Cragum, Rough Cilicia. Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1–32. doi:10.1017/S1047759426100890
