Swimming Pools and Water Management in the Eastern Mediterranean World of the 4th to 1st Century BC

Abstract

While it is debated in scholarship whether the Greeks conceptualized swimming as a sport and leisure activity, the archaeological evidence of swimming pools in the Eastern Mediterranean from the 4th to 1st century BC speaks for the existence of such a concept. This paper argues that challenges of water management are a major reason why the Greeks did not systematically build swimming pools as an urban standard for the physical education and pleasure of broader parts of the population. By examining 13 pools, it is shown that their water management required specific topographical conditions, notably, a location close to a river or a spring, and the appropriate socioeconomic conditions, notably, patrons with sufficient financial means, access to technological know-how, and cultural appreciation of swimming.