Crossing private liminal spaces: thresholds and passageways in the “Urban Mansion” of Sagalassos and contemporaneous urban elite houses in late antique Western Anatolia

Abstract

As buildings where “insiders” and “outsiders” met, the urban elite houses of late antique western Anatolia unified a broad range of activities under a single roof and, consequently, had a liminal character. The imposing entrance doors of such residences materialised the contact point between exterior and interior spheres; at the same time, they reflected the status and wealth of the inhabitants. The different areas of houses or clusters of spaces, such as reception suites, peristyle courtyards, baths, private rooms, and service areas, could be accessed through various connective features, including vestibules, corridors, passageways, and staircases. Within the framework of guest reception, these architectural elements linked spaces that were highly accessible to visitors with more intimate interior sections of the house, combining a practical transitional and regulating function with underlying messages. Typified by various architectural features and different degrees of décor, they guided visitors to the zones of the house they were allowed to enter according to their relationship with the host. Taking the “Urban Mansion” of Sagalassos as a starting point, this chapter approaches the role and meaning of thresholds, vestibules, corridors, passageways, and staircases in late antique urban elite houses in western Anatolia from the perspective of liminality. By focussing on the visitors to these houses, it discusses the different ways in which guests experienced their physical transition between the “outside” and “inside/domestic” worlds and metaphorically became, during their visits, to a greater or lesser degree, part of the domestic setting and the sphere of life of their well-to-do late antique hosts. © 2026 Taylor & Francis.