Archaeologists working in northwestern Turkey have announced a significant breakthrough in the excavations of the Western Bath of the Apollo Smintheus sanctuary. The team discovered areas with cold water pools, known as frigidaria, along with a changing room or apodyterium, in a thermal complex approximately 1,700 years old.
The site is located near the coast, in the Ayvacık district of Çanakkale province. According to Hürriyet Daily News, the work is being conducted under the direction of Professor Davut Kaplan from Ondokuz Mayıs University, with the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Kaplan explained that they have not yet opened the pools themselves, but right next to them is the first section of the bath, the entrance area. “This is the place where people entering the bath would first undress, prepare themselves, apply oil, and chat,” detailed the researcher.
The team has already reached the surface of the bath floor and is working to precisely define its boundaries. The excavations have allowed for the connection of the cold rooms with the warm ones, and these, in turn, with the hot rooms.
Service corridors and ovens identified
In addition to the cold pools and the changing room, specialists have located service corridors and identified the entrances to the ovens that fed the heating system. However, they have not yet reached the main entrance of the bath, which opened onto the sacred path of the sanctuary.
The complex is part of a sanctuary dedicated to Apollo Smintheus and is estimated to date back to the 3rd century AD. Research at the site has been ongoing since 1980 and brings together archaeologists, anthropologists, restorers, architects, and art historians.
In previous campaigns, the water reservoir of the bath and a special corridor located underneath, which was likely used by servants or slaves to heat or clean the facilities without interrupting bathers, had been found. The hot rooms, or caldaria, of which two have been identified, were also cleared.
The discovery of the frigidarium and the apodyterium completes a central part of the Roman thermal journey. In these spaces, visitors began the ritual: they would strip off their clothes, anoint themselves with oil, and converse before moving on to progressively hotter rooms.
A bath linked to worship
The presence of a public bath of this nature within or adjacent to a sanctuary reflects the importance of hygienic and social practices in the religious life of the time. The system of connected rooms—cold, warm, and hot—was typical of Roman thermal architecture and allowed for an orderly and gradual use of heat.
Kaplan and his team continue to determine the exact boundaries of the building and are advancing toward the main access area. The work also aims to better understand the internal organization of the complex and the relationship between the various service areas and those intended for users.
So far, the findings confirm that this is a bath of considerable dimensions, with complete infrastructure for heating water and the circulation of maintenance personnel. The cold water pools, still not fully opened, constitute one of the most anticipated elements of this stage of the excavation.
The Apollo Smintheus sanctuary continues to provide valuable information about daily life and ritual practices in Roman Anatolia. Each new section of the Western Bath contributes concrete data on how this space for meeting, hygiene, and sociability functioned seventeen centuries ago.
