Use this activity to prepare students for the "Living Spaces in an Ancient Roman Villa" activity that you will guide them through on your class visit to the Getty Villa.

Materials
Download the following items from the activity page on the Getty Web site: http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/trippack/villa_living_spaces.html

• Slideshow: Architecture and Gardens at the Getty Villa (focus on slides 4, 6, and 9)
• Map of the Getty Villa
• Glossary of architectural terms (attached)
• Images of the following works of art, which students will see at the Getty Villa:
-	Venus Genetrix, Roman, A.D. 100–200 
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=35447
-	Wall Fragment with a Woman on a Balcony, Roman, about 9 B.C–14 A.D.
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=35446

• Images of the following works of art for Step 6 below. Students may see these on their visit to the Villa.
-	Lion's-Head Waterspout, Greek, about 450 B.C. 
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=35537
-	Mosaic Floor with a Boxing Scene http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=7662

Activity Steps
Use slides 4, 6, and 9 of the Architecture and Gardens at the Getty Villa slideshow to introduce your students to the ways that living spaces in an ancient Roman villa were organized. Discuss the functions of these spaces, compare them to modern houses, and show students works of art that would have been found in them. 

Step 1
Explain to your students that during their visit to the Getty Villa, they will be working on a self-guided lesson called “Living Spaces in an Ancient Roman Villa.” Today, they will learn about how ancient people lived in villas and compare ancient and modern housing.

Step 2
 Ask your students how they have heard the word “villa” used. If they are unfamiliar with the term, define it for them. (A villa is Latin for a type of house, often larger and more expensive than average, in the countryside or on the coast. Villas are often used as places to go on vacation or retreats.) Have your students reflect upon what kind of rooms or other living spaces they think would have been found in an ancient Roman villa. 

Step 3
Have your students list the different rooms and spaces in their own homes. 

Step 4
Show students a floor plan of an ancient Roman home (slide 6 in the slideshow). Ask students where common areas like the kitchen, bedrooms, and dining room would be found. Are they found in the same locations as in modern homes? 

Step 5
Show students a plan of the Villa dei Papiri, an ancient Roman villa (slide 4 in the slideshow), and the plan of the Getty Villa (slide 9), which is modeled on the Villa dei Papiri. Using the glossary (attached below), point out the various spaces, the function of each, and introduce their Latin names (slides 6 and 9 have maps with the spaces labeled). Talk about the spaces in an ancient villa that are not found in contemporary homes. Ask students to compare modern living spaces with these ancient spaces. Why don’t contemporary homes need a compluvium and impluvium?

After comparing their modern homes with the ancient villa spaces, ask students to imagine what life was like in antiquity. How did Romans live? Where would they cook, sleep, eat, rest? How do the spaces they lived in reflect the activities of their daily lives?

Step 6 (optional)
You can also prepare students for their visit to the Villa by showing them some of the works of art that they will be looking at on their visit. A list of these works of art, with links to images and more information, are available in the Materials section above.

Water spouts in the form of lion heads lined the eaves of many Classical Greek buildings, especially those in public areas. The size of this head indicates that it came from a small building.

The mosaic floor did decorate a villa floor, but we don't know for sure that it came from a triclinium.

Glossary of Architectural Terms

Alae: open rooms on each side of the atrium whose use is largely unknown

Atrium: central hall of a domus, usually having a single central opening in the roof to capture rainwater

Compluvium: opening in the roof of the atrium designed to catch rainwater

Cubiculum: bedroom in a Roman domus

Culina: kitchen

Domus: traditional atrium house, especially of the Roman Republican period

Exedra: open room at the back of the Roman home, which looked onto the peristyle and provided a social space for the home

Façade: front or face of a building, emphasized architecturally

Fauces: name given by Vitruvius to the narrow passages on either side of the tablinum, which allowed access to the more private quarters of the home. Derives from the Latin term for throat.

Hortus: garden

Impluvium: catch basin in the center of the atrium floor to receive water from the compluvium

Insula: city block; a multi-apartment building

Loggia: second-floor open gallery surrounding a courtyard or room

Ostium: entrance to a Roman home. If the home was on a city street, it often would have shop-fronts on the street that were rented out. In this case the ostium would have been a small, non-descript entranceway.

Peristyle: garden or courtyard surrounded by a colonnade

Piscina: pool at the center of the peristyle garden, in which fish were sometimes bred

Portal: door or entrance

Portico: roofed space, open or partly enclosed, forming the entrance of the façade of a temple, house, or church, often with detached or attached columns and a pediment

Posticum: back entrance to a Roman home, usually positioned at the side of the house, often close to the kitchens, and used as an entrance for slaves

Taberna: (plural, tabernae) shops along the street that were rented to vendors 

Tablinum: (plural, tablina) main reception room of the domus, focal point of the axis running from the fauces through the atrium. It was also the office of the pater familias or man of the house.

Triclinium: in the domus, this was the dining hall with three couches (klinai) arranged against the side and rear walls

Vestibulum: narrow hallway from the street entrance to a Roman home, leading into the atrium. 

Villa: large, luxurious country house owned by wealthy Romans. Many villas were centers of farming and other industries.