5 - Housing Greek Households in the Eastern, Western and Southern Mediterranean and Northern Black Sea Littoral

Summary

Chapter 5 explores the extent to which the single-entrance, courtyard house is found in culturally Greek settlements lying beyond the modern-day Greek mainland and Aegean islands, in the southern (Crete and the North African coast), eastern (Asia Minor) and western Mediterranean (southern Italy) and on the northern Black Sea coast. Discussion focuses on the extent and nature of variation in house forms across time and space, and on what that variation might have to say about these different communities in social and cultural terms. Questions raised include: how the inhabitants seem to have been presenting themselves through the architecture, organisation and furnishings of their homes; and how similar or different their statements were from those being made by their counterparts in mainland Greece. Sites discussed include: Old Smyrna, Miletos, Neandria, Priene, Kolophon, Kavousi Kastro, Azoria, Trypetos, Lato, Euesperides, Megara Hybala, Monte San Mauro, HImera, Sicilian Naxos, Berezan and Olbia.