Archaeology Magazine - December 1963 - 57

around a large open court. It had a portico or colonnade, but of what form ? A little lean-to on the north
side of the southwest corner cell ? A useless featurewhy shade a north wall! If there was a large portico
between the two westernmost rooms, why was the
column placed so far to one end? (An Athenian
house on the slopes of the Areopagus having a simple
portico had the single column placed sensibly in the
middle.) Could the single base found be the survivor
of a row along the front of the rear rooms ? Indeed it
could; it stands neatly in line with the south wall of
the front room at the east end, and the distance between is exactly six times the gap between the base
and the west wall of the house- just enough room to
fit in five more columns. This is architecturally sound ;
the front portico shades and protects the six northern
rooms, summer and winter, and makes a roofed living
block in the north half of the house. The Athenian
Xenophon himself declared that a decent house
should be cool in summer and warm in winter, face
south so that the winter sun shines into its pastas and
the midsummer sun throws a shade, and have its
What the original appearance of the house may living rooms situated to enjoy just these advantages.
have been is difficult to decide with certainty, espe- He added that the part facing south should be built
cially since not all the clues have survived. But it was up higher, that facing north lower, so as to catch the
a large house, well set out, roofed with Corinthian winter sun and avoid the winter winds; clearly he
tiles which were not so often used for private houses: speaks as a Greek, used to houses turned inward to
it is unlikely that it consisted of a mere row of cells the court, not outward to the street or field.

continued
House
Country
would accord best with the ceramic and historical
evidence to place this in the eight years' lull in the
fighting after the Peace of Nicias (421-413 B.c.) and
to associate the end of it with the wholesale Spartan
and Theban ravaging of Attica in the second phase of
the war.
The later sherds and the hint of rough rebuilding
in the east end of the house suggests a brief squatters'
occupation of the site, perhaps before or during the
building of the Dema rampart, which would finally
necessitate the leveling of any structure as close to the
wall as this. That construction very probably fell
within the fourth century b.c., and on grounds of
historical probability it can be assigned to the period
of intense military activity under Lycurgus and
Demosthenes (ca. 337-336 b.c.). Welcome support
for that view was provided by a sherd prised out
from the rampart fill, a black-glazed salt-cellar datable
by parallels to the mid-fourth century b.c.

Left: West half of the house; the rockyoutcropat the southwestcornerwould necessitatea floor on two levels.Right:
Northeastcornerrooms,with oval pit and doorwayclearedin narrowroom,rebuilt dividingwall betweenend-rooms(see
inseton plan) and cleareddoorwayof front end-roomwith massivejambsand raisedthreshold.
281
Archaeology Magazine - December 1963

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - December 1963
