Zagora, an eighth century BC town on the west coast of the island of Andros, exemplifies modest Greek settlements of the Iron Age. Zagora was small, occupying an area of 6.7ha (Figure 12.3). Its location on a bluff 150m above the Aegean demonstrates a concern for effective defense. Steep cliffs below protected the settlement on three sides; the land access was fortified by a stone wall ca. 140m long and 2m thick, penetrated by one gate. Water was not immediately available, but had to be carried from springs in the region, with rainwater perhaps collected as spill off the roofs. The town contained clusters of houses sharing walls, representing a population of possibly 1,000. Houses were single-story with flat roofs of thin pieces of schist covered with clay, laid on wooden roof beams supported by wooden columns. In plan they were rectangular, with a large central room and often a court and secondary rooms for storage and shelter for animals. The local schist, a stone that separates into layers, was used as the prime building material, just as it has been into modern times on this island. Also used was gray marble, the main stone of the bluff itself. Elsewhere in the Greek world, as in early Smyrna, sun-dried mud bricks were commonly used, normally placed on stone foundations to prevent moisture from causing the walls to crumble at their base. Floors were of beaten earth, and clay would have served as a sealer for walls and roofs.
The Australian excavators of Zagora identifed a small temple in the center of the town. Although the cult site is probably earlier, the shrine was built in the mid-sixth century BC, well after the town had been abandoned. The importance of the area as a sacred place was evidently
Kept alive by the descendents of the villagers.
Figure 12.4 Temple model, clay, from the Argive Heraion. National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Figure 12.3 Town plan, Zagora
The temple at Zagora stood by itself. Although only its lowest walls survive, the construction was clearly of high quality. The temple consisted of a porch and a main room (cella), with, it is thought, a flat roof. Its simple floor plan is typical of the shrines of Iron Age Greece. The original appearance of these normally poorly preserved shrines is reflected in two eighth to early seventh century BC clay models, one from Perachora and another from the Argive Heraion, the sanctuary to the goddess Hera in the region of Argos (Figure 12.4). The model from Perachora has an apsi-dal (curved at one end) ground plan and a parabolic roof profile thought to represent thatch, whereas the later model, from the Argive Heraion, has a rectangular room and a pointed, or gabled, roof. Both are decorated on the exterior with geometric designs.
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