Additional information about Greek houses has come from Olynthos in northern Greece; with over 100 houses excavated, this constitutes the biggest sample yet known. Olynthos flourished
Figure 17.9 Plans, House no. 33, Priene: (a) Phase 1-West; and (b) Phase 2
Figure 17.10 House no. 33 West (reconstruction), Priene
From 432 BC until its destruction by PhiUp II in 348 BC; final abandonment occurred in 316 BC. Excavations were conducted in four seasons from 1928 to 1938 by David Robinson of Johns Hopkins University. With building foundations nicely preserved, the city layout emerges clearly, as do the plans of individual homes. The well-exposed urban plan makes us think of Priene, and indeed the population of the two towns was roughly the same. In contrast with Priene, however, religious buildings are lacking and public buildings are few; no doubt the excavators did not explore the appropriate places.
Certain aspects of the housing recall Priene. Blocks of adjacent houses sharing walls are neatly arranged along straight streets, laid out in parallel lines. Houses are similarly hidden from the street by an enclosure wall, and inside, the courtyard is the focus. But there are differences. The normal shape of the Olynthian house is square, not rectangular (Figure 17.11). Moreover, behind the court lies a portico, the pastas, an intermediate space between the court and the small rooms behind. Also distinctive is the andron, or men’s dining room. This, the most elaborate room of the house, frequently decorated with a floor mosaic, was set apart from the other rooms, with entrance often through a smaller anteroom. Here the man of the household received his guests; together they ate while reclining on benches set alongside the walls. Ancient Greek society permitted considerable freedom for men, but respectable women were restricted to the house and family, for whose maintenance and well-being they were responsible. Wives would not join these dinner parties. The only women present might be musicians and other entertainers.
Figure 17.11 House plans, Olynthos
Figure 17.12 Transport amphoras from the Athenian Agora: (a) Chian, fourth century BC; and (b) Rhodian, third century BC
As for the food, ancient Greek meals might well strike us as dull, simple, and lacking in variety. For one thing, tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes, mainstays of modern Mediterranean cooking, had not been introduced. New World plants, they were brought to Europe by Spanish explorers of the sixteenth century. Meals included bread, eggs, cheese, soup, cooked cereals, fish (especially dried and salted fish) but rarely meat; garlic, onions, beans and lentils, nuts and olives; olive oil (also used for frying); for dessert, figs and other fruits, and cakes, sweetened with honey (neither sugar cane nor the sugar beet were available). Wine, a staple drink, was routinely diluted with water, five parts water to two parts wine, with the water politely poured first into the krater, or mixing bowl; sometimes other, to us incredible, substances were added, such as sea water and even chalk or powdered marble. As today, certain places were famous for their specialties. The wine of the east Aegean was especially praised, from Rhodes, Knidos, Samos, Chios, and Lesbos. These islands and cities, and Thasos in the north Aegean, exported wine in large plain clay transport amphoras of distinctive shape (Figure 17.12). Often their handles were stamped while the clay was still wet.
These stamps, which are widely found in east Mediterranean archaeological sites, give valuable information about manufacturers, public officials, and dates.
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