7 - Greek Housing into the Hellenistic Period

Summary

Chapter 7 shows how, during the Hellenistic period elite households adopted elements of the architectural vocabulary of the largest fourth-century houses, seeking to align themselves with their peers in other settlements. They thus formed a political, social and economic status group that crossed administrative and cultural boundaries, to reach across much of the Mediterranean and even beyond. At the same time these elites also differentiated themselves from the other members of their own communities who did not (and perhaps in most cases could not) build such houses. Among these households, too, there were changes in the dominant house-forms. The courtyard was often reduced in size and seems to have been less important than in earlier times, either as a location for domestic tasks, or as a communication route for moving around the house – a role which sometimes came to be played instead by an interior space. There is significant diversity across the Mediterranean, however.