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Recent research of the hellenistic houses of Petres

• Βελένης, Γιώργος

After five excavational seasons at Petres, we intend to present the preliminary results concerning the architecture of the houses. An important type is a two-storey house consisting of a narrow façade equipped with a covered balcony on the upper floor (χαγιάτι). Three subsequent houses of the southern slope belong to this type, all located in vertical relation to the sloping land. Thus the front part of the house is two-storey, while the upper floor, three m. higher than the lower, is only extended to the rear part. This type of house is only eight m. wide, while its depth is around 16 or18 m. The light came from the two narrow sides. An entrance with a wooden door equipped with many large bosses of iron nails is found in the façade of the house. The first room of the lower floor was used as a workshop, while the second room of the same floor was used as a storeroom with pithoi (πιθεών). A chamber decorated with rich painted plasters, the andron, occupied the rear part of this floor. The gynaikonitis with the loom occupied the central part of the upper floor, just above the storeroom. The location of the gynaikonitis in the centre of the house in relation to the lighting and airing needs indicate that probably a semi-open to the air room existed in front of the gynaikonitis; a covered balcony could easily meet this need, substituting the pastas of the Greek house. This type survived down to the 19th century in N. Greece, preserving the Hellenistic or even earlier tradition. Γ-shaped houses with a wide façade were discovered in the same neighbourhood with the houses with the narrow façade. The room of one of these houses is quite interesting: pithoi were found by the southern wall of the room, a hearth-furnace occupied the centre, while a well preserved rectangular millstone was found by the northwestern corner; the hundle (κώπη, cupa) of the millstone, fitted in the corner of the room at one end actuated the upper stone.

• Arts

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)
• Architecture, Ancient

αρχαία ελληνική αρχιτεκτονική, ελληνιστική εποχή, Φλώρινα, Πέτρες

Περιέχει σχήματα κατόψεων, αναπαραστάσεων κτιρίων και εικόνες