“semitisches pantheon”. eine “männliche tyche” - MOSAIKjournal.com

DOMESTIC SPACE AND COMMUNITY IDENTITY |105
been displaced outside the house and similarly family life could
have played out in the public sphere since many family activities
could have taken place either inside or outside the house. In that
respect the entire settlement could be viewed as a setting for daily
life activities.
The changes witnessed in Zagora after the second half of the
eighth century BC affected the overall character of the settlement:
Houses were supplied with courtyards as well with a small, a middle-sized
and a large room (previously the main room of the
household). In addition to these structural changes, a long wall divided
the settlement into a western zone, with houses in which
rooms were arranged in “linear gradation”, and an eastern zone,
where the rooms had a more radial arrangement. 92 This alteration
might equally indicate changes in the internal structure of the
community and family. The reproduction of the same house-types
across the settlement seems to show that it was carried out with the
consent of all the inhabitants of Zagora. If common consent existed,
then the degree of social stratification was not high, unless hierarchical
relationships were expressed in a symbolic way, difficult to
uncover by archaeological remains. It is very difficult to find other
sites where a similar transformation can be proven across the
whole settlement. We shall, however, for the early period note the
exception of Miletus in Asia Minor, where a comparable development
from few-room houses to multiple-room houses can be observed.
Similarly, in the subsequent Archaic period in Crete we
shall also note the exception of Azoria: The site undergoes a similar
process of urbanisation during the Archaic period witnessed by the
internal modifications to the plan of the houses that now demonstrate
a tendency to divide and compartmentalise living and storage
space, as well as by the construction of the spine wall, designed to
regularise the uneven terrain, and also to facilitate the organisation
and expansion of buildings and probably also serving a symbolic
function in helping to “articulate” the identity of the new community.
93
Before turning to the discussion related to the internal communication
within the house, it is worth commenting on the differ-
92 LANG (1996) 104–105.
93 HAGGIS (2004) 352.