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

DOMESTIC SPACE AND COMMUNITY IDENTITY |81
The archaeological evidence is not perfectly clear about the
use and function of these units but this complex allows us to consider
more about the different functions of the rooms in a substantial
house. To start with room H19, the long, Π-shaped bench and
the large hearth in the centre suggest that it was the main living
room. The spindle-whorls found on the floor near the bench show
that is also served as an every-day room for women to sit and
work. 34 Twelve pithos-emplacements have been found on the
bench‟s upper surface and a shallow bin-like structure was close to
the west bench arm. In the earliest floors of the room, pithos-lids
and spindle whorls were found, as if they had been stored in boxes.
Coarse ware was clustered around the impressive large hearth. The
main activity areas of the room were its northwest and southwest
quarters where the majority of the finds were concentrated.
The west part of the room was related to preparation and
consumption of food. The evidence for this is the cooking pots
and fine-ware skyphoi and krateroi found there, as well as the concentration
of bones. Floor analysis starting from the latest floor
deposits suggested that the room was used for storage, preparation
and cooking of food (pithoi, chytrai, stone pounders), as well as for
drinking and eating (krateroi, skyphoi, kantharoi and plates). Also
spindle whorls, beads, and pyxis-lids suggested the use of the room
by women. According to A. Cambitoglou, a noticeable quantity of
organic material (bone and shell) in the earlier floors implies that
the activity of the earlier room was different. But organic material
usually suggests activities related to food preparation and consumption,
and there may be no big difference between earlier and later
activities in the room. More important is the fact that in this large,
substantial room all activities from storage to food preparation and
consumption, as well as weaving, took place. 35 And it seems that
whatever the use of the rooms surrounding H19 was, this was an
important all-purpose room allowing any necessary activity from
the whole complex. We should consider it as a very busy dayworking
room as well as a room where dinner was prepared in the
evenings. 36
34 CAMBITOGLOU et al. (1971) 31. 47.
35 CAMBITOGLOU et al. (1971) 47.
36 CAMBITOGLOU et al. (1971) 103–104.