Sequencing the EH II ‘Corridor Houses’

Abstract

One of the most exciting discoveries in Greek prehistory is a type of building of Early Helladic II date, discussed earlier by the present author and nicknamed “Corridor House.” The present study concerns itself with the relative chronology of seven of these, using two main criteria. One criterion concerns structural changes that can be ordered chronologically, namely the use of partial or complete “corridors” alongside a series of axially set rooms, with the more complete corridors, housing stairways, being later. A new structural criterion is whether the building used roof tiles. For instance, the lack of tiles, combined with the simple plan of the corridor house at Thebes, places it at the beginning of the development. Further, a restudy of the corridor house with an undeveloped plan at Akovitika has shown that it was without tiles, the tiles found near it actually belonging to a later building. Thus special roofing seems to have been introduced midway into the sequence. The second criterion makes use of recent publication on EH pottery. For instance, the style associated with the Theban building was Thebes Group A, earlier than the Lefkandi I style characteristic of the later corridor house on Aegina (The Weisses Haus). Clearly the Theban building is at the beginning of the development, with the later examples at Aegina and Lerna at the end. Other examples fall somewhere in between. Terms suggested for the architectural stages discernable are “rudimentary,” “transitional,” and “coalesced.”

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