SITE
DESCRIPTION
The Vari House
is located in southeastern Greece, about 4km (2.5 miles) from the coast
of the Aegean sea along a rocky spur of the southernmost foothills of the
Hymettus Mountain range. The site is about 18km (11 miles) southeast of
Athens; and about 2km (1.2 miles) from the ancient town of Vari.
No evidence was found for any other buildings in the immediate vicinity.
The site was excavated in the summer of 1966 by British archaeologists.
They published their analyses of the building,
its artifacts, and its presumed function for others to study. The
excavation data in that report formed the basis for our reconstruction.
Map of Greece
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Regional Map
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Floor Plan
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Scattered around
the linked virtual worlds provided here (showing the building as it was
excavated
and as it has been * reconstructed -- * virtual world not functional in
demo) are clues to the building's function and date. Some are visible
in the virtual worlds or their links and some are found within the linked
texts. How many can you find?
The building plan
as
excavated is a rectangle measuring about 13.7 x 17.6m (about 45' x
58'). There appear to be four rooms across the back of the building,
a large central space, and two additional spaces in the front corners of
the building. Each room had only one doorway and that doorway opened
only into the central space; the building itself appears to have had only
one entrance, facing south.
The excavators
found no remains of other buildings nearby, no shelters for keeping large
animals nor any storage facilities for grain, all items that would be expected
if this structure was a typical ancient farmstead.
Do you
know yet what the main occupation of the inhabitants was?
Several adjacent
walls found along the south wall of the building indicated an extension
of rooms there. Other stone walls enclosed the land in front of and
to the side of the building. Only the lower stone courses of the
building's walls were found intact, the entire upper portions were not
preserved.
Why might
it be that only the lower stone courses were intact?
What
might have happened to the upper portions of the building's walls?
What kinds
of materials would tend to survive thousands of years of exposure to the
weather?
What kinds
would not?
Why?
Some walls that
remian have irregular tops, others have flattish tops.
The large central
space of the building had a paved floor of large stone slabs, while other
spaces only had dirt floors. One exception was a portion of Room
I, in the northwest corner, in which some paving was found. In the central
space, three circular stone blocks were found set into the paving, and
gaps were discovered indicating that other circular blocks had been removed.
These are among
the most important questions that researchers need to answer in order to
understand more about the people who built the building and how this building
fits into the history of the region. By wandering through the virtual
worlds, observing the building, clicking on hot spots, and reading the
linked texts, you will learn how archaeologists determined this building's
use.
Do you
have an idea yet about what kind of building this is?
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