244 NOTICES OF BOOKS

this area seems always to have been dependent on friendly. The greatest problem is that sites ('findspots'
external political centres. However, proximity to the and 'standing monuments') are generally listed in each
plain, and especially to Mycenae immediately to the chapter in sequence geographically, starting in the
west, gives the area considerable significance. Previous northwestern sector, rather than being listed numerically.
Swedish excavations in the Berbati valley also provided Since the numerical sequence does not follow the
ample reason for a Swedish-based archaeological survey geographical sequence it is not easy to discover, when
in this area. This volume reports the project's results. working from the period site map or from the general
An introductory chapter explaining the project's discussion at the end of each chapter, where a particular
setting and methodology, and the area's special charac- site is discussed in detail in the text. Also, scales are not
teristics and problems, is followed by period-by-period given on drawings: dimensions must be retrieved from
chapters, each by a different author. Since analysis is catalogue descriptions which may be one or two pages
integrated within chapters, the short conclusion selects removed from the drawing. A number of illustrations of
only certain elements of other chapters for synthesis. non-ceramic finds (e.g. mill stones, trapetum mortaria)
Catalogues and analyses of finds and sites of each also lack any means of establishing exact dimensions.
period are the responsibility of individual authors within The quibbles apart, this is an important volume which
each chapter. This facilitates connection of survey contributes materially to our understanding of the history
material with construction of an overall picture for the (sensu lato) of the 'gaps between the primate sites'. Its
period, but reduces the coherence of the whole body of location in the rugged hinterland of Mycenae inevitably
survey data. Nevertheless attempts have been made to invites special attention to the LBA material, but it
keep treatment of finds uniform. makes important contributions to other periods as well.
Unlike several comparable publications, there are no Its findings are no less important for falling in line
chapters by non-archaeological specialists. Geological (broadly speaking) with a number of other similar
studies were carried out in conjunction with the survey, surveys. It is essential reading for those wishing to build
but an ethnoarchaeological survey, originally planned, up a more general picture of the settlement history of
never materialised. The results of the geological research Greece.
were included in a substantial report of the first season's HAMISH FORBES
work, and appear in other articles. It is claimed in the University of Nottingham
Introduction that they are also incorporated into period
chapters, but the amount of geological information is
strictly limited. For example, claims are made for
catastrophic soil erosion resulting from human activity
in the FN/EH I period, but the reader is referred to other
publications for any supporting evidence. A summary KIDERLEN (M.) Megale Oikia. Untersuchungen zur
chapter presenting the evidence for catastrophic FN/EH Entwicklung aufwendiger griechischer Stadthaus-
I erosion and its anthropogenic causes, and the potential architektur von der fruharchaik bis ins 3 Jh. v.
effects on settlement of the area's different soils and Chr. Hiirth: M. Lange, 1995. 2 vols, pp. viii + 270;
bedrock geology could have given greater coherence to 194 (plates). DM 178 (DM 138 pb). 3980493407
the volume. (pb).
The period-by-period chapters provide a history of
the ebb and flow of settlement in the area which broadly An ambitious study of wealthy urban houses in the
reflects patterns observed elsewhere: no clear evidence Greek world, this monograph comes at a time when
of a LM-EN continuum; restricted EN and MN settle- German scholarship into aspects of Hellenic urbanism
ment in locations highly suited to agriculture; replace- and housing has been particularly prolific, other recent
ment by dispersed settlement pattern in FN-EH II; EH projects having appeared as the revised second edition of
III-LH I sees only one site in the area—excluded from W. Hoepfner and E.-L. Schwandner, Ham und Stadt im
the survey permit, so minimally considered. Evidence of klassischen Greichenland (Munich 1994); F. Lang,
intensive agricultural exploitation and of Mycenaean Archaische Siedlungen in Griechenland (Berlin 1996);
roads in LH III are reassuring in an area so close to and W. Hoepfner and G. Brands, eds., Basileia. Die
Mycenae. Thereafter evidence of permanent occupation Palaste der hellenistischen Konige (Mainz 1996).
is lacking until LG: chapter authors then relate changing Seeking to uphold a proposition made at the outset, that
Archaic-late Hellenistic site patterns to the area's agents of style and stylistic diffusion (Stilmitteln) have
dependency on external powers and the historical events been underemphasized in the domestic context, Kiderlen
known to have affected them. Scarce ER settlement undertakes to demonstrate its continuum in housing of
evidence greatly increases in the LR period when the the wealthy classes from the time of Homer to the
whole area seems to have been dominated by a single Diadochoi. Before turning to representative examples he
Roman villa rustica. Settlement evidence continues into lays out the linguistic evidence, or lack thereof, for a
the seventh century, but is minimal c. 700-1,000; a distinct vocabulary of housing types in the Greek-
flowering of settlement 1100-1400 is followed by a speaking world. Of the three stems used to form words
marked decline—several sites are abandoned and no new referring to houses, OIK-, AEM-, MEFA-, only the
ones established. After 1700 repopulation took place and latter conveyed a sense of value, and its use was
the present settlement pattern appeared, but as the two restricted to epic, tragedy, and Kunstsprache generally,
modern villages were also 'off limits', this period not everyday parlance.
produces a relative blank in the survey record. K.'s basic criterion for determining what constitutes
In using this volume to compare with other survey a megale oikia in the archaeological record is that the
areas I found a few features were not especially user- building in question exceed 400 m2. Using this denomi-

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Ecole francaise d'Athènes, on 13 May 2019 at 13:40:04, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.2307/632293
 NOTICES OF BOOKS 245

nator he compiles 32 examples of structures which span little room is left to explore the array of nuance pro-
the period in question. Pt. 2 of the book is taken up with vided by the full spectrum of domestic architecture and
a chronological survey of this material. In spite of the circumstances of its inhabitants. It seems to this
arguments for the diachronic similarity of such build- reader that the most important contribution of Megale
ings, there is relatively little archaeological evidence for Oikia is its initial motivating observation: that it is in the
them before the second half of the fifth century. The private and semi-public domestic realms rather than the
two early examples mustered belong to the Archaic arena of temples or other civic monuments that the
period and involve quite thorough reinterpretations upon language of style develops and becomes codified. This
identifications proposed by the original excavators. The is as provocative (to many ears) as it is significant. It
earliest, located along the southwest corner of the agora remains but one of the numerous provocations and
at Megara Hyblaea, was known by the excavators compelling hypotheses submitted for consideration in
nondescriptly as 'batiment f. K. identifies the structure this work.
as a megale oikia with two other features essential for B.A. AULT
the type: a courtyard and banqueting installation. When S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo/Vassar College
turning to the southwest corner of the archaic Athenian
Agora, Buildings F, C, and D (below the later Tholos
and Bouletaria) become a double courtyard house with
appended banquet building. Although unified into a
sprawling whole, K. also disassociates the compound SPIVEY (N.) Understanding Greek sculpture. Ancient
with the one family who might have seemed responsible meanings, modern readings. London: Thames &
for it, the Peisistratids, with whom Building F has Hudson, 1996. Pp. 240. £28. 0500237107.
frequently (if only hopefully) been connected.
Appropriate examples of the megale oikia from late Nigel Spivey's aim is to take a fresh look at such
Archaic to high Classical are thus far completely lacking familiar problems in Greek sculpture as the emergence
in the archaeological record, although they can be of the classical style, the contribution of the famous
accounted for from written sources. It is from the late sculptors admired by the Greeks and Romans, the setting
Classical and Hellenistic worlds that many such dwell- and religious function of statuary, Athenian sculpture in
ings have been explored. No-one will argue that fine the fifth century, female nudity, patronage by states
examples of grandiose houses cannot be found at other than democracies, and afterlife. He subscribes,
Eretria, Morgantina, Pella, and a number of other sites. however, to the post-modemist view that all personal
It is these which make up 30 of the 32 examples statements are valid even when they do not fulfil
identified. scholarly requirements. Since the scholarly apparatus in
Pts. 3-5 deal with a variety of issues: the changing the field is negated and virtually ignored, the book ends
character from banqueting to multi-purpose reception up reinventing the wheel. The unwary can easily miss
rooms, the deliberate segregation of agricultural and the point that many of the conclusions, far from being
industrial installations from the realm of the wealthy new, echo those of the establishment that S. has set out
household, construction expenditures and property to attack. New directions in the study of Greek sculpture
values, as well as the range of ideals of both domestic are enriching the field thanks to the examination of art
luxury and extravagance portrayed in literature. in its historical background on the one hand, and the
Although K.'s corpus of the megale oikia was surveyed in detection of provenance of materials on the other,
opening up new perspectives in our perception of trade
Pt. 2, Pt. 6 (re-)presents the material in the form of
and the movement of sculptors. Although the author is
regional type-histories (gaps from late sixth to fourth
aware of the historical trend in sculpture studies, he
century Athens being filled with examples drawn from
misses out on the technical. No doubt his point of view
written sources). One conjectures whether the integration
reflects his own perspective and is therefore true in a
of Pts. 2 and 6 would have been possible, even advisable. post-modern sense. However, realists can still question
Following a concluding summary of his major points the validity of points of view not supported by a firm
in Pt. 7, a systematic catalogue of the 32 big houses is knowledge of facts.
presented in Pt. 8. In addition, seven houses from
Olynthus are appended as Pt. 9. The inclusion of these S. tries to be provocative by, among other things, an
latter structures point up the weaknesses in both K.'s eccentric use of terms for familiar things: 'gryphon' for
method and theory. While appointed with the trappings griffin, 'Kritian Boy' (without the definite article) for the
of the megale oikia, the Olynthus examples fall short of Kritios Boy. Old, discarded restorations are illustrated
the size criterion for full inclusion. An exception is without comment, e.g. the old restoration in the Olympia
made, however, as K. proposes the North Hill settlement Museum of the east pediment of the temple of Zeus (fig.
resulting from a synoicism of 432 to have been occupied 12), and Cockerell's nineteenth century drawings of the
exclusively by the well-to-do drawn from the surround- pediments of the Temple of Aphaia (figs. 73-74).
ing territory, with everyone else remaining at the port of Nothing is said about the recent, more authoritative
Mecyberna, on the land, or on the South Hill. The North restorations, Herrmann's of the east pediment of Olym-
Hill houses are, he states, 'large urban houses conceived pia (H.-V. Herrmann, Olympia [Munich 1973] fig. 96b)
on a small scale' (200). Few will have followed his and Ohly's of the pediments of Aphaia, installed in the
arguments this far without protest. Munich Glyptothek in the period 1962-65. The Introduc-
While K. has not excluded the mikra oikia from tion draws a parallel between Byzantium and the modern
consideration (he discusses and illustrates a number in age on the grounds that both eras have lost the original
order to make his points), the line between large and meaning of classical sculpture. To compare the attitudes
rich, and everything else, is so emphatically drawn that of a totalitarian theocracy of the Middle Ages with those

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Ecole francaise d'Athènes, on 13 May 2019 at 13:40:04, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.2307/632293