Outdoor Living: A Preliminary Survey of Outdoor, Multifunctional Activity Areas in Mainland Greece

Outdoor areas were important settings for many domestic activities in Mediterranean societies. Whether built courtyards or unstructured open areas, these spaces extended the usable household space during the many months of favorable weather each year. This paper offers a preliminary survey of such outdoor domestic activity areas in mainland Greek settlements during three periods: Early Helladic III–Middle Helladic I, Protogeometric, and Classical periods. With this survey, it is confirmed that exterior spaces served as multifunctional domestic activity areas in all three periods. However, the precise form of such spaces and their relationship to the physical household structures demonstrably changed over time. An exploration and comparison of these domestic activity areas provides new insight into the architecture of each period. A comparison also shows that the long-term changes were complementary to and reflective of similar sociopolitical organization, economic, and cultural changes.