Spazi e attività economiche nell’architettura domestica della Sicilia greca: osservazioni sull’evidenza archeologica, a partire dal caso di Himera

Abstract

While the functional analysis of houses is increasingly adopted, even in the archaeology of Sicily, as a tool useful for understanding the ancient way of life and the changing attitudes towards the ‘private’ space from the Early Archaic to Late Hellenistic times, it is mainly based on the architectural layout and on the physical characteristics of the buildings, or sometimes on a tiny selection of the findings. The possibility of analysing the activities concerned with production and commerce, and of appreciating the economic role of the domestic units, is consequently hardly limited. An useful case study is the town of Himera, due to the extension of the residential districts. So, a multifaceted approach is needed, one that considers not only ‘hard ’features like room-types and installations (which often have been lost), and some probable ‘indicators’, but, as far as possible, takes in account the whole context with the range of small finds and assemblages, the patterns of circulation and accessibility, and the availability of water, closeness to roads, proximity to the agora and the harbour, and other factors determining the economic ‘strategies’ of the house-owners.