We have more information from the end of the 9th century BC onwards. The walls of houses were made of unfired mudbrick set upon rough-stone bases, and more rarely of small unworked stones with no bonding material. The roofs, usually two sloped roofs, had a wooden frame and were thatched. The shape of the houses was initially oval or apsidal and, in very rare cases, round. These types, however, could not easily be combined in urban formations and, in addition, provided less exploitable space. Thus, from the 8th century BC onwards, the rectangular shape prevailed.
Stone benches ran along the interior walls of the houses and served as chairs and beds. Airing was achieved mostly through doors, whereas windows were relatively rare. Usually in a corner of the house, there were small hearths used for cooking and heating. Water was collected in large terracotta pithoi, which could also be used for the storage of food. Judging from representations on vases, some items of movable wooden furniture must also have existed.
As
far as urban planning was concerned, it seems that no plan was followed, even though sometimes
a larger house stands out in the centre of the settlement and is usually considered
to be the dwelling of the local chief. In the Geometric period the institutions
that led to the formation of the city-state took shape.
The need for an open space -square or agora-
for the assembly of the citizens arose. Such spaces have been located mostly in the Aegean:
Zagora on Andros, Emporio on Chios, Koukounaries on Paros and Dreros on Crete.
Settlements abandoned or moved after the
Geometric period are better preserved as a rule, as they have not been interrupted by subsequent building interference.
In the Peloponnese, we have the characteristic cases of Nichoria in Messenia and Asine in the Argolid.
Of particular interest is the settlement of Carphi on Crete, which displays a continuous
habitation from the Subminoan period to as late as the Protogeometric period. In Smyrna,
part of the defensive wall from the 9th and the 8th centuries BC has been located,
the careful and imposing construction of which arouses admiration when compared to the
humble houses of the settlement. Two other important settlements in the Aegean are those
of Zagora on Andros and Emporio on Chios. In the former, the houses have been built in clusters
and are protected by a defensive wall, whereas in the latter they appear independent of each other
-the citadel being the only fortified site.