Habitation in this area of the Agora seems to have been almost continuous since Classical times. Remains form the ‘dark ages’ (the period between the Late Roman and the Middle Byzantine period c. 7th to 9th centuries AD) were not substantial. They consisted of earthen floors and walls made of collected field stones set in mud. This settlement seems to have been partly destroyed by fire, attested by ash and traces of burning.

 

The ‘Great Byzantine houses’ as they are called were build on these older foundations following earlier wall layouts. They are described as “large but unpretentious buildings” separated by two north-south orientated roads. These housing blocks, west, middle and east, are agglomerations of small rectangular rooms. Coins found date these houses to ca. 1100 AD.

Omega house was found during the Agora Excavations at Athens, www.agora.ascsa.net

These houses too were destroyed by fire. Some walls had to be reconstructed and some floor levels were raised substantially. This fire and reconstruction can be dated, through coins, to approximately the 3rd quarter of the 12th century AD.

 

These reconstructed houses were not in occupation for a long time before some other disaster seems to have struck. Rebuilding was done again, but at a much smaller and less substantial scale. Debris was simply left lying, creating a third floor level again much higher than the previous one. The creation of this level is dated to approximately the mid-13th century AD. Abandonment occurred not much later, before the end of the 13rd century.