Plan of the southeast sector showing building “B”
At the right of house « A », a narrow cobbled street leads to a terrace on which Building B was constructed. It consists of two rooms that at one point opened to a large courtyard. Excavations revealed that one of these two rooms contained a large kiln and a rectangular clay structure which probably served as a storage bin. These structures occupied the whole area of the room, except for a small passage way in the front part where part of a pithos and the foundation on which it stood were discovered. The presence of a kiln, which was most certainly used to cook bread, is not in itself surprising, but the fact that the whole room was solely devoted to these cooking activities is very rare. Greek houses lacked sufficient space, so that cooking activities usually took place in the open courtyard.
View of room B2 with the kiln (left) and the clay structure (right)
There are two known examples of rooms of this type, both found on the island of Crete. In both cases, a large bread kiln was found, the one in the middle of the room, the other in one of the corners but surrounded by a large cobbled floor. Apart from these structures, a few clay figurines exist, which show a group of women preparing and cooking bread in a similar type of kiln. These parallels seem to indicate that the kiln structure in building « B » served as a communal bakery, probably not on a daily basis, but for some special religious or public activities. For this reason it is was built on a terrace, isolated from the other dwellings constructed along the main road.
View of the small street leading to the terrace on which stands building “B”
