Abstract
The late Archaic East Stoa on the agora at Eretria was rebuilt provisionally after its destruction, probably due to the Persian attack of 490 B.C. The secular building, which bordered the eastern side of the agora, had obviously to continue fulfilling its function as a market building. Only about one century later, the building was substituted by a new stoa. For this replacement building, the typology with rear rooms was kept as well as the size and probably the number of the rooms. Still, the new stoa was broader, more representative, and thus of contemporary style. To adjust the broader building to the existing urban pattern, it was slightly shifted to the east. Similarly, the existing North Stoa was converted into a more representative building: While keeping parts of the building and its typology with short returning walls along the front, it was enlarged towards the agora.
Whereas the urban concept and building typology of the stoas on the agora stayed the same from late Archaic until late Hellenistic times, the extra-urban sanctuary of Artemis at Amarynthos was modernised more radically. The ongoing research shows that a stoa framing the open space in the east was introduced there later, namely at the end of Classic times in the course of a reorganisation of the space.
This paper investigates the strategies of renewal on both the agora and the extra-urban sanctuary of the city Eretria. Both are constitutive elements of a Greek polis and therefore characterised by continuity of function. Still, at the current state of research, the agora shows more conservatism than the sanctuary. Furthermore, the analysis of the modifications of the agora buildings in comparison to the initial design revealed similarities with the treatment of well-known sacred buildings, such as the temples of Apollon at Delphi or Bassae. Thus, a conservative attitude is not only detectable on religious architecture and therefore motivated by cult, as often stated. By contrast, in the case of the agora of Eretria, which offered a seminal urban concept from the beginning, practical and functional reasons seem to have been reconciled with the desire for gentle modernisation. The phenomenon of succeeding buildings, which is frequent in Greek antiquity, contrasts with our modern claim for authenticity for the built heritage. Still, it can be understood as a continuous renewal of the initial design of a building or a square.
Tanner, Alexandra