194 EVI MARgARITIS
A storeroom was found in the northeast corner of the building, containing
at least twenty-six pithoi, some of them broken and repaired in antiquity. Unlike
Kompoloi, where the tower is integrated within the building, at Platania the
tower represents an autonomous building, which was rebuilt in the second
habitation phase. Similar to Kompoloi, there are also external areas of activity: a
roofed stoa outside the east wing of the building, a threshing floor to the south
and an enclosure to the north, found in other excavated farmhouses (Jones
et al. 1973 ; Lohmann 1992 ). It was excavated to a length of 32 meters but was
not followed to its end, and it was most likely much larger (Poulaki 2003 ; see
Gerofoka forthcoming for detailed account of the material culture of the site).
This enclosure could have marked the boundary of the site and may have been
used to keep animals, as the small structures located (but not excavated) within
the area could have been used as pens; it could also have been an area of garden
cultivation divided into small plots, close to the site; or it could have been part
of a field boundary system. All these external structures belong to the ‘land’ of
Platania, used for cultivation or for other structures (Foxhall 2002 ). Coarse and
fine pottery made up the majority of the finds in addition to tiles, amphorae,
pithoi, loom and lead weights, iron implements, small mortars, bronze fittings,
iron spearheads and arrowheads (Poulaki 2003 ). The presence of the kiln sug-
gests that the occupants were making at least some of their pottery themselves.
The tower could have been used for keeping the animals or for storing crops,
but there were most likely other areas within the excavated building and the
external areas which would also have served these purposes (see Discussion
at the end of this chapter). It might have had a defensive character due to the
location of the site near a corridor connecting Thessaly and Macedonia, where
people could observe and react to the movements of groups travelling through
(or perhaps on occasion ravaging) the landscape.
The building at Platania was 2,400 m^2 (0.24 ha), but if the external areas are
included, the size is much greater, approaching 0.5 ha. At Kompoloi the total
excavated area, including the extension to the east, adds up to a little more than
0.2 ha, without, however, taking into account the external areas. If those are
considered, Platania and Kompoloi may well have been of a similar size. Both
sites are certainly greater in comparison to the excavated farmhouses of south-
ern Greece: Dema, described as a ‘superior residence’ (Jones et al. 1962 ), mea-
sures approximately 350 m^2 (0.035 ha) while Vari is even smaller (0.024 ha). It is
interesting to note that the storage area of Kompoloi alone is of slightly larger
size than the whole Dema site. Whitelaw ( 1994 ) has suggested 0.25 ha for a
family farmhouse. Sites between 0.007 and 0.5 ha were thought to be farm-
steads in Boeotia (Bintliff and Snodgrass 1985 ), while at Methana farmsteads of
the Classical and Hellenistic period were generally smaller than 0.2 ha (Foxhall
1997 ). For the area of southern Argolid, it was proposed that a farmhouse of
0.33–0.46 hectares points to a wealthy household with agricultural production