Perachora: the Remains outside the Two Sanctuaries

Abstract

In the first chapter of Perachora i, Humfry Payne gave a brief survey of the Perachora peninsula, and of his own excavations. There he distinguished between the area of the town, situated in the plain that lies between Lake Vouliagmeni and the tip of the promontory, and the ‘Heraion Valley’ whose buildings were almost wholly of a public nature. His description of the town envisaged further excavation; but his own activities were concentrated in the area of public buildings, the two sanctuaries of Hera Akraia by the harbour and of Hera Limenia in the Heraion valley itself.The two volumes of Perachora are concerned with the discoveries Payne made in these two sanctuaries. Omitted from them are the other public buildings in or adjacent to the sanctuaries. These consist of the angled stoa, the so-called ‘agora’, the double-apsidal cistern, and the hestiatorion or dining-hall. Also omitted is the detailed study of the town which he promised. The stoa and ‘agora’ (which is now to be renamed ‘the west court’, since, whatever its actual function, it was certainly not an agora) have now been published separately by Dr. J. J. Coulton. The present account gathers together the remaining public buildings in the vicinity of the sanctuaries, the apsidal cistern and the hestiatorion, together with the ancient remains in the area of the town.