Abstract :
THE excavation of two so-called farmsteads in Attica in 1958, i960, and 1967 by archaeologists
from the British School at Athens provided an early detailed insight into life at
isolated rural settlements (Jones et al. 1962, 75; Jones et al, 1973, 358). Since then the
farmstead has moved on to become the most common class of ancient sites identified by
surveys, but the term continues to be disputed. The farmsteads of the Classical period in
particular have sparked an intense debate over their existence, character, and use (e.g.
Osborne 1985, 1987, 1992; Snodgrass 1990; Lohmann 1993a, 1993^; Morris, I. 1994;
Hanson 1999; Morris, S. and Papadopoulos 2005). Indeed, after thirty-odd years of intensive
systematic survey, the identity and character of the Classical farmstead remains an unresolved
issue (Cherry 2003, 147). I believe that much of this dispute has to do with the continued use
of the Dema and Vari houses as illustrations of what Classical farmsteads should look like both
in terms of architecture and finds (e.g. Whitley 2001, 377-81; Pettegrew 2001; Foxhall 2004;
Foxhall et al. 2007, 105-7; Wlt^ reservations Alcock 2007, 126) and the problem of
comparing surface assemblages with excavated ones.
