Chapter 4 considers to what extent housing on the rest of the Greek mainland was organised in a similar way to that in Athens and Attica, during the fifth and earlier fourth centuries BCE. The discussion includes evaluation of excavated houses in northeastern Greece (Olynthos, Thasos, Torone), northwestern Greece (Ammotopos, Kassope, Leukas), and central and southern Greece (Halieis, Dystos, Ano Siphai, Elean Pylos). By exploring the spatial extent of the single-entrance courtyard house, and addressing the potential underlying social significance of some of the continuities or variations in form and organisation, the Chapter addresses how representative this house-form, with its associated social norms, may have been, of Greece more widely. It is argued that the single-entrance, courtyard house is most characteristic of larger households in larger, urban settlements, and that co-existing alongside it were smaller houses which were most characteristic of smaller settlements but were sometimes also found in urban locations. The relative proportions of the different types cannot be estimated due to the fact that the archaeological data are unlikely to provide a representative sample.

When 19th-century excavators uncovered domestic buildings at classical Greek urban sites, they also uncovered a problem: words and walls did not match. The clash between sources led to a clash between scholars. This chapter explores the origin of this perceived gap between words and walls and shows that it is the result of clashing philosophies, rather than faulty sources. Discussions of ancient Greek houses began in 16th-century Italy, at a time when no Greek houses were available to study. Scholars created their own plans, drawing on ancient texts and surviving Roman remains. Their designs were intended to facilitate philosophical discussions, not to rebuild the past. In contrast, archaeologists wanted to rebuild. They needed labels to describe the buildings they had found. They mined ancient texts to create a terminology for domestic spaces and features. Inevitably, text and archaeology did not match. It is time to step away from the gap and re-evaluate our approach to investigating ancient houses. Through a re-examination of evidence for 4th-century BCE Athenian houses in texts and material remains, this chapter demonstrates how different ancient sources can work in parallel to advance knowledge of domestic life in the ancient Greek city.