2,700-year-old portico discovered in Greece

Archaeologists have discovered a 2,700-year-old portico - a long, open structure often housing shops - on the site of the ancient city of Argilos in northern Greece.
In ancient Greece, the portico - stoa in Greek - delineated public squares from the city.
The discovery was made this summer following an archaeological excavation led by Jacques Perreault, Professor at the University of Montreal's Centre of Classical Studies and Zisis Bonias, an archaeologist with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports.
Archaeological digs unearthed a roughly 40-metre length of the portico. The open area once contained seven rooms, five of which have been excavated, each measuring 5 metres wide and 7.5 metres deep, with a 2.5-metre high back wall.

"Porticos are well known from the Hellenistic period, from the 3rd to 1st century BC, but earlier examples are extremely rare. The one from Argilos is the oldest example to date from northern Greece and is truly unique," said Perreault.
Located on the edge of the Aegean Sea, at its peak in the 5th century BC, Argilos was one of the richest cities in the region.

Since 1992, Perreault and Bonias have excavated the hill covering Argilos and the University of Montreal has acquired some of the private land sitting on it.
The remains of the Argilos portico are located on one of these sites, at the northern end of what was the city's commercial district, 50 metres from the port area at the time.

Since Argilos was prosperous, it is plausible that the portico was commissioned and built by the city.
If this were the case, an architect would have overseen the construction and architectural integrity of the structure; there would have been no differences in the size of the stones used, and all the rooms would have been identical.
However, examination of the remains indicates just the contrary.
"The construction techniques and the stones used are different for one room to another, hinting that several masons were used for each room," Perreault said.
"This indicates that the shop owners themselves were probably responsible for building the rooms, that 'private enterprise' and not the city was the source of this stoa," Perreault said.