Abbasid Cooking Pots from an Occupational Context on the Ruined Exedra 3

Fig. 16. Abbasid cooking pots from an occupational context on the ruined exedra 3.

The origin of market buildings must be sought in the archaic Greek agora; this public space was conceived mainly as a meeting place with a specific political function, but it gradually acquired some commercial functions as well. Moreover, in Classical Greece both functions were clearly separated by the construction of two different spaces; thus a commercial agora appeared within most of the Greek cities. During the Hellenistic period, the number of commercial agoras was increased and they consisted of mere quadrangular open spaces enclosed by four independent stoas on their four sides. The examples of Ephesos (Akurgal 1983: 161; fig. 50, 17) or the Pergamon lower agora dated from the times of Eumenes II onwards (Akurgal 1983: 102; fig. 34, 19) illustrate the Hellenistic prototype of marketplaces.

Uscatescu, Alexandra, and Manuel Martín-Bueno. “The Macellum of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan): From a Market Place to an Industrial Area.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (August) 307 (1997): 84–85. Print.