Mitato
Mitato(Greek:μιτάτο,archaic form:μιτᾶτον or μητᾶτον,fromLatin:metor,"to measure off/to pitch camp" ) is a term meaning "shelter" or "lodging" in Greek.
Appearing in the 6th century, during theByzantineperiod it referred to aninnor trading house for foreign merchants, akin to acaravanserai.By extension, it could also refer to the legal obligation of a private citizen to billet state officials or soldiers. Alternatively, in the 10th century,Constantine Porphyrogenitususes the term to refer to state-run ranches inAnatolia.[1]
In modern Greece, and especially on the mountains ofCrete,amitato(in the pluralmitata) is a hut built from locally gathered stones to provide shelter toshepherds,and is used also for cheese-making.Mount Ida(also called Mount Psiloritis) in central Crete is particularly rich in flat stones suitable for dry stone construction.[2][3][4]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium,p. 1385.
- ^Antonis Plymakis,Koúmoi-Mitáta kai Boskoi sta Leuká Ori kai Psiloriti( "Shepherd's huts and shepherds in the Lefka Ori and the Psiloritis" ), Chania, 2008, 630 p.
- ^Harriet Blitzer, Pastoral Life in the Mountains of Crete. An Ethnoarchaelogical Perspective,inExpedition,vol. 32, No 3, 1990, pp. 34-41; archivedhere(on the shepherd's huts of Eastern Crete.
- ^Sabine Ivanovas,Where Zeus Became a Man (with Cretan Shepherds),Efsthiadis Group Editions, 2000, 183 p. (Life in the corbelled dry stone huts of central Crete).
External links
[edit]- (in French)Cabanes d'estive (mitata) des environs d'Anogia en Crète centrale (Grèce)(Summer shepherding huts (mitata) in the vicinity of Anogia in central Crete, Greece)
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