The Ecomuseum at Ano Meria presents the way of life of a rural homestead in days gone by and its form is best understood by briefly describing its spatial, social and economic context, divorced from the historic past of the island which, in general terms, was much the same as that of the other nearby islands of the Lesser Cyclades.

Those parts of the walls which were found demolished have been restored in the same way. In the remaining sections of the walls small stones were inserted in the interstices between the large ones («boukarologima»). The outside of the walls has been left unplastered, as they were found.

The collapsed ceilings and roofs were also renovated. The traditional technique used throughout the Cyclades was used: the ceiling was covered by large schistose slabs supported by beams of unplaned tree trunks spanning the entire length of the room, for which reason the buildings were always long and narrow, so that the length of the trees was sufficient. A mixture of lime and earth was spread over the slabs or along the joins and on top of this a thick layer of dried seaweed. Finally, the entire roof was covered with a clean argillaceous earth which becomes impervious on drying. This earth was carried by donkey from a field some distance away.

The original old wooden doors have been replaced by as accurate copies as possible, along with the peculiar wooden locks with wooden key. The carpenter, once a fisherman, is also from Ano Meria. The largest of the three buildings served as the residence of the family until the 19th century. At the end of the century, when a new homestead was built within the same «thimonia», it was used as a cellar in which the harvest was stored in large storage jars and other pottery vessels. The tools and implements used by the peasants were left here.

The adjacent building housed the oilpress and cheesery. The process of oil production, however, began outside with the crushing of the olives using the heavy stone cylinder, rotated on the built stone base by wooden axles turned by three men. The pulp was collected in special sacks, handknitted by the women, and carried into the room of the oil-press where they were placed in turn on a large stone slab (1.50m. long) fitted into the wall horizontally and slightly sloping. With a specially fashioned wooden lever inserted in a socket in the wall, the sack was pressed heavily so that the oil flowed into a special vessel. Simultaneously, the fire was lit in the room of the oilpress, to ensure sufficient boiling water for pouring over the sack being pressed by the lever. The olive oil was collected in special jars, glazed inside.