A megaron is a square or oblong room with a central hearth and usually four columns to support the roof, the lateral walls projecting forwards beyond the entrance wall to form the sides of a porch which is usually columned. Sometimes a second entrance wall, with a single opening like the first, is added to form an anteroom. The megaron has been traditional in Greece since Mycenaean times, dating to about 2000 BC, and is sometimes thought to be the ancestor of the Doric temple. In Greek the word means simply "large room."early Aegean communities.