Beginning in the late eighth century, temples had flourished across the Greek world, many with an ambition that made them monumental by our definition. Yet in design and construction, temples did not differ greatly from houses or other utilitarian structures. In the first half of the seventh century, technological innovation in temple construction transformed Greek architecture. Newly introduced roof tiles and stone ashlars set the temple apart from the rest of the built environment, harbingers of what the temple would become during the Archaic and Classical periods.