eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

ground plan, in particular the House of the Idols and House of the Frescoes at Mycenae and
the LHIIIC cult building and cult room BB at Ayia Irini, and to a lesser extent the cult room at
Tiryns and the West Shrine at Phylakopi (see Albers 1994, p.123). However, there is no strict
canonical form comparable to temples of the late Archaic and Classical periods (Albers 1994,
p.121). It may be that religious activity also took place at open-air shrines, as is suggested at
Asea-Ayios Elias in Arkadia. Alternatively, in cases where activity has a long and largely
unbroken history, later religious buildings could have destroyed earlier LH structures.
Mycenaean religion is recognised archaeologically not only by architecture but also by the
assemblage of artefacts found. The types of artefacts associated with Mycenaean ritual and
religion are figurines, rhyta, gemstones, sealstones and rings. The latter often depict scenes
interpreted as religiously significant, such as the example from Tiryns where demons bearing
jugs approach a ‘goddess’. The figurines, however, are of many types, only some of which
appear to be specifically devoted to religious activity. The large figurines from Ayia Irini on
Keos (Caskey, 1986) and those found at the cult centre at Mycenae (Moore & Taylour 1999)
are examples. Other figurines, such as the psi, phi and tau types, are ubiquitous and are found
in many contexts. These figurine types are found in religious contexts, perhaps used in
worship, and are found in other ritually significant places such as in burials and at transitional
places (e.g. doorways), but they are also found discarded ‘unceremoniously’ in rubbish dumps
and reused as stoppers and temper in mud bricks (Tzounou–Herbst 2002). Thus, by
themselves they are not indicative of a place of worship, temple or shrine, religious practice or
even indicative of religious sentiment.
There are a number of models that outline criteria by which religious function may be
inferred, such as Renfrew’s (1985) classifications, and Pilafidis-Williams (1998) adaptation of
them, some of which will be explored more fully in section 4.4. Suffice to say, it is often a
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