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elonging to the Archaic and Classical periods which has subsequently been interpreted as the
site of a ‘cult place’. This transect also produced a couple of LH sherds (Forsen 2003).
Given the paucity of evidence from these two sites, it is difficult to include them in any
discussion of religious practice in Arkadia; here their existence is noted only as possibilities.
Finally, the site of Asea-Ayios Elias is investigated in detail below (case study A).
4.2.3: Sub Mycenaean and Protogeometric religious and sacred sites in Greece
SM and PG activity are linked together in this chapter as it is often these periods that are
covered when discussing ‘Dark Age’ ritual practice (e.g. Sourvinou-Inwood 1993, p.1, p.13
n.1). Sourvinou-Inwood (1993, p.6) claims that ‘Dark Age’ shrines are not as rare as once
thought (e.g. Morris 1987, p.189). On the Greek mainland, examples have been found at
Amyklaion in Lakonia (Demakopoulou 1982), Isthmia in the Korinthia (Morgan 1999a),
Asine, Mycenae and Tiryns in the Argolid (Wells 1983, pp.28-9; Sourvinou-Inwood 1993,
pp.6-7), Olympia in Elis (Gardiner 1925), Nichoria in Messene (Coulson et al. 1993),
Mounichia in Attica (Palaiokrassa, p.1989, pp.13-14; 1991, p.90), and Poseidi on the
Chalkidiki peninsula (see Fig.4.6; Vokotopoulou, 1994). The evidence in the cases listed is in
the main equivocal, although most have an altar-type construction or area, a focal point where
sacrifices were made. This is seen by Coldstream (2003, p.231) to be the forerunner of all
Greek temples. Examples are the circular stone platform at Nichoria and Asine and burnt
deposits/ash altars at Asine, Olympia, Poseidi and Isthmia (albeit at the latter redeposited in
terraces; Morgan 1996, p.46; 1999a). Sometimes these are associated with a building for
example at Poseidi, (Fig.4.6), and Nichoria, which, however, often prove difficult to identify
as a dedicated temple, rather than the house of a leader or chief. As Mazarakis Ainian
suggests, there is much to indicate that the two types of edifice and the functions they had
overlapped in many ways. For example, a large central heath in a structure identified as a
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