eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

eference to similarly interpreted sites in other parts of Greece. Integral to discussion is the
changing nature of sites that can be ascribed as having a religious or sacred use. It is argued
that many do not simply show a continuation of such activity, and that a number only acquire
a suggestion of such use in the period under study due to later, namely Archaic, and Classical,
activity. The validity of assigning such interpretations in hindsight is a matter for debate.
The case studies that follow this discussion, concentrating on the sites of Asea Ayios Elias,
Vlakherna-Petra, and Ptolis-Gortsouli, enable an investigation into what can be seen as the
changing nature of religious sites in Arkadia and how specific landscapes might have been
integral to their use in this way by communities.
The fifth chapter is concerned with landscapes of death and burial. There is burial evidence
from Arkadia for most of the period 1600-700BCE, thus it is possible to say something for
each of the major cultural phases. From a consideration of general trends that can be seen
throughout the period in question and how this has been and might be interpreted, the chapter
considers how people may have approached or perceived death through an exploration of the
landscape in which such sites are set. The case studies focus on Stymphalia and the
Pheneatike, southeast Arkadia, the chamber tomb cemeteries of the west and Artemision-
Ayios Ilias and the Mantinean Plain.
Chapter 6 is concerned with the everyday (the profane). The chapter starts with a
consideration of different types of evidence for each period and of how this evidence changes
over time. This is done with reference to other parts of Greece and then concentrates on
Arkadia. Like the previous two chapters, the second part of the chapter is concerned with a
number of case studies. Here, the Orchomenos plains, the Mantinean plain, Loukas-Ayios
Yioryios and Nestani, the Stymphalian plain and the Pheneatike are explored. This is
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