eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

such as to construct the hydraulic works (33) needed to make the place reliably inhabitable
(Morgan 2003, chapter 4). However, through the medium of the case studies the awareness of
a range of qualities and characteristics of specific landscapes have opened up the possibility
that variations existed in the way settlements were apprehended by those living in the area. In
this way, if Loukas-Ayios Yioryios was home to a settlement in the LBA, the qualities of this
relatively small plain may have afforded this place a particular role in the activities of the
wider community, and that of Nestani-Panayiristra (30), may have gained particular status
because of the imposing rock towering above. Appreciating variations still, the pattern of
activity in the Asea Valley is different from the ‘usual’, where sites, except for Kato Asea-
Palaiokastro (45), are positioned on hill slopes (Ayios Nikolaos of Manaris (47)) or on the
valley floor (Ayios Athenasios of Dorizas (48), Ayios Yioryios of Athenaion (49), AVS62
(79) and AVS67 (50)). In another variation, the physical landscape in the central regions is
highly fragmented, thus at Karvouni-Sfakovouni (75) and Lasta-Kollinos (74), not only would
there have been incredibly different vistas and ways of moving around physically, but this
would have contributed to the way inhabitants of these diverse locations apprehended one
another. These few examples have served to illustrate the variation that exists within one
period, over a relatively small area.
For the G period, it is possible to focus on the Mantinean plain where a distinct pattern
emerges in the way the land is inhabited, as shown in Chapters 4, 5 and 6. Although there is
limited evidence for settlement in any part of Arkadia for this period, bringing together the
aspects dealt with in separate chapters allows for some consideration. In the G period, it
appears that the whole plain served as the territory for one community, which, although may
have been living in scattered farmsteads on the plain (Milea/Mantinea (28); Morgan 1999,
390), divided areas of it for distinct purposes. For the community to whom Ptolis was a site
of religious importance, and Artemision-Ayios Ilias was a burial site, there is an apparent
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