Shrines and temples
The Mycenaean documents include the word “temple” (vocog/nabs = Mycenaean na-wi-jo), but hitherto no major temples have been found. What is preserved archaeologically are the “cultic areas” on the citadels (Whittaker 1997) and there is philological evidence of cults outside the immediate area of the capital.
The texts from Pylos indicate that aside from Dionysus, the most important gods were all worshipped in the immediate vicinity of the palace. In the case of Mycenae there is also a “cult centre” within the enclosure walls of the citadel, but well away, lower down and to the east of the main megaron. This area can be linked to the small figurines and the processions, with their small portable gods, in proposing a parallel form of religion which was related to popular cults worshipping gods in a sense which differed substantially from any rituals practised in the major megarons. Yet the transports must have started somewhere and the cultic paraphernalia must have been kept somewhere. Among the items which stayed in place were apparently low benches upon which figurines and other objects were placed in cult places (apparently also including those peak sanctuaries which the Mycenaeans also adopted: see Marinates 1995; D. Jones 1999).
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