From prehistoric rituals to ancient shrines

By the end of the Bronze Age in mainland Greece, caves became places for worship. The Skoteini cave in Euboea preserves such an early and rare phase (13th century BC), with evidence of a large pyre and fragments of stemmed cups, a stirrup jar, and a Psi-shaped figurine. Similar finds also come from the Nestor’s cave in Pylos, the Cave of Lakes in Achaia, which also hosts an ossuary, and more mainland caves. The establishment of cave shrines became widespread in mainland Greece in the following centuries, particularly from the late Geometric period and increasingly during the Archaic and Classical times. Worship practices were shaped by the new civic and religious institutions that emerged with the formation of the polis-state. The Mycenaean period, with its palatial centers and the consolidation of Greek religious practices, had marked the threshold of these changes.

In antiquity, cave shrines functioned alongside open-air sanctuaries. On steep cliffs, near rivers, in gorges, along coastlines, or on mountain peaks, caves sanctuaries existed everywhere. Depending on the context, altars were constructed, sacrifices were performed, and worshippers offered votives, placing them at specific locations or casting them irregularly from the entrance in caves that were steep and difficult to access. Based on figurine types, iconography, and inscriptions, we can tell that cult practice was primarily directed toward Nature deities (Pan, the Nymphs), as in a cave on the ancient acropolis of Tithorea in ancient Phokis, where an emblematic and rare relief of Pan has been discovered. Dedications were also offered to the major gods in the context of passage rites. Cult activity was often accompanied by festivals and ritual performances, as suggested by numerous votive offerings associated with music and dance, typically across the western Greece, where a recent discovery  revealed a major sanctuary at Mastro cave near Mesolonghi: the dedication of figurines depicting dancers—either individually or in circles—is particularly widespread, as are representations of figures wearing animal masks.

In certain caves (e.g. Cyclops on Youra, Skoteini, Nestor, Tithorea), figurines are limited or absent, and the remains of pilgrimage consist mainly of lamps or pottery alone (fragments of skyphoi, decorated kraters). Especially coarse wares indicate an emphasis on communal drinking and feasting, possibly with food preparation taking place on site. A frequent find in sacred caves is roof tiles (e.g. at Mastro)—perhaps relating to the organization of space—while a more unusual category of finds consists of fragments of ceramic beehives (such as at Skoteini).

Coastal caves in of western Greece and the Ionian Sea functioned as refuges for sailors during their voyages to the West. Votive assemblages in these area reveal the network of contacts and exchanges shaped through the expansion of trade, overseas maritime activity, and colonization after the 8th century BC. At the sanctuary of Mastro, the votive offerings allow us to trace the historical influence and competition of colonial cities Corinth and Athens over these areas. In Magna Graecia, the dissemination of similar cult practices in caves demonstrates that settlers adapted Greek traditions to the new lands, gradually creating new religious narratives and iconographies to express their worship. Sacred offerings bearing western influences reached the Ionian islands and the coasts of mainland Greece through sailors and worshippers who travelled back and forth between these regions.

2026, C. Morgan, A. Karadima, S. Katsarou, Fête champêtre? Feasting in the central Ionian countryside. In: X. Charalambidou, J.-P. Crielaard, C. Morgan (eds.), Feasting with the Greeks. Towards a Social Archaeology of Ritual Consumption in the Greek World. Amsterdam University Press.

2025, S. Katsarou, A. Nagel, A. Karadima, Akarnania’s ancient caves in modern times: new archaeological research and material evidence, Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Western Greece and Beyond. Farewell to Franziska Lang, International Conference, Technical University of Darmstadt, 11-12 December 2025 (Organizer: Technical University of Darmstadt).

2025, S. Katsarou, Caves across bodies of past and present, EAA 2025, Belgrade, 2-6 September 2025, Session 46: What can bodies do? The archaeology of experience (Organizers: J. Chapman, D. Mlekuz).

2025, S. Katsarou, Caves and ritual activity in prehistory. In: F. Georgiadis, A. Gadolou (eds.), In the Cave. Stories from Darkness Brought to Light. Publication Realized on the Occasion of the Exhibition “In the Cave: Stories from Darkness Brought to Light” Organized by the Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology and the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, in May 2025, pp. 130-147. Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology & Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. Editions Melissa.

2025, S. Katsarou, Cave excavations and their contribution to understanding Greek prehistory, Half a Century of Cave Protection and Research. Symposium Dedicated to the Memory of Evangelia Protonotariou-Deilaki, Athens, Epigraphic Museum, 9 October 2025 (Organizer: Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology). [in Greek]

2025, I. Efstathiou, S. Katsarou, A. Papadea, G. Valvis, Caves in the Ionian sea and western Greece: Human activity, new evidence and research perspectives, Half a Century of Cave Protection and Research. Symposium Dedicated to the Memory of Evangelia Protonotariou-Deilaki, Athens, Epigraphic Museum, 9 October 2025 (Organizer: Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology). [in Greek]

2025, S. Katsarou, Epigraphic evidence of worship of Pan and nymphs on Parnassos, Discovering the Past. Epigraphic Evidence from Caves. Round Table,Athens, Epigraphic Museum, 6 May 2025 (Organizers: Epigraphic Museum & Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology). [in Greek]

2025, I. Efstathiou, E. Zavvou, S. Katsarou, Epigraphic evidence from caves of the Ionian sea and Crete, Discovering the Past. Epigraphic Evidence from Caves. Round Table, Athens, Epigraphic Museum, 6 May 2025 (Organizers: Epigraphic Museum & Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology). [in Greek]

2025, I. Efstathiou, S. Katsarou, A. Mari, F. Mavridis, C. Agouridis, I. Zygouri, A. Vlachopoulos, New evidence of ritual and symbolic behaviour in coastal caves in Greece: a preliminary assessment, 6th International Maritime Archaeology Graduate Symposium (MAGS 2025), Ioannina, 2-5 April 2025 (Organizers: University of Ioannina & Honor Frost Foundation).

2025, R. M. Ammerman, S. Katsarou, Sacred caves in Magna Grecia. Adaptation and development of ritual traditions in the colonial world, Archaeology & Arts 149 (December 2025), pp. 17-29. [in Greek]

2025 I. Efstathiou, S. Katsarou, Sacred coastal caves, Archaeology & Arts 149, pp. 49-67. [in Greek]

2025, S. Katsarou, Rätselhafte Höhlen in Griechenland. Wechselwirkungen zwischen Kultur und Natur als Herausforderungen der Höhlenarchäologie, Antike Welt 2/25, pp. 49-55.

2025, Katsarou, A. Darlas, Water in caves. Aspects of social ecology in the Bronze Age mainland and the Aegean. In: R. Laffineur, G-J. Wijngaarden, J.-P. Crielaard, J. Crouwel, J. Driessen, J. Hilditch (eds.), HYDOR. Water Resources and Management in the Aegean Bronze Age. Proceedings of the XXth International Aegean Conference, University of Amsterdam, 11-16 June 2024. Liège. Aegaeum 50.

2025, S. Katsarou, Ritual journeys tο caves during the Greek Neolithic: an integrated perspective of rituals, voyaging and caves, Acta Archaeologica 95(2), pp. 262-282. https://doi.org/10.1163/16000390-09501001

2024, S. Katsarou, L. Kormazopoulou, E. Laufer, S. Neumann, K. Sporn, I. Zygouri, Surveying the caves above Tithorea in 2016. In: K. Sporn, A. Farnoux, E. Laufer (eds.), Ancient Phokis. New approaches to its History, Archaeology and Topography. International Conference, DAI Athens, 30 March-1 April 2017, pp. 309-338. DAI Athens & École Française d’Athènes. Athenaia 13 & Études méditerranéenes 4.

2024, S. Katsarou, A. Asterios, C. Kakasa, E. Ganiatsou, A. Souleles, L. Winkelbach, J. Blocher, J. Burger, C. Papageorgopoulou, The Late Bronze Age population of the Cave of Lakes, Peloponnese: an anthropological, palaeogenetic and palaeodietary study, 8th ARCH_RNT SYMPOSIUM. Archaeological Research & New Technologies. In memoriam Nikolaos Zacharias. 3-5 October 2024 Kalamata, Greece. Special Session: Modern applications in Bioarchaeology (Organizers: University of the Peloponnese, under the aegis: Hellenic Society for Archaeometry)

2024, I. Efstathiou, S. Katsarou, From the Thrasylleion to the British Museum. A statue of Dionysus from the cave of the Choregic Monument of the Acropolis, Archaeology & Arts 144 (April 2024), pp. 20-29. [in Greek]

2024, S. Katsarou, Water in caves: Aspects of social ecology in the Greek Neolithic and the Bronze Age, XXth International Aegean Conference, HYDOR: Water Resources and Management in the Aegean Bronze Age, Amsterdam, 12-16 June 2024 (Organizers: Aegaeum Conferences & University of Amsterdam).

2024, S. Menelaou, E. Marzec, F. Georgiadis, S. Katsarou, A. Siros, A. Darlas, Ritual use, consumption and depositional practices at Agriomernos Cave, northwest Samos (Greece): a ceramic analytical approach, Advances in Archaeomaterials 5, 100041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aia.2024.100041

2023, S. Katsarou, Caves in Greece: places for life, death, and gods, Drawing on Stones; Brazilian Rock Art, Embassy of Brazil in Athens, Athens, 24-29 November 2023 (Organizer: Embassy of Brazil in Athens, E. Angliker).

2022, S. Katsarou, “Lindsey Büster, Eugène Warmenbol and Dimitrij Mlekuž, eds. Between Worlds: Understanding Ritual Cave Use in Later Prehistory (Cham: Springer, 2019, 270pp., 17 b/w illustr., 85 colour illustr., hbk, ISBN 978-3-319-99021-7),” European Journal of Archaeology 25(2), pp. 262-266. Review. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2022.8

2022, S. Katsarou, Cave of Lakes. A Place of Human Activity in Prehistory. Site Guide. Kalavrita. Municipal Public Benefit Enterprise of Kalavrita-Cave of Lakes.

2021, S. Katsarou, A. Nagel (eds.), Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece. New Approaches to Landscape and Ritual. London/New York. Routledge. ISBN 9780367859169. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003015765

2021, S. Katsarou, A. Nagel, Introduction: On reading caves and ancient Greek cult. In: S. Katsarou, A. Nagel (eds.), Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece. New Approaches to Landscape and Ritual, σελ. 1-16. London/New York. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003015765-1

2021, S. Katsarou, The dawn of ancient Greek cave cult: Prehistoric cave sanctuaries. In: S. Katsarou, A. Nagel (eds.), Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece. New Approaches to Landscape and Ritual, σελ. 17-48. London/New York. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003015765-2

2021, A. Darlas, S. Katsarou, L. Kormazopoulou, V. Giannopoulos, Caves and archaeology. The work of the Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology of the Ministry of Culture and Sports in the area of Aitolia. In: H. Yfantis, V. Fountoulis, M. Manikarou, S. Skandalou, M. Vasilopoulou (eds.), The Thestian Territory in Historical Space and Time. 2nd National Conference of History-Culture, Vlochos, Kainourgio, May 14-15, 2016, vol. B, pp. 47-68. Vlochos Thestieis, Thestieis Archaeological-Historical-Folklore Society. [in Greek] 

2019, C. Morgan, A. Karadima, S. Katsarou, Fête champêtre? Feasting in the central Ionian countryside, Feasting with the Greeks. Towards a Social Archaeology of Ritual Consumption in the Greek World, Oxford, All Souls College, 12-13 March 2019 (Organizer: All Souls College, Oxford).

2018, ΑΙΑ Annual Meeting, Boston, January 4-7, 2018. Colloquium: New Approaches to Caves and Worship in the Ancient Mediterranean. Organizers: S. Katsarou, A. Nagel.

2017, S. Katsarou, A. Darlas, Cave heritage in Greece: Aetoloakarnania, Archaeological Reports 63 (Archaeology in Greece 2016-2017), pp. 89-105. https://doi.org/10.1017/S057060841800008X

2017, S. Katsarou, L. Kormazopoulou, I. Zygouri, E. Laufer, S. Neumann, K. Sporn, Surveying the caves above Tithorea in 2016, Ancient Phokis. New Approaches to its History, Archaeology and Topography. International Conference, Athens, 30 March-4 April 2017 (Οργανωτές: DAI Athens & École Française d’Athènes).

2016, A. Darlas, S. Katsarou, The caves of Aitoloakarnania: an unknown historical and archaeological treasure. The role of the Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology in their protection and research. Online article at https://iaitoloakarnania.gr/2016/07/spilea-etoloakarnanias-enas-agnostos-istorikos-ke-archeologikos-thisavros/ [in Greek]

2016, A. Darlas, S. Katsarou, L. Kormazopoulou, V. Giannopoulos, Caves and archaeology. Works of the Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology of the Ministry of Culture and Sports in the area of Aitolia, 2nd National Conference of Local History and Culture: The Thestian Territory in Historic Space and Time, Vlochos, Agrinio, 14-15 May 2016(Organizer: Thestieis Archaeological, Historical and Folklore Society). [in Greek]

2016, G. Valvis, S. Katsarou, Mastro cave, Archaiologikon Deltion 71 (publ. 2022), Chronika, vol. Β2, pp. 1760-1762. [in Greek]

2014, G. S. Korres, A. Sampson, S. Katsarou, The Cave of Nestor at Voidokoilia, Pylos. Preliminary review of older and recent finds. In: I. K. Giannaropoulou (ed.), Proceedings of 4th Local Congress of Messenian Studies (Kalamata, 8-11 October 2010), pp. 4-90. Athens. Society for Peloponnesian Studies. Peloponnesiaka-Appendix 31. [in Greek]

2013, S. Katsarou, Cult of Pan and the Nymphs in a cave of ancient Phocis on Mt. Parnassos, Grammateion 2, pp. 33-40. www.grammateion.gr/sites/grammateion.gr/files/articles/grammateion_2_2013_33-40_0.pdf

2012, S. Katsarou, Ambouria at Parnassos. Sacred cave of Pan and the Nymphs, Archaiologikon Deltion 67 (publ. 2016), Chronika, vol. B2, pp. 818-822. [in Greek]

2010, A. Sampson, S. Katsarou,  The Cave of Nestor at Voidokoilia, Fourth Local Congress of Messenian Studies, Kalamata, 8-11 October 2010 (Organizer: Society for Peloponnesian Studies). [in Greek]

1997, S. Katsarou, Phases IV-VII. The Bronze Age pottery. In: A. Sampson, The Cave of Lakes at Kastria, Kalavryta. A Prehistoric Site in the Highlands of the Peloponnese, pp. 275-319. Athens. Society for Peloponnesian Studies 7. [in Greek]

1993, S. Katsarou, Late Helladic III A-B finds from the Skoteini cave. In: A. Sampson (ed.), Skoteini at Tharrounia. The Cave, the Settlement and the Cemetery, pp. 314-322. Athens. [in Greek]

1993, S. Katsarou, Historical remains from the cave and its surrounding area. In: A. Sampson (ed.), Skoteini at Tharrounia. The Cave, the Settlement and the Cemetery, pp. 323-342. Athens. [in Greek]