of proof has been set in terms of later urban conventions, with fully
paved street systems and extensive use of stone. The process of urban-
ization did culminate in such a pattern of advanced urban textures
during the regional reorganizations effected under Roman rule, with
cities acquiring large tracts of former rural land under Hadrian.^78 The
analysis of districts and regions, as distinct from urban foci, in Thrace, as
in Macedonia, suggests that regional structures played an important part
in the articulation of settlement hierarchies. This is a topic to which we
will return in Chapter 5.SanctuariesThe other main category of site that should be considered in a conspectus
of sites is that of sanctuaries. In the central and southern Aegean, Iron
Age votive offerings and cult activity, particularly in the form of residues
of communal meals, have been documented at upland sites within and
outside civic areas, in designated zones of settlements, and in independ-
ent locations, some of which became significant inter-communal sanctu-
aries. This pattern is also represented in the northern Aegean, although
the forms of cultural elaboration adopted in particular locations show
that there was a variety of approaches to the organization of sacred sites.
Although the practice of depositing cult offerings and of feasting is
common to north and south, the sort of investment made in public or
collective activities seems to have been different in the north (notwith-
standing some prominent exceptions). Sanctuary buildings tend to be of
modest dimensions and without much architectural decoration, whereas
burials were often complex procedures in their own right and accom-
panied by various forms of costly investment, both in terms of construc-
tion, ornamentation, and associated grave goods. This pattern is found
throughout Macedonia and Thrace, but is also characteristic of many
coastal cities, which might otherwise have been expected to follow the
monumental traditions of Ionia. Poseidi, the location of the sanctuary to
Poseidon on a promontory west of Mende, on Pallene, the westernmost
finger of Chalkidike, and the shrine of Dionysos and Zeus Ammon at
Aphytis, on the eastern side of the same peninsula, along with an Ionic
temple, probably located at Therme, are the most striking exceptions.^79
(^78) Parissaki 2009, esp. 350–2.
(^79) Christesen and Murray 2010 for a general discussion of cult building and Mari 2011b
on Macedonian traditional cults; Poseidi: J. Vokotopoulou,AEMY4 (1990) 399–410; 5
(1991) 303–18; 6 (1992) 443–50; 7 (1993) 401–12; Aphytis: Tsigarida 2011a, 143–5andn.34;
Herdsmen with golden leaves—narratives and spaces 73