reason for this is that the other locations we have encountered have been places whose ancient names we
know because they are referred to in texts from antiquity. Lefkandi is a modern Greek name; we do not
know what the name of the community was in ancient times. The structure that was discovered at
Lefkandi, and which has subsequently been subjected to expert archaeological investigation, is
remarkable in a number of respects. To begin with, it is unusually large for a building of this date, being
some 10 meters wide and over 45 meters in length (figure 22). The walls were made of mud brick,
plastered on the inside, on a stone foundation. An over-hanging thatch roof, which protected the walls
from the elements, was supported by series of wooden posts, both inside and outside the building. This
feature makes this structure the distant ancestor of the familiar Classical Greek temple which, as we will
see, takes the form of a rectangular building surrounded by columns supporting an overhanging roof.
Figure 22 Axonometric drawing of the “Heroon” at Lefkandi as reconstructed, 1000–950 BC.
Source: British School at Athens from Lefkandi II: The Protogeometric Building at Toumba, Part 2
(Athens 1993), Plate 28. Reproduced with permission from Cambridge University Press.
The tenth-century building at Lefkandi, however, was not a temple. In fact, it is not known for certain what
the function of the building was. The most surprising feature of the building is that, underneath the floor in
the center of the building, archaeologists discovered a burial site more or less contemporary with the
building itself, consisting of two graves. One of the graves contained the bones of four horses, apparently
the victims of some form of sacrificial ritual. The other grave held the remains of a man and a woman,
whose bodies received very different treatment. The man had been cremated and his ashes, wrapped in a