The excavation of the Klenia Cave in Corinthia.
Ritual practices in prehistoric Peloponnese and comparisons with Cretan caves

It was the field research carried out by N. Bertos in the 1930s that first brought the Klenia Cave to scholarly attention. This early investigation revealed the site as a major archaeological landmark of northeastern Corinthia. Eighty years later, systematic excavations have not only confirmed the cave’s topographic and geographical significance but have also brought to light remarkable finds spanning five millennia of human activity.
An unexpectedly rich assemblage of pottery, lithics, and small finds has been unearthed, illuminating the earliest phases of the cave’s use and offering the first insights into its remote past within the Neolithic landscape of the Peloponnese. Bronze Age material, particularly of Mycenaean date, indicates that the cave remained in use—with a few minor interruptions—after the Neolithic, while religious finds from the historical periods further attest to its long-term ritual significance.
More broadly, the Klenia cave is one of the multitude caves that have been located in the Peloponnese and all over Greece to date, while new ones continue to be discovered. Yet only a small number have been thoroughly explored archaeologically although rescue and brief digs have been carried out in many of them.
This presentation presents how the Klenia cave fits in the prehistory of the mainland and focuses in particular on its ritual profile. On this basis, it concludes with a discussion of key differences in prehistoric ritual practices between caves in the Peloponnese and those in Crete. These contrasts highlight the distinctive cultural frameworks through which subterranean spaces were experienced and transformed into places of symbolic and religious meaning in the two regions.

First Author: Dimitris Chadjiangelou

Keywords:
Keywords: Cave archaeology
Prehistoric
Long-term cave use
Peloponnese
Crete
rituals