Sanctuary of the Cabeiri

The Sanctuary of the Kabeiroi in NE Lemnos developed on two terraces and had three building phases: Archaic, Hellenistic, and Late Roman. Its buildings lie on two small platforms formed on the slope of a low hill that makes up Cape Chloe. The Kabeirion was administratively subject to Hephaistia, the center of Hephaistos’ cult and the island’s chief city. On the southern terrace, beneath the Late Roman telesterion, the Archaic telesterion was revealed. The entire northern terrace is occupied by the Hellenistic telesterion. A corridor perpendicular to the building separated the telesterion from a row of rooms, the adyta. The Late Roman telesterion (the so-called “basilica”) stands on the southern terrace and is founded atop the Archaic building. Perhaps the destruction of the structure and the sanctuary’s definitive end were due to the fury of the early Christians in the late 3rd or early 4th century AD.