Nekropoleis

Two important areas have been or are being excavated — the Nekropoleis of the Old Town and the Heraion.

The Christianization of the urban territoria where the nekropoleis and altars lay posed problems for persons desiring to visit and honor family members who had died before the coming of the Christian catechumenate.

While adding enormously to our knowledge of the islands in these periods, the archaeological work is subject to varying, and sometimes widely divergent, interpretations, of which P.G. Themelis' reinterpretation of Xombourgo on Tenos, Zagora, and many other sites as Karian nekropoleis is an extreme example.⁹ It is not always so easy to decide where the truth lies.