Ancient Greek Religion: From the Mycenaean to the Classical Period Ancient Greece has been a religion-centered culture since the earliest period of habitation in Greece, the Pre-Mycenaean/Mycenaean period. Also through the Dark Ages to the Classical Period. It is a religion-centered civilization that has seen significant changes in the way it has been integrated into people's daily lives. Religion is important to know about the ancient Greeks because through it we are able to understand how they lived their lives. Greek religion in the Mycenaean era was practiced in caves or rock shelters according to Minoan-Mycenaean religion and its survival in Greek religion. and were known as natural sanctuaries (Nilsson, 1950, p.54). One could conclude that since the early Greeks inhabited the same region where their religious practices took place, this could have been the reason why they were a religion-centered culture. Greek religious dwellings or sanctuaries were also known to be places of worship and in many caves they made offerings to the gods, through bloodless and other types of sacrifices. Their religion is described as something that can be personal and individual, but is meant to be public and communal, something that all can adhere to (Bremmer, 1994, p.2-3). For the offerings as well as for the sacrifices and the altar were necessary. which was then an important part of Greek religion, it was a necessary structure for worship but was not portable and came in several types: rectangular, quadrangular and ovular. For the Mycenaean Greeks as well as the Minoan inhabitants of Greece, it was not only a place of offerings and sacrifices but, in addition to the double axe, a place where justice and punishment were meted out. and according to archaeologist Harriet Boyd... middle of article ......wed, Jan N. Greek religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Dietrich, Bernard C. The Origins of Greek Religion. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1974. Furley, William D. Studies in the Use of Fire in Ancient Greek Religion. New York: Arno Press, 1981. Garland, Robert. The Greek Way of Death. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1985. Homer and Walter Pater. The song of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, a Homeric hymn. Chicago: R. F. Seymour, 1902. Jameson, Michael. “Mycenaean religion”. Archeology 13, no. 1 (1960): 33-39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41663732 (accessed April 21, 2014). Mikalson, Jon D. Ancient Greek Religion. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2005. Mikalson, Jon D. Religion in Hellenistic Athens. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Nilsson, Martin and Hesiod. Greek popular religion. New York: New York: Columbia University Press, 1940.