Building the community - Greek Colonies
In the southern part of the Neapolis of Empúries, near the entrance built in the second century BC and protected by two square towers, existed at least since the V century BC a sacred area. The first buildings in that space, initially located outside the site of the archaic city, were organized around a cistern or sacred well. Recent excavations have shown architectural decorative elements like antefixes and stone fragments of akroteria, which could be part of a first stone temple. Other items discovered in the excavations are related to religious practices that were developed in this sanctuary. For example, small votive cups with charred remains of barley that have parallels in many Iberian sites.
Among the terracotta found in this area there is a female bidder of the V century BC, wearing peplos and dress with poles carrying two offerings, a small purk on the right hand and a basket with pastries on the left. It could be related to one of the most important religious festivals of the Greek cities, the Tesmeforias, which were held annually with the exclusive participation of married women of citizen families. In this festival, which promoted women's fertility and soil fertility, women represented the myth of Demeter and Persephone, one of the most important of the agricultural cycle. Other findings in the area of the sanctuary are terracotta female heads which are also related to the cult of the two goddesses, very common in other Greek colonial areas, especially in Sicily, where they were celebrated in shrines usually outside the city.