At the annual Samian festival called the Toneia, the "binding", the cult image of Hera was ceremonially bound with lygos branches, before being carried down to the sea to be washed.

The peak period of prosperity in the sanctuary began in the late seventh century with the first phase of monumental building, which saw the construction of the Hekatompedos II temple, the south stoa, two colossal kouroi, and the Sacred Way, which linked the sanctuary to the city of Samos by land.

In the second quarter of the sixth century BC, there was a second even greater phase of monumentalisation, with construction of the monumental altar, the North and South Buildings, and the Rhoikos Temple.

[11][12] The Sacred Way played a central role in religious processions and its prominence is shown by the numerous votive offerings which lined its route and the fact that many of the sanctuary's structures share its alignment.

This was a long, narrow building made of mudbrick, with a line of columns running down the centre to support the roof structure.

There were two rows of interior columns along the side walls, meaning that there was a clear view along the central axis from the entrance to the cult statue.

It stood for only about a decade before it was destroyed around 550 BC, when it may have been toppled by an earthquake or dismantled because the marshy ground and poor foundations made it dangerously unstable.

Of these, three of colossal size, the work of Myron, stood upon one base; Antony took these statues away, but Augustus Caesar restored two of them, those of Athena and Herakles, to the same base, although he transferred the Zeus to the Capitolium [in Rome], having erected there a small chapel for that statue.In Byzantine times, the temple served as a quarry, so that it was eventually dismantled to the very foundations, leaving only the foundations and a single column shaft, which seems to have been retained as a navigation point for ships.

[19] There is archaeological evidence of activity at the site of the altar (7) from the late Mycenaean period, but the first structure was built in the ninth century BC.

No thigh bones were found on the site; Kyrieleis suggests that this may be because they were burnt on the altar or possibly because they were given to the priests as their special share.

[23] The South stoa (11) was built at the end of the seventh century BC, as part of the same round of monumentalisation that saw the construction of the Hekatompedos temple and the Sacred Way.

The South stoa was built of mudbrick and wood and measured about 60 metres (200 ft) in length, running roughly northwest–southeast.

Both stoas served to mark the edges of the sanctuary and provided a space for visitors to shelter from the sun and sleep at night.

[27] A large number of monumental statues and statuary groups were dedicated in the sanctuary, mainly in the sixth century BC.

A similar kouros was located next to the Hekatompedos II temple; it was destroyed in the mid-sixth century and survives only in fragments.

The seated figure of the mother sat at the left end of the base, with an inscription giving her name, Phileia, and that of the sculptor, Geneleos.

[29] A large number of terracotta and ivory pomegranates and poppy pods have been found near the temple - representations of votive offerings of perishable goods in a more permanent medium.

Archaeobotanical analysis has revealed large quantities of pomegranate and poppy seeds on the site, which demonstrate that the real fruit were indeed presented to the goddess as offerings.

This is exceptional - almost no other wooden objects from this period have been found in Greece - and they thus provide a unique insight into the ritual activities of less wealthy visitors to the sanctuary.

They include a wide range of pieces from masterpieces of wooden sculpture and furniture, through to roughly carved spoons.

A full-size ship's hull from the late seventh century BC, measuring about 20 metres (66 ft), was also found.

[33] These objects include natural treasures, such as skull fragments from an Egyptian crocodile and hartebeest, as well as a stalactite and lumps of rock crystal.

A bronze horse trapping from northern Syria bears an Aramaic inscription from the late ninth century BC - the earliest example of alphabetic writing found anywhere in Greece.

Aideen Carty interprets these votives as evidence of the important role of the sanctuary in aristocratic competitive display in the archaic period.

[34][25] On a smaller scale the votive objects indicate that these two phenomena - interaction with the wider world and use of the sanctuary for competitive display - continued in later periods.

[35] The first Westerner to visit the site was Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, commissioned by Louis XIV to travel in the East and report his findings.

Reeds and blackberry canes provided daunting cover, and the water table, which has risen since Antiquity, discouraged trench-digging at the same time that it preserved wooden materials in anoxic strata.

The full extent of the third temple's foundations were not revealed until Theodor Wiegand's campaign of 1910–14 on behalf of the Royal Museum of Berlin.

The results of these excavations have been published in a series of volumes in German under the general title Samos, which were edited to a high standard.

These excavations established a chronology against which the wide range of votive objects deposited at the Heraion from the 8th century onward can be compared.