The peak sanctuary at Petsofas consists of a small enclosure, somewhat over in area, overlooking the palatial site of
Palaikastro from the south. The two sites are less than 30 minutes' walk apart, suggesting that they were closely associated. Petsofas was first used in the
Middle Minoan I period (), whose latter part is included in the
Protopalatial period of Minoan civilisation. Like most Minoan peak sanctuaries, it is located on a prominent mountain top, and readily visible from the nearest known contemporary habitation sites. It was one of the few peak sanctuaries to remain in use during the
Neopalatial period (that is, after ).The enclosure at Petsofas was filled with a thick layer of ash. This layer contained several thousand clay figurines of both humans and animals, including anatomical models known as "votive limbs". These are generally believed to have been offered by worshippers seeking divine healing, though other proposed interpretations include
Jeremy Rutter's suggestion that they are parts of complete figurines, and that of
Martin P. Nilsson that they may have been intended to stand in for real body parts in a ritual of sacrifice or dismemberment. Among the figurines is a model of a pregnant woman, possibly offered by a dedicant hoping for safety in childbirth. Most of the figures seem to have been offered during the earlier Protopalatial period, particularly a few decorated in the
Kamares style, though others seem to be Neopalatial: among the Neopalatial material are objects inscribed in the Cretan
Linear A script. The humanoid figurines are generally taken to represent worshippers rather than deities, on the basis of their ordinary-seeming clothing, while the animals are considered to stand for sacrificial offerings. There is no definitive evidence of buildings in the first (Protopalatial) phase of the site's use: Bogdan Rutkowski suggests that it was an open-air enclosure with a few altars. In the Neopalatial period, a building was constructed above the layer of ash and offerings, consisting of two small rectangular rooms. One of these rooms had a bench approximately in height and a rough stone lamp; almost nothing of the second was preserved. It is possible that cultic activity continued in this building, as it had in the preceding enclosure, but this seems to have been on a smaller scale: Katrin Müller considers it unproven whether this was in truth a cultic building, or if the structure was considered sacred. == Archaeological study ==