The various approaches to the citadel on the northern side - the rock-cut flight of steps north-east of the Erechtheum, the stairs leading to the well Clepsydra, and the intermediate passage supposed to have furnished access to the Persians - are all to be attributed to the primitive epoch.
All belong to the " archaic " epoch; only a few remains of the greater age were found, including some fragments of sculptures from the Parthenon and Erechtheum.
Frazer maintains the hitherto current theory that the earlier temple of Athena and Erechtheus was on the site of the Erechtheum; that the Erechtheum inherited the name apXa ios veclis from its predecessor, and that the " opisthodomos " in which the treasures were kept was the west chamber of the Parthenon; Furtwangler and Milchh6fer hold the strange view that the " opisthodomos " was a separate building at the east end of the Acropolis, while Penrose thinks the building discovered by Dorpfeld was possibly the Cecropeum.
The removal of the ancient temple was undoubtedly intended when the Erechtheum was built, but superstition and popular feeling may have prevented its demolition and the removal of the, 6avov to the new edifice.
The Parthenon, the Erechtheum, the " Theseum " and other temples were converted into Christian churches and were thus preserved throughout the middle ages.