Although the Penn expedition excavated on the Kourion acropolis as well as at sites throughout the area, the Penn Museum Kourion collection comes primarily from the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates, Bamboula, Kaloriziki, Ayios Ermoyenis, and Sotira Teppes.

Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates

The Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates—Apollo of the Woodlands—lies two miles west of Kourion. This large sacred complex, one of the most important religious centers on the island, was first excavated by Bert Hodge Hill and George McFadden in 1935. A sanctuary existed here as early as the late 8th century BC, and the complex was extensively altered and expanded in the Roman period, during the 1st century AD and especially in the early 2nd century AD, during the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan.

Until the 1st century AD, when a temple was erected, the center of religious activity was an archaic altar precinct. In the early 2nd century AD, the temple was given its four-column porch. A paved street led to the temple from the south court where the Paphos and Kourion gates led into the enclosed sanctuary. At the same time, several new buildings were erected to accommodate an increasing number of visitors to the Sanctuary.

More than 5000 terracotta figurines were found in course of McFadden and Hill's excavations in the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates, and some 160 are in the Penn Museum’s collection. About thirty figurines are from the archaic precinct fill, but most are from the votive deposit, laid down at the end of the 1st century AD but containing material from much earlier periods, in the Sanctuary’s south court, just inside the Kourion Gate. In addition to the terracotta figurines, two marble heads of Roman Imperial date (1st century AD), two stone votive figures, a stone anta capital, and small finds, including faience aryballoi, are in the collection.