Crowning plateaus or hilltops, close to the sea or inland, citadels are a characteristic feature of the Mycenaean landscape from the fourteenth century bc. With rare exceptions, fortified sites are absent from Crete (Nowicki 2000); only in the Cyclades, from the Early Bronze Age, has this type of landscape also featured.

On the mainland some sites, like those of Malthi and Peristeria in Messenia, and Araxos (Teichos Dymaean) in Achaea, still use Middle Bronze Age walls. These are simple enceintes of limited extent that protected the inhabitants from occasional attacks; the walls are built from blocks of varying sizes, supporting mudbrick courses above. Towards the beginning of Late Helladic (LH) I, new settlements are surrounded by heavily built walls, true refuge enclosures, both on the mainland (e.g. at Eutresis or Haghios Kosmas) and in the Cyclades (Haghios Andreas on Siphnos) and on Crete (Kastrokephala).