ABSTRACT
Caves were shelters and homes to primitive man, burial places at the same time and later, and sanctuaries. Cave sanctuaries have probably been most fully explored in Crete. The cave of Miamu shows in its stratification the development from residence to burial ground. The cave of Lera in west Crete produced sherds from the neolithic to the Byzantine period, as well as lamps, figurines, and reliefs. Graffiti on the sherds show that in classical times it was sacred to Pan and the Nymphs. The Corycian cave in Phocis is of particular interest. It was inhabited from the neolithic times and produced from that the period pottery both crude and painted, terracotta figurines, and flint and obsidian figures. The offerings extended from late Mycenaean times to the third century BC, with a strange gap from the eleventh to the seventh century.
