to earliest Mycenaean levels; finds represented the Geometric Style of the ninth century BCE, but few later than that. More recent excavation has revealed the use of the cave reached back to Early Minoan times, and votive objects attest to the cave's being the most frequented shrine by Middle Minoan times (MM IIIA). The lower grotto falls steeply with traces of a rock-cut stair to a pool, out of which stalactites rise. "Much earth had been thrown down by diggers of the Upper Grotto," Hogarth reported, "and this was found full of small bronze objects." In the vertical chinks of the lowest stalactites, Hogarth's team found "toy double-axes, knife-blades, needles, and other objects in bronze, placed there by dedicators, as in niches. The mud at the edge of the subterranean pool was also rich in similar things and in statuettes of two types, male and female and engraved gems." In 1961, the art historian and archaeologist John Boardman published the finds uncovered by these and other excavations. While clay human figurines are normally found in peak sanctuaries, Psychro and the sanctuary on Mount Ida stand out as the only sacred caves that have yielded human figurines. Psychro is also a unique sacred cave for a bronze leg, also known as a votive body part, which is the only votive body part to be found in a sacred cave. More common sacred cave finds at Psychro include stone and ceramic lamps. Psychro yielded an uncommon number of semi-precious stones, including carnelian, steatite, amethyst, jasper and hematite. Psychro's artefacts are now on display at the Heraklion Museum, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the Louvre and the British Museum. Idaean Cave The Idaean Cave () is a system of caves located on the slopes of Mount Ida on Crete (). The deep cave has a single entrance and features stalagmites and stalactites. In antiquity it was a place of worship because it was believed to be the cave where the titan Rhea hid the infant Zeus, to protect him from his father Cronus, who intended to swallow him like others of his progeny. It is one of a number of caves believed to have been the birthplace or hiding place of Zeus. According to a variant of this legend, the Kouretes, a band of mythical warriors, undertook to dance their wild, noisy war dances in front of the cave, so that the clamour