Gouves, Greece and partially restored Knossos in the early 20th century. A more comprehensive exploration was done by French and Greek archaeologists in the 1960s. They found a considerable number of bronze and ceramic votive offerings, the oldest of them dating from the earliest Minoan periods, suggesting the cave was an important sacred shrine dedicated to a female fertility deity, presumably Britomartis. The cave was still used in Classical Greek and Roman eras, when the fertility goddess Artemis or her Roman equivalent Diana replaced the Minoan deity. Gouves, Greece Gouves () is a town and former municipality in the Heraklion regional unit,
Sanctuary of Aphrodite Aphrodisias Sanctuary of Aphrodite Aphrodisias The Sanctuary of Aphrodite of Aphrodisias was a sanctuary in ancient Aphrodisias dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite. The site was a local cult center centered around a local fertility goddess since at least the 7th century BC. In the hellenistic period, the local goddess came to be identified with the Greek goddess Aphrodite, in a similar manner as the Artemis of Ephesus was originally a local goddess who came to be identified with Artemis, and the city became a pilgrimage for people from across Anatolia and the Aegean sea. The first sanctuary is dated to the