Prehistoric human engagement with the underground realm: The case of the Grotte di Sant’Angelo of Cassano allo Ionio (Calabria, Italy)

Since the 1990s, Calabria has gradually become an important testing ground for speleo-archaeological research, repeatedly attracting scholars from all over Italy and abroad willing to take part in scientific missions in underground environments. These fieldworks had the virtue to combine speleological exploration of caves with multidisciplinary archaeological investigation, in some cases paying special attention to the relationship between underground topography and accurate location of prehistoric findings. Noteworthy, specialized research was attentive to raise the awareness of local archaeological resources among the general public made of non-professionals – local residents in particular – especially with regard to prehistoric times.

This paper presents preliminary results from a new research project focusing on the archaeological deposit of the Grotte di Sant'Angelo, located in the territory of the municipality of Cassano allo Ionio (Calabria, Italy). The site is part of a larger underground system developed in the Monte San Marco massif. Evidence of prehistoric human presence was found in many areas of the underground chambers and galleries, developed over different levels, and suggests a multi-purpose and multi-period use of the hypogean spaces. In particular, the area known as “Trivio”, a sort of junction between different galleries, seems to be of special interest. The cave floor is disseminated with a series of fractures of various depths hosting abundant archaeological material: pottery dating to the Copper Age (4th-3rd millennium BC), stone tools, faunal remains, and some human remains. Ceramic containers, suspected to have hosted ritual offerings, will be the object of an in-depth taphonomic, chronological, and functional study. This, along with the contextualization of data in the light of hypogean topography, will contribute to the understanding of how prehistoric people engaged with caves and of the social and symbolic aspects of their way of living.