UDK 903'i(450)"63i/634":2-5
Documenta Praehistorica XXXIV (2007)
Notes on some cultic aspects
of Italian Prehistory
Renata Grifoni Cremonesi
Dipartimento di Scienze Archeologiche, Universita di Pisa, Italy
grifoni@arch.unipi.it
ABSTRACT - Many cultual manifestations are known in the Neolithic and Metal Ages in Italy. They
were associated with pits, dug in the floors of caverns, and stone circles where vases or votive ob-
jects were deposited. They related to agricultural rituals, but also to funerary practices associated
with birth, life and death. Another type of cults relates to water and water circulation: to cold or
warm springs in underground cavities or in surface; to stalactites and their white water; to geother-
mal phenomena that attracted the interest of people prehistory. Many vases and bronzes were depo-
sited near lakes, sources, rivers and fumaroles.
IZVLEČEK - V neolitiku in kovinskih obdobjih poznamo v Italiji mnogo kultov. Povezani so z jama-
mi, vkopanimi v tla v spodmolih in jamskih najdiščih; s kamnitimi okroglimi strukturami, v katere
so položene posode in votivni predmeti. Povezujemo jih z religijskimi praksami poljedelcev in ritua-
li ob rojstvu in smrti. Nekateri so povezani z vodo in izviri hladne in tople vode v podzemnih jamah;
s stalaktiti in jamskim mlekom; z geotermalnimi fenomeni, ki so privlačili pozornost ljudi v prazgo-
dovini. Mnogo posod in bronastih predmetov je bilo položenih na jezerska obrežja, ob izvire, reke in
vulkanske razpoke.
KEY WORDS - Prehistory; cults; rites; Italy
It is not easy to deal with the ideological aspects of
prehistory, as this is a subject on which researchers
of the highest level have worked from 1880 to the
present time. The first problem to face is a misun-
derstanding that is often created by the definition of
a religious happening, which is often confused with
witchcraft. It is not always possible to distinguish
what lies within the realm of ordinary daily life from
what, on the other hand, is an integral part of the
ideological world and which has reached us in the
form of signs and symbols which, at present, are in-
comprehensible, or only partially understandable.
Moreover, it is also difficult to avoid confusion be-
tween religious phenomena, funeral rites and magi-
cal happenings while we try to understand, at least
in part, some aspects of the ideological world of the
past.
The polemics on this subject are extensive and the
attempt to elaborate a picture of primitive religion
has been the object of several studies and hypothe-
ses of classification. Mainly by the second half of the
nineteenth century ethnologists were trying - by
comparing the religious beliefs of contemporary 'pri-
mitives' - to understand those of prehistoric people
(Grifoni Cremonesi 2004a.167-177; Grifoni Cre-
monesi and Martini in press). This problem was
also faced in the nineteen hundreds following other
models, from the culturalists to the structuralists,
with several methodological approaches and with
more detailed analysis, at least as regards the do-
main of cultural anthropology (Lewis 1986; White-
house 1992; Wasilewska 1994.62-75). As regards
prehistory, the problem still remains undefined, and
at this time models of 'Ethno-archaeology' are in use,
which unfortunately are often badly applied.
For this reason it is necessary that the interpretation
of phenomena that may be defined as cultural should
be treated with the utmost prudence, by excluding
any suggestion or hypothesis which is often based
on generic comparisons with the domains of ethno-
Copyright by Department of Archaeology, Faculty of arts, University of Ljubljana.
221
graphy and of the history of religion, or on non-spe-
cific ideas and pre-formed theoretical models. These
are often applied with a faulty knowledge of the con-
texts, of the cultures and of the relevant literature,
without taking into due consideration the concrete
information to be obtained from the sites themselves
(Grifoni Cremonesi 1986.265-269; 1996.78-91; Di
Fraia, Grifoni Cremonesi 1996).
Often, indeed, each cave has been given a specific
cultic function, based on the simple equation: cave
equals sacred site; and a magic-religious meaning
has been attributed to every complex or object to
which a functional meaning could not be given. In
particular, as far as the study of this problem in Italy
is concerned, interest in these phenomena was not
strong until a short time ago. But Radmilli - follo-
wing a strong tradition dating from the late nine-
teen century and the beginning of the twentieth
(Rellini 1916.557-622), and continued thereafter
by Blanc (1945) - raised again, in the 1960's, the
problem of cults, starting from data pertaining to
some of the Abruzzi caves. He also pointed out, the
first so to do, questions created by the presence of
cult pits and circles in the cave deposits (Radmilli
1963; 1975.175-184; Grifoni and Radmilli 1964).
The excavations he made and the discovery of seve-
ral burial sites or monuments, such as the circles of
the Pigeon's Cave (Cremonesi 1976; 1985-90.465-
474), permitted him to hypothesise some modes of
funeral rituals and some particular contexts that he
tried to relate to the other similar examples. He also
tried to find possible relations between cultic pat-
terns and funeral rites in a general picture, from
which could emerge an ideology connected with the
agricultural world and to the vegetation cycle, death
and resurrection. He did this partly by following the
guidelines of the historical cultural school, but al-
ways keeping in mind the realities of the archaeolo-
gical data. Unfortunately, his work, like that of many
others on the subject, has generally been neglected,
perhaps - as I have indicated - because questions of
cults never aroused much interest. Only in recent
years has it become more popular, perhaps follow-
ing some recent publications by English authors.
It is often difficult to differentiate the real aspect of
a cult from burial rites. This is because the two as-
pects can often interpenetrate, and also because our
knowledge of the effective relations between the va-
rious elements of a ritual context are scant. More-
over, if we consider that many excavations lack de-
tailed reports, maps and layouts of burial sites, ana-
lysis of living spaces or spaces dedicated to ideologi-
cal functions, one may easily understand that inter-
pretation must proceed with the utmost prudence,
even if there are multiple and tempting suggestions.
If we examine the problem of cults in the Italian
peninsula, we can ascertain that, with the coming of
the Neolithic, we may see a series of deep changes in
the expression of artistic and cultish forms.
The naturalistic art of the Palaeolithic is substituted
by schematic and abstract displays that had begun
already in the final phases of the Palaeolithic and
Mesolithic, and the human figure becomes more im-
portant if compared to the Palaeolithic representa-
tions of animals. Artistic production declined: the
Palaeolithic drawings disappear and there is practi-
cally nothing between the western and eastern areas,
if we except the hunting scenes of Catal Hüyük,
those of the Spanish Levant, and in Italy the Grotta
dei Cervi in Porto Badisco. Feminine statuettes predo-
minate, alongside more rare animals or male statuet-
tes. On ceramics, the signs imprinted, scratched, en-
graved or painted often have a symbolic value (Cop-
pola 1999-2000.67-126; Grifoni Cremonesi 2004a.
17-32) that can be related to zoomorphic schemati-
sations, to combinations of triangles, rhombuses, zig-
zags, spirals, variously interpreted as feminine sexual
symbols, water symbols, or of the process of beco-
ming, and from which Maria Gimbutas tried to iden-
tify a complex pantheon of divinities (Gimbutas
1974; 1991; Berggren and Harrods 1996.70-73).
According to Paolo Graziosi (1973; 1980), the appea-
rance of new iconographic schemes in the Neolithic
is a symptom of a sacred value attributed to the im-
plements of daily life. This is within an ample and
articulated daily life that extends sacred symbolism
to aspects of which the cultic values are not evident
today.
The feminine statuettes can generally be related to
the Mother Goddess concept, or at least to some
forms of feminine deities, and we should note that
the production of feminine idols, very abundant in
the near east and in the Balkan world is less so in
the Italian peninsula, and is practically absent in the
western world (Bagolini 1978.41-47; Bagolini and
Cremonesi 1992.39-44; Grifoni Cremonesi 2004a.
17-32). The statuettes can be found both in villages
and burial sites, and this fact raises the problem of
their real meaning within a domestic religiosity, and
of a connection with the world of the dead. The com-
plexity of the Neolithic ideological world manifests
itself in aspects of rituals which can be referred in a
certain way to agriculture and which are often inter-
twined with funeral rites. They mainly consist of pits
excavated in cave deposits and which contain pots,
offerings of cereals or of fruits, grindstones, or offe-
rings of sacrificed domestic animals (Grifoni Cremo-
nesi 1969.78/91; 1986.256/268; 1996; Grifoni Cre-
monesi, Di Fraia 1996).
The grindstones are also often found in burials (Ba-
golini, Grifoni Cremonesi 1994.139-170; Grifoni
Cremonesi 2006; Grifoni Cremonesi, Radmilli
2000-2001.63-120). It is thus possible to hypothe-
size a link between life and death which can be iden-
tified in the death-resurrection cycle of plants, as we
know it, or in other various and complex forms in a
great many Mediterranean religions, even if it is not
possible to hypothesize a continuity between these
and Neolithic cultish forms. The sacred aspect of
some places within the elapse of time is quite evi-
dent in some caves where burials in pits continue in-
to the metal age and reach the historical age, with
the deposition of votive 'stipi' in the same sites (Gri-
foni, Radmilli 1964; Di Fraia, Grifoni Cremonesi
1996).
Also important are stone circles containing offerings,
which are known in several caves of central and
southern Italy. They appear to belong to the same
concept as the pits, which is to delimit a space that
is somehow sacred. The best known are those of the
Grotta dei Piccioni in the Abruzzi region belonging
to the Ripoli culture, with the remains of infants and
valuable artefacts, i.e. painted ceramic vessels, a
trumpet made from a charonia shell, the numerous
bones of anatids, with small balls of ochre and clay
on one end and a clay imitation of one of the peb-
bles (Cremonesi 1976).
We also have traces of foundation rites, with pits
excavated in villages, containing in one instance a
zoomorphic vase, and in another, a human skull (Ra-
di 2004.337-341; Geniola and Mallegni 1975.239-
249). We also know of inverted vessels (perhaps a
way to communicate with the chthonian world) and
ritual fragmentation. There are also - in the final
Neolithic with the Serra d'Alto culture (Lo Porto
1989) - two evident altars of stones in two caves,
the Cala Scizzo and Grotta Pacelli near Bari (Stricco-
li 1998; Geniola and Tunzi 1980.125-146), and the
great cultic hypogeum Manfredi, the first example of
Neolithic hypogeism, with skulls of deer and roe-
buck, and painted pottery placed along the sides
(Geniola 1979.52-93; 1987.771-781). These three
sites can be considered real shrines. The Grotta dei
Cervi of Porto Badisco must have been another im-
portant shrine, the only known example of parietal
art of this period; its graphemes have been interpre-
ted by Graziosi (1980) as extreme stylisations of the
human form.
From this we reach the abstract symbols which are
identical to those found on the painted ceramics of
Masseria La Quercia and of Serra d'Alto. The funeral
rites, which are extremely simple in the ancient Neo-
lithic - with the deceased buried in simple holes
with rare examples of offerings (grindstones and ce-
reals) - become more complex with the painted ce-
ramics and with the square mouthed vase culture.
Ceramic vessels, ornaments and valuable objects ap-
pear, the graves are sometimes encircled by stones,
and next to the villages, spaces are dedicated to the
dead, thus creating a real necropolis (Grifoni Cre-
monesi 2001; 2004b.17-32; 2006). The first hypo-
gea and megalithic cysts appear at the end of the
Neolithic, and are a prelude to the great phenome-
non of the hypogeism that will develop at the end
of the third millennium.
In the Neolithic period, cults dedicated to water are
also known. Water has always been considered a fun-
damental element of life, and from the Palaeolithic
we can see traces of the veneration of water in its
various aspects (liquid, solid as concretions, gaseous)
(Whitehouse 1992). But it is with the Neolithic that
water becomes even more important to people be-
ginning to practise agriculture, for whom water was
a force of nature with vivifying and sometimes me-
dicinal properties (Grifoni Cremonesi 1996; Berna-
bei and Grifoni Cremonesi 1995-1996.331-366).
Cultish forms in this period are known from labyrin-
thine caves, with depositions of vessels near small
lakes or subterranean springs, often connected with
particular concretions or notable dripping sources.
The Italian caves with Neolithic complexes that can
be connected to water cults are Grotta Scaloria Bassa
(Manfredonia), Pozzi della Piana (Orvieto), Grotta
dei Meri (Monte Soratte), Grotta Zinzulusa (Castro
Marina) and, probably, the Grotta Verde of Alghero.
The Scaloria Bassa is a lower hall pertaining to the
Grotta Scaloria of Manfredonia, discovered in 1967:
it is a large hall rich in concretions, at the bottom of
which there is a small lake. The Neolithic people that
utilized this area left ceramic vessels around the sta-
lactites or on the top of intentionally broken stalac-
tites. In a recess near the pool, a human skull and
other bones were deposited, and there was a fire-
place nearby, with the remains of partly burned ani-
mal bones. The vessels, about sixty, belong to the
cultic context of the ceramics painted with red bands
that was prevalent in southern Italy in the first half
of the fourth millennium BC. They are all interpre-
ted as figuline ceramics of a particular value, painted
with red bands and brown margins inserted with a
particular 'negatively applied' technique. It looks
certain, for this particular cave, that the cult consis-
ted exclusively of collecting the water which was
dripping and was difficult to take outside, as most of
the vessels have open mouths. The fact of intentio-
nally breaking the stalactites in order to place the
pots may tempt one to hypothesize some sort of ve-
neration in this phenomenon. Obviously, it is impos-
sible to say whether the water was collected for re-
ligious, magical or therapeutic uses. The Neolithic
people also carved a small basin in the rock and did
not place vessels contiguous to the nearby lake, so
that the cult was directed to the dripping sources
and not to the 'normal' water. Pertaining to the same
period of the Scaloria Bassa, but belonging to the
Tuscan and Latium period of engraved lines cera-
mics, are the depositions of ceramic vessels in the
Grotta dei Meri at the Monte Soratte and in the Poz-
zi of the Orvieto plain. In both cases the caves con-
sist of large complexes of labyrinthine galleries diffi-
cult of access. In the Grotta dei Meri (Segre 1951-
52.136-139) a jar was placed under a source of drip-
ping water at the end of a long gallery. It is reached
from one of the access wells and placed at the cros-
sroads of several underground passages. Also, in this
case it is a clear example of the collection of parti-
cular waters secretly, which appears to exclude a sup-
ply of a functional kind.
At the Pozzi Della Piana there is a more complicated
context (Passeri 1970.225-251). Lithic and ceramic
material has been found on the floors of various gal-
leries and halls that are developed on three levels
or in natural recesses on the sides. In particular,
some cups, 5 to 7 centimetres high, were placed up-
turned in cracks of the rocks around a large pool sur-
rounded by stalagmites and stalactites. Flask-shaped
vessels were placed within other small pools of wa-
ter, partly protected by concretions. A circular pit,
40 centimetres wide and 50 deep, dug in the rocky
floor, was filled with ochre clods and grindstones.
The grindstones in caves were often associated with
burials or placed in pits.
In the final Neolithic in Apulia, at about the end of
the fourth or beginning of the third millennium BC
we have another deposit of vessels around a water
pool in the Grotta Zinzulusa of Castro Marina (Lec-
ce): eleven vessels, consisting of assorted bowls and
flask-shaped pots, were placed along the banks of a
small lake situated at the end of a cave labyrinthine
and rich in concretions, and which is reached after a
sharp descent (Zezza 1984.69-81).
The case of the Grotta Verde of Alghero is peculiar:
the cave opens at 75 m above sea level and develops
into a hall that reaches a small lake of brackish wa-
ter which is at sea level. By means of a well six me-
tres deep, one can reach another hall rich in stalag-
mite concretions, and in which there were human
remains. Again, from this place one reaches, through
a narrow tunnel, a large hall situated at minus ten
metres and full of underlying sea water which has
an upper layer of fresh water about two to six me-
ters deep. There have been several finds here of im-
pressa ceramic belonging to the upper Neolithic
which can be dated to the fourth millennium BC,
which were placed either in the tunnel or in the un-
dersea cavity. They are mostly flasks, perhaps used
to draw water (Tanda 1978.45-94), but it is difficult
to determine if the vessels were connected with ritu-
als performed in the cave, or if they were simply
used to collect fresh water. The latter hypothesis is
less convincing given the difficulty of reaching the
pool.
In all these instances we have deposits of vessels,
often of a peculiar shape, placed near water surfa-
ces or under dripping water sources, in labyrinthine
caves of difficult access. It appears that we are dea-
ling with a particular phenomenon that excludes the
collecting of water for everyday use by the fact of the
peculiarity of the sites and the type of deposits, and
that these phenomena appear to belong more to the
domain of ritual. The cults appear to be addressed
more to the underground waters, so that we may in-
fer a particular importance of these kinds of waters,
perhaps considered sacred, therapeutic or magical.
On the other hand, up to the present day the collec-
ting of milky water from the caves has continued in
caves dedicated to St Michael, or in the 'Lattaie' (Mil-
ky) caves, which women unable to lactate used to vi-
sit (Di Fraia, Grifoni Cremonesi 1996).
It appears that there are no other connections with
other forms of Neolithic ritual, such as offerings of
vegetables or of peculiar objects, human remains,
excluding the pit in the Pozzi della Piana. The phe-
nomenon of collecting drip waters is proved again
in Italy at the end of the Copper Age (end of the
third to the beginning of the second millennium BC)
at the Buca del Rospo on Mt Cetona, near Chiusi. In
this instance also, two vessels were found partly in-
serted into the stalagmite in areas of intense drip-
ping, having being taken through a deep well that
makes access to the final part of the cave very diffi-
cult (Zanini 1988.184-190). Notwithstanding the
scarcity of documents, it is still possible to guess at
some common forms and symbols which recur
throughout the Neolithic, even if with local variants.
The votive pits, the stone circles, the feminine and
zoomorphic statuettes - which connect us to the Bal-
kans - the offerings of cereal grains and of grindsto-
nes, the hypogeic water cults, the sacredness of some
sites - confirmed by the continuity of the cults up to
the historical era - allow us to hypothesize the exi-
stence of a religious ideology based on the impor-
tance of agriculture and on the dominance of the fe-
minine element, a fact which we may perceive from
some decorations on ceramics. I do not believe that
it is possible to accept the attribution of the various
Neolithic symbols to the divinities of later panthe-
ons, as Ms. Gimbutas has. We may only distinguish
the various exterior forms of cults that remain un-
known to us in their essence and only set forth hy-
potheses. We cannot conceal a certain envy for the
certainty with which some authors - whose know-
ledge of the Italian Neolithic is by the way quite li-
mited - are able to reconstruct with assured exact-
ness, ideologies, social systems, religions and rituals
(Brown 1997.184-194; Skeates 1991; 1995.122-
134; 1997.79-86).
Surely it is not easy to disentangle oneself from the
complexities of the Italian Neolithic and even less in
the intricate framework of the burial aspects and of
the cultic phenomena (Grifoni Cremonesi 2003.
259-274). But, prior to beginning to elaborate theo-
ries and to manifest certainties on the social and
ideological aspects of Neolithic people, we must care-
fully analyze the data at our disposal, which are too
few - in our opinion - to allow us to do more than
express some generalities. Without doubt we may
relate the various form of funeral rituals and cults
during the Neolithic period to some of the changes
that we observe regarding economic typologies, with
an increase of wealth and exchange, and we may
also have a glimpse of some changes in ideologies,
mainly between the middle and late Neolithic. But
this is not enough to affirm with certainty the exis-
tence of definite powers - masculine or feminine -
social hierarchies in a sort of mixture of examples
borrowed from recent cultures, thereby misunder-
standing the inputs that may be provided by ethno-
archaeology.
But it is difficult, also in the event of there being
plentiful information, to interpret correctly every-
thing related to the funerary and ideological do-
main. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to attempt
to reconstruct full sequences of phenomena if these
are isolated from their own context and reduced to
single entities of particular objects, or bare skele-
tons, or heaps of bones. During the Copper Age fur-
ther and more important changes appear on the
ideological level, apart from the technological one.
The more common symbols appear now to refer to
a world in which the dominant element assumes
masculine connotations: it consists of daggers, axes,
halberds, necklaces, and cloaks, symbols which we
find on stele statues and on the rock engravings of
the Alps, and which are very widely diffused (Casi-
ni 1994; Casini et al. 1995). The comparison of
these symbols with objects that were placed in mas-
culine tombs is evident, and the simultaneous appea-
rance of solar symbols has induced many resear-
chers to hypothesize the existence of uranic cults.
Those cults are typical, according to some, of mascu-
line groups with a warrior dominance, even if femi-
nine stele statues are present and also testimonials
of the perseverance of agrarian rituals in some caves.
With the testimonials of particular cults we should
remember the pit with the remains of a horse cove-
red with two puppies in Maccarese village near Rome
(Manfredini 2002) and the burial of a bovid in an
Eneolithic site near Florence, where a tumulus has
been found within the inhabited area (Sarti and
Martini 1993). It seems that small statuettes disap-
pear and, apart from the splendid engravings at
Monte Bego and Valcamonica, in the remaining part
of the peninsula we have only scant evidence -
which may be dated with difficulty - of schematic
rock engravings in some caves and shelters. Also in
decline are decorations found on ceramics, but parti-
cular motifs in 'stralucido' appear on some vessels of
the Rinaldone culture, also with solar symbols.
During the Copper age, in the third millennium BC,
the evidence for water cults is rarer, but often some
rock engravings appear to be related to springs, sour-
ces or waterfalls (De Lumley 1995). On the other
hand, the exploitation of therapeutic waters now be-
gins, as is indicated by the Panighina Spring at Ber-
tinoro, where a well has been dug and in which se-
veral vessels were found, probably offerings to the
medicinal source (Morico 1996.153-162).
With the Bronze Age the explicit evidence is increa-
singly rare and there is no major artistic evidence,
but we may note solar symbols (discs, crosses) on
ceramics, to which are added the shapes of water
birds, which symbolize the sun vessel (Damiani
1992.81-94). There are also equine statuettes, which
are also connected to solar cults (Bettelli 1997.720-
741). Agrarian cults are well evidenced, with offers
of cereals and leguminous plants in the caves, which
in some way continue the Neolithic cults, and in-
stead, water cults are more common (Bernabei and
Grifoni Cremonesi 1995-96.331-366; Pacciarelli
1997). During the Bronze Age and up to the Roman
period, vessels were placed in the farthest halls of
the Grotta dell'Orso at Sarteano (Grifoni 1967.53-
115; Cremonesi 1968) and in the Grotta Tomba dei
Polacchi near Bergamo (Poggiani Keller 1979). Again
regarding the connection of people with waters, in
the Middle Bronze age we have several examples of
caves with vessels placed along inner creeks or near
sources. The vessels are often associated with the re-
mains of cereals, seeds and fruits, which are placed
either in the vessels or on the ground. Sometimes
they are associated with the human skeleton remains
(Guidi 1980.148-155; 1986.239-247; 1989-90.
403-414; 1991-92.427-437).
Among the better known and more evident examples
are Grotta Nuova and Grotta Misa in Latium. In the
first the vessels were placed in the brook that flows
through the cave. Some of them contain wheat and
broad-beans, others are placed in invert position
(Cocchi Genick, Poggiani Keller 1984.31-65). In
Grotta Misa, which is also crossed by a streamlet,
and which contained several vessels and a fireplace
whose ashes had been widened into a circular shape
in order to place - at the centre of the ash circle -
small, precisely separated mounds of wheat, millet
and broad-beans (Negroni Catacchio et al. 1989-90.
579-597). At the Val di Varri Cave in the Abruzzi
there is a small lake and, during rainy periods, there
is a torrential flow; it is very abundant in concreti-
ons, one of which has a peculiar anthropomorphic
shape. Apart from several vessels, seven fireplaces
have been found there which contained, as in the
Grotta Misa, the remains of wheat and broad-beans
(Güller and Segre 1948.269-281). The small Cave
of the Water or of the Stipe near Corchiano (Latium)
contains a source which was an object of veneration
up to Roman times: the oldest findings are from the
Middle Bronze age (Rellini 1920.6-174).
The cave giving the most important information is
the Grotta Pertosa near Salerno. A river runs through
it, filling the terminal part of the cave. Two pile-dwel-
lings were built in the Middle Bronze Age, and apart
from a great number of the pots, a deposit of 324
miniature vessels has been found in the farthest part
of the cave, lined and piled up in a cavity in the wall.
The assemblage is interpreted as a votive offering
(Carucci 1907; Trucco 1991).
In Grotta del Mezzogiorno in the Sentino gorge (Mar-
che), dripping water spring was associated with se-
veral 'Apennine' decorated ceramic vessels, and with
the fireplace and small holes containing wheat and
wee wiled broad beans. Similar scenario was hypo-
thesised in Grotta dei Baffoni, Grotta del Prete and
Grotta di Frasassi (Pacciarelli 1997).
A notable increase in votive offerings related to
hypogeal waters is recognized in in the Middle
Bronze Age. It differs from the Neolithic practices,
related to agrarian rituals, and funeral rites we men-
tioned before. It is worth notice the interest moves
to running waters or sources and away from under-
ground pools, and the offerings are deposited more
frequent in caves which are not labyrinthine and
more easily accessible. There are also cases of dedi-
cations to surface waters such as at the Laghetto del
Monsignore near Campoverde (Latium), where cera-
mic vessels were placed from the Middle Bronze Age
until the sixth century BC, near spring pools (Cre-
scenzi 1978.51-55; Guidi 1980.148-155).
All these data are from the Central and Southern
Italy: instead, during the Bronze Age, in the northern
regions, different types of water rite appear, which
consist in offerings of bronze objects, mainly swords,
in rivers, streams and lakes, from the middle Bronze
Age till the Final Bronze Age.
Other kinds of phenomenon was linked with the
more evident appearances of secondary volcanism,
particularly sulphur springs, fumaroles, hot steam
sources, thermal sources. Even if the research is still
scant, it shows an interest which may be linked to
some forms of rituals connected to the chthonian di-
vinities, perhaps originating from the strangeness
and the might of the volcanic phenomena. The Grot-
ta dello Sventatoio in the Latium region is a cave
with four halls connected by narrow passages rea-
ching a depth of minus 30 metres. It is classified as
a thermal cave (Guidi 1991-92.427-437) and - es-
pecially in winter - air currents and steam issue from
it. Pottery fragments, deposited there, belong to about
400 vessels from Early and Middle Bronze age. They
were associated with food morsels (including a ce-
real pancake) and containing seeds of wheat, barley
and broad-beans. The remains of the skulls of three
infants with traces of exposure to fire, and bones of
pig, sheep and ox were deposited in the cave as well.
The steam from the cave may have influenced the
choice of the cave itself for the votive offerings.
Also connected to a cult of the chthonian world, we
may relate the Bronze Age pits of the Capo Grazia-
no culture of the Caldara of Panarea (Eolian Islands)
in an area impossible to inhabit and where there is
still volcanic activity. It is indeed an area near to the
beach, with abundant fumaroles that also boil in the
sea; the soil is so hot so that it is impossible to walk
on it. Notwithstanding, it was used in the final Neo-
lithic and in the Bronze Age: people dug small pits
lined with pebbles cemented with sulphurous mud.
The site was frequented also in the Hellenistic and
Roman age and it is difficult to see it as a dwelling
(Bernabo Brea and Cavalier 1968). To similar phe-
nomena one may associate also the ceramic vessels
deposited from the Early to the Late Bronze Age on
the banks of the Pool of the Colonnelle at Guidonia
near Tivoli (Rome): it is a sulphurous lake and the
atmosphere of the place is very troubled by the va-
pours and by the noxious smell, but notwithstanding
this, offerings were continuously made through the
ages (Guidi 1986.239-247). On the other hand, the
caves at Latronico (Potenza) are difficult to interpret.
They are some distance from the hot sulphurous sour-
ces (the site is called, in effect, Calda, and there are
thermal spas), which were frequented from the Me-
solithic to the Bronze Age, and which Rellini (1916)
interpreted as a site dedicated to a cult of the 'heal-
ing waters' during the Bronze Age.
More recent digs, however, show that the caves were
mainly utilized as dwellings (Cremonesi 1978.51-
55; Bianco 1984). Unfortunately, the older excava-
tions did not take into account stratigraphy and the
exact position of finds, so that the real connection
between the sulphurous waters and the vessels full
of cereals and of fruits that were found at the time
is still an open problem. Offerings of vessels, arms,
and jewels are confirmed also in other areas of se-
condary volcanic activity near fumaroles active along
the dorsal of the Apennines (Grifoni Cremonesi
1999.114-135; 2005.10-26). Also important is the
phenomenon of the deposition of swords, and also
of jewels, in lakes and rivers.
The ideology appears to become more and more
complex within societies that underwent - during
the Bronze Age - noteworthy and important chan-
ges due to the continuous development of new tech-
nologies, of a well-developed agriculture also enri-
ched by the new cultures of oil and wine, and to
contacts with more developed societies, such as the
Mycenae (Peroni 1989; 1996). These new aspects of
the social structure obviously brought innovations
in the ideological world, innovations which will take
codified forms in the Iron Age and become institu-
tionalized religions in the historical age. In any case,
in these religions some archaic element will resist in
the new context, even if in latent and secondary as-
pects of the new rites. They consist of agrarian cults,
at which point we may remember the mundus of the
Romans, the gardens of Adonis, the rite of the foun-
dation furrow, but also cults dedicated to waters -
which continue up to the present - with the dedica-
tion of caves, rivers, springs, first to the divinities of
the Greek and Roman worlds and, after that, with
Christianity, to saints or to the Virgin Mary. This is
why we are far from able to give a definite solution
to the problem: the domain of religious phenomena
in prehistory can supply only hypotheses or brief
fragments of intuition, which can be accepted only
on the underlying condition that there is a correct
analysis of the data and of the contexts. As regards
the interpretation of all the phenomena that we
could identify, the possibilities that are offered us
are up to now too numerous and influenced by our
way of thinking, and too tentative to connect our
way of thinking to that of prehistoric peoples or, to
cite De Martino, to think the present time unduly ren-
dered antique.
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