Archeologists recently discovered an ancient Greek sanctuary at Pertosa-Auletta, an ancient cave system in Italy brimming over with archaeological evidence from multiple historical periods.
In 2025, the site received a prestigious award from ACTA Gist, recognized as the best archaeological site in Italy. Stretching about a mile and a half, Italy’s only navigable underground river is home to the ancient cave system, which boasts numerous archaeological discoveries and unique formations. As one of the most significant archaeological locations in the region of Campania, the site has been occupied for over 8,000 years.
After the latest dig season, archaeologists announced a wealth of treasure surfaced from the popular tourist destination, including a brand new Greek religious sanctuary and new artifacts from a previously known Bronze Age settlement, illuminating an underground universe where people from many eras lived and worshipped.
Greek artifacts found / Facebook
A Greek shrine discovered
In the province of Salerno in southern Italy, the Grotte dell’Angelo is a karst system featuring a unique network of caverns and impressive stalactites hanging from the vaults and stalagmites rising from the floor. One of the most prominent features it boasts is a waterfall, as an underground river runs through it.
And as the element of water suggests, the fertility inherent in the caves continues to astonish researchers as they recently uncovered an ancient Greek religious sanctuary dating between the 4th and 1st centuries BCE.
As they announced on Facebook, the latest discoveries show that the caves housed people for thousands of years and also held religious significance as a Hellenistic cult shrine, according to Archaeology News, which held numerous offerings such as sculpture figurines, terracotta ornaments, coins, incense burners, unguent vessels, and traces of burned plants, Greek Reporter continued.
Notably, archaeologists unearthed a large piece of amber and a terracotta female head used in ceremonies dedicated to water and fertility deities, Archaeology News stated. The river held a cult-like religious meaning for the Greeks, revealing what they valued and how they practiced. In fact, the Greek Reporter stated that archaeologists continued to find continuity, as they found similar characteristics in other sanctuaries throughout Magna Graecia.
Unique Bronze Age home
Excavators also delved deeper into an even older structure that they had detected last year: a wooden elevated structure that stands as unique in all of Europe, according to LBV.
As a “pile dwelling” from the 2nd millennium BCE, which is Europe’s only known example of a pile-building housing structure constructed underground, it demonstrates the long-known use of underground cave systems as an essential resource.
They found a new extension of a platform that demonstrated greater complexity than they initially understood and an extremely rare chisel with a wooden handle that had been preserved by the cave’s steady humidity, offering a rare glimpse into the daily life of the cave dwellers.
Archaeologists took wood samples from the structure, which they will analyze in the laboratory to gain deeper insights into the construction techniques they utilized and the environmental conditions that surrounded them, the Greek Reporter concluded.
These discoveries underscore the enduring historical, geological, and cultural legacy of the cave as a sacred human site where religious practices intersected with domesticity across time.