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In the metal ages, larger and more sophisticated rupestrian settlements appeared. In
modern-day Israel, the subterranean village of Beersheba was constructed, while
in the region of Matera in southern Italy the population carved out residences from
the faces of ravines and built underground farmhouses with rooms opening out of a
central courtyard. There is even some evidence that prehistoric populations in parts
of southern Italy began to develop systems for collecting and distributing rainwater
(Laureano, 1993: 68–72).
In the prehistoric era, caves were also used as burial sites and as places of religious
devotion. Numerous prehistoric cave tombs and necropoles have been identified in
regions such as southern Italy and Sicily, North Africa, and the Near East. Some
were underground rooms and some were spaces dug horizontally into cliff faces.
The site of Pantalica in Sicily contains over 5000 prehistoric tombs of different
shapes and sizes (Blake, 2003: 204–205). On Malta, prehistoric populations built a
large hypogeum at Hal Salfieni for burials and for use as a sanctuary, while under-
ground rooms from the Bronze Age at Murgia Timone in Basilicata served some
sort of ritual purposes (Laureano, 1993: 63–64). Ancient Egypt is famous for its
temples and tombs carved out of rock, and cut-rock tombs in Israel date back into
the eighth century bce.
Many scholars see the Greco–Roman era as a time of decline for cut-rock architec-
ture and cave living. Yet the practice did not disappear completely, and in a number
of regions populations continued to build and occupy cave dwellings. Xenophon
described spacious underground dwellings in Armenia in the early fifth century bce
(Bixio, Castellani, and Succhiarelli, 2002: 104). North Africa was well known in the
ancient era for its troglodyte architecture, such as the subterranean courtyard houses
built by the population of Matmatah (Maglio, 2003: 109; Besana and Mainetti, 2000:
63). A study of troglodyte sites in Puglia has shown that many rupestrian settlements
in the area displayed building activity in the Greco–Roman era, putting into question
the idea that cave living disappeared at this time. Likewise in Calabria, Basilicata, and
Etruria rupestrian structures were continuously built and used from the prehistoric
era up through the Middle Ages and beyond (De Minicis, 2003: 10, 24–25; Caprara,
2001: 42–43).
One notable example of a cave settlement in antiquity is the cut-rock city of Petra,
which reached its peak in the Roman era. The city, which included a mix of cut-rock
and masonry architecture, had spacious cave dwellings made up of multiple rooms
with paintings and decorative stucco, as well as terraces that probably included hang-
ing gardens. It also contained a large cut-rock theatre. In addition, the population
constructed a sophisticated hydraulic system that included a dyke with a bridge and
tunnel and two cut-rock aqueducts with ceramic tubing for bringing water into the
city, as well as an elaborate water drainage system. A cut-rock caravenserai at nearby
Siq el-Barid dates to the same time period (Ossorio, 2009).
In many regions, caves and hypogea continued to be used for burials. The ancient
city of Petra contained numerous tombs and temples carved into rock, while in
Cyrene, Libya, a large necropolis with burial rooms dug into the side of a hill was
utilized between the sixth century bce and the fourth century ce (Ossorio: 184–250;
Bixio, Castellani, and Succhiarelli, 2002: 25). In southern Italy numerous sites
contain cut-rock tombs and necropoles from either the Greek or Roman era
(Caprara, 2001).