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to have been isolated monastic communities inhabited by religious men and
women seeking to flee the world. Especially in Cappadocia a romantic vision of a
spiritual landscape and a fervently religious population took hold that lasted well
into the twentieth century (Kalas, 2004). However, as early as the 1940s, some
scholars began to recognize that at least some rupestrian settlements were
inhabited by lay people, not monks, and beginning in the 1960s and 1970s
researchers in places such as southern Italy and Sicily became focused on under-
standing all aspects of cave living, lay as well as religious (Caprara, 2001: 31–52;
De Minicis, 2003: 9–10). In addition, it was recognized that many rupestrian
religious houses were part of larger troglodyte settlements, and that the settle-
ments themselves were not isolated, but located on important roads that linked
them to other cave villages and larger urban areas. Moreover, the cave dwellings
were built not only by Greeks in areas under Byzantine rule, but by Muslims,
Latin Christians, and Jews as well (Caprara, 2001: 12–13; Giglio, 2002: 7).
Scholars in the twentieth century often posited security reasons for the movement
into caves, with populations retreating there to escape armies, pirates, or religious
persecution. Thus for southern Italy and Sicily, the movement into caves has been
placed in the fifth and sixth centuries by some, as an attempt to escape sea incursions
by groups such as the Goths, and in the seventh and eighth centuries by others, with
the aim of fleeing Arab invaders or avoiding religious persecution at the hands of the
iconoclast emperors (Fonseca, 1988: 12; Giglio, 2002: 5; Allen, 1969: 51). Similar
reasons have also been suggested for Cappadocia, with the population fleeing either
Arab incursions or, in the case of iconodule monks, religious persecution. Some Arab
chronicles from the ninth and tenth centuries in fact mentioned underground defense
systems here with food supplies (Bixio, Castellani, and Succhiarelli, 2002: 111–113).
In North Africa, it is believed that the movement into caves was instigated by native
Berbers seeking to escape Muslim armies or Arab nomads (Besana and Mainetti,
2000: 7; Messina, 2008: 12–13). Some scholars have even suggested that the move-
ment into caves may have been motivated by a desire to escape taxation. In places
such as Sicily, it may have been easier to avoid tax collectors in cave settlements than
it was in coastal cities (Giglio, 2002: 5; Uggeri, 1974: 212).
Many scholars today point to more practical considerations for the movement into
caves. Depending on the technique, it is often easier to carve out a house than to
build one. A single person can excavate a residence over the course of a relatively short
time period using rudimentary tools (Allen, 1969: 18). In parts of the Mediterranean
where wood is scarce, cave living eliminated the need for wood not only as a building
material but also as fuel, since caves provided natural climate control in hot and cold
weather. In Cappadocia interior rooms register a constant year-round temperature of
between 13 and 15 degrees centigrade (Bixio, Castellani, and Succhiarelli, 2002: 36).
Such temperatures also allowed residents to store food for extended periods and to
house animals comfortably. In areas of limited hydraulic resources, caves provided
good access to water. Finally, cave villages were located near fertile agricultural fields
and roads. All in all, troglodyte living was a sound economic and architectural choice
for medieval populations in many parts of the Mediterranean (Messina, 2008: 9–10;
Navedoro, 2006: 9–13; Bixio, Castellani, and Succhiarelli, 2002: 36; Besana and
Mainetti, 2000: 5; Laureano, 1993: 71; Fonseca, 1988: 11; Lavermicocca, 1977:
139–140).