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Mediterranean, allowing populations to live harmoniously and comfortably in places
with harsh climatic conditions and scarce water resources. In at least some cases the
troglodyte settlements supported large populations. Moreover, in places such as
southern Italy and Cappadocia, some level of organization was required for building
and maintaining communal structures, such as hydraulic systems. Thus the movement
into caves was not something forced upon an impoverished people living in precarious
times, but rather a rational choice on the part of Mediterranean populations who saw
the advantages of cave living (Messina, 2008: 8–10; Laureano, 1993: 109; Kalas,
2000: 55–56).
Although few studies have been carried out on the living conditions of troglodyte
settlements, the little information we have suggests that they were comfortable places
to live. Examinations of troglodyte residences in areas such as southern Italy and Sicily
show a concern for ventilation and clean water supplies. In Cappadocia, the place-
ment of farming activity and guano collection away from the residences demonstrates
that the residents were concerned about living standards (Kalas, 2000: 100). A study
of tombs at Petra from the ancient era has shown that the population here lived
healthy and fairly long lives (Ossorio, 2009: 232). A valuable hoard of gold jewelry
and coins dating to the Byzantine era found at the site of the troglodyte settlement of
Pantalica in Sicily suggests that at least some of the inhabitants there were wealthy and
of high status (Blake, 2003: 210, 215). A visitor to Matera at the end of the sixteenth
century commented on the city’s fresh air and its ingenious inhabitants who had built
a healthy and well-protected place to live (Laureano, 1993: 152) A local historian
who visited troglodyte dwellings in Sicily in the 1930s expecting them to be uncom-
fortable and unhealthy places was surprised to find them clean and well ventilated—
even preferable to some modern above-ground dwellings (Giglio, 2002: 17).
Although more research needs to be done, we should be careful not to make assump-
tions about the standard of living in cave dwellings, based on modern prejudices.
The disappearance of troglodyte settlementsAlthough some caves and hypogea were used as living quarters well into the modern
era, in most areas troglodyte settlements began to disappear starting around 1500. As
is true for the origins of cave living, each place had its own pattern and reasons for
abandonment, and there is disagreement over both the chronology of and the motiva-
tions behind the movement into above-ground structures. For Cappadocia, many
have posited abandonment in the Islamic era as Christianity began to disappear (Bixio,
Castellani, and Succhiarelli, 2002: 116). However, the link between Christianity and
troglodyte dwellings is based on the older, erroneous belief that the settlements were
monasteries. Moreover, more recent studies have shown that some sites, such as Çanli
Kilise, continued to be inhabited for centuries after the Seljuk conquest (Ousterhout,
2005: 175–176). In fact, a few families still live in rupestrian houses today, and the old
canal systems in the territory of Göreme continue to be used to irrigate terraces. Thus
it appears that the tradition of cut-rock architecture and troglodyte structures
disappeared gradually in Cappadocia beginning in the late medieval and early modern
era. Today troglodyte and subterranean structures are mostly used for animals or
storage, or by hotel owners and artisans serving the growing tourist trade in the area
(Bixio, Castellani, and Succhiarelli, 2002: 34).