habitat rupestre.pdf - Archeomedia
habitat rupestre.pdf - Archeomedia
habitat rupestre.pdf - Archeomedia
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R. Caprara<br />
Economy? It was principally a rural economy, with poor commercial<br />
activity (especially as it regards the Early Middle Age)<br />
and craft. Once again, as everywhere. Sometimes the inhabitants<br />
of rupestrian villages developed activities that also open<br />
minded experts could not expect. This is the case of the steelworks<br />
that Caprara and Dell’Aquila have discovered through<br />
the fi nding of slag in the village of Madonna della Scala (Massafra).<br />
Political organization? The small rupestrian villages of the<br />
Greek and Roman eras were structured as the other villages<br />
of those civilizations.<br />
The rupestrian villages under Byzantium were choria or castra<br />
(if they were fortifi ed) and they paid taxes to the central<br />
government, as the cities did. For instance, this is documented<br />
for the rupestrian village of Old Palagiano (today called Palagianello).<br />
Social organization? It was exactly the same “rural civilization”<br />
of the suburban villages.<br />
So, this presumed “rupestrian civilization” is only characterized<br />
by the choice of living in caves instead of building<br />
houses. This is very little to characterize a “civilization”. It is<br />
like a “skyscraper civilization”, or a “terraces civilization” in<br />
opposition to a “roof tile civilization”, which should be also<br />
divided in a “pantile civilization” and an “interlocking tile<br />
civilization”.<br />
More, the medieval stage of “living in caves” is not the only<br />
one. Apart from Prehistory, rupestrian villages were common<br />
in the great ancient civilizations in the Mediterranean area, as<br />
well as in the Near and in the Far East, in America, and wherever<br />
geology allowed that kind of settlement.<br />
We respect the deep and meaningful sense of that word, which<br />
does not deserve such a degradation and misuse (like “wine<br />
civilization” and “car civilization”, which are as well questionable<br />
as the “rupestrian civilization”, since their meanings<br />
are so limited to become meaningless).<br />
We have never surrendered to the easy fashion of the archaeological<br />
meaning of “rupestrian civilization”; we have always<br />
preferred the idea of rupestrian churches and settlements, as<br />
the serious archaeologists have always done.<br />
The choice of living in ravines never constituted an autonomous<br />
civilization, but it was only one possibility of living<br />
throughout the ages in many different civilizations all over<br />
the world.<br />
The concept of “rupestrian civilization” can be accepted in<br />
Fig. 3 Gravina Rivolta, Est side. Ginosa (TA).<br />
village fairs, but not in real experts, which have to abandon it<br />
to avoid the risk of future generations’ scorn.<br />
In the early seventies of the past century (that is forty years<br />
ago, a very long period during which other studies have been<br />
accomplished) the most “cultured” exeprts had only read the<br />
books on rupestrian churches in Cappadocia by De Jerphanion<br />
and the ones on our rupestrian churches by Diehl and Bertaux.<br />
We knew nothing about similar settlements in France, Spain,<br />
Northern Africa, Armenia and Balkans. Today we know all<br />
those settlements: this makes speaking of “rupestrian civilization”<br />
ridiculous.<br />
If Franco dell’Aquila discovers (and publishes) Christian<br />
churches, mosques and a synagogue in a small Libyan area,<br />
are those episodes of “rupestrian civilization” or “rupestrian<br />
episodes” of Byzantine, Arab and Hebraic civilizations in that<br />
area?<br />
If I fi nd an abandoned mosque beside twelve unedited churches,<br />
are those documents of Cappadocian “rupestrian civilization”<br />
or “rupestrian documents” of the Byzantine and Islamic<br />
civilizations, which followed each other and lived together in<br />
Cappadocia?<br />
When Aldo Messina publishes a rupestrian mosque in Sicily,<br />
is that an episode of Sicilian “rupestrian civilization” or a rupestrian<br />
episode of Islamic civilization, which dominated Sicily<br />
for centuries?<br />
Our colleagues from Genoa report the results of their Armenian<br />
mission, which implement the previously collected data<br />
on subterranean places of worship in the area of Ahlat. The result<br />
is a wider and more diversifi ed picture than before. Those<br />
works are not limited to Christian structures, but to those of<br />
different religions too.<br />
Evidently, the use of the subsoil was inspired by geographic,<br />
climatic and morphological characteristics of the territories<br />
and by the lithology of the places, which induced populations<br />
and Civilizations to get their buildings in the rock, leaving<br />
their religious faith aside. The most evident proof is the presence<br />
of a Buddhist temple in the cliff of Eski Kale, in the district<br />
of Harabeşehir. It has been attributed to the Mongol domination,<br />
and it was recognized by prof. Nakış Karamağaralı.<br />
This is the most western Buddhist temple known.<br />
The presence of a mescit (a very small mosque) in the area of<br />
Sultan Seyyid is very meaningful. It is constituted by a set<br />
of ancient underground rooms, which are partly ruined. The<br />
site is halfway between the Buddhist temple and the Christian<br />
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