Archeologists have discovered a Roman Sanctuary in the prehistoric cave Cova de les Dones, located in the Valencian province of Spain.
This find sheds much-needed light on the Roman presence of the Iberian peninsula. The scientists, who hail from the universities of Alicante (UA) and Zaragoza (Unizar), found inscriptions more than 650 feet deep from the cave’s mouth. Upon reaching the site, they found 15 Roman inscriptions and a coin hidden in a crack in the cave’s ceiling, dating back to the reign of Emperor Claudius.
Roman sanctuary proves eras of use
Descubren un santuario romano con inscripciones en una sala profunda de la prehistórica Cova de les Dones en Valencia https://t.co/MBkCfIZxs6
— LBV Magazine (@lbv) January 31, 2025
The token and inscriptions found in the cave suggest it was used for ritualistic purposes around the first century AD. According to a press release published by UA, the find supports another discovery made in Cova de les Dones in 2023, whose findings were published in the journal Antiquity.
“Due to the number of motifs and variety of techniques, the site is, according to researchers, the most important Palaeolithic complex on the eastern Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula,” said the press release.
The researchers say that the cave in the Mirallas municipality of the Valencia province is among the most important, if not the most significant, of all paleolithic sites around the Mediterranean Sea because of its proven consistent usage from prehistoric times to the Roman era. It was a haven for paleolithic hominins, a worship site in the Iberian period and an important cultural spot for the occupying Romans.
While its use in prehistoric times and the Iberian Iron Age has been well documented through a plethora of artifacts and carvings found throughout the cave, evidence for its use during the Roman period has been scant at best until this recent find.
“The Cova de les Dones was classified as an Iberian cave sanctuary since the 1960s due to the dating of abundant materials from the Iron Age, mainly ceramics,” said the press release. “However, the use of the sanctuary in Roman times had been scarcely attested by previous material finds, so this discovery reinforces the idea of its survival or reuse.”
The depth of the discovery within the cave also makes it one of the deepest archaeological sites containing Roman inscriptions ever found. Its depth is only beaten by Cueva del Puente in Junta de Villalba de Losa and by Cueva de Román de Clunia, both located in the province of Burgos in Spain.
Only about 20 percent of Cova de les Dones has been explored, despite the significance of all the discoveries made within it thus far. This suggests that the site could be holding onto even more secrets.
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