The first verified signal related to
the Grotta della Monaca appears in the manuscripts of the
famous literary man Vincenzo Padula from Acri. In the second
half of the 1800s he briefly cites the cavity and the meaning
of its toponym: “[…] in the second room it is still seen,
although damaged by time, a sculptured nun”. We do not know
if he had visited the cave or, as is more likely, if he had
had the information from a local inhabitant. It is sure that
on October the 27th 1878 the same cave were explored by a
certain Enrico Giovanni Pirongelli, who left a detailed report
of the enterprise published in “Il Calabrese”, a newspaper
of that age.
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The entrance of the Grotta della Monaca in a photograph of the thirties. |
Sixty one years had to pass before someone returned to take
an interest in the cavity. Grotta della Monaca was explored
this time by Enzo
dei Medici, the pioneer of Calabrian speleology. On November
the 1939, he carried out the first expeditious survey of the
cave, measuring a total length of 260 metres. He too, as Pirongelli
did, left a report about his exploration, in which for the
first time the presence of strange “dry walls” in the hypogean
sectors are recorded. Even if he did not ascribe the dry walls’
construction to the prehistoric age, he observed that it was
connected to a human activity for creating space by clearing
away the passage from the stones that blocked the ground.
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Survey of the Grotta della Monaca, made by Enzo dei Medici in 1939.
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On 1975 a group of explorers of the Société Suisse de Spéléologie
guessed the paleethnological importance of the cavity. In
a still unpublished document, Serge Piaget, who coordinated
the Swiss speleological expedition, records the discovery
of pot and bony remains and he wished the archaeologists intervention.
In 1997 the recommendation of Piaget was followed by a team
of researchers related to the Cattedra di Paletnologia of
the University of Bari and to the Centro
Regionale di Speleologia “Enzo dei Medici”. The cavity
became the object of careful reconnaissance conducted. The
preliminary research led to identify numerous archaeological
evidence, connected to the ancient mining activities of the
cave (mining lithic tools, tool marks, dry walls etc.). Considering
the importance of the discovery, research and archaeological
excavation campaigns have been organised since the year 2000
and are still being carried out.
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English
