Ferruzzano rock tomb: echoes from the Neolithic period
A very special cave, perhaps a tomb or perhaps an oracle
Where
Where is the rock tomb of Ferruzzano
The road leading from Ferruzzano Marina to the ghost town of Ferruzzano Superiore is rather bumpy, but the Mediterranean scrub, the silence, and the views of the sea and toward Aspromonte are so striking that we forget the potholes. About 3 km before the abandoned village, we reach the contrada San Crimi (San Clemente). Here we take a short path at whose entrance a sign simply announces: Sentiero Tomba Rupestre Judarìo (Judarìo Rock Tomb Trail). The sea shimmers before us. The sky is clear. There is peace.
A very special cave
The trail is short and we almost immediately come to a scenic clearing where a strange reddish rock stands. On one side, a kind of "door" gives access to a tiny cave: inside, barely a man sits. Santo and Orlando, our guides, show us that the vault of the cave is occupied entirely by two eagle or sparrowhawk wings, graffitied in the stone, while at the base are three small holes. Here is the invisible appearing! On the outer wall, our guides point out other signs: a diagonal groove above the "door" is a drip pan for rainwater! And next to it is a "piling hole" where a post was supposedly driven in to create a shelter. All this reveals the work of man. Not modern man, but prehistoric man: lived in the Neolithic!
What was this cave? Oracle or tomb?
The cave amplifies the rumor, as do the small holes: some scholars believe it was an oracle, a place of prophecy and divination of the future. There is, however, another hypothesis, which takes its cue from the ruins of a nearby convent: the grotto could be the "putridarium" of a holy nun, that is, her burial place: the deceased was buried in the cave in a sitting position and the door was sealed, initiating a process of mummification. We like to think that both hypotheses are true, at different times.
Not to be missed: a Neolithic sundial.
We walk a few more meters into the fragrant Mediterranean scrub and come to a large, flat, smooth, slippery rock. Here, too, our eyes need guidance to see: four small holes dug in the rock along an imaginary line from east to west reveal the existence of a kind of Neolithic sundial! Poles were driven into the small holes, and their shadows--based on length and direction--indicated the two solstices and two equinoxes! Shards of gray obsidian, originally from the Aegean Islands, and fragments of ill-fired pottery were found here: evidence of the site's Neolithic origin.
A leap in time
We return to the path and our steps. Behind the fence, two fragments of wall: "It was Genoveffa's house," our guides recall. And how our gaze changes at the echo of those words!
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The Map thanks:
PNRR M1C3 2.1 Attrattività dei Borghi, Linea B Ferruzzano: Borgo del benessere, Int. 12 Hub digitale, CUP J98C22000050006, CIG B701ED11E2
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