Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – The latest archaeological marketing campaign at Cova Dones in Millares (Valencia) could set up the location because the cave-sanctuary with essentially the most recognized Latin inscriptions in each Hispania and the Roman Empire. Carried out in Might and June 2026, the marketing campaign documented at the least 120 Latin inscriptions, primarily from the first and 2nd centuries AD, a major improve from the beforehand recognized fifteen.
Credit score: Universidad de Alicante
The inscriptions spotlight the function of ladies within the sanctuary’s rituals. “Preliminary outcomes point out that Cova Dones was a cave-sanctuary frequented by ladies, since a number of feminine names seem among the many inscriptions documented to this point,” explains the analysis workforce led by Virginia Barciela of the College of Alicante and Aitor Ruiz-Redondo of the College of Zaragoza.
Epigraphic readings performed by Silvia Alfayé, professor of Historical Historical past at Unizar, and Sergio García-Dils, professor at UNED-Sevilla and director of the Spanish Faculty of Speleology, reveal proof of ladies’s presence within the underground sanctuary of Dones.
Who Was The ‘Girl’?
“Because of a set of 5 votive inscriptions, we all know for sure that in Roman instances a goddess, reverentially known as Domina, “the Girl,” was commemorated within the cave, and that girls performed an energetic function in her cult.
Credit score: Universidad de Alicante
Three of those inscriptions bear the title “MALACI,” a beforehand unknown epithet for a goddess. This goddess had a selected facet, maybe associated to water, the definitive interpretation of which we’re presently engaged on,” Alfayé explains.
The workforce is presently evaluating a number of doable interpretations of the inscriptions devoted to the “Domina” of Dones. As Sergio García-Dils explains, “the existence of at the least 5 inscriptions devoted to this similar deity demonstrates that we’re not coping with sporadic visits for a generic non secular function, however quite with a selected cult devoted to a specific deity.
Likewise, the truth that the texts are concentrated in a selected and delimited space of the cave, away from the doorway, confirms that it’s an organized cult.”
“We additionally discovered quite a few spindle whorls on the sanctuary, suggesting that spindles—textile-working instruments traditionally linked to ladies—had been supplied right here. This helps epigraphic proof of ladies’s energetic participation on the website,” says Virginia Barciela from the College of Alicante.
“It is usually necessary to contemplate the earliest recorded title for the location: Cova de les Dones (Cave of the Ladies). This will mirror a toponym referencing the presence of ladies or feminine entities,” she provides.
Roman Sanctuary And Underground Galleries
These inscriptions are situated in a selected chamber of the cave, named the “Roman Sanctuary,” which lies over 200 meters deep and was first found in 2024. The inscriptions seem on the chamber’s partitions and ceilings. The ground accommodates small pure swimming pools (gours) that acquire water from underground galleries, the place guests deposited materials choices.
Credit score: Universidad de Alicante
Throughout the 2026 marketing campaign, the workforce documented a number of floor objects, together with two rings, a bracelet, chalice-shaped vessels, spindle whorls, ceramic fragments, faunal stays, and different archaeological supplies, in addition to the Roman coin present in 2024.
“This in situ affiliation of archaeological supplies and rock inscriptions in a Roman underground sanctuary is phenomenal and makes Dones a novel website for complete, interdisciplinary research of the cave’s ritual dynamics over time,” emphasizes Ruiz-Redondo from the College of Zaragoza.
Credit score: Universidad de Alicante
“Beforehand recognized as a Roman sanctuary with about fifteen inscriptions, the location now accommodates 120, making it the biggest recognized assortment of Latin inscriptions in a cave sanctuary within the Roman Empire. Finding out these inscriptions alongside preserved archaeological supplies will allow a extra exact reconstruction of the ritual practices performed right here over centuries,” clarify the undertaking coordinators.
See additionally: Extra Archaeology Information
“Every new discovery signifies that Cova Dones has served as a landmark for human teams on this area for millennia, presumably on account of its everlasting water supply, distinctive underground panorama, or quick access,” the researchers clarify.
As a lot of the cave stays to be studied and plenty of inscriptions are but to be deciphered, analysis at Cova Dones will proceed within the coming seasons.
Supply: Universidad de Alicante
Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Workers Author
