a Roman sanctuary for women unique in the entire Empire

At first glance it looks like a huge grotto located in Millares, in Valencian lands, but over the last few years Cova Dones has shown historians that it is a true archaeological treasure. In fact, every time the speleologists enter the cave and examine its walls, they take away a new surpriseeach one more impressive. In 2023 they confirmed the presence of one of the largest collections of Paleolithic rock art on the peninsula, in 2024 they also located a hidden Roman sanctuary more than 200 meters deep and in 2025 they identified more prehistoric vestiges.

Now the 2026 campaign, completed in June, has revealed something else: 120 inscriptions that make Cova Dones a unique site in the world.

What has happened? The Cova Dones site has been home to relevant archaeological finds for years, but until now none had been as impressive as the one just disclosed by the universities of Alicante and Saragossa (Unizar), two of the institutions involved in their study.

The research carried out between May and June in this Millares cave, in Valencia, has made it possible to identify at least 120 Latin inscriptions, most dated to the first two centuries of our era. Archaeologists had already found similar remains when examining the grotto, but to a much lesser extent. Until now, only a dozen and a half engravings were known.

Why is it important? There are two reasons. The new campaign allows us to better understand the function that the Valencian cave had in Roman times and those who visited it, but above all they turn it into a unique site in the world. Other similar cave-sanctuaries are spread throughout the territory that covered the Roman Empire, but none preserve as many Latin inscriptions.

With its 120 engravings, Cova Dones is no longer the grotto of its type with the most vestiges in Hispania, it is in the entire territory that Trajan or Augustus came to dominate.

“What was known as a Roman sanctuary with about 15 inscriptions has increased to 120, positioning itself as the largest set of Latin inscriptions known in a cave-sanctuary of the Empire,” they comment from the University of Zaragoza. “The joint study of the inscriptions and the preserved archaeological materials will allow us to reconstruct with greater precision the ritual practices developed in this space for centuries.”

Is it so relevant? Yes. And not just because the list of cave inscriptions has multiplied eight-fold almost overnight. Researchers have already examined part of those 120 engravings and have reached several conclusions: most date from the 1st-2nd AD and there are several that include female names.

It might seem like a minor detail, but it reveals something fascinating about the Valencian grotto. “Preliminary results indicate that Cova Dones was a cave-sanctuary frequented by women,” the team advances led by Virginia Barciela and Aitor Ruiz-Redondo, experts from the UA and Unizar, respectively.

What was done in the cave? That is another mystery that we have partly clarified by analyzing the letters carved into the rock. “Thanks to a quintet of votive inscriptions we know with certainty that in Roman times a goddess who was reverentially called Domina, ‘the Lady’, was worshiped in the cave and that women had an active participation in her cult,” explains Silvia Alfayéfrom Unizar.

“In three of them you can read ‘MALACI’, an unpublished invocation to refer to a hitherto unknown goddess. This goddess had a specific invocation, perhaps related to water, whose definitive reading we are working on,” abounds the Ancient History teacher. The team has several hypotheses about how to interpret the invocation ‘Domina’, but in any case they already have something clear.

“The existence of at least five inscriptions dedicated to this same deity shows that we are not dealing with sporadic visits with a generic religious purpose, but rather with a specific cult of a specific deity,” confirm Sergio García-Dils, professor at UNED-Seville. In his opinion, the fact that the engravings are concentrated in a very specific area, far from the entrance, reveals an “organized cult.”

Have they found anything else? Yes. In the Valencian sanctuary they have also found two rings, a bracelet, chalice-shaped glasses, ancient ceramic fragments, remains of fauna and “numerous fusayolas”, pieces that were placed as a counterweight on the spindles that were used to work with thread.

It is another relevant clue because it allows archaeologists to think that spindles were offered in the cave as an offering, “a textile work instrument that, in ancient times, was associated with the female sphere.” This detail, added to the engraved letters or the name of the site itself (Cova de les Dones) are indications that point in the same direction: the presence of women in the cave-sanctuary.

What do we know about the site? Basically, it is a box of archaeological surprises. The project that is allowing us to know it in depth is called DONARQ and it started in 2023 thanks to the support of the Generalitat Valenciana and the British Academy. Since then, several campaigns have been carried out.

In 2023 it was confirmed that the cave houses the largest collection of Paleolithic rock art in the eastern peninsula, with a hundred long paintings and engravings more than 24,000 years old; In 2024, a Roman sanctuary located more than 200 m deep was identified, and in 2025, more than one hundred speleofacts, stalagmite formations purposely modified in prehistory, were analyzed.

Now researchers have gone one step (or several) further, confirming the enormous symbolic value that the grotto had during Roman times.

Images | University of Zaragoza

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