Matera

The city of Matera dates back from 7000 BC. What makes it so interesting is the caves that they live in. They actually chose that spot because the rock was easy to carve out.

We toured through some of the cave churches. (The guide was kind of creepy!)
One of them had 4 holes in the wall. They were used to tell time by where the sunlight hit on the opposite wall. Like a really ld clock.

Almost every church had a big hole in the floor. That was used to sore rainwater to drink. They also had a sort of underground plumbing system so the water could run to the other houses.

Another interesting thing were the old wine presses. Those were inside the church. It's pretty much a big square tub with a hole in the bottom. The grapes would be in the bottom and someone would stomp them down. then they would come out of the hole and go into a barrel. They kept the barrels in a room underneth the church.

We also saw a house that was furnished like it would have back then. The corn husk filled bed was raised above the floor to avoid humididty. Underneath they would keep their chickens. They would actually keep many animals in the small house with them like a horse, pigs, and others.
The house would usually have 6 or more kids along with the parents and their animals.