How long has the Italian city of Matera been inhabited?

Matera is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in history dating back to the Palaeolithic period. On the other side of the ravine from the sassi, you can see the simple forms of the Neolithic caves where people lived 7000 years ago.

Matera is located in a remote corner of southern Italy in the small region Basilicata. The Sassi di Matera are two districts, Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano, well-known for their ancient cave dwellings.

The Sassi originate from a prehistoric troglodyte settlement and are suspected to be among the first human settlements in Italy. There is evidence that people were living here as early as the year 7000 BC.

The Sassi are houses dug into the calcarenitic rock itself, which is characteristic of Basilicata and Apulia, locally called "tufo" although it is not volcanic tuff or tufa. The streets in some parts of the Sassi often run on top of other houses. The ancient town grew up on one slope of the ravine created by the Gravina river. The ravine is known locally as "la Gravina".