St. Euphemia’s cave inscriptions: ancient navigation, beliefs and devotion (Vieste, Italy)

The paper will refer to the ‘sacred’ dimension of navigation, which has developed over the centuries and in which it is difficult to distinguish the clear separation between religion, superstition, and beliefs, also testified by the number of cults and deities linked to travelling by sea, from Poseidon to Aphrodite, to the Dioscuri, later replaced by Christ, Mary and Christian saints. The paper will mention this aspect of the navigation, focusing on the lower Adriatic coastal landscape marked by the presence of landings connected to places of worship, sometimes true ‘coastal maritime sanctuaries’. Reference will be made to the coastal shrines that mark the Apulian and Albanian shores, in particular to the Venere Sosandra cave at Vieste (Apulia), where a wide archaeological project is underway, carried out by the Universities of Bari and Foggia.