Several sanctuaries dedicated to different cults stood on the territory of Mount Circeo, some of them frequented for a long time. On the Monticchio hill, on the north-eastern side of the mountain, there is a large artificial clearing dating back to very ancient times, on which a sanctuary once stood.
The remains found date to the Archaic period, more precisely between the end of the 6th and the 5th century BC: together with those of “Vigna la Corte”, they are the oldest ever found in the territory of “Circeii”. This important evidence would confirm the presence of a Roman colony at the time of Tarquin the Proud, led by his son Arruns, certainly earlier than the Latin colony of 393 BC.
The site, now completely vanished, is marked only by a base and a truncated-cone well 6 metres deep, with a diameter of 1.5 metres at the mouth.
The material collected is very varied: some decorated tiles that served as antefixes on the sides of the temple, numerous votive terracottas, black-glazed pottery, some coins and other bronze fragments. Most remarkable of all are the decorated polychrome antefixes: one shows a palm tree inside a gadrooned halo, while another depicts the head of a silenus, with a large moustache and donkey ears, also set in a gadrooned halo. Female figures made with a punching technique on bronze sheets were also recovered, probably created as votive offerings. According to some sources the deity worshipped was Minerva, but this is far from certain. The finds are kept at the Department of Topography of Sapienza University of Rome.
