Cava del Rivettazzo consists of around a hundred rock-cut tombs dating to the Bronze Age, carved into a cliff face.

When it was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century by Paolo Orsi, it was the only site with evidence of habitation in all three sub-periods of the Sicilian Bronze Age and it was thus a key site in the reconstruction of Sicilian prehistory.

[1] In fact, based on the different shapes of the burial chambers and the discovery of flint knives, white limestone beads, and Pantalican ware inside them Orsi concluded that the necropolis represented a stage of transition from the first to the second period, which he called "Siculi".

Thus he was able to conclude that Rivettazzo was inhabited by a small group of people, was visited for several centuries before the second millennium BC, and that a permanent community was established somewhere in the vicinity in the following period.

Thanks to the Anapo River which flowed through the Cava and not only provided an ample water supply, but also enabled trade with other groups of people settled along the east coast of Sicily (Ortygia) and further upstream (Pantalica), these two settlements continued to be inhabited for a long time - through to the Byzantine period.