Castrovillari is situated by the slopes of Pollino, a mountain chain which, with its buttresses, closes the ample amphitheatre of the Sybarite valley. This is a 30-40 hectares plateau, in a relatively dominant position, on which today’s town develops out south-eastwards along an extended spur, bordered by vertical slopes on either side.  At a lower height, south-eastwards,  can be found the fluvial deposits of the river Coscile.
Prehistoric Castrovillari and its surrounding territory dates from the early or lower/middle Palaeolithic (150.000-50.000 B.C.).  Some splintered lithic tools and faunal remains which can be dated to that time have been discovered at Celimarro.
During the Neolithic age (VI millennium- middle of III millennium B.C.), men started to organize themselves into small communities and became more sedentary. These communities started to farm the land and breed animals, establishing contacts and relationships between each other. The axes made of polished stone and some fictile fragments found on the hill of S.Maria del Castello, in the grottoes giving onto the river Coscile and on the hilly area that descends towards Piano di Cammarata, date back to this age.
It was, though, at the height of the bronze age that  a protohistoric village was founded in S. Maria del Castello, with a necropolis at nearby Belloluco .

Figure 1. Castrovillari. Colle Santa Maria del Castello. Veduta panoramica

Sporadic and occasional finds have brought to light numerous fragments of pasted ceramics and native geometric ceramics, which can be related to a period of time between the middle bronze age and the VIII century b.C.
The finds made on the hill (300 metres a.s.l.) adjacent to S. Maria del Castello and called Belloluco, are from graves covered by pebbles, as was the custom in Ionian northern Calabria (see Francavilla Marittima, at Macchiabate, etc.), most of which date from the Iron Age.
The tomb accessories, which were meant to accompany the deceased on his journey to the afterlife, were made up of bronze articles, such serpentine arched fibulae, simple arched fibulae, spiral, shielded, and leech-like fibulae, as well as rings, collars, chains with relative pendants, phaleras, bangles, cylindrical spirals, and a fragment of laminate which was probably a grater. With regards pottery, this was pasted and indigenous with geometric decorations. Typical forms were those of askoi, pitchers, ollas, bowls, dishes, and situlas. The quantitative and typological analysis of the materials have led experts to the conclusion that the S. Maria del Castello-Belloluco site was a relatively important centre and, consequently, of relative wealth because of its key position along the inland route connecting Calabria with Campania and Lucania.
The founding of Sybaris, at the end of VIII century B.C. caused a depopulation and impoverishment of the native community of Castrovillari, which suffered under the influence of the Achaean city.
The discovery, on the hill-acropolis of S. Maria del Castello, of votive terracottas (a type of seated nude divinity, a fragment of an archaic statuette of a woman in a skirt made by woodturning, a fragment of a pinax with an Erote), and Corinthian and Attic pottery led to the hypothesis of a sanctuary devoted to a Greek female divinity.

Figure 2. Castrovillari. Terracotte votive dal Santuario di Santa Maria del Castello (IV-III sec. a.C.) 

                                 a                                                                                      b

Figure 3. Castrovillari. Santuario di Santa Maria del Castello: a) Frammento di pinax con Erote (IV

sec. a.C.) b) Frammento di piccola statuina raffigurante Afrodite (IV-III sec. a.C.)

The oldest testimonies to that age go back to the VIII century B.C. and to the “a filetti” cups, and the most recent go back to the end of the VI century B.C. with the Ionian cups (type B2). So, it is likely to be one the many religious places disseminated throughout the territory, whose main function was to give rural populations a point of reference to perform rites linked to fertility (Greco 1996, p.182).
The end of Sybaris in 510 B.C. created strife between the Italic populations (Lucanians and Samnites) and the Italiots (Italian Greeks), and, so, the end of cult of S. Maria del Castello. A fictile antefix and a small bronze of Hercules, testimony to the cult of that demigod amongst the Italics between the end of VI and the V century B.C., were found on the hill next to Belloluco, at Jetticelle.
 Again at S. Maria del Castello, on the saddle of the Casale col Vescovado and on the Ferrocinto hill, evidence of a Lucani and Brettia presence in the IV B.C. have been found. Many materials which were characteristic of the cultures of these populations have been found, such as statuettes, pinakes, italiot pottery with red figures, black patent pottery, and objects made of lead (in the necropolis of Ferrocinto) which refer to the sphere of ritual, such as andirons, spits and candelabra.
It was in the IV century B.C. that the Bretti separated from the Lucani and made Cosenza (Cosentia) their capital, so Castrovillari ended up on the border which ran between the mouth of the river Crati and the mouth of the river Lao.
When the Romans won victory over the Bretti and Lucani, the territory lay on the Via Popilia/Annia, the road linking Reggio to Capua, from where, along the Via Appia, one travelled to Rome. At Celimarro, parallel to the modern provincial road, a stretch of thise consular road has been located.
Records from the Roman age indicate that the centre at S. Maria del Castello lost its importance in favour of smaller settlements located around the countryside at Celimarro, Camerelle, Ciarre, etc.
Worth mentioning is the rustic villa at Camerelle, an remarkable complex made of a residential part, a productive part and of some warehouses to keep produce in dolii. 

Figure 4. Castrovillari. Loc. Camerelle. Complesso agricolo residenziale di età romana: particolare di alcuni vani (a sinistra); planimetria (a destra)

Between Celimarro_camerelle and Ciparsi lies the vaulted building of Familongo, thought to be a “mithraeum”, with paintings on the vault of false sunken panels, a fashion which was widely spread during the period of the Roman Empire.

Figure 5. Castrovillari. Loc. Familongo. Complesso monumentale di età romana:sezione e pianta