The area surrounding Santa Paolina was frequented by prehistoric men in the Neolithic age. Archaeological findings reveal the presence of a civilization of the Irpinian people in the valley at the foot of Mount San Felice in the 9th century BC.[3][4][5] Living in the area around the streams Orsi, Sant'Egidio, Marotta and Picoli, this settlement of Irpinian people produced decorated pottery and various tools.[6] The discovery of fragments of an old and large furnace shows that this region was the source of elaborate craftsmanship as early as the late Neolithic age.[7] The products manufactured in these factories before the Roman empire were likely traded or sold along the ancient trade routes linking this site to the ancient "civitates" typical of the ancient civilizations of Hirpines and Japyges situated behind the hills, along the valleys and near the rivers inland, at the roots of Apennines mountains and located in the mid-south of Italy.