Akrai

Entrusting the passage of souls on the other side of Acheron, people places in the ancient tombs a donation for the “ferryman” and a funeral wealth that could somehow serve the deceased in his eternal abode in Hades. Among the most common, as well as pottery, can be found anthropomorphic and zoomorphic clay statuettes, linked by a direct thread to the sphere of the divine.
In this paper, we want to pay attention on the small Akrai, sub-colony of Syracuse, where since its founding in the second quarter of the 7th century BC, the religious life of its inhabitants in pursuit of peace, under the watchful eye and detached of the Olympian pantheon, was focused to make benevolent the souls of the dead or to exorcise the evil forces that in the mouth of poets, had taken the monstrous form notes in mythology. The phenomenon of the heroic cult in Akrai had found, especially in the Hellenistic age, a not indifferent political support, in the person of Hiero II, king of Syracuse. The stone quarry (latomeion) on the south-eastern of Acremonte, already active in the late 6th century BC, changes destination towards the end of Agathocles’s kingdom (4th century BC), when we assist its transformation into a worship place whose evidence has also inspired the scholarly name “Templi Ferali”, perhaps attributable to Paolo Orsi. Some materials, finally, from the Judica Collection and from stores of the Archaeological Museum in Syracuse, allow us to glimpse the divine and monstrous forms who, as glimmers of light in the darkness that still reigns on our knowledge of the religious sense and beliefs of Siceliotes, accompanied the earthly journey of the Acrenses.

Raccolta di saggi - alcuni del tutto inediti, altri già pubblicati ma ampiamente rielaborati, aggiornati e approfonditi per l'occasione - su temi di archeologia e museologia dell'altopiano ibleo.

Prefazione
Premessa e ringraziamenti

I. Il collezionismo archeologico siracusano tra XVIII e XIX secolo e la nascita del primo museo civico (di Santino Alessandro Cugno)

II. Musei locali, territorio ibleo e patrimonio culturale dell'umanità (di Santino Alessandro Cugno e Ray Bondin)

III. Etnoantropologia e archeologia iblea a confronto: frammenti dell’epistolario e dell’opera di Antonino Uccello (di Santino Alessandro Cugno)

IV. Salvatore Carpinteri e l'Archeologia Cristiana (di Santino Alessandro Cugno)

V. Emergenze archeologiche gravitanti intorno alla Riserva Naturale Integrata Grotta Monello di Siracusa (di Santino Alessandro Cugno e Iorga Ivano Prato)

VI. I cd. "Santoni" di Akrai: alcune note sul santuario rupestre di Cibele (di Santino Alessandro Cugno e Paolo Daniele Scirpo)

VII. Indigeni e Greci nell'entroterra siracusano. I siti archeologici di Cugno Case Vecchie, Cugno Granata e Cava Paolazzo (di Santino Alessandro Cugno)

VIII. I baldacchini rupestri dell'altopiano ibleo (di Santino Alessandro Cugno e Franco Dell'Aquila)

XIX. Il Templon nelle chiese rupestri siciliane
(di Santino Alessandro Cugno e Franco Dell'Aquila)

X. Esperienze di Archeologia Pubblica nella Sicilia sud-orientale: lo studio e la valorizzazione dei castelli medievali dell'altopiano ibleo (di Santino Alessandro Cugno)

During the Archaic period Syracuse grew from a newly established colony to become a colonial power itself and its hegemony spread across the south-east part of Sicily. The motivations behind the expansion process and the foundation of multiple new settlements is the central theme of this thesis. The most notable are Heloros (late eighth century BC), Akrai (664 BC), Kasmenai (644 BC) and Kamarina (599 BC). The traditional interpretation behind this expansion is based on ancient literary sources and it stresses military intentions of Syracuse.  However, even though the foundations did have a strategic motivation behind them, more central was the desire for wealth accumulation through access to new agricultural land and creation of an inland trade route.  The aim of the methodologies (architectural energetics, population estimates and degrees of primacy) used in the thesis is to build a clearer picture of the settlements at key stages of their development from foundation to the end of Archaic period. Architectural energetics is used to estimate the comparative labour costs of building each settlement. Assessment of the architectural development of each site also supports the non-military motivation behind their foundation.

In questa comunicazione si illustra il rapporto di Luigi Bernabò Brea con le antichità di Akrai, sub-colonia siracusana fondata nel 664 a.C. sui Monti Iblei in Sicilia. L’arrivo dell’archeologo nel paese di Palazzolo Acreide negli anni del II conflitto mondiale coincide con un secondo periodo di ricerche intense nell’area della città antica. I risultati di queste indagini sono raccolti nella sua monografia AKRAI  , dove con la collaborazione di Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli e Clelia Laviosa, si offre una prima sintesi sul phrourion siracusano. La monografia dedicata al tempio di Afrodite  chiude trent’anni dopo (1986) un ciclo di studi che ha visto in BB il principale artefice della rinascita locale dell’amor patrio, con la fondazione di Associazioni Archeologiche e con la creazione dell’Istituto di Studi Acrensi (1980). Le ricerche successive condotte dalla locale Soprintendenza alle Antichità di Siracusa e quelle più recenti condotte dall’Università di Varsavia hanno usufruito dell’enorme eredità che BB ha lasciato alla comunità scientifica, indicando nuovi campi d’indagine forieri di interessanti risultati.

Questo studio, frutto di un lungo lavoro di ricerca – durato quasi 8 anni – sul territorio di Canicattini Bagni e sulle zone archeologiche limitrofe, si pone l’ambizioso obiettivo di fornire un quadro aggiornato, ampio e articolato dei diversi paesaggi storici, che si sono succeduti nel corso dei millenni in questa significativa porzione dell’altopiano ibleo, in seguito all’azione umana e all'interazione tra le attività antropiche e i caratteri originari dell’ambiente naturale ibleo. L’illustrazione dei numerosi e quasi sconosciuti siti archeologici è affidata ad un’ampia documentazione grafica, cartografica e fotografica, quasi del tutto originale.
In questo lavoro di ricerca l'Autore ha provveduto a riesaminare tutte le informazioni desumibili dalla bibliografia già esistente e dalle fonti d'archivio (i taccuini di Paolo Orsi, l'archivio di Efisio Picone, i dattiloscritti di Salvatore Carpinteri, ecc), alla luce dei nuovi elementi emersi nel corso delle indagini di carattere archeologico e topografico avviate a partire dall’estate del 2008.  Sfogliando le pagine di questo libro sarà possibile seguire la storia di questo importante territorio, situato a metà strada tra Siracusa e Akrai, e ripercorrere le tappe dell'antica via Acrense, la strada che collegava la madrepatria alla sua sub-colonia. Ampio spazio viene dedicato alle necropoli preistoriche di Alfano, Passo Ladro e Cardinale con le caratteristiche tombe monumentali dell'età del Bronzo Antico, alle fattorie greche di Bagni e Pianette, alle lussuose ville romane con mosaici di Cinque Porte e Cugno Martino, alle catacombe di Cozzo Guardiole e di Stallaini, al battistero tardoantico di contrada Petracca, per terminare con gli insediamenti rupestri medievali di Case Vecchie, Cava Lencino, Bosco di Sopra. Particolare attenzione, infine, viene rivolta all'analisi dei simboli ebraici e paleocristiani presenti nella necropoli di Case Vecchie e agli affreschi medievali delle chiese rupestri, per i quali l'Autore presenta nuove proposte e chiavi di lettura.

In the Archaic period, Syracuse founded many settlements (most notably Akrai, Heloros, Kamarina, and Kasmenai) through expansion of its hegemony across the southeast corner of Sicily. This process is viewed as a planned venture for the benefit of Syracuse through land and trade wealth, ending in 552 BC with the destruction of Kamarina. The colonial relationship between a city and established settlements are difficult to define through historical and archaeological observation alone. Population estimates and demographic analyses can lead to innovative ways of approaching a system of settlements, lending insight to geopolitical relationships and plausibly explaining actions taken by Syracuse and Kamarina, leading to the rebellion and ruin of the settlement.

This paper deals with the first preliminary study of kitchen and cooking wares acquired during four seasons of excavations at the Akrai site (modern Palazzolo Acreide).
Earlier research in Akrai involved excavating architectural remains, mainly buildings of a public nature, such as a theatre, a bouleuterion, an agora and a necropolis. However, the retrieved objects of material culture, including ceramics, have so far not been the focus of any studies or publications. Following the completion of four seasons of research conducted by the Polish mission within the area of the “Roman insula”, it is possible to present the first results of the studies done concerning this category of objects.
Archaeological excavations (on-site research) in Akrai began in 2011. The first two excavation seasons (2011-2012), as well as part of the 2013 season, were focused on removing modern accumulations and ancient destruction levels. As a result, the general presentation of the ceramics, including kitchen and cooking wares, is primarily based on material collected during the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Despite the fact that the majority of the ceramic material was found in mixed contexts, mainly levelling areas and levels, the collection allows us to present a general profile of the studied assemblage and propose an initial classification of the kitchen and cooking wares.

"That the Greek sanctuaries outside the city walls (extra moenia) had a decisive role in the polis’s life for various reasons and not just in colonial world, it’s a fact long since acquired to historical research. There are many examples in Magna Graecia who correspond to this profile but in this paper we want examine the interesting case of Akrai, sub-colony of Syracuse, who in the Hellenistic period was endowed with a rock sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Cybele. The stone complex, located on the street for Syracuse, dinghy on the slopes of the hill Orbo, was called by the local popular imagination with the name of «Santoni» (Holies Men) and often attracted the attention of European travelers who visited Palazzolo in their journey of Italy (Grand Tour).
The baron Gabriele Judica in the first half of the 19th century, conducted self-funded excavations in Serra Palazzo, to investigate the remains of ancient Akrai, and was the first who proposed an interpretation for it. To Luigi Bernabò Brea we are indebted not only for the graphic documentation until now unsurpassed, but also for the sanctuary’s chronological dating. Most recently, Giulia Sfameni Gasparro studied the monument as part of his research on the cult of Cybele, highlighting its distinctive features, clearly different from the microasiatic models.
The recent discovery of a new rock sanctuary of Cybele at Samos, dated by archaeologists to archaic age, provides a new point of comparison with that of Akrai, constituting perhaps the connecting link between two major stages of the journey that over the centuries, the goddess Cybele was taken from Asia to Rome."

The Heroic cult played an important role in Greek society, constituting not only the link between the world of Gods and that of men, but also fulfilling innate needs such as that of the city’s identity. In his Sicilian excursus, Thucydides does not mention any echo name for Akrai’s founder, the first sub-colony of Syracuse, founded in 664 BC on the Hyblaean mountains. Undisputed traces of heroic worship can be found, however, both towards the hero par excellence, Herakles, and towards private individuals (military or not) who in the Hellenistic age are revered in Heroa extramoenia, like that of the c.d. Templi Ferali. During the reign of Hiero II (275-214 BC), the urban development of Akrai goes hand in hand with the creation of a civic conscience culminating with the very brief experience of monetary coinage, on the eve of the taking of the Syracusan metropolis by the Roman legions of the consul Marcellus (212 BC).

Come tributo alla memoria di uno dei miei maestri, il compianto prof. Vincenzo La Rosa, ho offerto un piccolo intervento sull’esistenza ad Akrai, sub-colonia di Siracusa, posta sui monti Iblei, di un Ginnasio da individuare in un’area solo parzialmente scavata, tra il Bouleuterion ad Est e la plateia odos a Nord. Indizi più che probanti sono inoltre la scoperta di epigrafi dove è citata la carica di Ginnasiarca, una su di un mosaico con la dedica ad Eros, e un frammento di corona bronza di alloro.

""Ακόμη και εν απουσία προσφάτων και εκτεταμένων συστηματικών ανασκαφών στο Acremonte, στην παρούσα μελέτη γίνεται προσπάθεια να σκιαγραφιστεί μία εικόνα της ελληνιστικής Αγοράς, αξιοποιώντας τα στοιχεία που προέρχονται από τις επιγραφές (ιδιαίτερα από την Kaibel αρ. 217) και από τα δημόσια κτίρια (Θέατρο, Βουλευτήριο, κλπ.) με τα οποία ο Ιέρων Β’, βασιλεύς των Συρακουσών, ακολουθώντας την παράδοση των Δεινομενιδών, εκόσμησε τη μικρή πόλιν.
Η Αγορά των Ακρών δεν έχει ακόμη απεκαλυφτεί, αλλά εντοπίσθη στη δεκαετία του ‘90, χάρη των αεροφωτογραφιών που παρήγγειλε ο τότε Έφορος Αρχαιοτήτων των Συρακουσών, ο Giuseppe Voza. Δυστυχώς, καμμία ανασκαφή ακολούθησε την ανακοίνωση της ανακάλυψης.""

""How example of relationship between metropolis and apoikia, is exposed here the case of Syrakousai and Akrai.
The hold dependence between Syracuse and Akrai is underlined by some partner-cultural factors, found in the aspects of city life. The absence of coinage, of a proper ceramic production, the presence the religious cults testified by the epigraphs (written in Syracusan alphabet) they make clear the privileged position of Akrai interior shot the Syracusan eparchia. In Hellenistic age the town-planning development is justified only from the interest of a central authority, what that of Hieron II. It is sure that Syracuse depended on the agricultural productions of the sub-colony, considering that to distance of alone twenty years it founded the near military colony of Kasmenai to protect Akrai that was become the precious barn of the Pentapolis and perhaps summer resort of the hieronian court.""

""L’esame ancora incompiuto per mancanza di scavi recenti sui culti delle sub-colonie di Siracusa ha fatto emergere però un dato sostanziale interessante: la presenza in quasi tutte di alcuni culti ricollegabili a Corinto tramite la metropolis.
Alcune osservazioni però sono da fare: l’esistenza di stretti legami fra Siracusa e le altre colonie corinzie in Epiro e Etolia (Ambracia, Oniadai) e Lokri Epizefiri è testimoniata dalla compresenza di culti corinzi-locresi che vengono poi diffusi nelle sub-colonie siceliote. La tipologia di questi culti è costituita sia da un pantheon olimpico che da un più piccolo ma variegato mondo di divinità minori (ninfe, fiumi, etc.).""

In Akrai, a Syracusan archaic sub-colony, there is a rockrelief in Intagliatella’s urban latomy. In this paper, after a trip around the history of studies related to the monument, we propose a new interpretation on the ground of signs, drawn near its position to the town’s entrance, following relevant historical considerations about the figure of Hieron II (306–215 B.C.), the most important king of Hellenistic Syracuse, as well as a friend and protector of Archimedes (287–212 B.C.) who lived and worked in his court.

Recensioni di:

- S. Piccolo, Antiche Pietre. La cultura dei Dolmen nella preistoria della Sicilia orientale, Siracusa, 2007.
- S. Distefano, Le terracotte della collezione acrense del museo «Antonio Salinas» di Palermo. Contributo allo studio dei culti e delle istituzioni religiose di Akrai, Catania, 2006.
- S. Giglio, La cultura rupestre di età storica in Sicilia e a Malta. I luoghi di culto, Caltanissetta, 2002.