Byzantine Sicily

Anthropophagy in Medieval Sicily: a cultural theme between chronicle and representation. Anthropophagy is the consumption of human flesh and the most extreme form of destruction of the human body, a physical violence which is the quintessential taboo of the self-described “civilized” societies. It provokes disgust, surprise and sometimes fascination, creating a deep connection between the text and the reader, and between the message and the audience. With regard to Sicily, anthropophagy is a cultural theme useful to discern between the account of real events and their representation. The construction of the image of Sicily, and even more of its inhabitants, the Sicilians, is based on an accumulation of clichés, often of ancient origins, transmitted and interpreted over the ages. One of them is surely the “bestiality” of its first inhabitants, intended as the ancient Cyclops or the Giants sons of Saturn, both of them “tyrants” described as man-eaters. During the Early Middle Ages the idea that the Sicilians eat human flesh was transferred to the new conquerors of the island: the Muslims, an infidel enemy to be fighted and considered beyond the boundaries of humanity and nature, meant as a divine law and therefore “civilization”. In both cases the accusations came from the outside, i.e. from groups as the ancient Greeks or the Christians (both Byzantine and Latin-Norman) who had an interest in representing the old and modern inhabitants of the island as anthropophagists to be feared, conquered, subjugated and converted to religion and/or civilization.

"Please respect the copyright rules as stipulated by Cambridge University Press, The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, and The British School at Athens.

A complimentary copy of this publication can also be downloaded from the hyperlinked entry in the "Publications" section of my institutional homepage (scroll down to the section "Archaeological Report Monographs"): http://cnrs.ubc.ca/people/franco-de-angelis/.

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This paper discusses the results of a field-survey carried out at a site in central-south Sicily (Contrada Cimia, Mazzarino) previously unknown to scholars. The aim is to provide complementary data for the diachronic evolution of the settlement patterns in this area, filling a gap between major sites which have been the focus of recent archaeological research (Philosophiana, Villa del Casale, etc). Sporadic or minor evidence of human activity at this site dates to classical Greek period, early Roman Empire, and to the first two centuries of Byzantine rule on the island (6th-7th cc). However, it was only during the Norman period (11th-12th cc.) that the settlement at Cimia became an actual rural village, whose size probably exceeded 7 hectares. The explanations for the establishment ex novo of this village are multiple and likely linked to both the great quality of this water-rich agricultural catchment-area, and to its strategic position within the network of roads crossing central-south Sicily during the Norman period.

This chapter (lucky chapter number 11) considers the development, survival and mutation of identities not only in peninsular Italy, but throughout that area of the central and western Mediterranean which remained to varying degrees associated with the Byzantine empire between c.540 and c.895.
It concludes that:
'We must, however, as we have seen remain wary if not sceptical at narratives that seek to homogenise the varied and multifaceted experiences of individuals across the whole of the central Mediterranean and how their responses and impulses were demonstrated. Looking at the interstitial places, in the tensions between Constantinople and the Central and Western Mediterranean elites and networks we may then find the answers to the conundrums posed by cultural and political identities'.

Contact me for a copy of the pre-proofs....if you are interested...or better still ...buy the volume!

Until few years ago, little was known to the archaeological research about the material culture dating to the transitional period between the Byzantine and Islamic rule of Sicily  (8th-9th centuries). The recent recognition of new archaeological markers is now helping researchers to develop a better understanding of this period, and the study of ceramic evidence is a key tool in filling this gap. The following paper focuses on the main category of cooking-ware that is currently available for the 8th-9th centuries in Sicily, the so called ‘ceramica a stuoia’ or ‘Tipo Rocchicella’, after the archaeological site where it was found for the first time in stratigraphical context in 2008.
Specifically, the key points of the following research are two: A) the first typological classification of the different shapes belong to this category of pottery which have been documented in Sicily to date; B) the analysis of the geographical diffusion of the Tipo Rocchicella on the island as a complementary device by which investigating the impact of political change in the distribution and hierarchy of settlement patterns, economic activities, and connectivity networks.
The global reading of these data, which are especially based on evidence surfaced after 2010, has led to the acquisition of complementary evidence which, yielding a more complete domestic milieu for the 8th-9th centuries in Sicily and revealing the existence of a complex system of settlement patterns, result in an overall framework more complete than it was known until few years ago.

Presentando il riesame di alcuni reperti rinvenuti durante gli scavi Gentili degli anni 50’ il presente contributo intende fornire nuovi dati su distribuzione e produzione di ceramiche nel sito del Casale nei secoli VI-XII. Nuclei di sepoltura, strutture artigianali, reperti numismatici e sfragistici dimostrano una diversa articolazione del sito già tra VI e VII secolo. Dopo una fase di apparente abbandono, rinvenimenti ceramici suggeriscono una nuova fase insediativa tra fine VIII -inizi IX e tra seconda metà X e prima metà XII secolo. Seppur mancanti di associazioni stratigrafiche, si sono distinte diverse classi ceramiche che definiscono il sito del Casale in età bizantina ed islamica sia come centro di produzione sia di consumo di merci a più ampia circolazione interregionale. È stato dunque possibile descrivere un quadro più accurato di questo sito, che si pone come esempio di riferimento nel passaggio da villa a villaggio.

in VII Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Medievale, Palazzo Turrisi, Lecce 9-12 settembre 2015, a cura di Paul Arthur, Marco Leo Imperiale, Società degli Archeologi Medievisti Italiani, Firenze, pp. 239-243 (ISBN 978-88-7814-629-7 e-ISBN 978-88-7814-635-8).

The quarter-dinar, a little gold coin that weighed about 1.05 grams, was widely minted and used in the Mediterranean world and adjacent Near East from the ninth century to the twelfth. It seems to have been first minted at Siracusa in Sicily in 264 (878), as a replacement for the late Roman tremissis that was minted in that city right up to its conquest by the Arabs.

Recently the precise date has been called into question by Maria Amalia De Luca, whose excellent work "Un contributo al dibattito sulla introduzione del quarto di dinar e sulla sua possibile derivazione da modelli bizantini" is posted on academia.edu, but I still believe the date 264 is probably correct. These little coins, with the date inscription at the outer edge, are often very difficult to attribute.

This is a review of Southern Italy as Contact Zone and Border Region during the Early Middle Ages: Religious-Cultural Heterogeneity and Competing Powers in Local, Transregional and Universal Dimensions an important and useful collection of essays which merits great attention and use by scholars in the field. Highly recommended.

In the first part of the paper, the author analyses the Sicilian reception of the rare hymnographical genre in classical style represented by the canons in Byzantine dodecasyllables, which were composed particularly by Theophanes (of Sicily?), Methodios of Syracuse, Eugenios of Palermo; instead, the second part is dedicated to the isolated, but interesting, production of «iambic» canons in post-Byzantine ages at the hands of Manuel Korinthios, Nicholas Mavrocordatos, George Chrysogonos Trapezountios, Gerasimos Ioannoulis, John Hierosolymos, Antonio Rocchi.

The identification of Kaukana, a port located in South-Eastern Sicily, oscillates between its location on the Southern coast of the island in accordance with Ptolemaeus (IV 3) and the location on the Eastern coast, based on the distance of 200 stadiums from Syracuse proposed by Procopius of Caesarea (B.V. I 14). The Author put topographic and archaeological sources and data in their context and consequently enhances the indication of Ptolemaeus, with respect to the impression expressed by Procopius on the basis of an anomalous experience. Numerous evidences suggest that the port of Ptolemaeus and the port from which the expedition of Belisarius against the Vandals and the expedition of Roger the Norman against Malta started are the same. Furthermore, the Author points that Kaukana was located nearby the lacus Cocanicus quoted by Plinius (N.H.XXXI 7, 73; 79). In conclusion, the port of Kaukana, facing Malta and used as a bridgehead for Africa in the longue durée, must be identified with Capo Scaramia (the medieval Ras Karani i.e. Camarina Cape). In this area the excavations have brought to light a large settlement, documented between the 4th and 9th centuries AD and which has close relations with Africa. Today the promontory is not very conspicuous, due to the geomorphological alterations, but in ancient times the coast was very indented, with long promontories and deep coves, and so it remained until the 16th century.

La Soprintendenza ai Beni Culturali e Ambientali di Agrigento è intervenuta con tre diverse campagne di scavo nel villaggio di età protobizantina di Cignana, 15 km circa a est del capoluogo, mettendo in luce, completamente o in parte, sette unità edilizie. Le ceramiche rinvenute documentano una cultura materiale ricca e diversificata, in cui è rilevante l’apporto delle importazioni,
prevalentemente dall’Africa e dal Mediterraneo orientale, fino
alla metà circa del VII secolo d.C. La notevole incidenza delle importazioni trova riscontro anche in altri siti rurali dell’isola, abitati nella stessa epoca, ma contrasta in modo significativo con quanto avviene in molte aree della penisola italiana, dove, tra VI e VII secolo, le importazioni raggiungono essenzialmente i centri urbani e le aree costiere.