Preistoria Sicilia

"The district of Cugno Case Vecchie is located about 3 km in the north-west of the modern town of Canicattini Bagni, in the province of Siracusa. This territory has been occupied from Prehistory to the present day because of the abundant presence of raw materials and water courses and its strategic location along the ancient Via Acrense. In Cugno Case Vecchie, in fact, is located a small necropolis of the Early Bronze Age, a second cemetery dating to the Late Bronze Age and a rocky settlement of Late antiquity and Medieval Age, populated in later times by shepherds and farmers.
The purpose of this article is to present the first results of a survey conducted in September 2008 during which two tombs with pseudo-pillars and one tomb with pilasters dating XVIII century A.D. were found."

PANTELLERIA. THE SESE DI FRESCO EXCAVATION AND FINDS
FROM DESTROYED SESES AT MURSIA. - The sese Di Fresco I  excavations, an emispheric tomb with four chamber which one, found still closed, is a tholos dome, suggest for the first time the pantellerian megalithism ritual. Each chamber contained one or two burials amongst the so-called Sicilian “banchetto funebre” typical equipment: seashells, Ovis vel capra bones, beads, flint and obsidian implements, ware. The pottery from this sese and from other seses, now destroyed, dated in Early and Middle Bronze age, suggest links with RTV, Capo Graziano, Thapsos - Milazzese, Tarxien cemetery and Borg in-Nadur pottery styles. The Mursia surviving seses also prove the existence of an unknown megalithic cemetery. The monuments seem to line up with an ancient route, now ruined but once going to a spring and then to the village.

Summary. We report two trenches in the territory of Licodia Euboea, in the margins of the lake Dirillo, (Sicily), in which, for the presence of a large number of elements of flint, worked and no, we recognize two "mines" for the extraction of flint in prehistory.
Reporting have been added to the tables related to some technical surveys operated on findings.

THE BRONZE AGE IN WESTERN SICILY. - Many cultures developed during bronze age in western Sicily. Sometime they were contemporary showing the presence of very interesting ethnical dynamics bringing to acculturation phenomena like in the case of Bell Beaker mainly diffused in south west regions.
During early bronze Castelluccio culture was diffused also in western Sicily, but it developed slowly towards what was called Rodì Tindari Vallelunga facies and that now we think is a process of typological as cultural change between Castelluccio and Thapsos. During this last phase we encounter the origin of some
regional differences among the same culture that will be more evident during late bronze age. We see that there are aspects more tied with a Mediterranean tradition, such as Mokarta. But we also see that there areas where it is strong a Tyrrhenian tradition and also a continental one with Ausonian affinities.

TWO EARLY BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENTS IN THE PLATANI RIVER VALLEY (CALTANISSETTA): CORVO AND VALLE OSCURA - We present the results of the excavations carried out in two sites located in the upper valley of the Platani river, Corvo and Valle Oscura, dating back to the Ancient Bronze Age, characterized by the so-called Rodì Tindari-Vallelunga (RTV) pottery style. The first settlement was located on a natural terrace bounded on the North and South by rocky ridges where there are artificial burial caves. A small stratigraphic excavation, performed at the center of the settlement, has confirmed the presence of at least four life phases dating back to the Early Bronze Age, the most recent of which are characterized by dwelling. In that area were also found Late Copper Age pottery sherds (Malpasso style and Bell-Beaker). The second settlement is set on a rectangular terrace, already frequented during the Second Copper Age (Serraferlicchio style), located at the western edge of a large jagged rock ridge, known from previous excavations to be the site of a rock-cleft tombs necropolis, coeval to our village, and of an important indigenous city of the Archaic period (Balate). The excavation, undertaken in extent, has shown that the terrace on which stands the settlement, upstream bounded by a mighty terrace wall, is artificial. At the terrace eastern edge was completely unearthed a hut, rectangular in plan, west of which is a large area of open hearths bordered by semicircular stone curbs. On the hut opposite side has been partially unearthed a singular megalithic structure, builded by a wide arc of a circle bounded by large limestone blocks vertically placed. The two villages,  considered together, offer a rare example of architectural evidence associated with RTV ceramics style and offer new data about the development of this facies in central Sicily.

Recent excavations in Motya by Sapienza University of Rome carried on in fruitful cooperation with the Superintendence of Trapani brought about new data on the early stages of the history of the island, during
the prehistory. A stable occupation was detected up to Middle Bronze and four periods were distinguished on the ground of stratigraphy, ranging from 1650 to 900 BC until the Phoenician settlement, which occurred in the first decades of the 8th century BC. Across the different periods of prehistory, several finds attest to the full inclusion of the island, a favourable landing place overlooking the Sicilian Canal, into the exchange networks on the main east-west sea-route through the Mediterranean as shown by Levantine, Cypriot, and Mycenean imports. Two Mycenean bronze daggers are possibly the most meaningful witnesses of such an early role played by the island. This, of course, has also an interpretive impact on the re-evaluation of Phoenician
colonization

THE ACROPOLIS OF CATANIA IN PREHISTORY - In the area between the Ancient Theater and via Teatro Greco was brought to light a stratigraphic sequence on the oldest human presence on the Montevergine Hill, where was the Acropolis of the ancient city and today is the historic centre of Catania. Two phases have been identified. The first, radiocarbon dated to the second half of the 6th millennium BC, probably belonging to the use of one (or more than one) rock shelter, from the beginning of the Middle up to the Late Neolithic. The second phase, radiocarbon dated at the end of the 5th millennium BC, belongs to a huts village dating back to the Early Eneolithic. The new excavation data and the previous knowledge examination allow us to reconstruct the original Acropolis orography and environment and provide information on the economy and the activities of the first human presence in Catania.

Un mare infestato da mercanti e pirati: relazioni e rotte commerciali tra Egitto e Sicilia nel II millennio a.C. Il tema delle relazioni precoloniali tra Sicilia ed Egitto, nella più ampia accezione territoriale che comprende il Delta del Nilo fino alla fascia costiera della Cirenaica orientale, è stato al centro di un vivace dibattito scientifico agli inizi del secolo scorso, distribuendosi trasversalmente tra ricerca archeologica e indagini etnico-antropologiche 1. Sono state spiegate in altre sedi le ragioni della progressiva rarefazione di interesse nell'ambito della ricerca nazionale 2 , pur con alcuni significativi tentativi di ripresa generalmente legati alla scoperta di materiale egeo-miceneo sulla costa nordafricana, come illustra il caso di Cirene, purtroppo rimasto a lungo isolato nel quadro degli studi sull'espansione della presenza elladica nel Mediterraneo occidentale 3. Proprio nella differente e variabile valutazione del complesso gioco di assenze e/o presenze di evidenze egeo-elladiche va ricercata la chiave di lettura del 1 Per un quadro d'insieme: M. Cultraro, Relazioni e processi d'interazione culturale in Sicilia e costa nordafricana nell'età del Bronzo: un approccio critico, in Studi in onore di N. Bonacasa, «Sicilia Antiqua» XV (2018), pp. 353-358. Di particolare interesse sono anche le recenti acquisizioni dall'abitato di Mursia e da alcune strutture funerarie (il c.d. "sese rosso") nell'isola di Pantelleria, in contesti di Bronzo Medio avanzato: sono stati identificati frammenti di anfore da trasporto di tipo "cananeo", che trovano confronto a Cipro e a Tell el-Dab'a, insieme ad alcuni manufatti di prestigio, tra cui perle in pasta vitrea con inserti di oro e argento, per le quali sono state riconosciute possibili filiazioni con l'artigianato egizio del Nuovo Regno. Si rimanda a M. Marazzi, Connessioni transmarine: Vivara e Pantelleria, di-namiche e cronologie dei più antichi contatti con le aree egee e levantine, «Scienze dell'An-tichità» 22.2 (2016), pp. 131-146, fig. 4 (anfore cananee), fig. 7 (perline in vetro azzurro). 2 Cultraro, Relazioni e processi cit., pp. 353-355. 3 Sui materiali egeo-ciprioti da Cirene, ma classificati solo su base stilistico-tipologica: S. StuCChi, Prime tracce tardo-minoiche a Cirene: i rapporti della Libya con il mondo egeo, «Quaderni di Archeologia della Libia» 5 (1967), pp. 19-20, figg. 1-2; l. BaCChielli, Contatti tra Libya e mondo egeo nell'età del Bronzo: una conferma, «Rendiconti dell'Accademia dei

The paper aims at focusing on the unpublished grave goods found in the MBA cemetery at Plemmyrion, near Syracuse. The site of Plemmyrion was systematically explored by P. Orsi in 1891 and 1899, but the results of the excavation are still known in a preliminary paper, where the Italian archaeologist focused on the imported artifacts. It needs to reassess the whole archaeological material coming from the Orsi's investigations, in order to reconstruct the context, as well as the association between Aegean material and local pottery. This re-examination of archeological records suggests to identify two main phases of occupancy: the first one is dated to the Middle Bronze Age and can related to the Thapsos culture. To this horizon are attributed local handmade pottery, bronze swords of Thapsos-Pertosa type, an ivory comb with current spiral incised, beads of vitreous past, amber beads, including two spacers. The second phase is dated to the Late Bronze Age, containing pottery related to the Cassibile culture, and it is represented by grave goods with bronze ornaments (digital rings, fibulas, fragments of armillae, razors? and a biconical bronze bead). Finally, the paper focuses on the Mycenaean presence through the coastline of Syracuse during the Middle and Late Bronze Age, in order to reconstruct the role played by maritime settlements, as Thapsos and Plemmyrion, in the long-term connections between Western Mediterranean and the Aegean World.

Sin dall’Eneolitico Antico il territorio di Caltanissetta è stato interessato da insediamenti umani grazie alla compresenza di un fiume, di un sistema collinare, di una fertile vallata facilmente controllabile e di risorse minerarie. Lo sfruttamento di queste opportunità, e l'evoluzione tecnologica, ebbero esito in una crescente sedentarietà. È possibile seguire lo sviluppo di questo processo, il cui acme è da collocare nel Bronzo Antico, attraverso le differenti facies dei materiali.

Antonio De Gregorio Brunaccini nasce a Messina il 27.06.1855 e muore a Palermo il 15.12. Esponente di una nobile famiglia siciliana, si distingue per la natura versatile e per la curiosità in ogni settore del sapere. Dottore in Scienze Naturali, socio della Reale Accademia di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti di Palermo, fondatore e poi proprietario-direttore della prestigiosa rivista “Il Naturalista Siciliano”, socio corrispondente di numerose accademie europee e americane, è studioso di fisica, botanica, zoologia, musica, arte, letteratura, archeologia; in particolare si occupa di geologia e paleontologia. Quest’ultimi studi lo avvicinano a quelli di paletnologia che egli vede come “un genere di studio che da un lato entra nel dominio dell’archeologia, dall’altro in quello della paleontologia e della geologia.” La testimonianza principale della sua attività, in questo campo, si evidenzia nella ideazione e pubblicazione degli Annales de Géologie et de Paléontologie, ove pubblica le sue ricerche illustrando i reperti con disegni, fornendo la provenienza, una descrizione ed una collocazione cronologica. Grazie a questa opera abbiamo contezza delle raccolte archeologiche – pubbliche e private – esistenti in Sicilia alla fine dell’Ottocento, alcune delle quali sono andate disperse.

The analysis of the composition of the kits and burial types of children and adolescents in the main necropolis of Eastern Sicily allows reflection on the relevance of the infant component in the necropolis of Eastern Sicily between the age of the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

For the first time is presented a complete panorama of the current knowledge on the grottoes of Monte Gallo, an area of extraordinary importance for the prehistoric settlement in the area of Palermo. Through a careful cataloguing, which includes references to topographical, morphological aspects, accompanied by graphic and photographic documentation, even historical, and archaeological data, often unpublished, we have got a picture of great interest, which, together with the studies, already published, on Monte Pellegrino and on the other grottoes of the mountains of Palermo, allow us to have a tool for a complete study of the knowledge of the Prehistory of one of the most interesting and rich in rock stretches of the northern coast of Sicily.

This book offers a comparative study of the archaeology of colonisation, abandonment, and resettlement of the Mediterranean islands. Presenting an extensive and updated body of evidence, it provides a pan-Mediterranean review of island data, a task last completed in the mid-1990s. The study is supported by a database of 150 islands, from the Balearics in the west to Cyprus in the east, and includes the North African islands, which are often overlooked in syntheses of the Mediterranean. Chronologically, the book covers a period of over 10,000 years (from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Iron Age). Collectively, the results of this comparative approach exceed the insights that can be gained from studies of individual Mediterranean islands or even island groups. The comparative and thematic study encourages anthropological reflections on the archaeology of the islands, ultimately focusing on people rather than geographical units, and specifically on the relations between islanders, mainlanders, and the creation of islander identities. Islands offer ideal case studies for exploring social connectivity, episodes of colonisation, abandonment, and alternating phases of cultural interaction and isolation. Their societies display different attitudes towards the land and the sea, which in turn cast light on group identities. The book thus advances theoretical discussions in “Island Archaeology” and their relevance to Mediterranean archaeology.

ENDORSEMENTS:

"Helen Dawson has provided a strikingly original, thoroughly up-to-date and comprehensive study of Mediterranean island archaeology, adopting a pan-Mediterranean perspective unparalleled in the literature. Treating issues of island colonisation and abandonment, made easy-to-understand with a generous spread of graphs and tables, this volume will be essential reading for anyone interested in island archaeology, within and beyond the Mediterranean."

- A. Bernard Knapp, Dept of Archaeology, University of Glasgow; Cyprus-American Archaeological Research Institute -

"An engrossing account of the complex story of human colonisation, abandonment and resettlement of the islands of the Mediterranean. Theoretically informed and rooted in a detailed understanding of the archaeological evidence, this book is recommended reading for students of both Mediterranean prehistory and island archaeology."

- Ruth Whitehouse, Emeritus Professor, UCL Institute of Archaeology -

Reviewed by Dr Dimitra Mylona:

https://www.academia.edu/29101268/Orbis_2015_13_Review_Dawsons_Mediterranean_Voyages

Arthur Evans (1851-1941) deve la sua celebrità agli scavi archeologici che condusse a Cnosso, nell'isola di Creta, dove dal 1900 portò alla luce il palazzo che la tradizione vuole fosse la reggia di Minosse. Prima delle esplorazioni cretesi, tuttavia, lo studioso inglese trascorse un intenso periodo nei Balcani (1875-1882) e dal 1884 effettuò viaggi ed esplorazioni di notevole importanza in Italia ed in Sicilia. In Bosnia, scrivendo per il Manchester Guardian degli articoli sulle rivolte che animavano la regione, Evans finì per essere imprigionato ed espulso dall'Impero Austro-Ungarico. Rientrato in Inghilterra e divenuto curatore dell'Ashmolean Museum di Oxford nel 1884, Evans frequentò a lungo l'Italia e la Sicilia alla ricerca di reperti archeologici per le collezioni del museo inglese, accompagnando il suocero, Edward Freeman, che si occupava della stesura di una monumentale opera sulla Sicilia antica. Sulla base di lettere e documenti (anche inediti), si rimarca l'importanza delle esplorazioni condotte dall'archeologo inglese in Italia, delle quali si presenta una prima trattazione complessiva ed organica: si tratta di esperienze che segnarono profondamente Evans dal punto di vista umano e che in qualche misura influirono anche sulla sua successiva attività scientifica. Partendo dai rapporti che il padre, John Evans, intrattenne con studiosi italiani, si prende in esame la rete di conoscenze che Arthur Evans ebbe con colleghi in Italia e si esaminano le ricerche condotte dallo studioso in specie a Taranto ed in Sicilia: la scoperta di ceramica micenea in alcune tombe dell'area siracusana (indagate da P. Orsi) colpì particolarmente Evans, che, in seguito alla morte della moglie, avvenuta in Liguria nel 1893, abbandonò i suoi interessi scientifici italiani, dedicando da quel momento le sue maggiori energie nello studio di Creta.