Sicilian-Greek Interaction

Le ricerche condotte sul Colle Madore, nel cuore della Sicilia centro-occidentale, hanno
messo in luce resti archeologici che documentano uno dei periodi della storia antica dell’isola più interessanti per le grandi trasformazioni culturali conseguenti la colonizzazione greca. La fondazione delle nuove città e il loro rapido sviluppo innestarono in tutta l’isola, dalle coste alle vallate più interne, un irripetibile processo di cambiamenti del tradizionale tessuto indigeno contribuendo a disegnare un rinnovato assetto culturale politico ed economico che inciderà profondamente nella storia siciliana.

Sommario:
Santa Lucia è una delle sante più venerate e facilmente riconoscibili grazie all'attributo oculare che reca spesso con sé. La venerazione luciana, che si sviluppò precocemente in Sicilia e si diffuse rapidamente oltre l'isola, toccando le coste inglesi fino al Bosforo, fu portatrice di precisi significati politici e dinastici nel Medioevo. Lo scopo del presente saggio è quello di mostrare come l'immagine di Lucia,  associata alla stessa Sicilia, sua terra natia, divenne un inseparabile binomio, tra il VII e il XV secolo. Tale dato venne ben presto usato e spesso sfruttato per veicolare precisi messaggi sul potere reale sull'isola e nel sud Italia. L'obiettivo della ricerca sarà, oltre l'analisi delle testimonianze monumentali tra Sicilia e Campania, realizzate dalle due case reali concorrenti, l'Aragona e gli Angioini, le testimonianze pittoriche
presente nella regione pugliese. Quest'ultima dimostrò, infatti, di essere un fertile terreno nel XIV secolo per l'assimilazione delle eleganze cortesi provenienti dalla corte napoletana e soprattutto, nella sperimentazione della nuova iconografia luciana diffusasi nel XIV secolo.
Forse per la prima volta in Puglia, infatti, fa la sua comparsa tra le mani della santa il piattino con gli occhi, l'attributo che diventerà presto l'unico simbolo in grado di distinguerla chiaramente dalle principesche sante colleghe.

Abstract:
Saint Lucy is one of the most venerated and easily recognizable saints thanks to the ocular attribute that she brings with her. Lucian veneration, which developed precociously in Sicily and spread rapidly beyond the island borders from Ravenna to the English coasts until the Bosphorus,
brought precise political and dynastic meanings to the Middle Ages. The aim this essay is to show how the image of Lucy, soon assimilated to Sicily as an inseparable binomial between the 7th and 15th centuries,
was used to convey precise messages of royal power on the island and in southern Italy. The focus of the research will be, beyond the monumental testimonies between Sicily and Campania, sponsored by
the two competing royal houses, Aragon and Angevin, the pictorial testimonies present in the Apulian region. These proved to be fertile ground in the 14th century for the assimilation of courtly elegances
of neapolitan court and above all, in the experimentation of the new iconography during the 14th century. Perhaps for the first time in Puglia the saucer with the eyes makes its appearance, the attribute that will soon become the only symbol able to distinguish her clearly from the princely holy colleagues.

On the hills of Terravecchia in Grammichele, among farthest offshoots of the Iblei ad Erei mountains, overlooking the western end of the Margi Valley, to the west of Catania Plain, a thriving archaic settlement developed-thanks to its privileged location at the centre of the various political and cultural areas of Greek Sicily, whose wealth is still reflected today by sanctuaries and cemeteries.
The analysis of the rock-cut chamber tombs and grave goods discovered in 1988 in the important necropolis of Casa Cantoniera, explored for the first time by Paolo Orsi in 1916, provides the tool to trace the history of the settlement which the local “Sikelo-geometric” pottery allows to place in the eastern facies of Licodia Eubea, investigating the process of interaction between native inhabitants and Greek settlers with whom they came in contact very early. Taking into account the grave goods, consisting of a lot of local, Sikeliote and Greek pottery as well as some metal and glass paste personal ornaments, the tombs cronology can be fixed between the VII and V centuries B.C., showing very early contact with the colonial world. The analysis of the archaeological evidence throws light on the socio-cultural and economic state of the settlement in the late archaic period, when the data provided by the cemetery (tomb typology, composition of the grave goods, burial customs, epigraphic evidence), considered in the broader context of our knowledge about the settlement and the sanctuaries, seem to suggest that groups of individuals from the Greek colonies had to live with the natives, finding on the heights of Terravecchia, among different interests, a common ground between the two peoples who, in a process of growing integration, gave rise to the civilization of archaic Sicily.

Arms and armour are among the most common votive offerings in Greek sanctuaries from the second half of the 8th to the 5th centuries B.C. Most of these weapons were captured in wars from Greeks by Greeks, and dedicated to the gods as votive gifts in important sanctuaries like Delphi or Olympia, but a significant number of objects originate from contact zones with »barbarian« peoples, e.g. from the eastern Mediterranean and from the Balkan peninsula. A large number of foreign weapons in Greek sanctuaries derive from Sicily or Italy. They are dated to the 8th or 7th centuries B.C., a period when the first Greek colonies in the western Mediterranean were founded. On the other hand, weapons of the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. from this area remain very scarce in Greece. Some of those objects can be precisely connected with particular regions of Magna Graecia as is the case with long bronze spearheads with two small holes at the lower end of the blade, for which there are close parallels in eastern Sicilian hoards of 7th century B.C., such as the one from Mendolito di Adrano (prov. Catania). Usually such weapons are preserved only as small fragments in Greek sanctuaries (like in the Mendolito hoard) and often they show significant traces of deliberate damage. In contrast, in the sanctuary of Kalapodi (Phocis, Greece) deliberately destroyed weapons are almost completely absent in layers of the late 8th and 7th centuries B.C., while their numbers increase between the end of the 7th and the 4th centuries B.C. The fragmentary status of Sicilian weapons in Greek sanctuaries can therefore be taken as proof that the objects were not dedicated as booty of war, but as scrap metal such as is known from Italian hoards of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. The long-term storage in an Italian scrap hoard can also provide an explanation for the existence of some »pre-colonial« bronze objects in Greek sanctuaries which could have been brought to Greece at a much later time.

Fremde Votivgaben prägten in starkem Maße das Erscheinungsbild bedeutender griechischer Heiligtümer. Sie bezeugen weitreichende Kontakte und die Interaktion der Griechen mit fremden Regionen und Völkerschaften der mediterranen Welt, obgleich die Frage nach den Stiftern und deren Motivation nach wie vor viele Fragen aufwirft. Eine besonders umfangreiche Gruppe unter den Fremdstücken stellen vorwiegend metallene Weihgaben aus Unteritalien und Sizilien dar, also aus Regionen, die ab der zweiten Hälfte des 8. Jhs. v. Chr. stark von der griechischen Kolonisationsbewegung geprägt wurden. Ihre möglichst präzise geographische und zeitliche Einordnung bildet die Voraussetzung, um Funktion und Bedeutung der Weihgaben für Stifter und Empfänger zu analysieren. Dabei zeigt es sich, dass ein großer Teil der Votive aus dem 8. und 7. Jh. v. Chr. stammt, während jüngeres Material trotz weiterhin intensiver Kontakte mit dem Westen kaum noch eine Rolle spielt. Übereinstimmungen in Formenspektrum und Erhaltungszustand der Objekte mit sizilischen Brucherzhorten lassen es denkbar erscheinen, dass zumindest ein Teil der Stücke in fragmentarischem Zustand nach Griechenland gelangte und dort aufgrund seines Materialwerts in Heiligtümern gestiftet wurde. Solche Brucherzdeponierungen lassen sich auch in sizilischen Heiligtümern wie Bitalemi bei Gela beobachten.

Thuc. VI 3, 2: I Corinzi, Ortigia e Siracusa polyanthropos


Nell’Archaiologia siceliota, Tucidide presenta le notizie relative alla fondazione di Siracusa in accordo a un’ideale di brevitas che ne comprime i confini all’interno della più grande parentesi dedicata alle spedizioni calcidesi. Di Siracusa Tucidide menziona soltanto il nome del fondatore: Archia, un eraclide proveniente da Corinto e la data, in cronologia relativa, di appena un anno successivo a quella di Naxos, ricordando, inoltre, la rimozione dell’ethnos siculo dall’isola di Ortigia (di cui però non cita il toponimo) e una notazione riguardante la crescita esponenziale della popolazione siracusana compresa all’interno della mura. Attraverso una scansione in brevi dossier sui principali aspetti connessi con la ricostruzione tucididea, si legge il paragrafo in questione alla luce delle testimonianze offerte sia dall’Archaiologia tucididea del I libro, sia da altre in nostro possesso: in particolare, brani tratti da Ibico, Strabone, Pausania, dagli scolii pindarici e dal Marmor Parium.

Between 1995 and 2007, numerous metal small finds were found during the excavations of the Rome Department of the German Archaeological Institute in the Agora of the Greek colony Selinunte (Castelvetrano, province of Trapani). These objects shed a different light on the town and its inhabitants. While objects of Greek origin remain rare, numerous foreign and mostly fragmented bronze objects reached Selinunte from the last third of the 7th to the second half of the 6th century B.C. originating from different regions of the Mediterranean and Black Sea areas, in particular from Southern and Central France. Most likely, at least some of the obviously deliberately damaged objects arrived in Sicily already in a fragmentary state as “raw material”, as part of “resource management”. Apart from that, metal objects from the indigenous Iron Age cultures of Sicily were also discovered in Selinunte, including several pieces predating the foundation of the Greek colony. Eventually they do not prove the presence of indigenous people in Selinunte, but the accumulated scrap metal was used as a value store, a medium of exchange and as raw material for metalworking in the Agora. Maybe it is not a coincidence that scrap metal became less important at the same time when Selinunte began to mint coins around 540/30 B.C.

The recent scientific debate about Colonization involves the issue of the nature and degree of relations between Greeks and indigenous peoples and the effects of such contacts in a cultural-historical perspective. Considering the variety of outcomes generated by culture contacts which took place in archaic Mediterranean, many studies have already affirmed the inadequacy of traditional heuristic paradigms related to the concepts of "Hellenization" and "acculturation". They have been considered unsuitable to see the reciprocity of culture contact and the active role played by indigenous peoples in the dynamics that profoundly changed their material culture.
In the central-eastern Sicily, the matt-painted pottery found in large quantities in native necropoleis, often the only evidence of indigenous inland settlements, is one of the most important aspects of material documentation of the indigenous culture during Archaic Period. An analysis of the indigenous ceramic repertoire between eighth and fifth centuries BC, carried out on several levels relating to morphological, decorative, functional and distributive aspects, helps us to evaluate the impact of the founding of the first Greek apoikiai on local artisan tradition. Its long term transformation processes can be interpreted as effects of the intensification of contacts between native communities and Greek apoikoi in a "frontier dynamics" perspective.

When in eighth century BC the first Greek settlers landed on the shores of Sicily, the region was inhabited by native peoples that the ancient historical sources mentioned as Sikeloi. Driven out from the coast, they lived much longer in their inland villages, developing so intimate relations with the Greek settlers as to alter, over time, their customs and their material culture. This change is reflected in the local Siculan pottery, proceeding towards a gradual adaptation to the morphological and decorative Greek models, creating the so-called “Sikelo-geometric” pottery. The analysis of the Sikelo-geometric pottery, with its significant mixing of indigenous tradition and innovations derived from Greek models, both for the origin of the shapes and decorative motifs and for the functional aspects, provides a tool to investigate the process of cultural interaction between native inhabitants and Greek settlers with whom they came in contact very early.

Starting from the second half of the 6th century BC, the
influence of Greek culture over the Punic world became
increasingly prevalent. Sicily was the favoured setting for
this process, marked by the alternating defeats and
victories in battles that featured the history of the island
throughout the 5th and 4th centuries BC. This
phenomenon spread – through Carthage – from Sicily to
the rest of the Punic world, in successive periods and in
different ways. This was a complex, progressive, but not
always constant process, in which we also find examples
of the surviving and contemporary phenomena reflecting
the Punicisation of the Greek and Elymian cities (Selinus,
Mount Adranone, Eryx), brought about, once again, as a
result of wars.
This paper seeks to analyze the latest stages of the
Hellenisation process, when it also involved the Tophets,
the cremation sanctuaries typical of Phoenician sites in
the central Mediterranean. This process is manifested
through the adoption of locally produced Greek vessels
for ritual practices as well as in the introduction of new
iconographic subjects in stelae and clay figurines. Motya,
first, and Carthage, later, are the main Punic centres that
carried out the role of mediation with the Greek world,
whose influence does not determine changes in the
overall rites and ceremonies of the Tophet.

Waffen und Rüstungsstücke gehören zwischen dem späten 8. und dem 5. Jh. v. Chr. in Heiligtümern der griechischen Welt zu den geläufigsten Votivgaben. Zunächst werden die Befunde des großen panhellenischen Heiligtums von Olympia diskutiert, bevor weitere Aspekte des Phänomens dargestellt werden, wie die Ausstellung der geweihten Wehr als Tropaia oder die Aufstellung in Tempeln und Schatzhäusern sowie Weihinschriften auf den Dingen selbst. Ein wesentliches Element bei der Etablierung dieser Weihesitte dürfte in der Herausbildung der Polisgesellschaft und der Hoplitenphalanx liegen. Ab ca. 500 v. Chr. treten neben Waffen auch andere Weihgeschenke aus Kriegsbeute auf. Schließlich wird ein möglicher Zusammenhang italischer Brucherzhorte mit fragmentierten Importstücken in griechischen Heiligtümern diskutiert.

Metal objects very often play an important role in the evaluation of identities of ancient communities, e.g. in Archaic Sicily, which was formed by the interaction between Greek colonists and the indigenous people. Based on the huge complex of metal objects discovered in the agora of the Greek colony of Selinunte, we can prove the influx of numerous, mostly fragmented foreign objects to Sicily between the last third of the 7th and the second half of the 6th century B.C. Obviously these objects reached Sicily at least partially already as scrap metal. While foreign objects are almost lacking in earlier complexes of the 8th and early 7th centuries B.C., their number decreases again in the late 6th and 5th centuries B.C., maybe caused by the beginning of coinage in the Greek colonies and / or an altered supply to Sicily with raw metal. Hence, the metal objects from Selinunte cannot be considered as “identity markers”, but should be rather regarded under the economic aspect of “resource management”.

This paper aims to provide the first results of a new autoptical analysis on the structures of the archaic fountain in Agrigento, known as the Santuario rupestre of S. Biagio. The monumental system, located just outside the city-walls, on the north-eastern slopes of the Rupe Atenea, behind a rock face in which is developed an anthropic cave system, is made up mainly of two parts: the building of the western basins and, forehead to the east, a fenced yard. After the first investigations directed by Pirro Marconi in 1926, Giuseppe Cultrera, in 1932, unearthed the whole monumental complex. Since the discovery, the monument was subjected to several restoration works, some of which quite invasive, that determined a difficult reading of the architectural structure in its landscape. A new analysis on the structures has been done, in order to specify the architectural configuration during the life phases of the monument and to retrace the natural and anthropical processes that affected the site since its foundation. Moreover, it has been suggested a datation within the Hellenistic period, providing comparisons with the eastern Mediterranean world.

Il presente contributo vuole fornire i primi risultati di un’indagine autoptica delle strutture della fontana “arcaica” di Agrigento, nota come Santuario Rupestre di S. Biagio. Il complesso monumentale sorge sulle pendici nord-orientali della Rupe Atenea, a ridosso di una parete rocciosa, all’interno della quale si è sviluppato un sistema di grotte antropiche; esso si compone essenzialmente di due parti: l’edificio delle vasche ad Ovest e il piazzale recintato antistante ad Est. Dopo le prime esplorazioni di Pirro Marconi, nel 1926, nel 1932 Giuseppe Cultrera portò alla luce l’intero complesso monumentale. Fin dalla sua scoperta il monumento è stato oggetto di ripetuti interventi di restauro, alcuni dei quali piuttosto invasivi, che hanno determinato una difficoltà nella lettura del complesso architettonico nel suo contesto naturale. La nuova indagine condotta sul monumento è stata quindi finalizzata a chiarire la configurazione architettonica della fontana nella successione delle fasi di vita, ricostruendo le dinamiche naturali e antropiche che hanno interessato il sito sin dalla sua fondazione. Inoltre, è stata ipotizzata una datazione del monumento nell’ambito dell’età ellenistica, fornendo confronti con il mondo mediterraneo orientale.

The facies of Licodia Eubea is the latest manifestation of the genuine indigenous culture of Central and Eastern Sicily in the archaic period, when a progressive mixing process started among native and greek colonial communities, leading over time to a common sikeliote koine.
From the necropolis, often the only trace of the settlements, it comes a lot of matt-painted ware, the so called Sikelo-geometric pottery, which is the most considerable material documentation of the native culture from the seventh through the fifth century B.C. This pottery, at the ending point of a long ceramic tradition belonging to the pre-colonization native population, shows as a fossil the signs of ancient previous contacts and interactions with foerign cultures.
Through the study of some shapes combined with the analysis of decorative motifs and schemes, often neglected because of the simplicity of geometric and linear designs, it is possible to try to define the origin and the variety of influences reflected in this pottery, a mirror of contacts and consequent transformation process experienced by eastern Sicily native inhabitants.

PREPRINT
Il progetto della pubblicazione sistematica dei reperti della Collezione Whitaker, attesa e caldeggiata dalla comunità scientifica per decenni, prese l'avvio nel 2001. Vincenzo Tusa, convinto della necessità di coinvolgere gli studiosi che meglio conoscevano le Antichità puniche della Sicilia, ne aveva affidato la direzione scientifica ad Antonella Spanò Giammellaro, la quale stendeva in breve tempo il Piano dell'Opera, progettando l'edizione di una serie di volumi monografici suddivisi per classi di materiali e assegnandone lo studio ad un gruppo di valenti ricercatori. Dopo la prematura scomparsa di Antonella, ancora Vincenzo Tusa designava per la curatela dei volumi la sottoscritta e Maria Pamela Toti. Il primo volume vide la luce nel 2008 e nel 2010, dopo la morte di Vincenzo Tusa, la Fondazione Whitaker affidava la direzione scientifica dell'Opera a Lorenzo Nigro, che firmava la curatela del secondo volume-già pressoché completato-nel 2011. Da quel momento, per ragioni certamente indipendenti dalla volontà di chi scrive, la pubblicazione si è interrotta, sebbene il volume dedicato alla Coroplastica, con i contributi di Luana Poma e Giuseppe Garbati, fosse a suo tempo già pronto per la stampa. Ininterrotto, purtuttavia, resta l'interesse della comunità scientifica per il lotto di materiali che, vale la pena ricordare, è solo parzialmente esposto all'interno del Museo Whitaker. Il Saggio bibliografico edito nel secondo volume della serie, che includeva l'elenco dei reperti già pubblicati con relativo numero di inventario 4 , in preparazione e a supporto dell'edizione dei successivi contributi previsti nel Piano dell'Opera, richiede a distanza di un decennio necessari aggiornamenti.

The present research work examines the different segments of fortification found in the last century on the Rossomanno hills (central Sicily): an indigenous-hellenized site characterized by the presence of allogeneous communities scattered and settled on its acrocors, whose slopes, naturally defended, allowed the rising of a Greek Polis in the following centuries, with a markedly indigenous character. The study of the archives and the materials found during the numerous archaelogical excavation campaigns conducted in Rossomanno allowed to draw an overall picture useful for understanding some aspects relating to the city and its people, whose customs and practices, in particular those concerning some burials and rituals, are, at today, exclusive to this site. The analysis of the mentioned aspects and the numerous archaeological evidence present in the southern-central slope of the province of Enna will contribute significantly to the reconstruction of the long anthropization process of the area starting from the late Copper age up to the Medieval age, and with regard to territorial transformations followed in the time. It will also be possible to reach a broader understanding of the aspects concerning the indigenous communities of the sicilian hinterland.

Il sito della Montagna di Caltagirone (CT), indagato per la prima volta in modo sistematico da Paolo Orsi nel 1903, rappresenta un importante caso studio per la pre e protostoria siciliana e costituisce un osservatorio privilegiato per un’analisi delle problematiche legate all’interrelazione tra popolazioni autoctone e straniere. Dalla metà del II millennio a.C. fino alla colonizzazione greca, infatti, la Montagna ha svolto un ruolo fondamentale nei fenomeni d’aggregazione della popolazione del territorio calatino. Nell’età del Bronzo Tardo (XIII-XI secolo a.C.), il suo insediamento ha raggiunto il momento di maggiore splendore, con l’impianto della grande necropoli, ponendosi, insieme a Pantalica, come principale centro produttore di cultura della Sicilia Orientale.