Sicilian Middle Bronze Age

"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.

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.

SUMMARY. - PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE EXCAVATIONS IN THE BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT AT MURSIA (ISLAND OF PANTELLERIA).  -  The  excavations  in  the Bronze Age settlement at Mursia included the terrace along the coast and inland (the  so-called  acropolis). Based  upon  architectural  features  the dwellings were subdivided and identified as three main archaeological phases. In the first phase, semi-subterranean huts have an elongated oval shape, with a rounded or flat side constructed opposite  to  a pointed  side.  In  the more  recent phase new  features with quadrangular or circular shapes appear, often aggregated in several rooms. The excavations offer a general outline of settlement dynamics and architectural constructions. The radiocarbon chronology fits the site into the first half of the second millennium B.C.

POTTERY TECHNOLOGY OF SICILIAN MIDDLE BRONZE AGE: THE PITHOI OF MONTE SAN PAOLILLO (CATANIA) - The technological features of Sicilian Middle Bronze Age pottery, represented by the production of Thapsos type, has been in general largely neglected due to the lack of overall studies on ceramic complexes coming from recent excavations. Besides the evidence of the materials found in the explorations carried out in the past century by Paolo Orsi in the territory of Syracuse and published according to the scientific standards of that time, new significant data have been added by the exploration of the site of Monte San Paolillo, in the suburb of Catania. Here, a settlement of Thapsos period has been discovered with a rich assemblages of pottery, also including, for the first time, Mycenaean and Maltese imports. Among the pottery classes identified, a very important evidence is represented by a group of pithoi on which a specific study of every steps of productive procedure has been carried out with the support of petrographic analyses. The fabrics identified testify specific strategies for selecting clays and experiments about addition of tempers in order to enhance the technical level of this specialized production. While the typological variety can be interpreted both with a strong link with the Early Bronze Age tradition and with a probable functional distinction between the types. In the cultural scenario of Middle Bronze Age Sicily, characterized by a general scarcity of published data about settlements, the evidence of Monte San Paolillo and its pithoi can also add relevant information also about economic policy of indigenous communities.

THE EXCAVATIONS IN THE BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT AT MURSIA, PANTELLERIA (TRAPANI). PRELIMINARY REPORT OF CAMPAIGNS 2001-2005. — The resumption of excavations in the Bronze Age settlement at Mursia (Pantelleria island) included the terrace along the coast (sector D) and inland (sector B). Based upon architectural features the dwellings were subdivided and identified as three main archaeological phases. In the first phase, semi-subterranean huts have an elongated oval shape, with a rounded or flat side constructed opposite to a pointed side. In the more recent phase new features with quadrangular or circular shapes appear, often aggregated in several rooms. The preliminary description of the dwellings subdivided by phase offers a general outline of settlement dynamics and architectural constructions. The chronology of the site fits into the late phase of Early Bronze Age, corresponding to XVII-XVI sec. a.C.

During the study of a pottery assemblage collected at the Sicilian site of Licata-Caduta (Agrigento),
continuously occupied between the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, some ceramics presented typologies,
fabrics and surface treatments alien to Sicilian repertoires and closer to Maltese productions. Sampled
for petrographic (OM) and chemical (XRF) analyses one artefact turned out to be produced in Malta
and imported into Sicily. The search for its chronological and cultural placement has led to the discovery
of the first certified Żebbuġ phase import in Sicily.

La Sikania è il cuore della Sicilia Centro-Meridionale, compresa tra i bacini fluviali dell’Halykos (attuale Platani) e dell’Himera Inferiore (attuale Salso). E’ il centro geografico della più grande isola del Mediterraneo che è stata sin dai tempi antichissimi punto di approdo e di incontro, talvolta vera e propria “cerniera”, tra flussi culturali e civiltà d’Oriente e Occidente, tra protostoria e storia, in particolare dal XII al VI sec. a.C. In breve, autentica “terra di mezzo” . Il volume è il catalogo della mostra itinerante (che è stata ospitata nelle prestigiose sedi tedesche del Catello di Wolfsburg e del Museo Helms di Amburgo) nella quale sono stati esposti reperti archeologici di straordinario valore storico e di grande qualità artistica, che per la prima volta sono stati \presentati in un contesto di sintesi complessiva all’attenzione del pubblico europeo. Viene raccontato, dal punto di vista delle popolazioni indigene, la fase finale dell’età del Bronzo, quella del Ferro ed il consolidarsi in tempi storici dell’inculturazione greca. La documentazione di ricerca ed i reperti archeologici esposti in mostra e qui pubblicati, sono stati curati dalla Soprintendenza per i Beni Culturali ed Ambientali di Caltanissetta, in collaborazione con la Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione dell’Università degli Studi di Catania.


SOMMARIO

Carta della Sicilia / Landkarte von Sizilien

Stralcio cartografico della Sicilia centro-meridionale / Landkarte von Mittel- und Südsizilien

Carta della colonizzazione greca in Sicilia / Karte der griechischen Kolonisierung Siziliens

I Sicani: profilo storico
Emilio Galvagno
Die Sikaner: Historischer Überblick

La preistoria del territorio a partire dal Neolitico e la formazione dell’ethnos sicano
Carla Guzzone
Die Vorgeschichte des Territoriums seit dem Neolithikum bis zur Entstehung der sikanischen Ethnie

Il territorio dei Sicani. Le città dell’area centro-meridionale della Sicilia
Rosalba Panvini
Das Gebiet der Sikaner: die Städte südmittel-Siziliens

I santuari dell’area sicana
Dario Palermo
Die Heiligtümer der sikanischen Region

Le produzioni artigianali metallurgica e ceramica nell’area del Salso

Rosa Maria Albanese Procelli
Metall- und Keramikhandwerk im Salso-Gebiet

Le manifestazioni artistiche
Dario Palermo
Die Kunst der Sikaner

L’importazione delle ceramiche attiche a figure nere nell’entroterra sicano
Rosalba Panvini
Der Import attischer Keramiken mit schwarzen Figuren ins Hinterland der Sikaner

Inquadramento topografico e geomorfologico del territorio tra il Gela e il Platani
Marina Congiu
Topographische und geomorphologische Einordnung des Territoriums zwischen den Flüssen Gela und Platani

Catalogo / Katalog

Dessueri
Milena
Sabucina (XIII-X sec. a.C.)
Butera
Polizzello
Sabucina (VIII-VI sec. a.C.)
Marianopoli
Vassallaggi
Monte Bubbonia
Capodarso

Tavola cronologica / Zeittafel

Glossario / Glossar

Bibliografia / Literaturverzeichnis