Sikans

In the first half of the 6th century BC, the region of south-central Sicily entered the Rhodian-Cretan sphere of interest. In line with the new political reality, indigenous cities played specific roles that were based upon their location and the cultural factors that distinguished them. It can be observed that the choice of location for the settlement, its urban space organization, and the natives’ relationship with the new monetary economy are eloquent expressions of the new cultural reality that began from the moment made contact with the Greeks. While still adopting, in some cases, Hellenic architectural forms, local populations organized the land differently from the typical orthogonal structure of the apokiai. Native settlements continued to be located on top of hills until the end of the 5th century, and it is proposed here that this trend started to change from the 4th century onwards, when mercenaries (especially from Italy) settled down in the inner regions of Sicily.

Resumo: O surgimento das fundações (ktíseis) gregas na Sicília e na Itália do Sul é datado do final do séc. VIII a.C. Os gregos, porém, não chegaram em uma éremos khóra (terra vazia) ou em um lugar totalmente desconhecido; pelo contrário, há testemunhos de contatos entre povos da Itália e da Grécia a partir do Bronze antigo. Nas fontes antigas, encontramos uma tradição mitológica bem construída como prova de uma ligação ancestral entre as duas terras, mas é na cultura material que somos capazes de enxergar os contatos e o grau das conexões entre grupos sociais. Nesse texto é abordado o caso da Sicília, da Idade do Bronze à época arcaica. Por meio da observação das fontes literárias e, principalmente, das fontes materiais se desvenda um emaranhado de conexões reforçadas por trocas no âmbito artístico, tecnológico, político e social. Abstract: The appearance of Greek settlements (Ktíseis) in Sicily, Italy, is dated to the end of the 8th century BC. The Greeks, however, did not arrive to an Éremos Chóra (empty land) or to somewhere completely unknown; rather, there is evidence of contact between Italian and Greek people since the Early Bronze Age. In the ancient sources we find a well-constructed mythological tradition that is proof of an ancestral link between the two lands, but it is in the material culture especially that we are able to see the contacts and the degree of the connections between social groups. This paper focuses on Sicily, from the Bronze Age to the Archaic Era. Through the observation of literary sources and, principally, material objects, we unveil an entanglement of connections reinforced by exchanges in the artistic, technological, political and social realms.