Carthaginian Monetary Production and Circulation in Sicily: The Beginning of an Economic Domination Process in the Central-Mediterranean Punic Eparchia (original) (raw)

2019, ΜΕΓΙΣΤΗ ΚΑΙ ΑΡΙΣΤΗ ΝΗΣΟΣ Symposium on Archaeology of Sicily

South Italy, Sicily and the Mediterranean: Cultural Interactions

Fusions and contacts through the analysis of archaeological evidences in South-East Sicily in the VIII century B.C. A part from the VIII B.C. a fundamental cultural transformation began within the indigenous sites of eastern Sicily as the effect of Hellenic cultural colonization. The reconstruction of preHellenic indigenous culture is often made through the study and analysis of archaeological material dated back to pre-proto historic period and by comparing this material to historic literary fonts of the following periods but always taking in consideration the relatively low reliability of these due to both the time gap between the facts analysed and their first written reports and the lack of objectivity often reported for this kind of documents. For the present work we thus collected all the published archaeological data about historic changes of indigenous sites in eastern Sicily in order to give a better representation of the transformation processes of these sites and make a comparison between different areas. Anthropological methods have been used in order to assess if the modern concept of culture-contact could be applied to such an ancient historic moment. The majority of the material analysed belonged to the funerary sphere and the cult of the deaths while another small part was related to the everyday life (e.g. cutlery, plates, etc.). The sites geomorphological features and their geographical position have also been considered in the analysis. The period here investigated covers three fundamental historical moments: VIII-VII B.C., before the Greek colonization, which describes the material culture of the indigenous populations of the area; VII-VI B.C. that represents the transition period in which were taking place the first interactions with the Hellenic colonies and finally the V B.C. Where the cultural integration process was already concluded. Our results show that the process of integration of the Hellenic culture with the indigenous one seems to have taken place at different times and through different ways across eastern Sicily often defining a clear geographical pattern.

On the History of South-eastern Sicily during the Early Roman Empire (draft)

The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Akrai/Acrae, Sicily, Roksana Chowaniec, Marta Fituła (eds.), Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2022

While literary sources depict a sometimes bleak and often fragmentary picture of the history of Sicily during the Early Roman Empire, archaeological and epigraphical remains prove that several centres had a very long and uninterrupted history, although they cannot claim the existence of particularly developed urban centres. This paper contextualises the few remaining literary sources and compares the data from history and archaeology to examine some concrete examples of south-eastern Sicilian cities which scholars believe no longer existed during the Imperial age, but which in reality continued their lives as minor centres. Groups, large and small, of inhabitants moved elsewhere and the sites remained the residence of a few people, who often exploited them for production purposes, to continue a family tradition or to live a life away from the problems of the cities; some of these centres could boast renowned products, as saffron, honey, tuna fish and wine.

Sicily and the Mediterranean World

Sicily and the Sea (ed. D. Burgersdijk, R.Calis et al.)

Introduction to the Catalogue Sicily and the Sea, accompanying the exhibition at the Allard Pierson Museum.

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Sicily between the 5th and the 10th century: villae, villages, towns and beyond. Stability, expansion or recession?,

in P. Pergola, E. Zanini (a cura di), The insular system of Early Byzantine Mediterranean: archaeology and history, Atti del seminario internazionale di studi Nicosia (Cipro), 24-26 ottobre 2007, BAR Int, ser. 2523, Oxford, 2013