Castelluccio culture

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Castelluccio culture
Age : Bronze Age in Sicily
Absolutely : 2500/2200 BC BC to 1450/00 BC Chr.
Grave slab depicting a sexual act

Castelluccio culture ( Italian : Cultura di Castelluccio ) is the name for a prehistoric culture in Sicily during the Bronze Age . The archaeologist Paolo Orsi (1859-1935) introduced the name on the basis of a certain ceramic style, the most numerous finds of which were made in the necropolis of Castelluccio in Noto between Noto and Syracuse .

Archaeological evidence

The discovery of a prehistoric village in Castelluccio di Noto brought to light, in addition to the remains of round huts, ceramic objects that had a special decoration of brown lines on a yellow-red background and, together with the use of white, had a tri-color. The ceramics are handmade (without a potter's wheel) and show a clear relationship to previous Copper Age types as well as similarities to the Middle Helladic, matt-painted ceramics from Greece. Most of the weapons found were made of greenstone and basalt (axes), and some bronze axes have also been found in the most recent layers. Carved bones, considered to be idols and similar to the finds from Malta and Troy II and III , were often found . Burials were carried out in rock chamber tombs with a round to oval floor plan that had been carved into the rock. The locking plates often showed spiral symbols and motifs, which are interpreted as a sexual act.

chronology

The Castelluccio culture was first established in the period between 1800 and 1400 BC. Dated, 14 C -dates from Monte Grande and La Muculufa showed that it began much earlier, in the 3rd millennium. Therefore, the beginning today is between 2500 and 2200 BC. BC: that they were in the south and east until the 15th century BC. BC, show on the one hand some late Middle Helladic and early Mycenaean imports in the Castelluccio context in Monte Grande, on the other hand late Mycenaean finds in connection with the following Thapsos culture, from the 14th century and later (e.g. Thapsos and Cannatello ) .

For a long time the Castelluccio culture - analogous to the approximately simultaneous Capo Graziano culture of the Aeolian Islands - was only roughly divided into two phases, the separation of which around 1800 BC. Is set. The second phase (from approx. 1800 BC) of part of the research was and is assigned to the Middle Bronze Age, while others define the entire Castelluccio culture as the Early Bronze Age and the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age only around 1450 BC. BC, with the beginning of the Thapsos culture. In 1996, Massimo Cultraro worked out a four-phase structure of the Castelluccio culture based on ceramic features. The first phase connects directly to the Copper Age Sant'Ippolito facies , while the fourth phase is synchronous with the Rodì-Tindari-Vallegea facies of northern Sicily . Another, but basically similar structure of the Castelluccio culture was published by Filippo Ianni in 2004, who distinguishes three main phases, of which the second is divided into two sub-phases corresponding to stages 2 and 3 of Cultraro.

distribution

The finds come from the villages in south-east Sicily: Monte Casale , Pachino , Niscemi and Cava Lazzaro near Noto and Rosolini as well as from the rocky "Byzantine District" of the coast of Santa Febronia in Palagonia and the Cava d'Ispica . At Cuddaru d 'Crastu (Tornabé-Mercato d'Arrigo) near Pietraperzia there are the remains of a fortress that was partially carved into the rock. Deviating ceramic shapes also occur at Agrigento in Monte Grande (west of Palma di Montechiaro ). The discovery of a cup of the "Etna type" in the Comiso area together with other ceramic objects suggest trade relations with Castelluccio settlements near Paternò , Adrano and Biancavilla . There, however, the grave design differs due to the hard basalt rocks. One finds mainly lava caves as burial chambers.

In the area around Ragusa indications were for Feuerstein discovered cleardown. With the help of basalt tools, tunnels were dug to get to the coveted flint stone. From the same period there are some dolmens that were built exclusively for funeral purposes. However, they were very likely built by members of another culture.

Remarks

  1. ^ Salvatore Spoto: Sicilia Antica: Castelluccio e l'Età del bronzo, p. 51 .
  2. ↑ Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri : The Bronze Age in Sicily , in: Harry Fokkens, Anthony Harding (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook often the European Bronze Age , Oxford University Press 2013, p. 654.
  3. ^ Robert Leighton: Sicily Before History. An Archaeological Survey from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age. Cornell University Press, Ithaca - New York 1999, p. 113., starts as early as 2500 BC. Chr. See Robert Ross Holloway : The Archeology of Ancient Sicily. Routledge, London 2002, p. 20, of dates from 2200-2100 BC. For La Muculufa, but considers it possible that the Castelluccio culture dates back to around 2500 BC. Began.
  4. ↑ 2500: Robert Leighton: Sicily Before History. An Archaeological Survey from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age. Cornell University Press, Ithaca - New York 1999, p. 113. More cautious: Robert Ross Holloway: The Archeology of Ancient Sicily. Routledge, London 2002, p. 20: Beginning of the Bronze Age around 2200 BC Chr. Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri: The Bronze Age in Sicily , in: Harry Fokkens, Anthony Harding (ed.), The Oxford Handbook often the European Bronze Age , Oxford University Press 2013, p. 653 ff.
  5. ↑ This and the following according to Reinhard Jung: ΧΡΟΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ COMPARATA. Comparative chronology of southern Greece and southern Italy from approx. 1700/1600 to 1000 BCE Vienna 2006, p. 173 f., With further references.
  6. ↑ Massimo Cultraro: Sicilia. La facies di Castelluccio. Articolazione cronologica e definizione culturale. in: D. Cocchi Neck (ed.): L'età del Bronzo in Italia. , Florence 1996, 163-174.
  7. ^ Filippo Ianni: Il Castellucciano nel bacino centro-occidentale del fiume Salso. Paruzzo ed., Caltanissetta 2004.
  8. ↑ Piccolo, Salvatore: Op. cit., pp. 31f. .

literature

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