Monti di Trapani
Monti di Trapani ( Italian for mountains of Trapani ), as the westernmost part of the northern Sicilian chain, is a collective name for several independent mountains northeast and east of Trapani , the capital of the free community consortium of the same name in Sicily , which have many connections.
Geographical expansion
The Monti di Trapani are located in the north-west of Sicily and include the municipalities of Valderice , Custonaci , San Vito Lo Capo , Buseto Palizzolo , Castellammare del Golfo , Alcamo , Vita , Salemi and Calatafimi Segesta and the following mountains, in order of size:
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Two morphological characteristics can be distinguished: In the north there are impressive carbon reliefs , which, with Monte Sparagio and Monte Inici, rise above the 1000-meter mark. The massive limestone blocks are usually limited by their own fractures and accordingly form steep to vertical fracture edges that have pronounced narrow and steep valleys. The high number of break lines - also in the subsurface - are very water permeable and therefore an important water reservoir. Some of these waters penetrate deeply and, for example, pour into the so-called Gorgo group with temperatures above 40 ° Celsius . The Greeks and Romans already knew these thermal springs to be used by bathers from Islamic and Norman times.
In the south, facing away from the coastline, the hills are less steep and the valleys are broad. The soil here is clayey and fertile.
Flora and fauna
The whole region is characterized by an intensive deforestation of the mountains, which is due to traditional agriculture, but also increasingly to urbanization. Instead of forest, as it was originally to be found everywhere here, mosaic-like areas of shrub and perennial plants characterize the Mediterranean vegetation. The Diss ( Ampelodesmos mauritanicus ), which is a sweet grass species, is predominant in the landscape embedded with limestone reliefs . There is also a rich phytocoenosis of forest-like plants such as evergreen oaks, which represent the highest level of succession in the long process of revitalization after overgrazing , deforestation or forest fires. The starting point is the abandonment of areas originally used for agriculture, which can be proven over long periods of time by signs of anthropization such as terraces, dry stone walls or small-scale settlement structures.
Original forest formations can only be found very sporadically and rudimentary ( Bosco Angimbè or Monte Scorace ). They were replaced by artificial new plantings or partly non- endemic species (conifers or exotic deciduous trees on Monte Inici, Sparagio, Scorace, Baronia). In extreme cases, these exotic species can hinder the development of the natural forest population. Naturally-occurring here are some endemic in Sicily species such as the cruciferous belonging Brassica villosa , the Asteraceae Carlina sicula , Centaurea ucriae and Cynara cardunculus , the convolvulus tricolor ( Convolvulus tricolor ) or the heather plant Erica sicula , but sometimes without their own habitat.
The original arable farming with the typical agricultural rotation of three- field farming and isolated tree cultures such as olives and almonds have now largely been replaced by monoculture viticulture, willy-nilly . Vegetable growing has also almost completely disappeared.
Human traces
The Elymers were resident in this region well over 1000 years before our era , as archaeological finds in Segesta , Erice and Entella , the three centers of this high culture, prove. Invasions and conquests replaced one civilization after another over the centuries. All left behind certain testimonies of their respective social achievements. All of them more or less changed the land surface, be it with clearing, with buildings or the planting of certain agricultural crops such as viticulture .
Under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the Environment, the University of Granada is carrying out archaeological studies aimed at verifying older results from prehistoric studies. This research project under the name “MEditerranean MOutainous LAndscapes” (MEMOLA) covers the entire period of human intervention in nature.
While the cultivation of grain, wine and olives dominated in Roman times, during the Islamic occupation the land surface was changed more sustainably and almost over the whole of Sicily by creating a network of irrigation canals and hydraulic systems that shaped the landscape. Previous studies on these interventions have long been ignored, but with the help of the MEMOLA studies, knowledge of this infrastructure is now established. It is also now considered certain that there were fortified granaries here, as they are still in the north of Morocco and in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Other toponyms of Arabic origin scattered all over the Monti di Trapani illustrate this picture of revolutionary interventions at this time.
The expulsion of the Muslims resulted in extensive depopulation of the landscape, the repopulation of which led to scattered settlements. This type of construction typical of Sicily with a central main house and side houses surrounding the courtyard is called Baglio .
It is not until the time of the Normans colonization that deforestation began and the formation of urban agglomerations as we know them today is suspected . As a result, the vegetation of the landscape changed noticeably and it lost its identity. According to MEMOLA's understanding, archeology does not only serve to recover and document the legacies of earlier cultures, but rather it wants to show the diachronic history of use in order to enable the preservation of traditional land uses, in particular for the protection of groundwater and / or surface water use.
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- Mediterranean Mountainous Landscapes (MEMOLA) : Monti di Trapani study area
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