Pantalica (settlement)
Pantalica was an important Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age settlement in Sicily .
Pantalica was in the hinterland of what would later become Syracuse on a plateau area of about eight hectares. It was protected by deeply cutting valleys, was only connected to the rest of the surrounding area by a narrow mountain saddle and was therefore particularly protected in a natural way. From the settlement only remnants of the so-called today Anaktoron and the Necropolis received, together with the ancient Syracuse as 2006 Syracuse and the rock necropolis of Pantalica for World Heritage was appointed. In the anáktoron there were living rooms and a workshop for processing bronze. The real archaeological significance, however, lies in the necropolis and its finds. These finds show that Pantalica was the capital of the Pantalica culture .
The settlement was from the 13th century BC. Until the 7th century BC Colonized by an indigenous population without interruption. With the establishment of Syracuse the decline began and some time later the abandonment of the settlement. In the Byzantine to the Arab period there was a renewed settlement in the area of Pantalica. Pantalica is possibly identical to the pre-Greek Hybla Geleatis .
literature
- Christoph Kohler: Pantalica. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , column 362.
