Thapsos culture
The Thapsos culture is a culture of the Middle Bronze Age (approx. 1450 to 1270 BC) in Sicily . It is named after the place where it was found Thapsos , which is located on the Magnisi peninsula , between Augusta and Syracuse . This place got its name from Greek colonists in the 8th century BC. It follows the early Bronze Age Castelluccio culture or, in northern Sicily, the Rodi-Tindari-Facies . The Thapsos culture reveals a close relationship to the simultaneous Milazzese culture of the Aeolian Islands and also spread to parts of Calabria .
Important, partly fortified settlements of the culture spread all over Sicily were located both near the coast (e.g. Thapsos, Cannatello and the pre- Phoenician strata of Mozia on San Pantaleo ) and inland (e.g. Mokarta near Salemi ). Culture was the subject of interest from Paolo Orsi (1859–1935) and Luigi Bernabò Brea (1910–1999), among others .
The burials in the Thapsos necropolis are characterized by large graves carved into the rock, often in the shape of a tholos . Two monumental tholos-like grave structures from the time of the Thapsos culture were discovered on Monte Campanella near Milena.
The houses of the Thapsos culture mostly consist of stone round huts. In Thapos, Cannatello and Mokarta, however, there are also buildings with rectangular floor plans, two of which in Thapsos are unusually large. The economy was based on hunting, fishing, agriculture, and sheep farming. In addition, there is a strong increase in long-distance trade compared to the Castelluccio culture, which is indicated on the one hand by the increase in coastal settlements and on the other hand by a fairly high number of artefacts from distant cultures. In particular, vessels and bronze articles from Mycenaean and partly Cypriot production as well as ceramics from Malta were discovered at various sites. A particularly large number of objects of Aegean origin have come to light in Thapsos. Sicily's contacts with the eastern Mediterranean during this period are also evidenced by a clearly Sicilian sword that was discovered in the Uluburun ship , built around 1300 BC. Sank off the Anatolian south coast. Two lance tips from the wreck could also correspond to a type typical of the Thapsos culture.
The material culture includes ceramics with a dark surface, often decorated with incised motifs or with imprints of cord that form garlands. Characteristic are the large cymbals with high trumpet feet, mugs, bowls and cups with forked handles.
literature
- Luigi Bernabò Brea: The Middle Bronze Age: the Thapsos culture in Sicily . In, Sicily before the Greeks (pp. 129-135). London: Thames and Hudson 1957
- Robert Leighton: Sicily Before History. An Archaeological Survey from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age. Cornell University Press, Ithaca - New York 1999, pp. 147-183.
- Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri : The Bronze Age in Sicily . In: Harry Fokkens, Anthony Harding (eds.): The Oxford Handbook often the European Bronze Age . Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 658-662.