Tomba del Principe (Cava d'Ispica)

The Tomba del Principe ( German grave of the prince ) is the largest rock grave in the necropolis of Baravitalla in the Cava d'Ispica in the open community consortium Ragusa in the southeast of Sicily .

The Cava d'Ispica is a 16 km long valley in which u. a. archaeological sites of the early Bronze Age Castelluccio culture (approx. 2200–1500 BC) lie. The necropolis originally consisted of around 50 artificial caves carved into the limestone.

description

One of the graves is more important than the others due to its monumental character. For this reason it has been called the “Prince's Tomb”. The slightly concave exedra is about four meters long and decorated with a row of 10 pilasters carved out of the rock . The stop frame and a short, wide antechamber are located behind the entrance, which is widened to accommodate a closure plate, in the center of the exedra. A second but smaller access structure leads into the oval main chamber, which is adjoined by a large secondary chamber on the left. The holes for the door bracket are still preserved on the sides of the rear entrance. A completely similar exedra can be found in the Cava Lazzaro.

context

Unlike Malta and Sardinia , there were no rock tombs in Sicily during the Chalcolithic Period. The Sicilian archaeologist G. Tusa suspects that the rock tombs of the Sicilian Bronze Age are the result of cultural influences from Malta. The "Ipogei di Calaforno" are a prime example. A completely similar exedra as in the Tomba del Principe can be found in the Cava Lazzaro. This makes it clear that part of the population of Malta left the islands during the phase of temple culture. This emigration can be proven in the early Bronze Age of Sicily through the rock architecture. In 1982 G. di Stefano excavated the Tomba del Principe rock grave of the early Castelluccio culture on a step in the Contrada Baravitalla , which is amazingly reminiscent of Maltese temple and rock architecture. On a smaller scale, the design of the exedra almost perfectly repeats the niche rhythm of the rock architecture in the Maltese hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni . The access design for the door openings corresponds to that in Maltese hypogea or temples.

Not far from Baravitalla, in the 1980s, the remains of a village of the Castelluccio culture were identified in the form of holes for the support posts of the huts.

literature

Ippolito Cafici: Nuove indagini paleoetnologiche nella tomba neolitica di Calaforno (provincia di Siracusa) e considerazioni sui tempi preistorici in Sicilia. 1884
Salvatore Piccolo: Ancient Stones The prehistoric Dolmens of Sicily. Brazen Head Publishing, Abingdon 2013 ISBN 978-0-9565106-2-4 , pp. 13ff.

Individual evidence

↑ 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, pp. 653ff. Other authors attribute the late phases of the Castelluccio culture to the early phases of the Middle Sicilian Bronze Age, cf. Reinhard Jung: ΧΡΟΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ COMPARATA. Comparative chronology of southern Greece and southern Italy from approx. 1700/1600 to 1000 BCE Vienna 2006, p. 173.

Web links

36.859798 14.83074Coordinates: 36 ° 51 ′ 35.3 " N , 14 ° 49 ′ 50.7" E

[1] 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, pp. 653ff. Other authors attribute the late phases of the Castelluccio culture to the early phases of the Middle Sicilian Bronze Age, cf. Reinhard Jung: ΧΡΟΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ COMPARATA. Comparative chronology of southern Greece and southern Italy from approx. 1700/1600 to 1000 BCE Vienna 2006, p. 173.