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Journal of archaeology and ancient architecture

Tag Archives: Ancient topography

Lapicidineæ (Perrieræ hodie dictæ) sunt, quas Macharenses fuisse. Latomie antiche a Vendicari (SR)

Author: L. Idà

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Tommaso Fazello is doubtless one of the founders of historical topography in Sicily. Thanks to his periegetic activity of archaeological research and his discoveries, the majority of the main Sicilian archaeological locations have been identified. The subject of this paper is the stone quarries near the port of Vendicari, mentioned by Tommaso Fazello in relation to the city of Maccara for which the exact location is still unknown. Based on survey activities conducted during a PhD research, some stone quarries have been documented in the coastal area of Vendicari saltwater swamps, located into three distinguished areas. According to technical and topographic aspects, these quarries can provide useful research ideas for the association between stone pulled out and ancient settlements, including Maccara.

Paesaggio rurale ed economia in età ellenistica nel territorio di Catania (Sicilia orientale)

Author: R. Brancato

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Paper’s aim is to outline the main developments in settlement organization in the Plain of Catania throughout the Hellenistic period: on the basis of the new available archaeological map, it is possible to attempt to fill our knowledge gap on “peripheral landscapes” of Eastern Sicily. A systematic research on the rural landscapes of the Plain of Catania started in 1996 when a series of topographic surveys were carried out according to the Forma Italiae Project’s methodology. Mostly covering the western portion of the plain of Catania, due to their unexploited potential, these topographical surveys are of great interest for any attempt at analysing rural landscapes and routes and road networks in antiquity: within the survey area (425 kmq) 132 archaeological sites were identified, dating from the Neolithic to the Medieval period. Together with the existing amount of legacy data available from eastern Sicily, the survey data were stored in the Ru.N.S (Rural Networks in Sicily) database. The results obtained through the use of the Ru.N.S database provide a vivid image of rural population trends in Hellenistic Sicily, and may help in reconstructing the organization of the rural landscapes throughout the transition from the Greek to the Roman period.