0000000000642691

AUTHOR

Stefano Vassallo

Archaeobotanical analysis from the long-term rural settlement of Contrada Castro (Corleone, Palermo): preliminary data

The project ¿Harvesting Memories: Ecology and Archaeology of Monti Sicani landscapes¿ aims to analyse the long-term relationship of landscape dynamics and settlement patterns in a Mediterranean inland of Central-Western Sicily. The project combined different interdisciplinary approaches of vegetation science, landscape ecology, history and archaeology in order to diachronically understand and reconstruct the human- society-environment interactions. From 2017 to 2019 a new rural settlement has been investigated in Contrada Castro (Corleone, Palermo). The excavation in Contrada Castro showed a clear case of long-term occupation of an hill-top site during Late Archaic/Classical age (6 th -5 th…

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Obsidian from the Site of Piano dei Cardoni, Ustica (Palermo, Italy): Preliminary Results on the First Occupation of the Island

Abstract New investigations on Ustica (Palermo, Sicily) originated from the need to improve our knowledge of the island’s archaeological and environmental heritage. Through field surveys, particular attention was paid to human occupation in the Neolithic phases and focused on the less investigated southern side of the island. The systematic survey of the area of Piano dei Cardoni in 2018 brought to light a new Middle/Late Neolithic site, already partially documented in the literature. The island was settled for the first time during these phases, as also testified from the area of Punta Spalmatore. The presence of Serra d’Alto, incised dark burnished, and Diana styles suggests that the site…

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The diverse genetic origins of a Classical period Greek army.

Trade and colonization caused an unprecedented increase in Mediterranean human mobility in the first millennium BCE. Often seen as a dividing force, warfare is in fact another catalyst of culture contact. We provide insight into the demographic dynamics of ancient warfare by reporting genome-wide data from fifth-century soldiers who fought for the army of the Greek Sicilian colony of Himera, along with representatives of the civilian population, nearby indigenous settlements, and 96 present-day individuals from Italy and Greece. Unlike the rest of the sample, many soldiers had ancestral origins in northern Europe, the Steppe, and the Caucasus. Integrating genetic, archaeological, isotopic, …

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I thermà loutrà di Termini Imerese dalla presenza mitica di Eracle alle terme romane

Le sorgenti calde di Termini Imerese sono legate nel mito raccontato da Diodoro alla presenza di Eracle fin dall'età arcaica. La popolarità dell'eroe nell'isola è confermata dall'evidenza archeologica non solo nella colonia greca di Himera, ma anche nel suo territorio. E' probabile che un edificio termale esistesse nell'area prima dell'età romana, ma è solo dopo la deduzione di una colonia romana a Thermae in età augustea che venne costruito un edificio monumentale riccamente decorato, messo parzialmente in luce da recenti scavi. The thermal springs of Termini Imerese are linked in myth to the presence of Herakles from the Archaic period. The relationship between the tale told by Diodoros o…

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