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Un salto indietro nel tempo: siamo nell'età del Bronzo medio, a Thapsos, la penisola di Magnisi, vicino Priolo: il mare univa, la nostra terra accoglieva....a cura del Parco archeologico di Siracusa Eloro e villa del Tellaro.
da RAIplay. Dalla parte opposta di Augusta c'è un'area particolare: quella archeologica della necropoli di Thapsos. Le tombe scavate a pochi metri dalla costa e rivolte verso il mare, vicino al faro di Magnisi, presentano un canale per il deflusso dell'acqua che inevitabilmente, durante le mareggiate forti, finiva per lambire o ricoprire la lastra sepolcrale a chiusura dello stesso sepolcro. Tutta questa straordinaria area archeologica ricade però all'interno del distretto industriale. (voce narrante: Mario Tozzi )
abstract:
The archaeological site called Thapsos is a Middle Bronze Age site on the island of Sicily near Syracuse, and the type site for the Thapsos culture. The site dates between about 1400 and 1200 BC, and consists of a collection of round or oval huts and a huge cemetery of about 450 rock-cut tombs. Thapsos culture people were very fond of the classic Aegean Sea cultures, and their rock cut tombs are remiscent of traditional Mycenaean tholos tombs. The site was investigated by Paolo Orsi in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
It lies in south-eastern Sicily, in the gulf of Augusta, on a low-lying limestone promontory connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. The site was systematically investigated by Paolo Orsi at the end of XIXth century: these first researches were focused on the cemetery of rock-cut tombs, in the north-eastern part of the site, that yielded the first bulk of the local grey hand-made pottery along with a number of Mycenaean vessels. In the same period (between the end of the XIXth and the first years of the XXth century) Orsi unearthed a group of Middle Bronze Age cemeteries that were located around the eponymous centre: Cozzo del Pantano, Plemmirio, Matrensa, Molinello. These centres yielded both the local pottery and a few Mycenaean imports. In this area the archaeological investigations were resumed between the end of the 1960s and the first half of the 1980s, and were for the first time focused on the residential quarter on the isthmus of Thapsos site. Two elaborate rectangular complexes were unearthed, standing out from the circular huts of local tradition. The two structures were regarded, although not unanimously, to be of Mycenaean inspiration, similar to that found in the tholoi-like profile of a few rock-cut tombs. In these years a new area of Thapsos cemetery was investigated: the tombs A1 and D yielded local vessels along with Mycenaean and Cypriot pots.Subsequently, on the grounds of the different trends of use of the cemeteries under discussion, this paper focuses on sketching out the historical dynamics in south-eastern Sicily in the Middle Bronze Age, with special attention to the problematic cultural and chronological relationship with the following Pantalica Nord culture. During our last phase only Thapsos (and, possibly, Cozzo del Pantano) survives, while the other sites (Plemmirio, Matrensa, Molinello) seem to disappear. At the same moment the presence of a few (but meaningfully late in date) Thapsian sherds found at Pantalica (the name-site of the Late Bronze Age) could be explained by the transfer of people from the coast. This sign of insecurity could be linked to the Siculi's invasion from the Italian peninsula, which had a destructive effect on the Aeolian islands. Moreover, was this geo-political situation encouraged by the first problems suffered by the Mycenaean centres? In conclusion, as regards the relation between Thapsos and Pantalica Nord, our analysis agrees with the recent overall study of the Late Bronze Age culture, and strengthens Bernabò Breas historical frame based on the diachronic sequence between the Middle Bronze and Late Bronze Age cultures.
