History of Sicily

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                                             Telamons and Atlantes (or Atlas figures)





– These imposing giants from Agrigento, more often referred to as atlantes, are sometimes called Telomons (Telamone in Italian) after the Latin word derived by the Romans from the Greek, Telamo(n) which indicated their function, that is to carry or bear, in this case the structure.

                                   

Their supporting mode is accentuated by their position, with arms bent back to balance the weight upon their shoulders.

The more common term alludes to the mythological figure Atlas, the giant and leader of the Titans who struggled against the gods of Olympus and was condemned by Zeus to support the weight of the sky
on his head.

When the earth was discovered to be spherical, he was often shown bearing the terrestrial globe on bis shoulders.



http://www.valdinoto.com/english/valley_of_temples.htm

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                         Evidence of pre-Greek civilization discovered in Sicily's Valley of Temples






Jan. 19, 2006
ANSA.it :

"Archaeologists working in Sicily's Valley of the Temples have found traces of a settlement thought to pre-date
the famous Greek temples built there in around 600 BC .

The valley near Agrigento on Sicily's southern coast is one of Europe's most important archeological sites. It marks
a sacred area built when Greeks landed there to start the civilisation of Magna Grecia in southern Italy .

The discovery of a structure possibly built before the Greeks arrived came during preparatory work ahead of a project to shore up the ground near the Temple of Hera. Archaeologists uncovered a mysterious walled structure
on top of which ancient Greeks had apparently built a shrine and a burial ground .

Until now it has been thought that Agrigento was settled by the Greeks soon after they began starting colonies
in much of the Mediterranean in the 7th century BC .

Pietro Meli, head of the agency which administrates the Valley of the Temples archaeological park, noted that the settlement appeared to have been built along the line of the ancient road to Gela, a town about 70 km southeast
of Agrigento ."

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                                                Ancient Greek ship fished from sea



                                   Vessel found off Sicilian coast is the largest of its kind






(ANSA) -
Gela, Sicily
July 28, 2008

An ancient Greek trading ship that had lain on the seabed off the coast of Gela in southern Sicily for 2,500 years was brought to the surface for the first time on Monday. The ancient Greek vessel is 21 metres long and 6.5 metres wide, making it by far the biggest of its kind ever discovered. Four Greek vessels found off the coasts of Israel, Cyprus and France are at most 15 metres long.

The one in Gela is also of particular value for scholars who will be able to delve into Greek naval construction techniques thanks to the amazing find of still-intact hemp ropes used to 'sew' together the pine planks in its hull - a technique described in Homer's Iliad. ''Gela's ancient ship is the patrimony not only of Sicily but of all humanity,'' said Sicily's regional councillor for culture Antonello Antinoro, who watched Monday's operation.

The campaign to bring the vessel to the surface began shortly after two scuba divers located it by chance in 1988.

Archaeologists believe the ship sank in a storm some 800 metres off the coast while transporting goods from the Greek colony in Gela back to Greece in around 500 BC.

The bow of the ship, along with an astounding array of amphorae, drinking cups, oil lamps and woven baskets, were brought to the surface in 2003. On Monday coastguards and experts from the Caltanissetta culture department salvaged the rest of the vessel using a boat equipped with a crane able to lift loads of up to 200 tonnes.

Around 20 other support craft joined the operation, sounding their fog horns when the wreck finally emerged from the water.

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UK TEAM TO RECONSTRUCT SHIP.



Sicilian archaeologists have long hoped that the find will convince the world that Gela played a key role in ancient times as a major trading centre in the Mediterranean.

Local officials hope the vessel will also turn the city into an attraction for culture lovers. ''This moment signals the rebirth of Gela,'' said culture department head Rosalba Panvini. ''The city's real history has emerged after 2,500 years, but the story doesn't end here,'' she added.

The pieces of the ship will be kept immersed in tanks full of the protective chemical polyethylene glycol before being transported to Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, where experts at the Mary Rose Archaeological Services will conserve and reconstruct the vessel. The culture department says it eventually plans to build a sea museum in Gela with the ship as the key exhibit.

Antinoro said Sicily's regional government was meanwhile raising the funds to recover another ship discovered near the ancient Greek vessel ''in the next few months''.

Gela was founded by settlers from Rhodes and Crete in the late 7th century BC and saw its pinnacle under the tyrants Hippocrates and Gelon, who also conquered neighbouring Syracuse.

The city gradually lost its political importance although it still played a major cultural role and the Greek playwright Aeschylus spent the last years of his life there.

It was destroyed and rebuilt many times and reconstructed by Frederick II in 1233.



Photo: The wreck of the ancient ship.



http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2008-07-28_128240910.html



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                                             2,500-Year-Old Greek Ship Raised off Sicilian Coast






Maria Cristina Valsecchi
in Rome
for National Geographic News
August 11, 2008

An ancient Greek ship recently raised off the coast of southern Sicily, Italy, is the biggest and best maintained vessel of its kind ever found, archaeologists say.

At a length of nearly 70 feet (21 meters) and a width of 21 feet (6.5 meters), the 2,500-year-old craft is the largest recovered ship built in a manner first depicted in Homer's Iliad, which is believed to date back several centuries earlier.

The ship's outer shell was built first, and the inner framework was added later. The wooden planks of the hull were sewn together with ropes, with pitch and resin used as sealant to keep out water.

Carlo Beltrame, professor of marine archaeology at the Università Ca' Foscari in Venice, said the boat, found near the town of Gela, is among the most important finds in the Mediterranean Sea.

"Greek sewn boats have been found in Italy, France, Spain, and Turkey. Gela's wreck is the most recent and the best preserved," Beltrame said.





After 25 Centuries



The Italian Coast Guard helped archaeologists pull the wreck to the surface last month.

A floating crane lifted the main segment, a 36-foot (11-meter) chunk, and dragged it to land. The remains were then plunged into a tank of fresh water to remove the salt from the wood.

"The vessel was a mercantile sailer, probably used to sail short stretches along the coast, docking frequently to load and unload," said Rosalba Panvini, head of the Cultural Heritage Department of Sicily, who directed the raising operations.

Recovered artifacts—including cups, two-handled jars called amphoras, oil lamps, pottery, and fragments of straw baskets—reveal details of the ship's journey before it sank, Panvini said.

"The vessel stopped in Athens, then in the Peloponnese Peninsula," Panvini said. "It sailed up the western coast of Greece, crossed the Otranto Channel, coasted along Italy, and pointed to Sicily."

(See a map of this region.)

The ship was headed for Gela, then a Greek colony. About a half mile (800 meters) off the coast, a storm probably tilted the ship. The ballast broke the hull, and the vessel went down, where it lay on the muddy seabed for 25 centuries.

In 1988 two scuba divers discovered the remains and informed the Sicilian Cultural Heritage Department.

It took 20 years to recover the whole vessel, which will now be sent to Portsmouth, U.K., to be restored before it returns to Gela. Officials hope to display the restored ship in a planned new sea museum.






A Sewn Boat



Beltrame, of the Università Ca' Foscari, said the ship—"part of a family of archaic Greek vessels"—is something of a missing link in the evolution of naval engineering.

"It shows a mix of sewing and mortise-and-tenon joints—a different technique that later prevailed in shipbuilding," Beltrame said, referring to joints in which a protrusion in one piece of wood inserts into a cavity in another.

Roberto Petriaggi of the Italian Central Institute for Restoration said Greeks were not the only people in the region to build ships using the sewing method.

"Technical knowledge spread easily around the Mediterranean Basin," he said. "We have finds proving that Egyptians and Phoenician-Punic people used that method, too."

[Vito Spartichino]

Wonderful giants!  I did not know that such great statues even existed, they should be considered one of the marvels of the Mediterranean world.

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WELCOME


To Atlantis On Line, Vito!!!

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                                                             Behind the Trinacria






The symbol dates back to when Sicily was part of Magna Grecia. People attribute the origin of the Trinacria, to the triangular form of the island, which consists of three large capes equidistant from each other, pointing in their respective directions, the names of which were Pelorus, Pachynus and Lilybaeum.
But for a symbol that must be older than any cartographic conception of the island, there are surely other interpretations, since this symbol is associated with a multitude of triads.e


While the greeks called it Triskele, The Celtics called it Triskelion and the Romans Trinacrium, meaning "star with 3 points", other Spiral forms of Trinacria are often classed as solar symbols ; supposedly Pagans. Since earliest ages, the concept of the Great Goddess was a trinity and the model for all subsequent trinities, female, male or mixed. The Goddess Triformis ruled heaven as Virgin, earth as Mother, and the underworld as Crone, or Hel, or Queen of the Shades. This was remembered even in Chaucer’s time, for his Palamon invoked her “Three Forms,” Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, Proserpine in hell. (See, Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales at 81, 511). The old name of Sicily, Trinacria, invoked her as a “center of the earth” with three realms.


Besides, the Trinacria is quite similar to the three-legged heraldic symbol of the Isle of Man, another medieval Norman dominion, but all pagan religions were soon stomped out by the rise of Christianity, and today the official history of Sicilian Trinacria is only to be attributed to Greek legends.


The head in the center of today's Trinacria was that of Medusa, whose hair was turned into snakes by the outraged goddess Athene. In their wisdom, the Sicilian parliament, which uses the Trinacria as its Flag, replaced the Medusa head with one that is less threatening to the innocent onlooker who, after all, should not be anticipating being turned to stone....

     

                           




http://siciliamo.blogspot.com/2007/04/symbol-dates-back-to-when-sicily-was.html

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Sicily, Himera ® Hemilitron, 17.63 mm , 4.99 gms; 400-380 BC


Obv: Head of nymph Himera left, six pellets before.

Rev: Six pellets within laureal wreath.

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SICILY, Syracuse. Agathokles. 317-289 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.88 gm). Circa 310-305 BC


Wreathed head of Artemis-Arethusa left, three dolphins swimming around, [NK] below neck
Charioteer driving galloping quadriga left, holding kentron in right hand, reins in left; triskeles above,

SURAKOSIWN and AI monogram in exergue.



http://tjbuggey.ancients.info/Greek.html

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                                                     Huge necropolis unearthed in Sicily


                                     Ancient babies' beakers discovered along with skeletons






 (ANSA) -
Palermo,
November 11 - 2008

Archaeologists working at the ancient Greek city of Himera in northern Sicily have uncovered what they now believe to be the largest Greek necropolis on the island.

Although experts have long known about the burial ground, they have only recently understood its importance because of building work to extend a local railway track. Hundreds of graves have already been uncovered but archaeologists believe there are thousands more waiting to be found in the burial ground of the city, which rose to prominence more than 2,500 years ago.

''The necropolis is of an extraordinary beauty and notable dimensions,'' Sicily's regional councillor for culture, Antonello Antinoro, said Tuesday.

''Preliminary estimates indicate the presence of around 10,000 tombs, which gives the site a good claim to being one of the most important discoveries of recent years,'' he said.

Among the most exciting finds are skeletons of newborn babies placed inside funerary amphorae along with the ancient version of babies' beakers - small terracotta vases equipped with spouts to function as feeding bottles.

Most of the graves in the necropolis date from between the sixth and fifth centuries BC, and archaeologists believe that many of the tombs contain the remains of thousands of soldiers, civilians and prisoners who died during two bloody battles that took place in the city.

In the 480 BC Battle of Himera, a massive army from Carthage, in modern-day Tunisia, suffered a dismal defeat as it tried to help the city's ousted leader, Terillus, reclaim his throne from Theron, the ruler of modern-day Agrigento.

But in a second battle in 409 BC, the Carthaginians returned to Himera, which had great strategic military importance, and razed the city to the ground, slaughtering a good part of its residents and deporting the rest to Carthage.

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SKELETONS SHOW SIGNS OF BATTLE WOUNDS.



Stefano Vassallo, who heads the dig, said archaeologists were excited to have found a common grave containing a dozen bodies, all of whom he said were young, male and showed unequivocal signs of a violent death in battle.

Some of the skeletons bear the signs of being hit by heavy objects, while others still have arrows attached to them, Vassallo said.

He added that skeletons found in the necropolis would undergo analysis by forensic anthropologists to determine information about the population's lifestyle and eating habits.

In addition to the huge numbers of human remains, the necropolis is gradually offering up a significant haul of funerary goods buried alongside the bodies such as oil-lamps, bowls, and ceramics.

Finds are being transferred to a small museum at the site, where they will be catalogued and restored before going on display at a new museum to be built at nearby Termini Imerese.

Sicily's regional councillor for culture, Antonello Antinoro, said he would put the wheels in motion to create a national archaeological park at Himera in light of the new discoveries.

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Ruins at Himera

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            Temple Of Nike at Himera

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Himera was the first Greek settlement on the north coast, founded from Zankle (later Messana, now Messina) c. 649 BC, on a site guarding an important river crossing, and undoubtedly marked an attempt to limit Carthaginian influence. It was the birthplace (c. 630 BC) of the poet Stesichorus (most famous as the originator of the alternative myth of Helen - she never went to Troy, but was spirited away to Egypt and a phantom substituted for Paris to take home. This forms the basis of the plot of Euripides' Helen.).

By the early 5th century BC, the strategic importance of the site attracted Theron of Akragas - he expelled the home-grown tyrant Terillus, who immediately appealed to Carthage. Under Hamilcar, the Carthaginians launched a massive expedition - against Himera, which was however decisively defeated by Theron with help from Gelon of Syracuse. Legend had it that this was on the same day that the Persians under Xerxes were defeated at Salamis (and possibly the two attacks were coordinated), back in the old country. Hamilcar committed suicide - throwing himself on to the the pyre where his soldiers' corpses were being cremated, according to Carthaginian tradition.

Theron's victory led to nearly a century of Greek supremacy in Sicily. However, punishment could not be put of for ever. In 409, the Carthaginians, under Hamilacar's nephew Hannibal, fresh from their destruction of Selinus, returned and obliterated the town. The site has been desolate ever since - the citizens who survived (300 leading men were crucified ) were resettled by the Carthaginians at Thermai Himeraiai - now Termini (note loss of the baths!) Imerese. It was the birthplace (c. 361 BC) of Agathocles, 'King of Sicily', whose attempts to drive out the Carthaginians completely ended tamely in a treaty recognising respective spheres of influence.

Between the railway and the autostrada can be found what Hannibal left of the great Doric Temple of Victory (Nike) - set up in honour of the victory in 480 BC. Carthaginian prisoners supplied the labour for its construction. Despite the setting - and there's a huge industrial complex nearby - the ruin is still evocative, and well worth a visit.

There's a museum the other side of the railway track, but in three visits to Himera, I have never found it open. Good luck! At the top of the hill is the site of the ancient city - now extensively excavated. There's a sanctuary where the remains of 4 temples have been found: this would once have been a city on only a slightly lesser scale Akragas or Selinus. There are excellent views from here, even if you have no interest in archaeology!



http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/sicily/himera.htm