Agrigento (Sicily)

Starting from 2021 the archaeological mission continues as part of the research activities of the Department of Cultural Heritage - DBC. For updates, see the new webpage (Italian version).

Archaeological mission coordinator/director

Giuseppe Lepore

Period of activity

2016-2021

Overview

The Hellenistic-Roman Quarter represents one of the most interesting and significant residential areas of the ancient city of Akragas, an ancient foundation by Gela and people from the islands of Rhodes and Crete from 580 BC. The city was huge: more than 400 hectares, surrounded by walls (12 km, with 9 gates), located 3 km from the coast and strategically surrounded by hills: the Girgenti hill and the Atenea cliff to the north (probable acropolis with the two sanctuaries of Zeus Atabirio and Athena) and the hill of the Temples to the south. 

The Hellenistic-Roman Quarter is located in the very middle of the city and represents one of the best documented living contexts in Sicily: at least four insulae (blocks), divided in half by a longitudinal ambitus, include houses from the Archaic period to the early Middle Ages. The houses mostly characteristic scheme known as “a pastàs”, often transformed into a peristyle during the Roman age. The new study and research project, which always maintains a strong didactic value, proposes a global approach to an archaeological context, in various phases:

review and reorganization of archival documentation from previous years (drawings, plans and material from the 1950s)

geophysical investigations to define the urban layout of the neighborhood and, where possible, the oldest phases of housing

new survey of the structures for a new analysis of the relationships between the walls and for the definition of the chronological phases. This work flows into the creation of a digital model of the entire island and of an information database, also useful for diagnostics for conservation and enhancement

Study of the forms of living from the archaic age to the Middle Ages, with particular attention to the form of the so-called Hellenistic house a pastàs

Study of wall paintings and stucco moldings ("Pinxerunt" Project with Valentina Caminneci del Parco), through the organization of workshops, Field Schools and international seminars (2018 Hellenistic painting from Macedonia to Sicily. The case of Agrigento, 2019 The forms of living in the Mediterranean: the case of Agrigento and the exhibition The colors of Agrigentum at the Regional Archaeological Museum "P. Griffo")

Study of the production aspects of the neighborhood, according to the methods of modern "production archeology" (agricultural production, furnaces, lime, sulfur)

Study of the cd. "Archeology of the rite", declined in the definition of the private sacred and the rituals of foundation and abandonment of individual housing units

Diagnostics for the conservation and monitoring of archaeological structures, in anticipation of restoration and maintenance operations. 

The working group includes Enrico Giorgi, Vincenzo Baldoni, Enrico Cirelli, Federica Boschi, Michele Silani, Michele Scalici, Francesco Belfiori and the archaeologists of the Maria Concetta Parello Park, Valentina Caminneci and Maria Serena Rizzo.