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Archaeological excavations carried out in the town of Palermo revealed important traces of metallurgical activity related to the Punic Panormos. Five samples of iron slags, recovered during the digging, were characterized by micro-structural, mineralogical and chemical investigations as well as by environmental scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction and X-ray fluorescence. The studied remains are spongy, rust colored, with a plano-convex shape and their textural and mineralogical features suggest they are metallurgical slags produced during smithing process. Wüstite, magnetite, fayalite, kirschsteinite, hedembergite, cristobalite and quartz are the main identified mineral phases, while goethite, lepidocrocite and calcite occur as minor secondary phases. The iron slags show heterogeneous structures such as hammering clues, layering in wustite crystals and presence of calcium-rich minerals which are consistent with a broad variation of the forging temperature due to the use of different smithing techniques. This assumption is confirmed by the different crystallization temperatures of the detected mineral phases. Skeletal and dendritic shapes are indicative of rapid cooling and, possibly, quenching. The chemical composition is dominated by iron, silicon and calcium and it is almost constant for all the samples suggesting that they were produced with similar raw materials and technology. The high Ca content suggests the use of carbonate-bearing rocks, widely outcropping over the Palermo territory, probably exploited as fluxing ores for the metallurgical process. The multidisciplinary approach adopted in this study provided new data for a better understanding of the metallurgical techniques evolution in the Sicilian territory in ancient times. Since the studied iron slags represent the unique traces so far known of metallurgical activity in the ancient Palermo town, our results open interesting perspectives for future study of metallurgy in ancient Sicily.

The reconstruction of ecclesiastical geography of Christian origins constitutes one of the most current fields of study of Postclassical Archeology in Europe. The contribution aims to update current knowledge on the state of research in Sicily in the light of the new data acquired from archeology.

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the preliminary results of research (intrasite survey and excavation) carried out from 2013 to 2017 in the fortified settlement of Terravecchia di Cuti. The intrasite survey allowed to select the excavation area. Some walls, part of two distinct buildings, have been identified: the most interesting structure is a large room, perhaps a courtyard, around which there are at least three rooms. Remains of pithoi are in the rooms, and two on the courtyard floor. Remains of other walls have also been identified, different in orientation and composition compared to the structures described; these walls are older than the buildings 1 and 2. Finally, it seems that the abandonment of the courtyard and the surroundings is to be placed at the end of the fifth century BC, while elements to date the previous structures are missing.

Ha osservato Sebastiano Tusa: «Al di là delle immense e svariate risorse materiali che il mare ha offerto ed offre all’uomo, ve ne sono altre che attengono alla sfera sovrastrutturale che hanno nei millenni rifornito ed animato l’immensa enciclopedia dei miti, delle leggende e dei culti ad esso ispirati o, comunque, connessi». Distesa senza confini e abisso insondabile, il mare, con le sue repentine mutazioni di stato, le sue furiose tempeste e le sue mortifere bonacce, si è sempre imposto a chi lo solcava per raggiungere altri luoghi o per ricavarne da vivere come spazio del pericolo e del mistero, generando e sostenendo un ampio e polimorfo immaginario e divenendo attore e scenario al contempo di avventure, di storie e di miti molteplici: ecco Gilgamesh sfidare l’abisso infinito per raccogliere la pianta di vita; ecco Osiride, rinchiuso in una bara dal malvagio fratello Seth, vagare sulle onde fino a giungere esanime a Biblo; ecco Marduk gettarsi tra i flutti per uccidere la mostruosa Tiamat, smembrarla e così dar forma al mondo; ecco Ercole solcare superfici schiumose alla volta dell’isola di Creta; ecco Teseo sfidare Minosse e immergersi nelle profondità marine per raccogliere un anello prezioso; ecco Arianna piangere disperata sulla deserta Nasso; ecco Eolo amministrare i venti dalla sua reggia alle Lipari; ecco ancora Odisseo scortato dai Feaci, Enea che approda a Cartagine, Palinuro inghiottito dalle onde… Ecco il mare, il nostro Mare di mezzo, il mare “colore del vino”, teatro unico di storie mitiche e miti storici, di mille Argonautiche e di mille Odissee; spazio in cui dimorano – in piccole e grandi isole, sulle spiagge, nelle grotte, tra le onde, nel profondo abissi – infinite potenze e divinità: Yam, Iside, Poseidone, Forchis, Tritone, Teti, Anfitrite e le Nereidi, Calipso e le Oceanine; deserto d’acqua e di sale popolato da entità e da mostri d’ogni sorta: le Sirene ammaliatrici, Scilla e Cariddi che strappano e inghiottono naviganti e imbarcazioni, l’orribile Ketos sconfitto da Perseo, Glauco e altri ibridi uomini ittioformi, streghe dai lunghi capelli e draconiche trombe marine…. Questi e tanti altri i mostri, le divinità, gli eroi e le loro avventure, che di porto in porto, di barca in barca, sin dalla preistoria hanno attraversato lo spazio mediterraneo fino ad approdare nel folklore contemporaneo Sebastiano Tusa observed: "Beyond the immense and varied material resources that the sea has offered and offers to man, there are others that pertain to the superstructural sphere that over the millennia have supplied and animated the immense encyclopedia of myths, legends and cults inspired by it or, in any case, connected to it ». Expanse without borders and unfathomable abyss, the sea, with its sudden changes of state, its furious storms and its deadly calm, has always imposed itself on those who sailed it to reach other places or to make a living from it as a space of danger and of the mystery, generating and sustaining a large and polymorphous imaginary and becoming an actor and scenario at the same time of adventures, stories and multiple myths: here is Gilgamesh challenging the infinite abyss to collect the plant of life; here is Osiris, locked up in a coffin by his evil brother Seth, wandering on the waves until he reaches Byblos lifeless; here is Marduk throwing himself into the waves to kill the monstrous Tiamat, dismember her and thus shape the world; here is Hercules furrowing foamy surfaces towards the island of Crete; here is Teseo challenging Minos and plunging into the depths of the sea to collect a precious ring; here is Arianna crying desperately on the deserted Naxos; here is Aeolus administering the winds from his palace to Lipari; here again Odysseus escorted by the Phaeacians, Aeneas arriving in Carthage, Palinuro swallowed up by the waves ... Here is the sea, our Middle Sea, the "wine color" sea, unique theater of mythical stories and historical myths, of a thousand Argonautics and a thousand Odyssey; space where they live - in small and large islands, on beaches, in caves, among the waves, in the deep abysses - infinite powers and divinities: Yam, Isis, Poseidon, Forchis, Triton, Teti, Amphitrite and the Nereids, Calypso and the Oceanine; desert of water and salt populated by entities and monsters of all sorts: the enchanting Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis who tear and swallow sailors and boats, the horrible Ketos defeated by Perseus, Glaucus and other hybrid ichthyoform men, witches from long hair and draconic sea trumpets…. These and many other monsters, gods, heroes and their adventures, which from port to port, from boat to boat, have crossed the Mediterranean space since prehistoric times to land in contemporary folklore

The candelabrum for the Easter candle in the Palatine Chapel in Palermo is in many ways one of the emblematic examples of Norman sculpture in Sicily, to be placed in the context of a broader Mediterranean current, classicistic and highly expressive, which includes contemporary productions of Tuscany, Emilia, Provence, Ile-de-France, Roussillon and Languedoc, Catalonia, up to the Holy Land of the Crusaders. This essay examines its complex iconography and proposes new hypotheses about its probable client or donor, the Archbishop of Salerno and chronicler Romualdo Guarna..

The fortuitous discovery below the backfill, of an old still perfectly intact stone bridge, called us for a search on the age and construction techniques employed. Through the analysis of ancient sources, the historical current mapping, chronicles of the time, it has outlined the history of the river Oreto crossing system, the expansion of the city to the area of the bridge, finding those social practices that have made that peculiar name. The study also traced the building phases of the different structures that have taken place on the site, by the end of the sixteenth century, up to a few years ago. We have found new information and unpublished images, useful for interpreting the purely technical issues, along with those related to the viability and development of the city.