The Thapsos Culture is defined as the civilization in ancient Sicily attested by archaeological findings of a large village located in the peninsula of Magnisi, between Augusta and Syracuse, that the Greeks called Thapsos.
I believe I have demonstrated the influence, albeit in a smaller scale of Mycenaean architecture in front of burials of the islet Magnisi; here that influence affirms for the most part. - Paolo Orsi. [1]
Scholars have determined that the period in which it flourished is between 1500 and 1200 BC, the so-called Middle Bronze Age. The Thapsos civilization developed in the entire Sicily although the main centers, which were sometimes enclosed by a fortification wall, were along the coast.
The Thapsos Culture was the subject of great interest of scholars like Paolo Orsi and Luigi Bernabò Brea. The research of Voza have confirmed the existence of three evolutionary phases:
The type of burial found in the necropolis is characterized by large rock-cut chamber tombs and often of tholos-type that some scholars believe it to be of derivation Mycenaean, while others derive it from the shape of the hut. The housing, in small number, are made up of mostly circular huts bounded by stone walls. Some huts have also rectangular shape. The economy was based on farming, herding, hunting and fishing. There are numerous evidences of trading, in particular of bronze vessels and weapons of Mycenaean production. They have established close relationships with the Milazzo Culture of the Aeolian Islands [2] and with the Apennine culture of mainland Italy.
The material culture includes dark surfaced ceramic, often decorated with incised motifs or with cords that form festoons. Characteristic are the large bowls with high horn-shaped feet, bowls, jugs and cups with bifurcated handles.
Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland. Crete is associated with the Minoan civilization from the Early Bronze Age. The Cycladic civilization converges with the mainland during the Early Helladic ("Minyan") period and with Crete in the Middle Minoan period. From c. 1450 BC, the Greek Mycenaean civilization spreads to Crete, probably by military conquest.
Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. The Mycenaeans were mainland Greek peoples who were likely stimulated by their contact with insular Minoan Crete and other Mediterranean cultures to develop a more sophisticated sociopolitical culture of their own. The most prominent site was Mycenae, after which the culture of this era is named. Other centers of power that emerged included Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece and Iolcos in Thessaly. Mycenaean settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the south-west coast of Asia Minor, Cyprus, while Mycenaean-influenced settlements appeared in the Levant, and Italy.
The Sicels were an Italic tribe who inhabited eastern Sicily during the Iron Age. Their neighbours to the west were the Sicani. The Sicels gave Sicily the name it has held since antiquity, but they rapidly fused into the culture of Magna Graecia.
Sicilians or the Sicilian people are a Romance speaking people who are indigenous to the island of Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the largest and most populous of the autonomous regions of Italy.
The Villanovan culture, regarded as the earliest phase of the Etruscan civilization, was the earliest Iron Age culture of Italy. It directly followed the Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture which branched off from the Urnfield culture of Central Europe. The name derives from the locality of Villanova, a fraction of the municipality of Castenaso in the Metropolitan City of Bologna where, between 1853 and 1855, Giovanni Gozzadini found the remains of a necropolis, bringing to light 193 tombs, of which there were 179 cremations and 14 inhumations.
The Necropolis of Pantalica is a collection of cemeteries with rock-cut chamber tombs in southeast Sicily, Italy. Dating from the 13th to the 7th centuries BC, there was thought to be over 5,000 tombs, although the most recent estimate suggests a figure of just under 4,000. They extend around the flanks of a large promontory located at the junction of the Anapo river with its tributary, the Calcinara, about 23 km (14 mi) northwest of Syracuse. Together with the city of Syracuse, Pantalica was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.
Thapsos was a prehistoric village in Sicily of the middle Bronze Age. It was found by the Italian archaeologist Paolo Orsi on the small peninsula of Magnisi, near Priolo Gargallo. In its vicinity was born the Thapsos culture, one of the most important prehistoric cultures in Sicily.
The European Bronze Age is characterized by bronze artifacts and the use of bronze implements. The regional Bronze Age succeeds the Neolithic and Copper Age and is followed by the Iron Age. It starts with the Aegean Bronze Age in 3200 BC (succeeded by the Beaker culture), and spans the entire 2nd millennium BC in Northern Europe, lasting until c. 600 BC.
The prehistory of Italy began in the Paleolithic period, when species of Homo colonized the Italian territory for the first time, and ended in the Iron Age, when the first written records appeared in Italy.
Akrai was a Greek colony founded in Sicily by the Syracusans in 663 BC. It was located near the modern Palazzolo Acreide.
The hill of Sant'Ippolito, known by the name of “Colle del Bersaglio”, is a hill located in the Italian town of Caltagirone, in Sicily. It is made of gypsum, it is about 400 m high, and rises from the valley that is formed by the course of the river Caltagirone.
The Nuragic civilization, also known as the Nuragic culture, was a civilization or culture on Sardinia (Italy), the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, which lasted from the 18th century BC up to the Roman colonization in 238 BC. Others date the culture as lasting at least until the 2nd century AD and in some areas, namely the Barbagia, to the 6th century AD or possibly even to the 11th century AD.
The Torrean civilization was a Bronze Age megalithic civilization that developed in Southern Corsica, mostly concentrated south of Ajaccio, during the second half of the second millennium BC.
Castelluccio culture is an archaeological feature dating to Ancient Bronze Age of the prehistoric civilization of Sicily, originally identified by Paolo Orsi on the basis of a particular ceramic style, in the homonymous village, between Noto and Siracusa.
Cava del Rivettazzo is a Sicel necropolis located about 4 km north of Solarino on the SP 28 to Sortino.
The Cathedral of Syracuse, formally the Cattedrale metropolitana della Natività di Maria Santissima, is an ancient Catholic church in Syracuse, Sicily, the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Siracusa. Its structure is originally a Greek doric temple, and for this reason it is included in a UNESCO World Heritage Site designated in 2005.
Vassallaggi is a Sicilian prehistoric Bronze Age archaeological site, located on the hill of the same name, which had a later flourishing after the 7th century BC as a phrourion (fortress). The site is located in the middle of the Salso river valley, at 704 m above sea level, near San Cataldo in the province of Caltanissetta, in a strategic location for communication between the southern coast of Sicily and the northern part of the island. It has a NE-SW orientation and stretches along in parallel with the SS 122 San Cataldo-Serradifalco.
The archaeological park of Sabucina, located on the mountain of the same name near Caltanissetta, is an archaeological site in Sicily. The area contains settlements ranging from the Bronze Age to the Roman period.
The Archaeology of Greece includes artificial remains, geographical landscapes, architectural remains, and biofacts. The history of Greece as a country and region is believed to have begun roughly 1–2 million years ago when Homo erectus first colonized Europe. From the first colonization, Greek history follows a sequential pattern of development alike to the rest of Europe. Neolithic, Bronze, Iron and Classical Greece are highlights of the Greek archaeological record, with an array of archaeological finds relevant to these periods.
Herbessos was an ancient city located at Montagna di Marzo, Sicily, a few kilometres north-west of Piazza Armerina.
