THE RIPARO SAN TOMMASO AND THE RITUAL LANDSCAPES OF CENTRAL SICILY BETWEEN THE 2ND AND THE 1ST MILLE
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-10-24

The Riparo San Tommaso is a vast rock shelter located immediately south-east of Enna (central Sicily), along a deep gourge cut by the Torcicoda river in the rocky substratum formed by marls and calcarenites dating from the lower to the middle Pliocene. In the shelter several trenches opened between 2000 and 2010 allowed to investigate an archaeological deposit dating between the Late Copper Age and the Iron Age. Micromorphological analyses suggest that, in the earliest phases, the shelter was used seasonally mainly by shepherds for the stabling of animals (ovis/capra and sus d.), although for these prehistoric periods there are evidence that indicate its use also for ritual and funerary purposes, such as the deposition of deer antlers and miniaturized vessels dating to the Early Bronze Age. From the Late Bronze Age and throughout the Iron Age, the seasonal frequentation of the shelter involved its use exclusively as a riverine sanctuary. Such a sacred meaning is evidenced by the monumentalization of the structures built inside it and by the presence of various votive offerings, with the deposition of young animals and of indigenous and imported ceramics. Its hidden location within the Torcicoda gorge, distant from the main communication routes, makes this a site accessible only intentionally by those who had specific knowledge, reasons or wishes to reach it. While the various contemporaneous sanctuaries known in central and western Sicily were actively used by local elites in order to establish and to consolidate hierarchical status and power within their communities, the San Tommaso shrine, active up to the end of 6th century BC, was probably used directly by Greek colonists as meeting point for interactions and exchange with indigenous communities, a social and religious liminal place acting as a redistribution locus between the economy of inner Sicily and the coast.


Author(s): Giannitrapani, Enrico (Arkeos - Servizi integrati per i Beni Culturali s.c.)