sicily and the sea

www.allardpiersonmuseum.nl ALLARD PIERSON MUSEUM

SICILY and the Sea

and the Sea SICILY

Earth Snapshot, Copyright © 2008-2015 Chelys srl, all rights reserved

Palermo

Syracuse

Catania

Agrigento

Himera

Naxos

Messina

SelinuntePiazza

Armerina

Enna

MarsalaMazara del

Vallo

Cefalù

Morgantina

Thapsus

Pantelleria

Aegadian Islands

Aeolian Islands

THE GELA WRECK

THE CAPISTELLO WRECK

THE PANAREA III WRECK

Mozia

THE WRECKS OF CAMARINA

THE SCIACCA WRECK

THE SCAURI WRECK

1 THE LEVANZO WRECK

3 THE MARAUSA WRECK

2 THE WRECK OF CALA GALERA

4 THE WRECKS OF LIDO SIGNORINO

THE WRECK OF SAN VITO LO CAPO

THE MONDELLO WRECK

4

31

2

Gela

Taormina

Mt. Etna Trapani

Reggio

Sicily. Island of myths and monsters, meeting place of cultures, hub of naval trade routes, source of artistic inspi-ration and of great material wealth, and much-coveted strategic location in the Mediterranean. Phoenician and

Greek colonists were the fi rst outsiders to settle on Sicily and enjoy the riches that the sea and the fertile soil brought them.

They were followed by a bewildering variety of invaders over the ages: from Romans and Byzantines through Arabs and various European dynasties up to the Allies during the Second World War. All these cultures — sometimes living in peace, sometimes at war, always infl uencing each other — left their traces on the island itself and in the sea surrounding it.

Inspired by Sicily’s archaeological and cultural treasures, this book offers an overview — or perhaps rather an anthology, since a complete survey, if at all possible, would soon become stifl ing — of the island’s history and culture, paying attention not only to ancient and medieval shipwrecks, battles, economy and art, but also to typically Sicilian traditions (from folk-tales and tuna fi shing to mafi a fi ghters), modern politics, and the poets, novelists and fi lm makers who lived on Sicily or were inspired by its unique character.

Sicily_omslag_02M.indd 1 27-08-15 09:19

SICILIË


SICILIË en de zee

en de zee

Sicily. Island of myths and monsters, meeting place of cul-tures, hub of naval trade routes, source of artistic inspira-tion and of great material wealth, and much-coveted stra-tegic location in the Mediterranean. Phoenician and


They were followed by a bewildering variety of invaders over the ages: from Romans and Byzantines through Arabs and vari-ous European dynasties up to the Allies during the Second World War. All these cultures — sometimes living in peace, some-times at war, always infl uencing each other — left their traces on the island itself and in the sea surrounding it.

Inspired by Sicily’s archaeological and cultural treasures, this book offers an overview — or perhaps rather an anthology, since a complete survey, if at all possible, would soon become sti-fl ing — of the island’s history and culture, paying attention not only to ancient and medieval shipwrecks, battles, economy and art, but also to typically Sicilian traditions (from folk-tales and tuna fi shing to mafi a fi ghters), modern politics, and the poets, novelists and fi lm makers who lived on Sicily or were inspired by its unique character.


SICILY AND THE SEA

LOANSITALYRegione Siciliana, Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità siciliana, Dipartimento dei Beni culturali e dell’Identità siciliana:- Gela, Museo Archeologico Regionale- Camarina, Museo Regionale- Lipari, Museo Archeologico

Regionale ‘Luigi Bernabò Brea’- Marsala, Museo Archeologico

Regionale ‘Lilibeo – Baglio Anselmi’- Palermo, Museo Archeologico

Regionale ‘Antonino Salinas’- Palermo, Soprintendenza per i Beni

culturali e ambientali- Palermo, Soprintendenza per i Beni

culturali e ambientali del Mare- Solunto, Parco Archeologico- Siracusa, Museo Archeologico

Regionale ‘Paolo Orsi’- Siracusa, Soprintendenza per i Beni

culturali e ambientali- Trapani, Soprintendenza per i Beni

culturali e ambientaliCastelvetrano, Museo CivicoCatania, Museo Civico ‘Castello Ursino’

GERMANYMainz, Römisch-Germanisches

Zentralmuseum

THE NETHERLANDSAmsterdam, Amsterdam MuseumAmsterdam, Bijzondere Collecties

Universiteit van AmsterdamAmsterdam, De Nederlandsche BankAmsterdam, Divection Dive CenterAmsterdam, RijksmuseumAmsterdam, Het ScheepvaartmuseumAmsterdam, StadsarchiefDen Helder, Marinemuseum

This joint publication by the Allard Pierson Museum Amsterdam and the Soprintendenza del Mare in Palermo in cooperation with the Zenobia Foundation is published alongside the exhibition Sicily and the Sea at the Allard Pierson Museum (9 October 2014 to 17 April 2016), the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (16 June to 25 September 2016), the Maritime Museum, Palermo (2016), the Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket, Copenhagen (2017) and the LVR-LandesMuseum, Bonn (2017/18). This exhibition is the first of its kind organised by the COBBRA network, a long-term partnership of European museums, research institutions, outreach organisations, and commercial partners.

SPONSORS The exhibition Sicily and the Sea was sponsored by the Mondriaan Fund, Divection Dive Center, Amsterdam and the Friends of the Allard Pierson Museum.

EDITORSDiederik BurgersdijkRichard CalisJorrit KelderAlexandra SofroniewSebastiano TusaRené van Beek

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BYDavid AbulafiaWim AertsFloriana Agneto Gabriella AnconaGuido As Carol AtackPaul Beliën Nicolo’ Bruno Vincenzo Castellana Maurizio D’Atri Alessandra De CaroCasper C. de Jonge Rossana De Simone Giuseppe Di StefanoRoald DocterDavid EngelsAdriana Fresina

Piet Gerbrandy Rossella GiglioHarald Hendrix Jacqueline Klooster André Klukhuhn Roberto La RoccaMarc Leijendekker Eliana Mauro Johan E. Meulenkamp Agostina MusumeciCornelis W. NeeftFrancesca OliveriEleftheria Pappa Asker Pelgrom Marco Poelwijk Jonathan Prag Ronald Prud’homme

van Reine David Rijser

Jeffrey Royal Leonard V. RutgersEmilia Salerno Fabrizio SgroiFrancesca Spatafora Siward Tacoma Antonella TestaPhilippe Tisseyre Maria TurcoAilbhe TurleyMaaike van Berkel Manfred van BergenMarieke van den DoelFloris van den Eijnde Hein van Eekert Willem van Maanen Arthur Weststeijn Roger J. A. Wilson Stefano Zangara

SICILY and the Sea

ALLARD PIERSON MUSEUM

6 PREFACE

8 INTRODUCTION 9 Sicily and the Mediterranean World DIEDERIK BURGERSDIJK 14 Sicily’s Geological Archive JOHAN MEULENKAMP

CHAPTER 1

18 MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGY 19 Maritime Archaeology in Sicily FLORIANA AGNETO 20 Archaeological Cultural Underwater Routes ALESSANDRA DE CARO 22 Marble-Laden Ships SEBASTIANO TUSA 24 Sicily’s Submerged Structures FRANCESCA OLIVERI 26 Methods and Techniques in Maritime Archaeology STEFANO ZANGARA

CHAPTER 2

28 SICILY IN PRE- AND PROTOHISTORY 29 Sicily and the Sea in Prehistory JORRIT KELDER 32 Phoenicians in Sicily ELEFTHERIA PAPPA CHAPTER 3

38 TRADE AND COLONISATION 39 The Greeks in Sicily CAROL ATACK 46 Sicily, Land of Cyclops’ Songs JACQUELINE KLOOSTER 52 Demeter on Sicily KEES NEEFT 56 Between Rivers and Seas:

Aquatic Images on Greek Coins from Sicily PAUL BELIËN 62 Sicily and the Birth of Rhetoric CASPER C. DE JONGE 65 Archimedes’ Mastermind ANDRÉ KLUKHUHN 68 Temples and Community in Greek Sicily FLORIS VAN DEN EIJNDE 72 The Shipwreck Gela I NICOLÒ BRUNO 75 The Shipwreck of Capistello (Lipari) ADRIANA FRESINA 78 The Shipwreck Panarea III ROBERTO LA ROCCA CHAPTER 4

82 CARTHAGE AND ROME 83 Sicily and the Punic Wars JONATHAN PRAG 87 Carthage and the Spoils of the Sicilian Wars ROALD DOCTER 91 Sicily under Roman Republican Rule:

Roman Province and Slave Kingdom DAVID ENGELS 97 Sicily as a Refuge WILLEM VAN MAANEN 100 The Fragmentary Voices of the Sea: Sicily as a Stage in Virgil’s Aeneid SIWARD TACOMA 104 Sicily in The Rape of Proserpine by Claudian PIET GERBRANDY 107 Roman Sicily and the Sea ROGER J.A. WILSON 112 The Wrecks of Camarina GIOVANNI DI STEFANO 114 The Late-Roman Shipwreck of the Ancient Port

of Scauri on Pantelleria ROBERTO LA ROCCA 116 The Levanzo I Shipwreck JEFFREY ROYAL

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 5

120 NEW POWERS 121 Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity LEONARD V. RUTGERS124 Syracuse in the Byzantine Period WIM AERTS128 The Arab Conquest of Sicily MAAIKE VAN BERKEL131 Medieval Sicily: an Island open on all Sides DAVID ABULAFIA135 Dreams of Harmony: Multiculturalism and Norman Sicily DAVID RIJSER140 The Marausa Wreck ANTONELLA TESTA143 The Medieval Arabo-Sicilian Shipwreck of Cala Galera at Favignana FABRIZIO SGROI146 The Medieval Shipwrecks of Western Sicily PHILIPPE TISSEYRE CHAPTER 6

150 THE EARLY-MODERN PERIOD 151 Tommaso Fazello: The Sicilian Livy RICHARD CALIS153 Sicily’s Role in Art History: the Case of Antonello da Messina MARIEKE VAN DEN DOEL156 Pirandello’s House: Between Movement and Standstill HARALD HENDRIX158 Michiel de Ruyter in Sicilian Waters RONALD PRUD’HOMME VAN REINE162 The Risorgimento and the Sea ASKER PELGROM166 The Artillery Cargo of the Parissona Grossa, Discovered at Sciacca ELIANA MAURO CHAPTER 7

168 SICILY IN THE ARTISTIC IMAGINATION 169 Uncovering, Preserving and Presenting the Past:

Sicilian Archaeology and Heritage ALEXANDRA SOFRONIEW173 In Another Country: Sicily on the Silver Screen ARTHUR WESTSTEIJN176 Rossini’s Aria that Celebrates the Love for the Fatherland HEIN VAN EEKERT

CHAPTER 8

180 MODERN SICILY181 The Invasion of Sicily in 1943 MARCO POELWIJK184 Landing in Sicily: Signs of ‘Operation Husky’ EMILIA SALERNO188 The Messina Conference of 1955 GUIDO AS190 Modern Politics in Sicily MARC LEIJENDEKKER193 Sicily and its Fishes MAURIZIO D’ATRI196 Folk-tales: Musical Stories of People and Fish VINCENZO CASTELLANA

200 FURTHER READING

202 AUTHORS

204 CREDITS

PREFACE

Sicily’s past and present are closely con-nected to the coming and going of people on this island in the Mediterranean. In this publication we have chosen the

perspective of the sea to better understand and appreciate Sicily’s rich cultural history. Never before were so many people adrift in and around Europe, and this has once more placed Sicily at the heart of migration flows and a clash of cultures.

What started as a plan to present the maritime archaeology collections of the Soprintendenza del Mare on Sicily in a historical context, has led to an intriguing overview of the pivotal role Sicily has played in the Mediterranean. Soprintendente del Mare Sebastiano Tusa and Francesco Azzarello, the Italian ambassador to the Netherlands, have been indispensable to this project’s completion, and we owe them a debt of gratitude. The other loan givers on Sicily have also generously placed their collections at our disposal.

The publication you have before you has come about in cooperation with the Zenobia Foundation and the Soprintendenza del Mare on Sicily. It is volume six already in the Allard Pierson Museum Series, which is published with WBOOKS in Zwolle. Sicily and the Sea was realised with help from the Mondriaan Fund and the Friends of the Allard Pierson Museum. Project management of the exhibition has been in the hands of Marian Schilder and a steering group chaired by Steph Scholten.

Sicily and the Sea is the first result of a colla bo-ration between a number of European museums sharing the same DNA: the partners in the COBBRA Network (in Copenhagen, Oxford, Bonn, Brussels, and Amsterdam) will keep collabo-rating and exchanging knowledge, colleagues and collections, and organising travelling exhibitions to show our respect for the ancient world as well as its relevance to our own.

WIM HUPPERETZ, Director of the Allard Pierson Museum

7

PREFACE

THE ROLE OF UNDERWATER CULTURAL HERITAGE The sea played a major role in the everyday life of many ancient inhabitants of the Mediterranean: anonymous fishermen and sailors as well as great authors such as Homer.

The discovery of obsidian first and copper and tin later stimulated the beginning of naval trade routes and the first migrations. Coastal emporia, such as Thapsus on Sicily, gave rise to acculturation processes that caused great cultural change in local societies. The sea was the driving force behind this first wave of Mediterranean cultural ‘globalisation’ in the second millennium BC, thanks to the strong impulse given by the Mycenaeans. They were suc-ceeded by the Phoenicians and the Romans.

The sea is a great biological reservoir as well as an immense historical and cultural archive that benefits not only scholars, but all people. A new way to enjoy marine heritage is rising all over the world as archa-eological finds are left on the seabed whenever

possible. Divers are eager to view these treasures, while our museums are already full of artefacts from the sea that will remain forever in the storerooms.

In Sicily we have selected some underwater archaeological sites and entrusted them to associa-tions or individual divers under a contract giving them responsibility for the archaeological objects left on the seabed.

Underwater cultural heritage management is growing rapidly, although it was neglected until a few years ago. Now there is much more attention for this vital part of our heritage, and we have an important tool at our disposal: the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, which provides the main princi-ples to guide us in the areas of research, control and management.

Sicily and the Sea will be an important way to fulfil our duty to manage and promote underwater cultural heritage as best as we can.

SEBASTIANO TUSA, Soprintendente del Mare, Sicily

FRANCESCO AZZARELLO, Ambassador of Italy in The Hague

It is with the utmost pleasure that I witness the completion of this important project. The project proposal was presented in July 2012 to both pillars of its realisation: Wim Hupperetz,

director of the University of Amsterdam’s Allard Pierson Museum, and Sebastiano Tusa, superinten-dent at the Soprintendenza del Mare of the Sicil-ian region. All three of us united by passion and, if I may say so, by determination. To Wim Hupperetz and Sebastiano Tusa I express my deepest gratitude for making this magnificent exhibition possible.

We hardly need recall that the history of the Dutch and of the inhabitants of Trinacria (as Sicily was called in ancient times) is connected with the sea. Seafarers, explorers, conquerors, fishermen, migrants.

A warm sea, the Mediterranean, with a human dimension, an intense and beautiful sea, and nowadays, unfortunately, also a tragic one. Ideally, it unites all the countries and peoples that live along its shores and navigate its waters, with an intertwining of cultures and traditions that merge together and renew themselves. We need only

think of the extraordinary ‘experience’ of Sicilian gastronomy, so rich in southern-Mediterranean influences, or of the wonderful monuments and historical and artistic artefacts which, spread all over the island, bear witness to the many invasions it endured, from the east, the west, the north and the south.

Trinacria, an island that lies at a crossroads, both human and cultural, commercial and philosophical. The importance of this exhibition is the opportu-nity it offers to a vast public in Amsterdam and in the other European cities that will host it, to get to know and appreciate a substantial selection of objects from an enormous archaeological under-water heritage, which so far has never crossed the Sicilian borders. 2,500 years of history made visible the fruit of the innovative work by the Soprintendenza del Mare of Palermo. A joint Italian-Dutch project, testimony to the constant and intense bilateral cultural collaboration, ex ten-ded to the far south of Europe, so dear to us, and in which we continue to believe with conviction.

Window Toward the Sea, sculpture by Tano Festa, 1989. Near Messina, Sicily.

INTRODUCTION

9

As an island, Sicily is defined by the sea. As a place where people live or drop anchor, it is defined by the surrounding countries: the Iberian and Italian penin-

sulas, the neighbouring islands from Corsica to Crete, and by the European, African and Asian continents. Sicily’s symbol, the Trisceles (Greek triskeles, ‘three-legged’), represents the shape of the island, also nicknamed Trinacria (‘having three points’, on the map. Due to its geographical loca-tion, Sicily sees a continuous coming and going of travellers, armies and peoples from every side of the Mediterranean. The multitude of material and literary sources attesting this convergence of cultures and structures are the subject-matter of this book. Its starting point is Sicily’s position in the greater whole of the Mediterranean, and especially what the sea has meant for the island. In other words: what do we mean when we say ‘Sicily’, and how has the sea contributed to this meaning? Is there a single Sicily shaped by various factors, or is the Trinacria a symbol of a perma-nent division?

A fortiori, modern studies are debating the issue whether there is an essentially Mediterranean culture or whether the Mediterranean world is a meeting place of developments, independent or otherwise. Scholars now often assume the internal cohesion and mutual connection of social micro-structures, termed ‘connectivity’. Quantification of material finds and research of their origins are important methods. The related ‘network theory’

is mainly descriptive and is based on the idea that the ancient economy and social cohesion can be reconstructed from the available data. By using data collections and ICT we can make old materials yield new insights, so that for instance trade routes can be reconstructed based on the origins and distribution of various amphora types. Previous abstract discussions on ‘rationalism’ versus ‘primitivism’ in economy — i.e. the question of whether the ancient Mediterranean was a techno-logically progressive or an agriculturally backward world — are now seen as outdated: at present, it’s about hard data and the conclusions they generate.

This method of categorisation, quantification and comparison is a reaction to the abstract and narrative practice of history that was predominant in the second half of the twentieth century. It was mostly propagated by a group of French scholars around the journal Annales, with Fernand Braudel as its most important representative. With his book La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l’époque de Philippe II (1949) he championed the longue durée (‘long term’), approaching the Medi-terranean world of the sixteenth century from the broadest possible context. This context con-sisted of the geographical environment in which economic, social and political structures took shape, while individuals and events were reduced to foam on the oceanic currents of history. Tradi-tional historical questions about cause and effect were of minor importance. In the computer age, the equally determinist and romantic character

Sicily and the Mediterranean World

DIEDERIK BURGERSDIJK

CAPPELLA PALATINA The fabric of Sicily is a palimpsest of cultures, testament to the Phoeni-cian, Greek, Roman, Vandal, Goth, Byzantine, Arab, and Norman colo-nists and invaders. The Cappella Palatina (Palatine Chapel) in Palermo was commissioned by the Norman King Roger II in 1132 and was decorated by Byzantine and Arab craftsmen.

SICILY AND THE MEDITERRANEAN W

ORLD

10

SICILY A

ND

THE SEA

INTRODUCTION

The Leopard) we find the wonderful fireside con-versation between Don Fabrizio, prince of Salina, and the Piemontese delegate Chevalley who asks the prince to become a senator in the kingdom of Sardinia — a predecessor of united Italy under the flag of Piemonte’s capital, Turin. The prince refuses because such a position would be mean-ingless in his case, referring to the numerous rulers the island has already known. ‘Everything has to change for everything to stay the same’ is his motto. In various passages by the famous twentieth-century Sicilian author Sciascia, the Sicilian soul is defined by uncertainty, illustrated by an inhabitant of the island looking out over the sea, afraid to see another Muslim or Byzantine arrive. We have now entered the realm of meta-phor, and metaphors belong to the domain of cultural history and collective memory: the scholarly approach to mainly romantic concepts.

Historical research that is not essentialist in nature will hardly be able to comprehend Sicily in one word. Going back to its earliest history, we scarcely find — differently from Sardinia, for instance — an original culture of its own with internal solidarity and external ties. Sicily’s cul-tures derived from their respective motherlands, so that there is no single Sicily to which the outside world related. Against the backdrop of a geographically diverse landscape, its history was an amalgam of various groups of inhabitants with a steady succession of varying rulers, often several at the same time. As to connectivity, the example that Jonathan Prag gives in his contribution to this book is a clear case in point: the battering-rams from Carthaginian and Roman ships, in a war these arch-enemies fought over Sicily, are techni-cally undistinguishable. This indicates an equally-paced technological progress rather than a direct exchange of knowledge, the equal pace possibly being furthered by craftsmen who worked for both sides, and captured ships changing hands. Romans based their ship designs on captured Carthaginian ships and, vice versa, Carthaginians may have been using Roman ships they had taken. Helmets and amphoras may likewise originate from either side: mercenaries and merchants served both sides. The finds in Sicily make it difficult to distinguish differ-ent cultures. The Mediterranean world seems even more of a unity than it already was.

of annalist history — man as the plaything of an unfathomable fate — has been replaced by the positivist view of network theoreticians. The French metaphor of longue durée has been super-seded by the English one of connectivity, but the views they represent share a broad vision of the Mediterranean as a catalyst of connections. The question of unity and diversity remains just as relevant, although the methods and theoretical framework to answer it have changed.

The historical sea storm has an eye: Sicily. Here the same questions about unity and diversity arise as they do for the Mediterranean as a whole, and varying answers are being given. As Sicily is a geographical unit, reinforced by its characteristic shape with orientations toward east, west and south, essentialist ideas have naturally developed with regard to it. Because the island was divided between various peoples and rulers for so long, modern history has identified division as its essence. Starting with the work of Sicily’s first historiographer, Tommaso Fazello’s De Rebus Siculis (1558), thinkers and writers such as Voltaire, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and Leonardo Sciascia have presented the succession of rulers as a factor that shaped the Sicilian soul, which is sometimes referred to as Sicilitudo (a Latin neologism) or, with an Italianising word, Sicilianità — the former often catching the more positive tones of that soul, the latter its dark side.

In Chapter 4 of Lampedusa’s famous novel Il gattopardo (1958, translated into English as

TRINACRIA Sicily’s symbol, the Trisce-les or Trinacria, represents the triangular shape of the island.

11


ORLD

between these two peoples (264–241 BC) was fought on Sicily, as countless material and written sources testify.

Roman rule brought unity, but the dynamic history of the Sicily of the Carthaginians, Greeks and natives, a time of cultural revolutions and at the same time an endless story of war and con-quest, turned into a more static situation. During the Roman period Sicily served as a granary for Rome, it was the stage of social revolutions with the first slave revolt, the monumentalisation of cities flourished and wonderful sculpture and mosaics were produced. Sicily was ahead in the creation of new urban concepts and played an important role in the expansion of Christianity. After the Romans a barrage of foreign rulers fol-lowed: Vandals, Ostrogoths and Byzantines passed and left their traces. In the Middle Ages, the island was inhabited by Jews, Christians and Muslims, living in harmony for centuries. Arabic culture, fostered by a Palermitan government, introduced

In this representation of the facts, Sicily appears to be no more than the desired and fought-over stage where these international political events occurred. The actors of ‘connectivity’ are the ethnic groups surrounding the island, which acts the part of Sleeping Beauty. In a broader sense, the colonisation by early immigrants such as the Sicans, Sicels, Phoenicians and Greeks bears testimony to the same process: Sicily as the link between cultures and periods, not as the deter-mining factor in its own history. Yet the island was ahead of other European regions in countless matters in Antiquity: it is the cradle of several types of literature and performance, such as mime, bucolic poetry, and rhetoric. Great thinkers and inventors such as Empedocles (see pp. 43-44) and Archimedes (pp. 65–67) engendered know ledge that spread throughout the world. Sicily’s art of coin minting was unrivalled in the world. The world power of the Carthaginians and Romans was made and unmade there. The first great war

SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS In Antiquity, Scylla and Charybdis lurked in what is now the Strait of Messina, the waters that separate Sicily from the Italian main-land, making the passage to the island a dangerous one. This 16th-century engraving from the Civi-tates Orbis Terrarum by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg mentions both mythological monsters in its heading.

12

pivotal role in foreign powers’ politics during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In May 1860 Garibaldi and his thousand volunteers landed at Marsala, coming from Piemonte, and proceeded to attain Italy’s political unification. In 1943 it was the Allies whose ships and airplanes opened the southern front on Sicily and liberated Europe from the fascist regimes in Italy and Germany.

Sicily’s integration into the kingdom of Italy — which took shape in 1871, when the Vatican could no longer withstand unifica-tion — turned its gaze to the north. This interest went beyond Italy alone when in 1955 the Messina Conference was held, leading to the creation of the European Economic Community two years later. Today the position of the autono-mous region of Sicily is crucial to guarding the border between the political powers of North Africa and the European Union. It is historically noteworthy that the Arabic loan word dwana (douane and similar words for ‘customs’ in French, Italian and Dutch, among others), originally signi-fying a type of taxes, became embedded in Euro-pean idiom through Roger II’s Norman Sicily.

Recent works such as David Abulafia’s The Great Sea (London 2011) are expanding the Mediterranean library (for other works, see the bibliography). The idea of the Mediterranean as a unity has a recent political equivalent. Nicolas Sarkozy, then president of France, brought forward the idea of a Mediterranean Union in Tanger (Morocco) in 2007. The Union for the Mediterra-nean was established a year later and works toward ecological, economic, and social cooperation. The concept is as Roman as it is Braudelian, but has been overtaken by the present political reality. Instead of an equal development on both sides of the sea, there is a surge of migration from south to north. Sicily more than ever is a factor in Euro-pean history, with the sea as the link between the African and the European continent. Contrary to the historic development, Italy is Sicilianising at a fast pace, taking Europe with it. A theme that is illustrated by the travelling exhibition ‘Sicily and the Sea’, which by displaying the material culture from every corner of the Mediterranean places an old concept in new contexts.

citrus fruits; street patterns from the Islamic world are found next to Greek grid plans; even today, the Sicilian dialect has many Arabic loan words. Some of these things were important contributions to European culture, while some were coincidental results of historic development.

Only later was Sicily’s own character sought in a unique combination of elements reflected in art, literature and religion. Under the twelfth- century Norman king Roger II Greeks, Arabs and Christians lived together peacefully. At the same time, Catholicism became the dominant religion. Greek temples and Arab mosques were transformed into churches. Under the rule of Frederick II (king of Sicily 1198–1250), we see the first Classical renaissance. Residing at Palermo, Frederick restored Greek as the official language; as the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (from 1220), he modelled it on the Roman Empire. The dark side of Roman Catholicism came to the fore in the expulsion of the Jewish population in 1492.

Sicily lost much of the splendour of relative independence under the rule of the French Anjou dynasty, which was attacked for its repressive char-acter in the famous Sicilian Vespers of 1282. After that, the island came under the dominion of the Spanish House of Aragon, which had come to the rebellious Sicilians’ aid. Four and a half centuries later, the House of Aragon was succeeded by that of Bourbon, also Spanish, and Sicily became part of the ‘kingdom of the two Sicilies’ with Naples as its capital. The beauty of the remote island was being discovered by foreigners: from the sixteenth century onward, a lively European travel literature had started to flourish. In it, Sicily’s identity as a meeting point of cultures began to be recognised. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Sicilians themselves started to describe and preserve their classical heritage.

Thus the social and cultural diversity which at first kept Sicily divided later contributed to a recognition of unity and independence. Yet real political independence never came about. There were periods of autonomy, but the island was independent for one year only (1848–9) — a status that in fact wasn’t much more than an intention determined largely by the revolutions washing over the European mainland. Sicily did play a

SICILY A

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INTRODUCTION

13


ORLD

SICILY’S POLITICAL HISTORY: A SURVEY To many peoples Sicily was a desired and fought-over place, a treasury of artistic relics, both material and literary. The Romans encoun-tered a culture established by Greeks: the myths surrounding the first king, Cocalus, the demi-god Hercules, the goddess Demeter, the mythi-cal ancestor of the Romans Aeneas; Empedo-cles’ philosophy, Gorgias’ eloquence, the politics of tyrants such as Gelon, Hieron and Dionysius; the architecture of temples and theatres. The military confrontation with the present rulers went hand in hand with admiration for the Greek past. The Romans’ relation to the Carthaginians on the other hand was dominated by a fear heightened during the Second Punic War (218–201 BC) and decisively dealt with in the Third (149–146 BC). Carthage was razed to the ground and Rome was free to build its empire. While Sicilian politics and culture had been quite dynamic from the eighth to the third century BC, they turned static for centuries after that: after the creation of the first Roman province in 227

BC (with Syracuse as its capital from 212 on-wards) and the establishment of two naval bases in the west, the island’s most important charac-teristic was its status as a grain supplier with an ingenious land owner ship system. Construction policy was based on Greek traditions. Taxes, slave revolts and corrupt governors brought some change in the rapidly Romanised prov-ince, as did Mount Etna’s eruption in 122 BC. In 36 BC Sicily was the stage of Octavian’s (the future Emperor Augustus’) rise to power over the empire. In later Antiquity, Sicily’s image was determined by the estate at present-day Piazza Armerina, where a member of the imperi-al tetrarchy allegedly resided under Diocletian. After a period of Vandal and Ostrogoth rule (AD 468–535), the Byzantines settled on Sicily in the Middle Ages (535–827), followed by the Arabs (827–1053). In the ninth century the capital was transferred from Syracuse to Palermo; in the early tenth century, the Shi’ite Fatimids took over the Emirate of Sicily from the Sunnite Aghlabids. Then it was conquered by the Normans (1053–

1194), whose rule was inherited by the German Hohenstaufens (1194–1266, in the first place by King Frederick II (1198–1250), emperor from 1220. They were succeeded by the House of Aragon (1282–1516) and the Spanish Habs-burgs (1516–1713). At the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 Sicily was given to the House of Savoy, which after seven years was succeeded by the Austrian Habsburgs (1720–1734). The Spanish Bourbons ruled the kingdom of the two Sicilies from 1734 to 1860 (installing a local viceroy), when General Garibaldi from the north-Italian kingdom of Piemonte began Italy’s Unification from the south, on Sicily. Since that time Sicily is ruled from the Italian mainland by kings and presidents, with a brief interlude during the Second World War, when the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (AMGOT) governed it. In 2015 the first Sicilian president of Italy was elected.

NORMANS HOHENSTAUFENS ARAGONESE SP. HABSBURGS SAVOYARDS SPANISH ITALIANS BOURBONS

ANGEVINS AUSTR. SARDINIANS HABSBURGS

2000 1500 1000 500 0

0 250 500 750 1000

1000 1250 1500 1750 present

SICANS ELYMIANS SICELS MORGETES GREEKS ROMANS SYRIANS

AUSONIANS PHOENICIANS CARTHAGINIANS EGYPTIANS

VANDALS BYZANTINES ARABS JEWS

OSTROGOTHS BERBERS

14

Cenozoic

Mesozoic

Paleozoic

Holocene

Pleistocene

Pliocene

Miocene

Oligocene

Eocene

Paleocene

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Ma

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5.33

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34

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66

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Sicilia est omnis divisa in partes tres. The island lies in the south-eastern part of the western Mediterranean Basin. The Malta Escarpment forms the border with the

eastern Mediterranean Basin, while the Strait of Gibraltar connects the western Basin to the Atlan-tic. Sicily’s geological archive documents the very different origins and histories of three areas: the Hyblaean Plateau in the south-east, the Sicilian Maghrebides in the south, west and north, and the Monti Peloritani in the north-east. The Hyblaean Plateau borders on the Pelagian Block south of

Sicily. Both belong to the African Plate and form the (African) foreland of the Maghrebides over-thrusting from the north. The Plateau’s rocks mostly consist of horizontal successions of marine limestones from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic (see inset for time frame). Between 7.5 and 1.5 million years ago, volcanic activity played an important role on the Plateau and its western margin. The Hyblaean landscape is very different from that of the Maghrebides and the Peloritani. The deep clefts in the central part of the Plateau are striking; west of Syracuse, the prehistoric necropolis of Pantalica (thirteenth to seventh centuries BC) consists of some 5,000 tombs cut into the lime-stone rock.

The Sicilian Maghrebides are part of a moun-tain arc which runs from the Apennines through Calabria and Sicily to North Africa; the arc encloses the western Mediterranean Basin. An undersea ridge between Sicily and Tunisia links the Sicilian and the North African Maghrebides. Around the Skerki Bank, which is part of the ridge, many shipwrecks have been found, includ-ing five from the Roman period (100 BC–AD 400). The Sicilian Maghrebides are the result of tectonic processes related to the African Plate’s moving north in relation to Eurasia. They consist of much-folded Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedi-ments, now ordered in a pile of nappes. The older sediments were originally deposited in a complex configuration of deep and shallow marine subsid-ence zones along Africa’s northern edge during

Sicily’s Geological Archive

JOHAN MEULENKAMP

SIMPLIFIED GEOLOGICAL TIME FRAME Ma: age in millions of years

SICILY A

ND

THE SEA

INTRODUCTION

15

SICILY’S GEOLOGICAL ARCHIVE

the genesis of the ocean, which began as Africa and Europe started to drift apart after the break-up of the supercontinent Pangaea about 200 million years ago. Once the oceanic rift had closed, the younger sediments were deposited. During this process, foreland basins developed from north to south at the front of the mountain ridge that was being created. The Caltanissetta Basin (central and south Sicily) is the largest; it is bounded by the Monti Sicani to the west and the Monti Madonie (up to 2,000 m) and Monti Nebrodi to the north. This basin, named after the town founded by Carthaginian settlers in the fifth century BC, plays a pivotal role in the research into cause and effect of the Mediterranean ‘Messinian Salinity Crisis’ (MSC). This desiccation process resulted from the connection with the Atlantic being closed up for 600,000 years, between 6 and 5 million years ago. Throughout the Mediterra-nean, gypsum and rock salt were formed. Salt mines that are still in use nowadays and numerous sulphur mines that were used until the 1980s testify to the MSC’s economic importance for Sicily.

Together with Calabria, the Monti Peloritani to the north-east form the Calabrian-Peloritan Block (CPB). Its backbone consists of Palaeozoic crystalline and metamorphic rocks that are over 250 million years old. Until 30 million years ago the CPB — together with Corsica and Sar-dinia — lay on the east edge of Iberia, part of the European Plate. This piece of Europe has since migrated to its present position at the curve of the Apennine-Calabrian-Sicilian-North African mountain arc. It was only relatively late in this process, 10 to 8 million years ago, that the Tyrrhe-nian back-arc basin began to take shape. It is still evolving, and Calabria probably is still moving east-south-east at a pace of a few millimetres a year.

The highly different developments of the Hy - blaean Plateau, the Maghrebides and the Peloritani became increasingly intertwined in the recent geological past. This development was caused by four factors. Firstly, the Peloritani being connected to the Maghrebides by the thrust of the Calabrian- Pelorian Block over the Maghrebides along the WNW-ESE-oriented line from Longi on the

DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL (DEM) of Sicily and sur-roundings showing the position of the Hyblaean, Sicilian Maghrebides and Peloritani areas, which have very different origins and histories. The present island is quite young, geologically speaking. Its remarkable triangular shape is defined by major tectonic structures: the NNW–SSE Malta Escarp-ment, the complex E–W contact zone between the African and Eurasian Plates, and the orientation of the WNW–ESE major fault systems of the Pelagi-an Block/Strait of Sicily. PL: Palermo, CF: Cefalù, TD: Tindari, TM: Taormina, CT: Catania, SR: Syracuse, GL: Gela, AG: Agrigento, SC: Sciacca, SL: Selinunte, MS: Marsala,TP: Trapani, Si: Monti Sicani, Md: Monti Madonie, Nb: Monti Ne-brodi.

4000

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m 0

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Tyrrhenian Basin

Pelagian Block

Sic i l ian

Maghreb ides

HyblaeanPlateau

Calab

ria

Peloritani

Ionian Basin

Malta Escarpm

entEtna

Gozo

Lampedusa

Pantelleria

Lipari Vulcano

LinosaMalta

Stromboli

Strait of Sicily

Malta Graben

Linosa Graben

Strait of Messina

Caltanissetta

Basin

Pantelleria Graben

PLCF

TDTP

MS

SLSC

AG

GL SR

CT

TMNb

Si

Md

Aeolian Islands

204

COLOPHONAmsterdam, Allard Pierson

Museum: p. 17 bottom, 36 (APM 1974-1975), 42 (APM 9995-9998), 44 top (APM 8386), 44 bottom (APM 13986), 48 (APM 1599), 51 (APM 3702), 53 left (APM 16.272), 53 right (APM 1196), 54 bottom (APM 6453), 55 top (1142-1143), 55 middle (APM 13.362), 55 bottom (APM 2149), 77 top (10601-10607), 142 (APM 16763).

Amsterdam, National Numis-matic Collection, Dutch National Bank: p. 57-61.

Amsterdam, Special Collec-tions of the University of Amsterdam: p. 11, 64, 151, 165 bottom, front cover top.

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum: p. 158, 160.

Branca et al. (2014): p. 17 top.Camarina, Museo archeolo-

gico regionale di Camarina: p. 45, 113 bottom.

Soprintendenza Beni culturali di Catania, Museo civico Castello Ursino di Catania: p. 95 bottom.

Collection J. de Wilde: p. 61 bottom right.

Di Stefano and Longhitano (2009): p. 16C.

Dreamstime.com: p. 10, 30, 43, 49 right, 93, 101, 108, 123, 125, 131, 132, 135, 137, 148-149, 150, 152, 168, 187, 189 top, 191.

Eindhoven, Stan and Wim Ver-beek: p. 8, 71, 86 bottom.

European Union 1955: p. 189 bottom.

Florence, Scala: p. 6 (Andrea Jemolo); 28, 31 bottom, 38, 47, 63, 88 left, 90, 122, 165 top, 199 (DeAgostini Pic-ture Library); 33 (White Images); 65 (Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin); 88 right, 195 (courtesy of the Minis-tero Beni e Att. Culturali); 94, 173-175, 184 (Album/Scala); 103 (Digital Image Museum Associates/LACMA/Art Resource NY); 129; 130 bottom (Brit-ish Library board/Robana); 163; 198.

Gela, Museo archeologico regionale: p. 49 left, 73 right.

Google Art Project: p. 105.Google DigitalGlobe: back

coverGoogle maps - Panoramio.

com, Burkhard Foltz: p. 16B.Greenwich, National Mari-

time Museum: p. 182.Hamburg, Carthage excava-

tions of Hamburg Univer-sity bottom Decumanus Maximus (KA86/120): p. 89.

International Commission on Stratigraphy, 2014: P. 14.

Key West, RPM Nautical Foundation: p. 82, 117, 118 top, 119.

Lo Presti, et al. (2014): p. 16D.Lausanne, M. Vanappelghem -

Opéra de Lausanne: p. 177-179.

London, Bridgeman Images: p. 24 top (De Agostini Picture Library / Aeronike); 40-41 (Private Collection/Abbott and Holder, London, UK); 85 (Private Collection/© Look and Learn); 136 (Ali-nari); 180 (De Agostini Pic-ture Library / G. Roli); p. 192 (Martin Norris Travel Photography).

London, Honor Frost Founda-tion: p. 172 bottom.

London, Mary Evans Picture Library: p. 120, 183.

London, National Army Museum: p. 186.

London, The Trustees of the British Museum: p. 32, 73 left.

Marsala, Museo Archeologico Regionale ‘Lilibeo – Baglio Anselmi: p. 148 bottom

(photograph by David Gowers).

Munich, Himer-Archive: p. 102.

Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale/Bridgeman Images: p. 98.

Nijmegen, Ilse Verstegen, Rad-boud University: p. 13.

Oxford, Paul Roberts: p. 20; Alexandra Sofroniew: p. 170.

Palermo, Museo archeologico regionale Antonino Salinas: p. 37 top (photograph by David Gowers), 37 bottom.

Palermo, Soprintendenza per i Beni culturali e ambientali del Mare: p. 18, 19, 21-23, 24 bottom, 25-27, 31 top, 34-35, 74, 76, 77 bottom, 79-81, 84, 86 top, 96, 112, 113 top, 115, 118 bottom, 127 bottom, 141, 144, 145-147, 161, 167 bottom (Bibli-oteca Regionale di Palermo, photo Stan and Wim Verbeek), front cover bottom.

Philadelphia, dr. Kevin Fur-long, Pennsylvania State University: p. 16A.

Rome, Harald Hendrix: p. 157.Syracuse, Museo archeologico

regionale Paolo Orsi di Sira cusa: p. 50 (Photograph by David Gowers).

Syracuse, Soprintendenza Beni culturali di Siracusa, Anti-quarium Parco della Nea-polis: p. 127 top.

Trapani, Soprintendenza dei Beni culturali Trapani: p. 54 top (Museo Tonnara Florio di Favignana); 138 (Museo Tonnara Florio di Favig-nana, photo Stan and Wim Verbeek); 95 top (Museo del Satiro di Mazaro del Vallo); 148 bottom (Tor-razzo di San Vito lo Capo).

Utrecht, dr. Paul Meijer, Fac-ulty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, based on data Lindquist et al. (EOS, 85,186, 2004): p. 15.

Vancouver, R.J.A. Wilson: p. 91, 99 top, 106, 107, 109, 110, 111, 171, 172 top

Vincenzo Castellana: p. 196.Wikipedia.com: p. 66-67, 69,

70 top, 99 below, 100, 126, 130 top, 133, 134, 139, 154, 155.

ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

PUBLISHERwbooks, [email protected]

In collaboration withAllard Pierson Museum, [email protected]

EXHIBITION CURATOR Alexandra Sofroniew

COORDINATION Paulien Retèl, with Aniek van den Eersten

IMAGE AND CAPTIONS EDITORSPaulien Retèl, with Ailbhe Turley and Noctua Text & Translation, Corinna Vermeulen

TRANSLATIONNoctua Text & Translation, Corinna Vermeulen www.noctua-text-translation.eu

COPY EDITOR Noctua Text & Translation, Corinna Vermeulen

DESIGNMiriam Schlick, Amsterdamwww.extrablond.nl

This is volume 6 in the Allard Pierson Museum Series. Previously published:Etrusken. Vrouwen van aanzien, mannen met macht (isbn 978 90 400 7806 4)

Etruscans. Eminent women, powerful men (isbn 978 90 400 7807 1)Troje. Stad, Homerus en Turkije (isbn 978 90 400 0750 7)Troy. City, Homer and Turkey (isbn 978 90 400 0793 4)Troya. Kent, Homeros ve Türkiye (isbn 978 90 663 0001 9)Eeuwig Egypte (isbn 978 90 663 0573 1)Eternal Egypt (isbn 978 90 663 0626 4)De Krim. Goud en geheimen van de Zwarte Zee (isbn 978 94 625 8002 2)Van Rome naar Romeins (isbn 978 94 625 8016 9)Keys to Rome (isbn 978 94 625 8046 6)

© 2015 wbooks/Allard Pierson MuseumAll rights reserved. Nothing from this publication may be reproduced, multiplied, stored in an electronic data file, or made public, in any form or in any manner, be it electronic, mechanical, through photocopying, recording or in any other way, without the advance written permission of the publisher.

The publisher has endeav-oured to settle image rights in accordance with legal requirements. Any party who nevertheless deems they have a claim to certain rights may apply to the publisher.

Copyright of the work of artists affiliated with a CISAC organisation has been arranged with Pictoright of Amsterdam. © c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2015.

isbn 978 94 625 8113 5 (Dutch)isbn 978 94 625 8115 9 (English)nur 682

SICILIË


SICILIË en de zee

en de zee






SICILIË


SICILIË en de zee

en de zee





Earth Snapshot, Copyright © 2008-2015 Chelys srl, all rights reserved

Palermo

Syracuse

Catania

Agrigento

Himera

Naxos

Messina

SelinuntePiazza

Armerina

Enna

MarsalaMazara del

Vallo

Cefalù

Morgantina

Thapsus

Pantelleria

Aegadian Islands

Aeolian Islands

THE GELA WRECK

THE CAPISTELLO WRECK

THE PANAREA III WRECK

Mozia

THE WRECKS OF CAMARINA

THE SCIACCA WRECK

THE SCAURI WRECK

1 THE LEVANZO WRECK

3 THE MARAUSA WRECK

2 THE WRECK OF CALA GALERA

4 THE WRECKS OF LIDO SIGNORINO

THE WRECK OF SAN VITO LO CAPO

THE MONDELLO WRECK

4

31

2

Gela

Taormina

Mt. Etna Trapani

Reggio


sicily and the sea

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