A Byzantine settlement at Durrueli (southern Sicily, Agrigento)
Résumé
Nestled in a sandy bay at the mouth of the Cottone creek, the villa of Durrueli is among the most significant archaeological sites of the Imperial period in the province of Agrigento, southern Sicily. Discovered in the early twentieth century and extensively excavated by a team from the University of Tsukuba (Japan) between 1979 and 1985, the site revealed the remains of a luxurious complex dating to the second century CE and abandoned in the third. Numerous rooms arranged around a peristyle, together with two bath suites, were richly decorated with marble and mosaics—most notably those depicting Poseidon and Scylla—attesting to the wealth and high status of the villa’s owner. Although research has continued in recent years and is still ongoing, the ceramic assemblages have remained largely neglected, despite their considerable potential. The material from the Japanese excavations is currently being analysed within the framework of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship funded by the European Commission (FIRS project). This work makes it possible to document not only the life and abandonment of the villa but also its later phases of occupation. This paper focuses on a selection of contexts dating to the sixth and seventh centuries CE—phases otherwise poorly documented at the site—and on the diverse range of amphorae and wares they have yielded. On the basis of this evidence, we reassess the extent of late occupation at the site and the reuse of earlier spaces within the villa for purposes different from their original function. Finally, by examining a broad spectrum of imported ceramics—from North Africa as well as the eastern Mediterranean—we aim to refine our understanding of economic patterns during these still obscure transitional periods in Sicilian history, while also reconsidering the role of Durrueli as a potential landing site within both short- and long-distance Mediterranean trade networks.
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Fait partie de hal-05248332v1 Objet présenté à une conférence Fabrizio Ducati, Tomoo Mukai, Maria Serena Rizzo. Rediscovering a forgotten byzantine costal settlement at Durrueli: A compelling case from the southern shore of Sicily. 31st EAA Annual Meeting. Intertwined Pasts, European Assosiation of Archaeologists, Sep 2025, Belgrad, Serbia. ⟨hal-05248332⟩