Inland settlement patterns in Western Sicily between the Byzantine and the Islamic period (6th -11th c. AD)

The Byzantine Countryside: Insular and Coastal Perspectives, Byzantine Seminar Series: Byzantium At Ankara, Fall 2019/20, Workshop, Bilkent University / Camphi Block 06-12-2019, Bilkent Ankara, TurkeyFollowing the crisis of the 'golden age' of the Roman villas in the 4 th century and the complex events of the 5 th century, between Vandals and Ostrogoths roles, the definition of settlement patterns in Western Sicily from the 30s of the 6 th century (Belisarius 're- conquest') to the Norman conquest (late 11 th century) is a crucial point to understand the formation of post-roman landscapes in the Island. Paradigms of continuity and discontinuity are still strong and is not easy (but it is really possible) to define when 'Late Roman / Late Antique' patterns finished and 'Byzantine' and then 'Islamic' ones started. The main issue revolves around the tendency, or the will, of reading rural dynamics ¿ what about longue durée? ¿ in strict connection to major socio-political events or all-encompassing narratives about the drastic transformation of post-Roman Mediterranean. Following the vision of the (almost) 'two Sicily' ¿ approximately at the West and the East of the Platani river ¿ this paper aims to summarize and debate the settlement dynamics in the countryside of Western Sicily between 6 th and 11 th century according to archaeological data from survey and excavations. In particular, the ongoing research at Contrada Castro (Corleone, Palermo) in the Monti Sicani area provides new insights on inland settlements¿ practices during the Early Middle Ages. The site, otherwise unknown from the written sources, has revealed an interesting sequence related to the re-occupation of a 6 th -5 th century BC building complex during the Early Middle Ages. At the current state of the research ¿ the most telling evidence for a new occupation of the site between the 7 th -early 8 th century is connected with the burial of two peri-natal individuals. From the second half of the 8 th -9 th century new buildings testify for a further development of this settlement. Lastly, between the 10 th -11 th century the complex undergoes a drastic reshaping following its demise, as the thick layer of building debris shows. In this phase, the entire settlement¿s topography changes significantly and all the rebuilt structures feature a new orientation. The archaeological evidence yielded so far illustrates well the informative potential of the site in order to understand and reconstruct the economic trends and human- environment interactions of an early medieval community in the countryside of Western Sicily.Financiación: beca "Juan de la Cierva-incorporación, IJCI-2017-3149