Sicily

The Iron Age.

On a site like Pantalica, with a range of several centuries, we pass into the iron age without any striking changes. Modifications occur in the types of the fibulae and there is a gradual, but quite perceptible, deterioration of the pottery. All the bronze-age types of fibulae gradually give way to later forms, of which the most general and popular is the two-eyed serpentine, which continues in use down to 500 B.C.

The first appearance of this fibula marks a distinct chronological point ; it is the beginning of the early iron age, and if the contents of tombs belonging to this stage are isolated, and examined sepa rately from the rest, then certain definite characteristics begin to appear. The old Siculan civilization of the great days survives in a much impoverished form ; it has entered upon its decadence. The architecture has lost all its beauty and elaboration of detail. Within a very simple chamber the dead are no longer seated at a banquet, but extended at full length on the ground with their heads resting on a block of stone; and the objects buried with them consist of little but a few small water-jars and trumpery pots. We now pass into Orsi's third period, early in the 9th cen tury. The partial regeneration of Siculan life which begins gradu ally in the 9th century is entirely due to Greek influence, through trade, which preceded any actual colonization by fully 15o years. Thus everything of interest in Siculan life from the 9th century to the 5th B.C. is either a Greek importation or the direct imitation of a Greek original.

From a number of sites, the most important of which were Lentini (the ancient Leontinoi), Licodia and Finocchito, were ob tained examples of geometrically painted vases, the earliest of which are of pure Dipylon style, while the latest are a hybridized product which may be termed Graeco-Siculan. A characteristic vase shown from Lentini, belongs to the third Siculan period. If not an actual importation it is a close copy of some Dipylonic orig inal at least as early as the 8th century B.C. At Lentini there were still earlier types, little oenochoae and askoi painted with the simplest kind of linear designs. This style is not found even in the first of the Greek colonies, and must therefore, precede the period of colonization. Orsi is evidently justified in assigning it to the 8th and possibly to the 9th century B.C.

The introduction of these new models led to the imitation of purely Greek shapes by the native potters, so that oenochoae and askoi were copied in the rough country ware, and to a closer study of decorative designs, which resulted in the production of a new kind of white-faced ware with geometrical patterns painted upon it. This gradually improved in technique until it reached its high-water mark in the late third and early fourth Siculan periods. The Graeco-Siculan ware continued in use until it was finally re placed about 500 B.C. by purely Greek imported vases.

original authority for this entire article is

to be found in the various writings of Paolo Orsi. The references to the different Italian publications in which they appeared are given in T. E. Peet, The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy; and D. Randall Maclver, The Iron Age in Italy (1927). These two works contain the literature of the subject in English. (D. Original Inhabitants.—The island (n.K€Xia, Sicilia) obvi ously takes its name from the Sicels (LtKEXot, Siculi), a people whom we find occupying a great part of the island, chiefly east of the river Gela. We are told that they found in the island a people called Sicans Sicani) ; but the outstanding fact is that archaeologically no substantial difference between them can be found; and probably both are branches of the Libyco-Iberian stock.

In the north-west corner of the island we find a small territory occupied by a people who seem to have made much greater ad vances towards civilized life, the Elymi, who probably came from Asia Minor, where they had already fallen under Greek influ ence. Their towns were Eryx and Segesta.

Foreign Colonists.

The Greeks were not the first coloniz ing people who were drawn to the great island. As in Cyprus and in the islands of the Aegean, the Phoenicians were bef ore them. Numerous small trading settlements grew up on promontories and small islands all round the coast, not much later, no doubt, than their colonies in North Africa and their factories in southern Spain. These were unable to withstand the ,Greek settlers, and the Phoenicians of Sicily withdrew step by step to form three considerable towns in the north-west corner of the island near to the Elymi, at the shortest distance by sea from Carthage Motya, Solus and Panormus (see PALERMO).