Monte San Mauro

Monte San Mauro, in the province of Catania, is an archaeological site that showcases the history of Caltagirone, Sicily. An extensive building was discovered in 1904 by Paolo Orsi on the third hill. The building was divided by a terrace constructed with irregular blocks and local stone flours, connected by stones and earth. It was later reused during the Arcaic period. Umberto Spigo’s excavations in 1983 discovered two western neighboring ambiences on the third hill, one of which contained a public storage room, filled with various containers for food stores, numerous amphorae, loom weights, and stone mills.

Fragments of a bronze table containing a law on homicide were also found near the storage room. A sacrificial building from the Archaic period was found on hills 1 and 2, dating to the 7th-6th centuries BC. Ellipse-shaped structures related to indigenous dwellings were found on the top of the third hill, dating from the second half of the 8th century to the first half of the 7th century BC. The dwellings feature a wider entrance opening towards the south, with three smaller rooms attached. A necropolis of 58 tombs was excavated at the foot of the third hill from 1903 to 1904.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons