The archaeological site of 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 debris, connected by stones and earth. It existed in the 9th century BC and was later reused. Umberto Spigo’s excavations in 1983 discovered two environments on the short western side, one of which was elevated on three steps and served as a public warehouse. It contained containers for food stores, numerous amphorae for transporting goods from across the Mediterranean, loom weights, and stone mills.

Fragments of a bronze tablet containing a law on homicide were also found near the storage room. On hills 1 and 2, a core of painted architectural terracotta was found, belonging to the decoration of an archaic sacellum. This material shows comparisons with finds from Gela, Syracuse, Selinunte, and Olympia in Greece. 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.

These dwellings present a wider entrance opening towards the south, on which three smaller side-by-side rooms face, following patterns found in other Greek sites in Sicily such as Naxos and Megara Iblea. A necropolis of 58 tombs was excavated at the foot of the third hill from 1903 to 1904, containing burials in jars, amphorae, and stone-lined cists.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons