CALTAGIRONE
Sicily.
A Hellenized settlement in the Heraian hills W of Syracuse; the ancient name is unknown. The site had strategic importance, for
it controlled the pass between the plain of Gela to the
S and the valleys of the Caltagirone and Symaithos to
the NE. The earliest settlement belongs to the neolithic
Stentinello culture and was located on the hill of S. Ippolito, to the NE of the modern city. During the Late Bronze Age Caltagirone was of major importance; a large necropolis of as many as 1500 chamber tombs occupied
the slopes of the hill known as La Montagna to the N
of town. It belongs to the Pantalica culture (ca. 1250-1000 B.C.); some of the burials are in the form of tholos
tombs, suggesting Mycenaean influence, also seen in
ceramic shapes. Less is known about the Early Iron Age.
Greeks arrived in the early 6th c. and settled on the hill
of S. Luigi, under the modern town. Only a few graves
have been excavated, mostly of the 5th c. and later; the
burial types are Geloan, perhaps indicating Geloan control of the site in the early 5th c. Excellent red-figure
pottery of the 4th c. is also known. An archaic stele and
most of the pottery from the site are in the fine local
museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
S. Ippolito: P. Orsi,
BPI (1928) 82ff;
L. BernabòBrea,
Sicily before the Greeks (1966) 80ff.
La Montagna: P. Orsi,
NSc (1904) 65ff; L. Bernabò
Brea, op.cit. 145f, 161f. S. Luigi: T. J. Dunbabin,
The
Western Greeks (1948) 113f; G. Libertini,
MonAnt 28
(1922) 101ff.
M. BELL
