HYBLA HERAIA
(Ragusa) Sicily.
The
ancient Roman itineraries locate the site between Akrai
and Calvisiana. It must have been an indigenous site
of considerable importance and, from the first half of
the 6th c. B.C., one which came into friendly contact
with Greek colonists. This is attested by grave goods
of mixed nature which are found in the Greek cemetery
in the Rito district to the S of Lower Ragusa. The site
of the Sikel city must have corresponded to the height
of the Castello near Lower Ragusa, while Sikel graves,
the earliest of which belong to the so-called Finocchito
culture (750-630 B.C.), were discovered in the nearby
grottos of Molino and S. Maria delle Scale. In the
Pendente district have been found traces of the Greek
settlement, whose necropoleis occupied a large strip of
the plateau which faces Ragusa to the S. On the height
of Rito 76 Greek graves, dating between 570 and 490
B.C., were explored; together with the often considerable
grave gifts, the fragmentary statue of a lion was found.
Other sculptural fragments, always in the area of the
Greek cemeteries, were found near the present railroad
station of Upper Ragusa.
Not only the importance in the late Roman period
of the road that passed through Hybla and joined Akrai
at the ford of the Dirillo attests continuity of life in
this ancient center, but especially the cemeteries of the
Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, found in
large numbers on the plateau to the S of the habitation
center. Of these necropoleis one can visit the Latomia
in the district Tabuna.
The recently established Archaeological Museum in
Ragusa houses the finds from the site of Hybla and
from the entire province.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
P. Orsi,
NSc (1892) 321-22; id.,
NSc
(1899) 402ff; T. Ziegler, “Hybla,”
RE IX.1 (1914); B.
Pace,
Arte e Civiltà della Sicilia antica 1 (1935) 196;
A. Di Vita, “Recenti scoperte archeologiche in provincia
di Ragusa,”
Arch. St. Sir. 2 (1956) 30ff; A. M. Fallico,
“Esplorazione di necropoli tarde,”
NSc (1967) 407ff;
G. Uggeri, “La Sicilia nella ‘Tabula Peutigeriana,’”
Vichiana (1968); P. Pelagatti, “Ii Museo Archeologico di
Ragusa,”
Sicilia Archeologica 11 (1970).
G. SCROFANI
