MONTE CAVALLI
(“Hyppana”) Palermo, Sicily.
Remains of an ancient settlement on the plateau of a mountain (1000 m high) with the modern village of Prizzi 3 km to the S. On the basis of ancient
sources (Polyb. 1.24.10;
Diod. 23.9.5), some scholars
have suggested that the settlement could be identified
with ancient Hyppana, but this identification has not met
with general approval.
Recent excavations have confirmed the presence of a
habitation center and have uncovered stretches of the
circuit walls and the remains of houses and of a small
theater. These remains and the other archaeological finds
are datable from the 4th c. B.C. onward. Sporadic finds
of painted and incised pottery of a much earlier date
suggest the presence of an earlier settlement, perhaps
Elymian.
The finds give evidence of contact with the Phoenicians
and the Greeks. A terracotta plaque bears a 12-line inscription in Greek, perhaps a dodekatheon. This tablet belongs to the latest known phase of the city. It is not known when it ceased to exist.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
V. Tusa, “Ii centro abitato su Monte
Cavalli è identificabile con
Hippana?”
Kokalos 7 (1961)
113ff
PI; E. Manni, “
Hippana, Sittana o Hipana?”
Kokalos 7 (1961) 122ff; S. Fern, “La
ΕΥΧΗ ΔΩΔΕΚΑΘΕΟΣ di Monte Cavalli (Palermo),”
La Parola del Passato 91 (1963) 302ff
I.
V. TUSA
