VASSALLAGGI
(“Motyon”) Sicily.
An ancient Sikel-Greek settlement near San Cataldo on a group
of five small hills. Excavation has clarified the history of
this unknown city which, as some evidence indicates,
should perhaps be identified with Motyon, the Akragan
fortified site destroyed by the Sicilian leader Ducetius in
451 B.C. and immediately reconquered by the Greeks the
following year. Excavation has indicated a phase in the
Early Bronze Age. The first Greek vases appear around
the second quarter of the 6th c., perhaps after contact
with Akragan colonists. During the 5th c. B.C. the village
assumed the appearance of a small Greek polis, with
houses on terraces, streets on a grid plan, and a sanctuary
with a small temple decorated by painted antefixes of
Geloan-Akragan type.
Shortly after mid 5th c. destruction, the city recovered
with great vigor; houses and sanctuary were rebuilt, and
the small temple received a new decoration with molded
antefixes. Coins of this period are exclusively Akragan
and the graves of men in the necropolis invariably produce the same funerary gifts: one krater and one pelike
of Attic red-figure ware, an iron dagger, and a bronze
strigil. The city appears to have been repopulated mainly
for military reasons since it was located on the Akragan
border; this fact could validate its identification as Motyon. Excavation has also shown that the city, like others in the same area, was abandoned at the end of the 5th c. B.C., probably at the time of the Carthaginian invasion,
and was rebuilt in the second half of the 4th c. B.C. as
part of the general program of Sicilian recolonization
promoted by Timoleon. Even this city, however, like the
neighboring centers of Gibil Gabib, Sabucina, and Capodarso, was completely destroyed ca. 311-310 B.C., probably by Agathokles, tyrant of Syracuse.
At the end of the 4th c. A.D., it was again inhabited by
a small Christian community, as shown by the discovery
of cist and arched tombs containing lamps of African
type. Of the excavated areas, only the sanctuary has been
left uncovered in the single-level area within the center
of the city. It includes a small temple with temenos and
altar, and it is surrounded by rectangular structures, some
of which contained votive offerings. The archaeological
finds (vases, bronzes, statuettes, architectural terracottas)
are displayed in the museums of Gela and Agrigento.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
D. Adamesteanu,
RA 49 (1957) 174;
E. De Miro,
Kokalos 8 (1962) 143; P. Orlandini,
FA 16
(1964) n. 2247; id.,
Cronache di Archeologia e Storia
dell'Arte (1964) 20ff; id., “Vassallaggi I,”
NSc Suppl.
(1971).
P. ORLANDINI
