Bosco Littorio is a sandy area with dense vegetation on the Sicilian coast in the

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

Gela Gela (Sicilian and ; grc, Γέλα) is a city and (municipality) in the Autonomous Region of Sicily, Italy; in terms of area and population, it is the largest municipality on the southern coast of Sicily. Gela is part of the Province of Ca ...

, containing the archaeological remains of the archaic emporium of Gela, which dates to the period between the 8th and 5th centuries BC.

Bosco Littorio

The area received its current name, which means

lictor A lictor (possibly from la, ligare, "to bind") was a Roman civil servant who was an attendant and bodyguard to a magistrate who held ''imperium''. Lictors are documented since the Roman Kingdom, and may have originated with the Etruscans. Origi ...

ial wood and refers to the fasces, by the

Fascist regime Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

in the 20th century. Following the construction of the refinery in the 1950s, the local vegetation was affected by the fumes, becoming swollen and contorted. Until the 1970s, the area was used by inhabitants of Gela as a summer resort and swimming spot. It was also frequented by people carrying out illicit excavations. In 1983, archaeological excavations were carried out, which revealed the emporium and from 1992 the area became part of the state property governed by the Soprintendenza di

Caltanissetta Caltanissetta (; scn, Nissa or ) is a ''comune'' in the central interior of Sicily, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Caltanissetta. Its inhabitants are called ''Nisseni''. In 2017, the city had a population of 62,797. It is the 14th ...

, which is based at Gela. The wooded area can be entered freely and is looked after by the . The archaeological area was opened to the public on 29 May 2009.

Archaic emporium

The Archaic Emporium, as it is identified by archaeologists, contains numerous structures (more than ten) which belong to a broad area extending from the port to the acropolis (the site of the ancient acropolis is the hill now known as ''Molino a vento'') of the ancient Greek city of

, in an area bounded by the Gela river on the southeastern side. The buildings consist of regular square rooms. The walls survive to a height of more than 2 metres and in some cases preserve the ancient holes for the roof beams. In many cases, the layers of plaster which covered the interior walls are also preserved. In one of the structures, an entire door is preserved, including jambs and architrave. The walls were built of rough sundried mudbricks, probably mass-produced since almost all of them have the same measurements (60 x 60 x 15 cm). The first phase of activity in this area is datable to the time of the

Greek colony Greek colonization was an organised colonial expansion by the Archaic Greeks into the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea in the period of the 8th–6th centuries BC. This colonization differed from the migrations of the Greek Dark Ages in that i ...

's foundation in the 8th century BC. The site developed in the 6th century, until its destruction after 480 BC, probably from natural causes. The destruction might have been caused by a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

: traces of a traumatic event are clear from the collapsed walls of some of the houses. Over the remains of the archaic area is evidence for a final phase of life, characterised by the celebration of feasts which probably had a religious dimension. The discovery of the site occurred during work on the foundations of a communal kindergarten. As a result of the discovery, this work was interrupted and the building was built elsewhere instead. In December 1999, during some excavations carried out to the west of Bosco by Lavinia Sole under the direction of Sopraintendente Rosalbe Panvini, three terracotta altars were discovered, dating to the 480s BC and decorated with reliefs of mythological figures, the

gorgon A Gorgon ( /ˈɡɔːrɡən/; plural: Gorgons, Ancient Greek: Γοργών/Γοργώ ''Gorgṓn/Gorgṓ'') is a creature in Greek mythology. Gorgons occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature. While descriptions of Gorgons vary, the te ...

Medusa In Greek mythology, Medusa (; Ancient Greek: Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress"), also called Gorgo, was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those ...

with her children Pegasus and

Chrysaor In Greek mythology, Chrysaor ( el, Χρυσάωρ, ''Chrysáor'', ''gen''.: Χρυσάορος, ''Chrysáoros''; English translation: "he who has a golden sword" rom χρυσός, "golden" and ἄορ, "sword", was the brother of the winged h ...

under her arms on one, the goddess

Eos In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Eos (; Ionic and Homeric Greek ''Ēṓs'', Attic ''Héōs'', "dawn", or ; Aeolic ''Aúōs'', Doric ''Āṓs'') is the goddess and personification of the dawn, who rose each morning from her home at ...

kidnaping

Thanatos In Greek mythology, Thanatos (; grc, Θάνατος, pronounced in "Death", from θνῄσκω ''thnēskō'' "(I) die, am dying") was the personification of death. He was a minor figure in Greek mythology, often referred to but rarely appea ...

on another, and a triad of female figures whose significance is unclear on the third. The altars are on display in the . A new series of excavations was begun in November 2007 and concluded the next year, in September, and was carried out in tandem with the recovery of the on the seabed nearby. The shipwrecks and the emporium have been treated as a single object of research by scholars, since they were probably destroyed by the same event. During a three-day expedition, ''Traffici, commerci e vie di distribuzione nel Mediterraneo tra protostoria e V secolo a.C.'' (27–29 May 2009), the site was opened to the workers and their families and then to the wider public; it remains freely accessible today.l'articolo
Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali.

References

Bibliography

*R. Panvini; F. Giudice, ''Ta Attika: veder greco a Gela: ceramiche attiche figurate dall'antica colonia'', Roma 2003 *R. Pavini, ''Les autels archaïque de Géla. Une découverte exceptionelle en Sicile. Musèe du Louvre, Salle de Diane (25 septembre-17 décembre 2001)'', Caltanissetta 2001

External links

page on the website of the Sicilian regional department of cultural properties and public education.

Interview with Rosalba Panvini on '' La Sicilia'' (27 July 2008), reprinted on the website CittàNuoveCorleone.
"Riemerge l'altra Gela, una «piccola Pompei»"
Article from the '' Corriere della Sera''.
"Gela- Scavi dell'Emporio. Alzato in mattoni crudi. VI secolo a.C."
images published on the site Panoramio.

, images of the site as it appears today. *
Area Archeologica Demaniale "Bosco Littorio" - Emporio Arcaico (VI secolo a.C.)
', brief film on youtube.com. {{Archaeological sites in Sicily Gela Archaeological sites in the province of Caltanissetta Archaeological sites in Sicily