Monte Bubbonìa is a hill located 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 ...
of
Mazzarino, about twenty kilometres from the city of
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 ...
. It consists of three platforms, descending from west to east (i.e. the westernmost platform is also the highest).
The site is reached by travelling along the SS 117 Gela-Catania, taking the turn-off for
Piazza Armerina
Piazza Armerina ( Gallo-Italic of Sicily: ''Ciazza''; Sicilian: ''Chiazza'') is a ''comune'' in the province of Enna of the autonomous island region of Sicily, southern Italy.
History
The city of Piazza (as it was called before 1862) developed ...
, driving for 9 kilometres, until a side road appears on the left, the old road to Mazzarino, marked by a sign which shows the street on an ancient Roman route map known as the
Itinerarium Antonini
The Antonine Itinerary ( la, Itinerarium Antonini Augusti, "The Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus") is a famous ''itinerarium'', a register of the stations and distances along various roads. Seemingly based on official documents, possibly ...
.
The shape of the hill, from a geological point of view, is relatively recent, with the
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...
limestone base covered by
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
marl with silt and quartz grains, then finally by very red sand which is very crumbly and dusty. Below the curb of a dirt road which runs up the east side of the hill towards the acropolis, there is a chamber
dolmen, the shape of which has similarities to structures in
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
and
Apulia.
On the summit of the mountain, Paolo Orsi discovered an ancient city which the archaeologist Piero Orlandini later identified as the Sicani, Sican settlement of Maktorion, known from Herodotus 7.53. However, the ruins do not seem to predate the 6th century BC, and this makes Orlandini's identification unlikely.
[Eugenio Manni]
Greci in Sicilia tra l'VIII e il VI secolo
Gallery
File:Dolmenmontebubbonia.jpg, Dolmen
File:Monte Bubbonia 1.JPG
File:Monte Bubbonia 2.JPG
File:Monte Bubbonia 3.JPG
File:Panorama da Monte Bubbonia.JPG, View looking south from Monte Bubbonia
References
Bibliography
* Paolo Orsi - Domenico Pancucci, "Esplorazioni a Monte Bubbonia dal 1904 al 1906", in ''Archivio storico Siracusano'', N.S. 2 (1972–73), pp. 5–60;
* D. Pancucci, "Monte Bubbonia. Scavi nel quadriennio 1972-75", in ''Kokalos'', 22-23 (1976–77), pp. 470–478;
* D. Pancucci, "Monte Bubbonia. Scavi nella Necropoli", in ''Sicilia Archeologica'',6.23 (1973), pp. 49–55;
* Salvatore Piccolo (2013), ''Ancient Stones: The Prehistoric Dolmens of Sicily'', Brazen Head Publishing, Thornham/Norfolk (UK), .
External links
*
{{Authority control
Mountains of Sicily, Bubbonia
Archaeological sites in the province of Caltanissetta
Ancient cities in Sicily
Archaeological sites in Sicily