Milena ( Sicilian: ''Milocca'') is a ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' (municipality) in the

Province of Caltanissetta The province of Caltanissetta (; or ; officially ''libero consorzio comunale di Caltanissetta'') is a Provinces of Italy, province in the southern part of Sicily, Italy. Following the suppression of the Sicilian provinces, it was replaced in 20 ...

in the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

region

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, located about southeast of

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

and about west of

Caltanissetta Caltanissetta (Sicilian language, Sicilian: ''Cartanissètta)'' is an Italian comune with a population of 58,012 inhabitants, serving as the capital of the Province of Caltanissetta, free municipal consortium of Caltanissetta in Sicily. The earl ...

Etymology

Formerly known as Milocca. Its name is a form of homage to the Queen

Milena of Montenegro Milena Petrović-Njegoš (; sr-Cyrl, Милена Петровић-Његош; 4 May 1847 – 16 March 1923) was the only Queen of Montenegro by marriage to Nicholas I of Montenegro. Milena was regent of Montenegro during the absence of her spo ...

, the mother of the Queen Elena, wife of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.

History and culture

Milena, formerly known as Milocca, was the subject of a book, named ''"Milocca: A Sicilian Village"'' by

Charlotte Gower Chapman Charlotte Gower Chapman, born Charlotte Day Gower, was an ethnologist and an author. In 1928, she received a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. Later on while working at Lingnan University in China during World War II she was tak ...

, who in 1935 detailed everyday life in the small rural Sicilian town, one of the earliest

cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term ...

studies of a semi-literate people.

Archaeology

The area of Milena, nestled amidst mountains and river valleys, has a rich history dating back to the

middle Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wi ...

. Archaeological exploration in the vicinity during the 1980s and 1990s has revealed

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

sites, but many ancient settlements remain undiscovered due to the area's size and

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

risks. Modern methods like

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...

and

GIS A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database; however, this is not ...

technology are now aiding these efforts. Challenges include erosion and vegetation cover, prompting the use of drones and remote sensing to uncover hidden

archaeological sites An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

International relations

Milena is twinned with: *

Aix-les-Bains Aix-les-Bains (, ; ; ), known locally and simply as Aix, is a Communes of France, commune in the southeastern French Departments of France, department of Savoie.France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

References

External links

Official website
Cities and towns in Sicily {{sicily-geo-stub