Area of Capo Boeo
Parts of walls of houses, tombs, the remains of the fortifications like the great moat, and pieces of walls are to be found in the urban tissue and document the Punic phase of the city. The area of Capo Boeo holds the most tangible of the traces of the Romans and conserves the remains of a villa (end II century- beginning III century A.D) complete with thermal baths with marvellous mural floors. Under the San Giovanni church there is an ancient hypogeum known as the grotta della Sibilla which is a rare example of transformation into a Christian baptistery (V century A.D.).
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MOTHIA
Near the north-western tip of Sicily, south of Trapani and almost opposite Marsala, there is a laguna called the “Stagnone”, separated from the open sea to the west by an island, Isola Lunga. Situated in the centre of the laguna is the island of San Pantaleo, the Motya of Phoenician times, and two other smaller islands, Santa Maria and Scuola. The geographical situation of Motya is similar to that of many other Phoenician settlements: a small island near the coast, surrounded by shallow water, easy to defend and a safe anchorage for their ships. The city, founded at the end of the 8th century B.C., soon became one of the most important Phoenician colonies; thanks to its proximity to Africa it was one of the first obligatory transit routes towards Spain, Sardinia and Central Italy.
The Phoenicians traded with the Greek colonies present in Sicily, but not all their contacts were of a friendly nature, and a series of battles and wars eventually culminated in the destruction of Motya by Dionysius of Syracuse in 397 B.C. The survivors moved on to the nearby Sicilian coast, founding the city of Lilybeo, the present day Marsala. The island, however, was not completely abandoned, as demonstrated by numerous findings from archaeological excavations. The most important findings from the excavations of Motya may be seen in the Archaeological Museum of the island, created by Joseph Whitaker, who, for all his life, cultivated an amateur but expert interest in the natural sciences, history and archaeology. At the beginning of this century, Whitaker bought the island and conducted the first systematic archaeological exploration of the city. It is to this man, illustrious member of a rich English family which possessed industries and other commercial interests in Sicily, that we must give the credit for the fundamental impulse he gave towards the study and the divulgation of the archaeological heritage of Motya. - VIRTUAL TOUR PORTA NORD
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YOUTH OF MOTHIA
475-450 BC.
Mothia, G. Whitaker Archaeological Museum, Coarse-grained white marble with crystalline granules, probably from the east Grece. Traces of polychrome paint. The feet and arms are missing, tough part of the left hand is there. The head has been rejoined. A man stands with his weight on his left leg and his right foot forward with leg slightly bent. He wears a long chiton with ample folds, girdled high on the chest with a broad horizontal sash with two holes where an ornament was affixed. The head is pierced with a number of holes for the attachment of a head covering made of some other material. The forehead and nape of the neck are covered with a single row of curls. From the way the shoulder muscles are carved it is possible to divine the position of the arms: the right arm was stretched forward, while the left was bent at the elbow: the left hand can be seen resting on the hip. |
HYPOGEUM OF CRISPIA SALVIA
In the area of the Punic necropolis there is the hypogeum of Crispia Salvia (end II – IV century. A.D.), a funerary chamber with six depositions and completely painted walls, reached through an entrance passage with steps dug into the rock. The hypogeum is identifiable by an epigraph with which Iulius Demetrius dedicated his thoughts to his wife Crispia Salvia who died at the age of forty-five. The painted decoration is made up of a scene with five figures leaning towards a sitting flute player, a scene of a funeral banquet, four peacocks of which two on high Kalathoi (chests), full of fruit and flowers and on the wall in front of the entrance there are two winged figures who are holding a festoon.
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THE PUNIC NECROPOLIS
The Punic necropolis occupied a vast area, now between the vie Cattaneo, Struppa, D’Azeglio, De Gasperi, in which well tombs and ditch tombs, simple or Hypogeaic, with rich funeral collections. The area continued to be used until the late imperial age with the sovraposition of new burials on top of the ancient ones and the consequential changing and reshaping In via del Fante there are Roman burial grounds with slab of plastered Tuff in the shape of a piramid or cupola, dating back to between the end of the III century and the beginning of the II century B.C., rich in funerary objects.
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CATACOMBS OF LILIBEO - CHURCH OF THE MADONNA DELL’ITRIA
The so-called catacombs of Lilibeo covered a vast area from the church of the Madonna dell’Itria and, ran next to the railway, as far as the main road to Trapani. it was a complex of funerary chambers, hypogeum Arcosolium tombs made by using the the natural cavities or digging into the lime banks. The are of the ex-convent of the Niccolini is rich in Arcosolium tombs, simple or with painted decoration. Of particular importance is the southern complex of the area, made up of three arches, with mosaic floors depicting a polychrome vase. Near corso Gramsci (vicolo E. Pace) these is another complex hypogeic chambers with painted Arcosoliums
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