Archeofinds
Finziade
Finziade (Licata-AG):
residential quarters
ISPC-CNR case-study
The ancient city of Finziade (Licata-AG), on the southern coast of Sicily, played an important role during the Punic Wars, also thanks to its strategic position on the mouth of the Himera, the main river in the region. The city enjoyed a period of remarkable vitality during the 2nd and the 1st century BC., while the later historical events caused it to decline during the Imperial period. CNR-ISPC of Catania and University of Messina, in the last 15 years, conducted excavations and surveys with the discovery of residential quarters and the study of settlement dynamics of the territory.
Twelve houses have been excavated which, for their limited period of use, between the beginning of the 2nd and the end of 1st cent BC., are a privileged context of investigation for dynamics of production, distribution and use of pottery. The nature of the artifacts found, many classes and productions local or imported, shows how Finziade is part of a trade network connected with other centers of the Mediterranean (Sicilian cities, the Campanian and Punic areas, Iberian and Greek world). The research on the material culture of the Finziade’s houses aims at the reconstruction of the functional wares’ assemblages used in domestic activities and daily life in a Sicilian town of the late Republican age.