Tonnare antiche e moderne nella Sicilia sud orientale

Neither the alleged Byzantine origin of the traditional tonnara (i.e. the tunny-fishing factory) is true, nor is its Arab etiology. Literary, epigraphic and archaeological sources confirm that in ancient times tunny fishing was managed with nets anchored to the bottom of the sea and moored on land. The traditional Mediterranean tonnara, which had the greatest diffusion in Sicily, therefore has a Greco-Roman origin. The ancient tuna traps are not easy to observe, since modern ones have settled in the more productive zones; on the other hand, ancient fishing facilities in those same areas were certainly dedicated to the tuna. Since the ancient fishing system has substantially survived until the modern age, the method of ethno-archaeological comparison is very useful to understand the ancient tonnara. On the south-eastern coast of Sicily there are certainly two, perhaps three ancient tonnare; near two of which there are modern, among the fourteen that the building remains and historical sources testify on this stretch of coast