Da Calaforno a Calicantone: Relazioni Transmarine dell’area iblea tra il III ed il II millennio a.C.,

Cultural interaction and ‘entangled artefacts’: the case of the Sicilian rock-cut tholos tombs - The article addresses the question of the Aegean origin of the Sicilian rock-cut tholos, a chamber tomb characterized by circular plan, ogival shape and the presence of a cavity at the top of the vault, present in Sicily between the local Middle and Late Bronze Age (14thearly 12th century BC). While some scholars consider this type an imitation of the Mycenaean rock-cut tholos, and therefore attribute it to Aegean influence, others consider it a local form, imitating the shape of an indigenous hut. While the source of the iconography may be a matter of debate, the point missed in the discussion is that the use of geometric and modular procedures in the planning and excavation of these tombs is a total novelty in the cultural panorama of prehistoric Sicily, contemporary with the introduction of similar geometric procedures in domestic architecture (Thapsos, Pantalica) linked to Aegean know-how. The paper analyses the way tholos tombs are set within the landscape in Greece and Sicily. The distribution of Sicilian tholoi shows greater variety than in the Greek mainland, which has no analogy in the Helladic repertoire. These elements demonstrate how a) the Sicilian tholoi were built in line with know-how of mainland origin and b) they were incorporated into local culture to adapt to local social and political requirements; c) in this process the tholos shape could have been interpreted in different ways by different groups: initially imbued with the prestige of an exotic model and later accepted also because it could be easily associated with traditional local dwellings.