21 Costa del Iblei. La topografia antica litoranea

The coastal zone of a region has its own physical characteristics, on which a dedicated anthropic action is carried out, which gives rise to the formation of economies and cultures which adjusted themselves to exploit that particular environment and to modify it to one’s advantage. On the coast of the Hyblaea area these dynamics can be observed in some material evidences of various productive activities: the exploitation of coastal quarries, preferred for the facilitation of nautical transport; purple dye production; the cultivation of the flooded areas and lagoons behind the dunes for salt, hunting and fishing; tuna fishing and salting, from antiquity to the contemporary age. These economic opportunities have also stimulated the settlement in the coastal spaces of south-eastern Sicily.