FIRST THE...SICILIANS! THE ORIGIN OF SICILIANITY
FIRST THE...SICILIANS! THE ORIGIN OF SICILIANITY
Photo Source: Giuseppe Perdichizzi
In mathematics we define axiom a principle that is believed true for evidence. In other words, this truth does not need to be demonstrated. In religious terms one should believe it for faith. For example, on the evidence that for two points only one line passes, Euclidean geometry has been constructed, which until modern times was considered the only possible geometry.

Asserting Before the Sicilians! assumes that there is a definite and identifiable Sicilianity, which can not be reduced to only being born or living in Sicily, otherwise my brother , which has recently moved to Milan, would no longer be Sicilian or risk losing, after a given period (which no scientific study has yet determined ...), this status. It is therefore necessary to understand which is the axiom which gives rise to the construction of sicilianità.
Genetics can be widely refuted to help us . < br> It is therefore necessary to follow another path for the determination of the sicilianità: we try through a historical approach, trying to identify the purest and most original Sicilian stock.
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Who were then the authentic Sicilians?

Were the "pre-Hellenic" and "pre-fenic" natives? Namely the sicule, sicane and elime populations that inhabited the island until the 5th century BC, coexisting with the most advanced Greek colonies and Phoenicians to be completely assimilated?
Or perhaps the incipit of sicilianità was given by the secular "foreign" dominations / colonizations. However, at least initially, the Greeks (which invaded / colonized the eastern part of the island, founding for example Syracuse) and the Phoenicians (ie the Canaanite civilization settled along the Mediterranean coast between the current states of Syria and Israel, which colonized / invaded the western side of Sicily, founding for example Palermo) were not considered more Sicilian of the native populations. At some point in history, however, should have become (otherwise, disappeared as administrative entities Sicilian populations, sicane and elime, the Sicilian would have died out with them and today we would be here to talk about something else ...), as well as the later Romans, Byzantines, Islamic, Norman, Aragonese, Hapsburg and Bourbons, who for centuries have inhabited the Sicilian island.
Does a colonizing population acquire the sicilianità after at least a century of residence on the island? If this were the case, erupts, Ostrogoths, Swabians, Angevins, Piedmontese (who for a short time put their hands on Sicily already a century before the final "annexation" through the Shipping of a thousand) and Austrians (or better, again the Habsburgs, even if of another family branch), with their relatively brief but fundamental passage would have remained outside the acquisition of sicilianità. So Federico II, although he considered himself Sicilian, really would not have been.
Allow me a brief disgrace: to reread all the names of the "colonizing" cultures of Sicily you understand well why some Sicilians look more like those Germans disembarked from cruise ships to Messina (I refer just to those in t-shirt and shorts even in December ...), rather than the classic low topos, dark-skinned, with the scuzzetta and dark mustache.
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Returning to our historical analysis, among the most famous "Sicilians" of all time there is the aforementioned stupor mundi Federico II! Historically considered one of the most innovative European sovereigns in history, grew up and educated in Sicily by Christian and Islamic preceptors, unpopular to the popes of the time for his secular vision of politics and for the opening towards the Islamic Sicilians (which also earned him the nickname of Christian sultan and some excommunications), made Palermo the most flourishing and stimulating European court of the 13th century. Could it be considered Sicilian? Frederick II, later also emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, belonged to the noble sveva (ie German ...) family of the Hohenstaufen. On the other hand, the mother was descended from the Normans (population of Danish and Norwegian origin ...) from Altavilla (Hauteville, France ...) Yet it was considered more Sicilian than anything else, enough to decide to keep the two separate crowns.
Unless even to disagree with an emperor, we can say that the sicilianità is more about sharing certain values (political, religious, culinary ...) than a genetic or historical belonging. But what values? In Sicily there was everything and the opposite of everything: from polytheism, to Islam, to Greek and Roman Christianity; from democracy, to tyranny, to feudalism, from cuccìa to cassata, all'arancino / a ...
The sicilianità is the result of a process of commingling between the cultures of almost the entire Mediterranean and most of Europe, which began millennia ago. The result is a sort of syncretism evident not only in the language (which houses terms and expressions deriving from all colonizing cultures) but also in the architecture of monuments: in Sicily we find ourselves for example with Roman villas or Byzantine churches built on the foundations of structures Greek; and Greek mosques or temples set in cathedrals.
Sicilianity can mean everything and nothing. Since the history of Sicily is the emblem of the history of humanity, always characterized by movements and migrations for the most disparate reasons. The richness of Sicilian culture (or rather, of the culture that has been generated in Sicily) is the result of a sort of melting pot, certainly not of an identity isolation. Saying sicilianity is saying humanity.
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The problem (according to my modest opinion) arises when implicitly assumes the sicilianità (or the italianità ...) as ideology. In other words, when we consider the esserci of the siciliano as evident, for which therefore we do not need any demonstration: the Sicilian, simply, there is. From this point of view, affirming before the Sicilians assumes that there are non-Sicilian : if the assumed is considered true from the community (in this case) of the Sicilians, the non-sicilianità is a logical consequence that does not need to argue. Quoting Hannah Arendt (forgive me if I choose to omit the text from which I quote, but the eloquence of the title would offend your intelligence) ideological thinking becomes independent of every experience: in other words, it does not matter to demonstrate the historical, cultural and genetic inconsistency of the sicilianità concept as defined and clearly determined. Since if the aim is to politically justify the right to the selfish exclusion of the non-Sicilianity, any dissent will be marked by the community as anti-social, anti-Sicilian, not true as opposed to the "truth", in contrast with the evidence of sicilianità.
Text Source: Antonino Rampulla
ARCHIVE NEWS
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Back to CART RUTS AND A FEW TOO MANY PROJECTIONS I will skip any preamble, referring to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily. The easy academic tendency has been, in most cases concerning cart ruts, to consider them in terms of the latomie, or quarries, with which very often (for example in the cases of the Targia or Pizzuta districts) they share the same territory. According to this theory, the carraie would have been indirectly created due to the wear of the rock at each passage of carts or sleds loaded with extracted stone blocks. I will not repeat the arguments presented so far in order to demonstrate that this is a theory that has little solid foundations on an in-depth analysis of the cart ruts. However, I will add a piece by demonstrating the implausibility of a connection between them in both chronological and functional...
CART RUTS AND A FEW TOO MANY PROJECTIONS CART RUTS AND A FEW TOO MANY PROJECTIONS
Read also THE POLISHING OF THE CART RUTS I will skip any preamble, referring to to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily.Considering the possibility that the cart ruts were gradually dug by the passage of carts pulled by pack animals, for example pairs of oxen, observing certain sections of the cart ruts present in the Granatari Vecchi district, in Rosolini, and in the Pizzuta district, close to the Vendicari Reserve, two questions arise: 1. Why force the animals to pass over rough surfaces and protrusions high, compared to the base of the furrows, even 60-70 centimeters? 2. Why, in the presence of such obstacles, not opt for a detour? For Mottershead, Pearson and Schaefer such protrusions appeared later, since at the time of the passage of the wagons, a layer of earth covered the rocky bank, thus not making the obstacle...
THE POLISHING OF THE CART RUTS THE POLISHING OF THE CART RUTS
Read also THE PROBLEMATIC EDGES OF THE CART RUTS I will skip any preamble, referring to to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily. To proceed with this comparison I have chosen a probable capital and the corner of a recess present in a block of the northern walls of Eloro that would seem to resemble a pinax, that is, a niche that would have housed a fresco of the heroa, but which a more careful observation refers to a system functional to the grip of the block through a pincer winch. Both elements, like the curt ruts, have remained at the mercy of the elements for millennia, and are therefore subject to comparable wear and tear due to the passage of time. The finishing of the capital should be of a high standard, since it is an architectural element that also has an aesthetic function. The recess, on the other hand, should have...
THE PROBLEMATIC EDGES OF THE CART RUTS THE PROBLEMATIC EDGES OF THE CART RUTS
I will skip any preamble, referring to to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily.As can be seen in other sites around the world, in some cart ruts I visited, in particular in the Cugni district in Pachino, in the Granati Vecchi district in Rosolini and in the Targia district in Syracuse, a clear border can be seen, a sort of frame, next to the grooves, more marked externally, barely noticeable internally. The borders I measured have a width of 14-20 centimeters and a height of 8-10 centimeters. Not all cart ruts have such frames present or particularly evident, regardless of the degree of wear or degradation. They are found above all in cart ruts with less deep grooves. As already described in detail, given the presence of furrows with a depth of even 65-70 centimeters, the wheels of a possible vehicle would have had to have a...
THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART FOUR) THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART FOUR)
Click here to return to third part Clapham Junction As in the Maltese site Misrah Ghar Il-Kbir, also in the Targia and Granatari Vecchi districts the cart ruts intersect and cross each other in a similar way to the track switches in a railway station. The nickname Clapham Junction that was given by David H. Trump to the Maltese site, derives precisely from the similarity with the famous English railway station. For Sagona these are agricultural furrows and water channels, for Mottershead, Pearson and Schaefer these are abandoned paths due to obstacles and wear. Obviously we do not know what the morphology of the Syracuse and Rosolini territory was at times when the cart ruts were traced, but considering the current context, there certainly would have been no agricultural reason to build them, given the presence of fertile land, springs and fresh water courses just a few kilometers...
THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART THREE) THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART THREE)
Click here to return to SECOND PART Considerations on the theses of Mottershead, Pearson and Schaefer I find this study extremely interesting, even if I am perplexed by this emphasis on the loss of hardness of the wet rock given that Malta is among the European territories at greatest risk of desertification (as is unfortunately also the south-eastern area of Sicily). We don't know exactly what the climate was like in Malta when the cart ruts were made, as we don't even know for sure how old they were made. However, it might be understandable to take the humidity factor as a starting point. n strong consideration, in relation to a territory constantly subject to rainfall, but why would the ancient Maltese have had to intensely travel with loaded carts right after a downpour, with all the inconveniences that for example the mud would have entailed? The Maltese territory is...
THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART TWO) THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART TWO)
Click here to return to FIRST PART The Greek chariot In relation to the faithful reconstructions of the tools used at the time, recently made in Selinunte and in Valle dei Templi, and in comparison with Study of a Roman Cart by Paola Miniero, the axles of Greek carts of the time had to be no higher than half a meter from the ground and the gauge (i.e. the distance between one wheel and the other) had to measure between 140 and 150 centimeters. They had to plausibly be pulled by at least a pair of pack animals (as represented in the numerous numismatic and artistic testimonies that have come down to us) and have wooden but iron-shod wheels. Another reference for estimating the gauge is the width of two oxen side by side: the width of an ox is about 70-80 centimeters, so the minimum gauge between one wheel and the other, to maintain a certain stability, had to be at least 140...
THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART ONE) THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART ONE)
Who I am Rereading the final draft of what I have written, I think it is appropriate to spend a few lines to introduce myself. I am Antonino Rampulla, owner of the agri-campsite whose website hosts this blog, a graduate in philosophy, with a growing passion for archaeology, born from curiosity for the archaeological sites of which, in particular, south-eastern Sicily is rich. Certain of my substantial ignorance on the subject, I try to make up for it by studying in my free time. However, not infrequently, I happen to come across historical certainties, academically shared, that clash a bit with what logic seemed to suggest to me from the observation of some details of the archaeological sites visited. So, simply, I ask myself questions and, with the most scientific approach possible, I try to look for answers. The result is the pretext to search for information, study and publish in...