Thapsos
Sicily’s eclectic past is a never-ending journey through civilizations and their mechanisms that nowadays determine serial scholars to dig deep in the realm of former peoples. The Bronze Age (2500- 1250 BC) left us a suite of testimonials that enable discoveries of ancient societies.
The disregard for the bindings between Crete and Italy in the Late Bronze Age III has been disabled by recent discoveries. Moreover, archaeological intercessions initiated after 1982 in South-Central Sicily revealed parts of former Early Bronze Age settlements of the Castellucian culture that ended during the late years of the 3rd millennium BC. Next to this site there lies an equally important one, Thapsos, a reminiscence of the Middle Bronze Age, situated next to Syracuse that represents an identification card for the Thapsos culture.
The site’s value resides in a great series of oval and round huts. In addition, 450 tombs actively participate in building the area’s historic importance. The Thapsos culture, as well as Castellucio and Pantalica, are bounded through the rock-cut tombs that constituted a local phenomenon which did not require special attention for the dead, as other societies did. There are burial ritualistic elements on other Mediterranean islands that are even more fascinating, such as tombe di gianti (giants’ graves) that impressed by their carved stone facades and hornworks.
The rites of passage between worlds have created an archaeological wing fully worthy of research. Paolo Orsi is one of the explorers that focused on the tombs of Thapsos. Jewelry, weapons, bronze tools, pottery brought from Greece and Malta dramatically erased all doubts regarding connections between Thapsos and overseas contemporary communities.
The range of scholars that headed their attention towards the discovery of cross-cultural testimonials is a large one. The results prove that it can be largely talked on the architecture of Thapsos. With its complex structures, the residential area sustains foreign inspiration. So do the tomb designs that offer resemblances to the Peoponnesian rock-cut chamber tombs.
The Thapsos society is under no doubt a complex network that drew external features into its own mechanism. The dynamics of Thapsos is indeed cross-cultural, but the strength of the local character is an internal result that puts this culture on the top of the Bronze Age.