The Contribution of Digital Data to the Understanding of Ritual Landscapes. The Case of Calicantone (Sicily)

Abstract

P. Militello (University of Catania) and A. M. Sammito (Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, Ragusa) directed excavations around a necropolis of at least 90 rock-cut tombs at Calicantone (RG) in southeastern Sicily, which until then had only partially been investigated. As well as providing new archaeological data about the corresponding village in terms of its area, the research team also discovered the remains of an isolated bi-apsidal hut dated to the late Sicilian EBA (XVIIth–XVIth century B.C.). The hut is presumed as a funerary building primarily intended for the preparation of corpses for burial. Its position, directly between the village and the necropolis, demonstrates its crucial role in the sacral landscape, while spatial distribution analyses indicate that other commemorative rituals were conducted in specific spaces in, and around, the actual tombs. The paper presents a reconstruction of the ancient cultural landscape highlighting the possible passageway that connected life in the village with death in the necropolis, through the interceding funerary hut, and the location of potential ritual areas in the necropolis. Digital spatial datasets and visualization tools (e.g. topographic maps, shaded Digital Elevation Model (DEM), visibility analyses, 3D virtual models, animations, etc.) proved to be fundamental in the reconstruction of funerary activities.