Pantelleria e il Mediterraneo nell’età del Bronzo

The University of Bologna has been investigating the prehistoric remains in the island of Pantelleria since 1996, reaching high level results in the study of obsidian distribution and in the fieldwork at the Bronze Age settlement of Mursia. From the 18th to the mid of the 15th centuries BCE, the island was occupied by a fortified settlement and a monumental cemetery related to a flourishing community. The inhabited area is made up of sunken huts with an elongated oval plan in the earliest phase, replaced by larger dwellings, with horseshoe-shaped or rectangular plans. In sector B, the huts are arranged in parallel rows, according to a spatial planning. The dwellings were used for residential purposes, with evidence of domestic activities connected to food preparation: hearths with lithic cysts, cooking plates, storage bins, mortars, and quern stones. One case is an oval hut used as press for oil production. Most finds are represented by local pottery with stylistic characteristics similar to the Sicilian “Rodì Tindari Vallelunga” facies, but the presence of exotic imported artefacts (pottery, metal, elephant ivory bracelets, glass and vitreous-material beads, flint tools) proves a high level of connectivity between Pantelleria with the Mediterranean ranging from Egypt and the Near East, to the far west regions. Further investigations in protohistoric settlements in Central Mediterranean are currently underway in the major islands, in Sicily at Mokarta (Salemi - TP) and in Sardinia at Nuoro and Suvegliu (Oliena).