Da Calaforno a Calicantone : relazioni transmarine dell'area iblea tra il III ed il II millennio a.C.

The paper addresses the question of the transmarine relations of the southern part of the Hyblean area (SE Sicily) in Sicilian protohistory, on the basis of new data from the excavations carried out by the University of Catania and the Superintendency of Ragusa in the Hypogeum of Calaforno (Giarratana) and in the site of Calicantone (Modica). These explorations de–ned the chronology of the Hypogeum, identi–ed new similar underground structures in the area of Giarratana and found a Maltese juglet, belonging to the Tarxien Cemetery phase, in the destruction layer of the Calicantone Hut dating to the 16th century.

These data allow us to af–rm that the Giarratana hypogea are not imitations of the Ħal Saflieni or Brochtorff Circle hypogea but rather the result of a local tradition developing in line with a social structure and religious beliefs shared with Malta, and that contacts between Malta and the southern Hyblean area developed between the 18th and the 16th century BC before the development of the relation with the eastern coast of the Hyblean area. [Publisher's text]