PROTOHISTORY 

Around 10 000 BCE 

Levanzo - Lipari - Panarea - Pantalica - Stentinello - Noto 
 

Sicily was first inhabited during the end of the Pleistocene, in a very advanced phase of the Würm glaciation. No archaeological evidence of stone tools has been found, while many settlements belonging to the Upper Palaeolithic Age have, mainly in San Teodoro (province of Messina), Levanzo (province of Trapani) and in the southeast of Sicily; more specifically these settlements date back to the late Upper Palaeolithic. Only Fontana Nuova, near Ragusa, seems to belong to the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic. The prehistoric sites of Termini Imerese, Corrugi and Pachino, are presumably from the Mesolithic. The oldest civilization is that of Stentinello, apparently spread all over Sicily with local varieties. Fortified villages with defending trenches are typical of this civilization. Later the civilization of San Cono Piano Notaro, called “Iozziana” succeeded the former Stentinello one. The differ for the ceramics: the first one has  coarse shapes or engravings filled with white chalk, while the second one is characterised by linear engraves, sometimes painted in a red ochre colour. As these civilizations flourished, Sicily became part of the Aegean culture expanding area (Thapsos): Serraferlicchio, Sant’Ippolito and Castelluccio. (Castellucciana). Meanwhile, through new exchanges, the old civilization of San Cono rose again and gave life to the “Cultura della Conca d'Oro”, that is the First Sicel Period (north-western part of Sicily – bell-shaped vase of Iberian origins and ceramics with striped and parallel engraves), according to the classification by Paolo Orsi: who divided the Sicilian prehistoric age into four phases. The Second Sicel Period dates back to the Bronze Age (sepulchres: tombs dug in the rock and Mycenaean bronze swords). The Third Sicel Period is the next phase, corresponding to the Iron Age: documented by villages and huts; the quadrangular plan tombs are still dug in the rock; a Hellenic cultural and commercial activity coming from the colonial settlements along the cost, could already be found in the villages. The Fourth Sicel Period belongs to history. The three most important ethnic groups were the Elymians, the Sicani and the Sicels.


The Elymians (thirteenth – seventeenth Century BCE), settled in the western part of Sicily, are supposed to descend from the mixing of natives, colonists from Liguria and other groups with Aegean origins.

The Sicanians, who are supposed to come from Spain (sent away by Ligurians from the Sicanian river in Iberia), inhabited Sicily even before Sicels. Some identify them with Sicels themselves, others state they were the pre-Indo-European inhabitants of the island, pushed back to the north-western corner of the island from the Sicels when the latter arrived from the peninsula. Archaeological studies proved that Sicanians reached western Sicily during the third millennium BCE. There is no information as far as their relations with Elymians are concerned. They were independent until the Carthaginians colonization.

The Sicels were an ancient italic tribe with Arian (Indo-European) origins, who settled in Sicily in 2000 BCE; it is believed that they arrived in the island after Sicanians and, coming from the east, they pushed them towards the western areas of the ancient Trinacria, which changed its name from Sicania into Sicilia. They lived in the most fertile areas three hundred years before the Greeks came. Their name comes from king Sicel, son of Italo of the Enotri (from whom the ancient central region Italia came), a people from central Italy that had been sent away from Sabina, pushed by the Osci, then settled in Campania and eventually arrived in Sicily. According to some research their language seems to be similar to Latin. They were the Greeks’ enemies, as well as the Sicanians, but all the same they were influenced by their civilization. The cult of the Palici is associated to the Sicels.
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