Perceiving Phases: the Peribolos Wall of the Main Urban Sanctuary at Selinunte (20 min)

Presenters

Rebecca Salem, Institute of Fine Arts-New York University; David Scahill, Austrian Archaeological Institute at Athens; and Kate Minniti, Brandeis University

Abstract

On the acropolis of Selinunte the peribolos wall encloses the city’s main urban sanctuary. The wall has usually been understood as a construction of the Archaic period, built ca. 550 B.C.E., in correlation with other monumentalizing and urbanizing efforts occurring throughout the developing city and its sanctuaries. Based on its relation to other structures built alongside it, Selinunte’s peribolos wall has been reconstructed as having stood around a story tall. During the 2023 season of the Institute of Fine Arts-NYU and University of Milan excavations at Selinunte, an area of the southern side of the peribolos wall became a point of interest due to the identification of a later deconstructed area of the wall aligning with a perpendicular road, as well as distinctive cuttings for doorways on the preserved surfaces of the blocks in situ. A preliminary architectural study of the area was carried out and a trench excavated between two transverse walls projecting north into the sanctuary from the peribolos wall. The results of these most recent investigations are twofold. We found, first, new evidence for the dating and plan of the initial construction of the peribolos wall. And second, new information concerning later modifications to the wall that link the main urban sanctuary to the sanctuary to the south, where monumental temples were under construction during the middle of the fifth century B.C.E. This paper presents these new discoveries and their impact on our understanding of access to Selinunte’s main urban sanctuary.