Excavating Domestic Space at Segesta, Sicily: Results of the Arizona Sicily Project

Presenters

Robert Schon, University of Arizona, Emma Blake, University of Arizona, Alena Wigodner, Princeton University, Fabrizio Ducati, Culture e Società, Università degli Studi di Palermo, and Victoria Moses, Harvard University

Abstract

In this paper we present the results of the first two seasons of the Arizona Sicily Project’s fieldwork in the residential quarter of the ancient city of Segesta, Sicily. Segesta was founded by a local indigenous group, the Elymians, in the Archaic period (ca. sixth century B.C.E.) and flourished for several centuries through the Roman Imperial period, with a subsequent medieval occupation. The city is well known for its Doric temple, Hellenistic theater, and agora. Our excavation focuses on a nonelite domestic area downslope from the Macellum. Test trenches in 1978 had revealed medieval walls and below them, portions of an archaic floor level. Our goal is to expand on that previous work to study households at Segesta using contemporary analytical methods. In 2022, we opened a 5 m × 5 m trench adjacent to the area briefly excavated in 1978. Near the surface, we exposed the corner of the same medieval stone masonry structure. Ceramics and other household artifacts from the two meters of fill in and around this structure provide a chronological range for the entire area from the sixth century B.C.E. to the early Middle Ages with a gap between the seventh and tenth centuries C.E. In 2023, below the foundations of the structure, we encountered stratified deposits from the Hellenistic (fourth–third century B.C.E.) and Roman imperial (third century C.E.) periods. Each deposit included local and imported tableware and cookware, coins, animal bones, archaeobotanical remains, and craft products. Collectively, this domestic material culture reveals, for the first time, two periods of nonelite private life at a city mainly recognized for its public monuments.