Segesta is the most important center of Elymian people and played a prominent role in the historical events that unfolded in Sicily between the Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans. The history of the archaic Segesta was characterized by repeated conflicts with Selinus, which sought access to the Tyrrhenian Sea (Diod. 5, 9). The first disputes are recorded as early as 580 BC. More than a century later, Diodorus reports a further conflict that took place in 454 and led to Athens intervening in favor of the Elymian center in 415 BC (Diod. 12, 82; Thuc. 6, 6). After its alliance with Carthage, Segesta was besieged by Dionysius I of Syracuse in 397 BC (Diod. 14, 48.). The city was later conquered by Agathocles in 307 BC, who changed the name of Segesta to Dicepoli (Diod. 20, 71). However, this conquest was short-lived and Segesta came back under Carthaginian control. In 276 BC it allied with Pyrrhus (Diod. 22, 10) and then switched to the side of Rome during the First Punic War (Diod. 13, 5), which granted the Elymian center the status of a civitas libera ac immunis (Cic. Verr. 3, 6, 13).

The city is located in western Sicily on top of Monte Barbaro at 305 m a.s.l. Archaeological research focused on the theater, the monumental Doric temple, and the sanctuary of Contrada Mango. The city walls, however, which are central for the urban layout and development, have received only little attention in research so far, primarily during brief excavations in the 1980s and 1990s (Biagini – Denaro 1995; Favaro – Bechtold 1995; Polizzi 1995; Camerata Scovazzo 1996; Gargini 1999; Vaggioli 1999; Camerata Scovazzo 2008 on the excavation of Porta di Valle undertaken in the 1990s.).

Two city walls were identified mainly based on aerial photos: a lower one with 11 towers and 3 gates and an upper one with 13 towers and 2 gates (fig. 1). Additional wall sections with a gate were found in the area of the southern acropolis and a single isolated gate near Contrada Mango. A wall section northwest beyond the lower city wall, identified in 1996 and recently excavated, was generally dated to the Archaic period (fig. 2); it has no connection to other sections of the city walls (Giglio 2016; Ead. 2019). While the recent excavations in the Agora and in the sanctuary of Contrada Mango have led to a significant revision of the chronologies proposed for these two areas, the (old) chronology of the city walls published in the preliminary reports of the 1990s is still used today for reconstructions of the general development of the city (most recently Ampolo 2022).

Numerous questions regarding the city walls and the urban development of Segesta remain unanswered, however. This includes the development and plan of the identified walls and the city in different historical phases, the relationship and connection of the lower and upper walls, the accessibility, the connection with the surrounding area, the perception of the walls in a diachronic perspective and the viability of the city and the countryside, which is closely linked to the location and importance of the gates. Modern approaches, as developed and applied by the network “Focus Fortification: Ancient Fortifications in the Eastern Mediterranean” (Frederiksen et alii 2016; Müth et alii 2016), landscape studies, and microregional studies (De Vincenzo 2016), have not yet been applied to Segesta and present an opportunity for innovative research perspectives.

In 2022, a new excavation and survey project was initiated by the FU Berlin in collaboration with the University of Tuscia in Viterbo and the Parco Archeologico di Segesta. This project aims to comprehensively investigate the city walls of Segesta from a diachronic perspective with new questions, approaches, and methods. A reliable georeferenced model of the walls will be generated to clarify the layout in relation to the topography, the typology, the chronology, and the construction process including the procurement of building materials. This research project will provide a better understanding of the relationship between the walls, historical events, and the development of Segesta and its surrounding area. The reconstruction of Segesta’s urban development in a long-term perspective will also allow assessing the cultural interactions between the Elymians, Greeks, and Romans as reflected in the plan of the city and its fortifications.

A first fieldwork campaign carried in August of 2022 was supported by the Erasmus+ Staff Mobility Exchange Program established between the two partner universities. It served to check the visibility, accessibility, and preservation of the walls, to test the feasibility of typological studies and appropriate methods for future fieldwork, and to identify areas for future excavations (figs. 3-8).

 

TEAM

Chiara Blasetti Fantauzzi, Freie Universität Berlin

Lorenzo Ceruleo, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Viterbo

Salvatore De Vincenzo, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Viterbo

Thomas Lappi, Freie Universität Berlin

Sabatino Martello, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Viterbo

Monika Trümper, Freie Universität Berlin

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ampolo 2022: C. Ampolo, Segesta. Organizzazione civica e spazi urbani, in: C. Ampolo (ed.), La città e le città della Sicilia antica (Roma 2022) 373–397

Biagini – Denaro 1995: C. Biagini – M. Denaro, Tombe tardoantiche di Segesta, Area10000 (SAS 10) e Torre XI, AnnPisa Serie III, Vol. 25, No. 4, 1995, 1153–1157

Camerata Scovazzo 1996: R. Camerata Scovazzo (ed.), Segesta I. La carta archeologica (Palermo 1996)

Camerata Scovazzo 2008: R. Camerata Scovazzo (ed.), Segesta III. Il sistema difensivo di Porta di Valle. Scavi 1990-1993 (Mantova 2008)

Müth et alii 2016: S. Müth – P. Schneider – M. Schnelle – P. D. De Staebler, Ancient fortifications. A compendium of theory and practice (Oxford 2016)

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Favaro – Bechtold 1995: A. Favaro – B. Bechtold, Il sistema difensivo di “Porta di Valle”, Area 7000 (SAS 7), AnnPisa Serie III, Vol. 25, No. 4, 1995, 1023–1128

Frederiksen et alii 2016: R. Frederiksen – S. Müth – P. Schneider – M. Schnelle, Focus on fortifications. New research on fortifications in the ancient Mediterranean and the Near East (Oxford 2016)

Gargini 1999: M. Gargini, Le fortificazioni nel vallone NO: la porta (SAS 19). Campagna di scavo 1995, AnnPisa Serie IV, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1999, 87–96.

Giglio 2016: R. Giglio, Segesta. La necropoli ellenistica extra moenia e il muro urbico tardoarcaico (area 15000, SAS15 e area 18000, SAS 18). Rapporto preliminare, Ann Pisa Serie V, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2016, 37–51

Giglio 2019: R. Giglio, Il sistema difensivo di Lilibeo e Segesta nella diacronia, Analysis archaeologica. An international journal of Western Mediterranean archaeology 5, 2019, 81–95

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