Kale Akte – ‘the Fair Promontory’. New Research and Interpretations on the Urban History and Foundation by Ducetius

Abstract

This paper examines the origins of the ancient urban settlement Kale Akte on the north coast of Sicily, based on the extensive excavations and research carried out at Caronia and Caronia Marina over the last two decades. It is suggested that the name Kale Akte – ‘Fair Promontory’ – was probably coined in Archaic times by Greek merchants and would have derived from the promontory with its harbour, an obvious landmark for the Greeks. The recently discovered Archaic harbour at Caronia Marina is regarded as a Sikel harbour, created as a maritime outlet for a Sikel settlement that must have existed on the hill-top of Caronia before the foundation by Ducetius. The archaeological finds suggest that the Sikel settlement was well acquainted with the Greek custom of the symposion. In the Archaic period, Kale Akte can be viewed as a ‘middle ground’ where traders of different ethnicities and cultural identity put differences aside in order to make a profit on trade. The topographical characteristics of the site are compared with the two other alleged foundations by Ducetius: Menai (Mineo) and Paliké. The hill-top of Caronia has close similarities with Mineo, but also with Cittadella, the precursor to Morgantina. Ducetius cannot have been the instigator behind the grand urban plan of Morgantina, since all his urban projects seem to have been on a relatively limited scale. The topographical situation of Kale Akte is also compared with that of the neighbouring cities Halaesa, Apollonia and Haluntium. However, the interests of these urban centres were dominated by territorial ambitions, while Kale Akte appears to have specialized in trade and maritime commerce from its inception. It is suggested that the harbour of Kale Akte in Roman times may well have served a much larger area than its own territory. The foundation of Kale Akte on the hill-top of Caronia is thought to have been undertaken by Ducetius with the consent of Syracuse, which was interested in founding a maritime trading post on this part of the coast, and was still under Sikel dominion. This would explain the open character of the settlement and the lack of any fortifications. According to the tradition recorded by Diodorus Siculus, the polis of Kale Akte was founded by the Sikel leader Ducetius on the north coast of Sicily (Figs. 1-2). The Sikel 1 The author wishes to thank the anonymous peer reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions. The discussion on the invitation of the Ionians and the foundation of Kale Akte draws on Lindhagen 2020, chapter 1. I would like to thank Kristin Bornholdt Collins for her meticulous A. Lindhagen Vol. 6, 2020 CLARA 2 hegemon had been defeated by the major powers of Sicily, Syracuse and Akragas in 449 BC, but escaped under cover of night and sought asylum at an altar in the agora of Syracuse. He was pardoned and granted exile in Corinth. Three years later, in 446 BC, he unexpectedly returned from exile and founded a city at a place on the north coast called Kale Akte. This paper explores this much-debated foundation, incorporating new data from recent excavations and research which was undertaken at Caronia and Caronia Marina, the sites that have traditionally been identified as ancient Kale Akte, To better understand the character of the settlement, comparisons are made with the earlier settlements founded by Ducetius, as well as with Kale Akte’s neighbouring cities. Topography is vital to understanding the site and its continued historical role proofreading, and Ilia Marraffa for improving the Italian summary. All remaining errors are my own. 2 Diod. Sic. 11.91.3-92.4. 3 Diod. Sic. 12.8.2; 12.29.1. Fig. 1 Map of ancient Sicily. Courtesy of Roger J. A. Wilson. A. Lindhagen Vol. 6, 2020 CLARA 3 and which have produced the material foundation for the hypotheses and conclusions of this article. The aim, with this background, is to shed light on the history of the site and its function, especially on the previously little-known historical events connected with it: the never achieved settlement by the fugitive Ionians in the early fifth century BC, and the subsequent foundation by Ducetius. and function in Hellenistic and Roman times, and is therefore a frequent theme in this discussion. The identification of Kale Akte The exact location of the ancient city Kale Akte (Gr. Καλή Ἀκτή) has been in dispute for many centuries. In the sixteenth century the Italian historian Fazello observed ruins in the village of Caronia Marina, the maritime settlement of the hill-town Caronia (Figs. 1-3), ‘ad aedem Annunciatae circa Caroniae littora’, but he identified the site with the ancient city Halaesa. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the German geographer Phillip Clüver became the first to identify Caronia Marina with Kale Akte, the settlement founded by Ducetius. Since then, Caronia and Caronia Marina have remained the primary reference points for researchers interested in the geographic position of Kale Akte, but opinions as to whether the settlement should be identified with Caronia or Caronia Marina have differed. The hill-town of Caronia enjoys an advantageous and strategic position, on a ridge of the Nebrodi mountains, with steep slopes, about 300 m.a.s.l. (Fig. 3, A1; Figs. 4-5). 4 The results of the excavations are published in Bonanno 1993-1994; 1997-1998; 2008; Lentini et al. 2002; Lindhagen 2006; 2020. Finds from prospection are published in Collura 2016. 5 Fazello 1558, 1.9.4. 6 Clüver (Cluverius) 1619, 291-293. 7 Fischer-Hansen et al. 2004, 177; Lentini et al. 2002; Scibona 1987. The Roman itineraries, which place the ancient city between Agathyrnum (near Capo d Orlando) and Halaesa (near Tusa), are the reason that Caronia has long been the prime candidate for the site of Kale Akte. The distances from these cities fit very well with Caronia (Tab. Peut. 7,1; Itin. Anton. 92, 4-5). Fig. 2 Map of the Nebrodi coast with the sites mentioned in the text. Photograph: © Google Earth. A. Lindhagen Vol. 6, 2020 CLARA 4 In 1961, the Romanian archaeologist Dinu Adamesteanu thought he had identified, through aerial photography, a plateau immediately to the east of Caronia (cda Trapesi) (Fig. 3, find-spots 30-35), with traces of a regular street-grid and fortifications, and formulated the hypothesis that the site could be identified with the city founded by Ducetius. This hypothesis, however, later turned out to be erroneous. Only beginning in the early 1990s did Caronia and Caronia Marina become the focus for a series of archaeological excavations carried out by the Soprintendenza of Messina. Excavations in 1993-1999 and 2005 in the contrade Telegrafo and Sotto San Francesco led to the discovery of an urban settlement at the top of the hill of Caronia, dating from at least the fourth century BC to the end of the first century AD, where several Hellenistic/early Roman wall structures and cisterns were uncovered. The later excavations from 1999-2005 have instead concentrated on the ancient maritime settlement discovered at Caronia Marina (Fig. 3, A2). 8 Adamesteanu 1962. 9 Later investigations have shown that the terrain here is sterile, apart from a small HellenisticRoman farmstead (Scibona 1987, 10-11). 10 Bonanno 1993-1994; 1997-1998. 11 Bonanno 2008; Lentini et al. 2002; Lindhagen 2006. Fig. 3 Archaeological map of Caronia and Caronia Marina. A1 (in red): probable extension of the city during the Hellenistic-early Imperial period; A2 (in red): probable extension of the maritime settlement at Caronia Marina in the Roman period; C: the harbour basin; B13: necropoleis. Drawing: Francesco Collura. A. Lindhagen Vol. 6, 2020 CLARA 5 The Sikel harbour at Caronia Marina In this part of the Sicilian north coast, there are no good natural harbours, just a few small coves for the sheltering of ships. Today’s Caronia Marina clings to the most articulated cove of this coast, protected to the west by a promontory (Fig. 3, A2; Fig. 6). While this cove no doubt existed in antiquity, its innermost part does not seem to have been the primary choice for a port. The first settlement at Caronia Marina appears to have clung to the eastern part of the protruding promontory, but seems not to have extended to the innermost part of the cove, which in the Hellenistic period was occupied by a necropolis (Fig. 3, B3). The central part of the cove would 12 Scibona 1987, 11. Fig. 4 The hill-town of Caronia – ancient Kale Akte, view from the west. Photograph: Franceso Collura. A. Lindhagen Vol. 6, 2020 CLARA 6 therefore have constituted the eastern limit of the harbour; the ancient necropoleis were always, as is well known, situated outside the limits of the settlements. There are many strong indications of a harbour from at least Hellenistic times to the west of the current settlement, in cda Pantano. Both in cda Pantano and further to the west in the vast cda di Noto, pottery sherds are abundant on the surface and date from late Classical to late Roman times. As we will see below, there is evidence for a harbour basin in this area beginning in the late Hellenistic period (Fig. 3, C), but it is doubtful whether this basin existed in Archaic and Classical times. It is, however, probable that there was an inflow of water in the cda Pantano, which may have sheltered smaller boats from currents. The contrada is named after a pantano or small lake that existed here, and which was only completely drained in the 1920s-30s. It is still possible today to see clear traces of it in the topography: the area lacks vegetation and is full of the ubiquitous rounded seabed stones which were used for filling in the swamp. The promontory would have given the settlement on the hill with its harbour its name: Kale Akte, in Greek ‘Fair Promontory’. 13 Scibona 1987, 11. 14 Collura 2016, 225, 228; Lindhagen 2020, 52. 15 The coastline has not changed very much since antiquity. The excavations at Caronia Marina in 2003-2005 demonstrated that the coastline would have been only a few met