Falconiera Necropolis

The necropolis associated with the Hellenistic-Roman settlement is located on the western slope of Falconiera. The first indication of this necropolis dates back to the discovery of a tomb during the construction of a water reservoir near Calvario at the end of the 19th century, as documented in the archives. Additionally, the accidental discovery of another burial in Contrada Petriera, at the foot of Falconiera, suggested the opportunity to conduct archaeological investigations in the area indicated by these findings, which began in 1980.

During excavations, numerous burials were found, some visibly violated in ancient times. This necropolis presents a rather rare typology among contemporary ones in Sicily: the pit graves, carved into the rock, feature a distinctive step leading to a second, deeper pit parallel to the first and positioned at a lower level. The latter pit was sealed with a slab, inside which the deceased was placed. The presence of amphorae containing bone remains, arranged near the heads of some burials, attests to the reuse of the graves over the centuries. The grave goods found can be dated between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st-2nd century CE.

The intense activity on the island during the Late Roman and Byzantine periods is documented not only by a series of villages scattered across the island but also by a large and dense necropolis located on the southwestern slope of Falconiera, partially destroyed by both natural causes and human activity, as the soft tuff rock was quarried in the past to produce sand for construction. These are simple pits carved into the rock, varying in size and precision, from which Pigonati collected materials in the mid-18th century dating to the late Imperial period: he himself mentions some exquisite gold and silver ornaments donated to King Charles of Bourbon. All available evidence points to a dating of the cemetery between the 5th and 6th centuries CE.

Adjacent to the necropolis are also some hypogean tombs, concentrated on the southern side of the slope, four of which were explored by the Superintendency between 1974 and 1978: these are chambers of roughly square or irregularly elliptical shape, carved into the rock and accessed through long dromoi. The burials were placed in pits dug into the floor, in niches in the walls, or in sarcophagi within arcosolia. In some cases, the chambers were repurposed from ancient cisterns that had fallen into disuse, with their walls plastered and, occasionally, reused during the Bourbon period for their original function.