Alesa Arconidea (Tusa): proposta ricostruttiva dell’agora tardo ellenistica

Abstract

In the second half of the second century BC, in the wake of the building renovation that affected the most important urban centers of northern Sicily, even the ancient city of Alesa Arconidea remodeled its monumental structure. The agora/forum, in particular, was restructured in a scenographic system, acquiring the architectural characteristics of a typical Hellenistic monumental complex, similar to those of Greece and Asia Minor, by which it was influenced. In planimetric terms, to date up to the present time, the agora represents a unicum in Sicily because of its Π shape with deep double columns of the arcade, which enclose a large square excluded to vehicular traffic. Recent researches and, above all, the survey of the architectural remains have provided new data that allow an updated reconstructive proposal. Fundamental, in this regard, was the contribution provided with the use of computer technologies through which the reconstructive study is no longer intended as a simple method of reconstruction and representation of an ancient artifact but as a methodology for confirmation and synthesis of analytic data related to the archaeological research.