Tindari. Una sorgente da via Teatro Greco. Riflessioni paleo-ambientali e urbanistiche

Abstract

This paper presents the remains of a spring discovered in Tindari, via Teatro Greco, in an area between the south-western fortifications and the structures of the so-called 'Basilica'. The finding of a cistern in the immediate vicinity suggests that in antiquity the area may have been equipped with a complex system of water collection and storage, comparable to a fountain or a nymphaeum. The recognition of a spring within the city walls allows to reflect on the close relationship between ancient and contemporary environmental conditions, as well as the relationship between humans and environment in the ancient times. Its location inside a public area suggests also that it belonged to a wide community building programme, realized in unknown times, possibly after a large landslide known from ancient sources (during the 1st century BC) which affected part of the settlement. The article is followed by an appendix about the petrographic characterization of a lion shaped eave, found in the investigations around the spring. It pertains to a large public building that must have stood nearby. Both its style and provenance allow to attribute it to Syracusan craftsmen particularly popular in most of Sicily during the Hellenistic period.