Ricerche nel Santuario di Contrada Mango a Segesta

Abstract

Between June and July 2022, the University of Palermo started new feld investigations in the Contrada Mango sanctuary in Segesta, which, in the 1950s and 1960s, had brought to light a monumental temenos-terracing wall in isodomic technique and the remains of a Doric Severe-Style peripteral temple, largely spoliated at an unknown period. This paper presents some preliminary results of the new research that results from an intensive review and study of the documentation of the old excavations, which isabout to be published. The most important data acquired are the identifcation of the spoliation trench of the north side of the peristasis of the temple and the attribution of the foundations surviving in situ to the north of the wall of the cella, in particular near the pronaos, as already suggested by geomorphological investigations carried out after the old excavations. The acquisition of such elements and a reading of the diaries of the old excavations have thus allowed us to identify the precise location of the temple inside the peribolum: The temple was built not in the center of the temenos but closer to the northern side of the monumental terracing wall that, on the southern side, had to fll the considerable height diference of the slope on which the sanctuary was built, and was therefore more subject to landslides.