3.9.1. Villagrazia di Carini (PA), [Sito 86]

Abstract

The materials found in the catacomb of Villagrazia di Carini consist essentially of African Red Slip Ware, coarse ware of probable African production and oil lamps, both Tripolitan and types Atlante VIII and X. Almost all the materials have been regularly published in the reports of the excavations carried out by the Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra and the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Palermo, from 2000 to date: a first catalogue have been published in the Proceedings of the IX National Congress of Christian Archeology (2007), followed by updates in Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana (2009) and in a recent study by E. Vitale about the territory of the Early Christian diocese of Carines (Studi di Archeologia II, 2011). Interpreted as the elements of the funerary (pottery) and functional (oil lamps) ritual , the finds fit well within the framework of the productions circulating in the Mediterranean basin between the mid-4th and the 6th-7th centuries AD. Most of the finds come from alluvial layers or from the abandonment levels, or (in the case of objects found inside the burials) from layers tampered with by acts of violation; all this, obviously, does not diminish the documentary value of these products, which circulated in North-western Sicily while the catacomb was in use for funerary purposes.