A new occurrence of austinite, CaZnAsO4(OH), conichalcite, CaCuAsO4(OH), and zincolivenite, CuZnAsO4(OH), is described from the Tripi mine, Peloritani Mountains, Sicily, Italy. These species have been observed in euhedral crystals in vugs of a calcite vein and were characterised using single-crystal X-ray diffraction, electron microprobe analysis and micro-Raman spectroscopy. Austinite and conichalcite have isotypic relations, both crystallising in space group P212121. Unit-cell parameters of austinite are a = 7.4931(5), b = 9.0256(6), c = 5.9155(4) Å, V = 400.06(5) Å3; its crystal structure was refined on the basis of 1210 unique reflections with Fo > 4σ(Fo) and 77 least-square parameters to R1 = 0.0236. Conichalcite has unit-cell parameters a = 7.419(10), b = 9.111(11), c = 5.867(7) Å and V = 396.6(1.4) Å3; the diffraction quality of its available grains was not good enough to allow a high-quality structural refinement. Chemical formulae of austinite and conichalcite are Ca1.04(1)Zn0.86(4)Cu0.09(4)As0.98(2)P0.02(1)O4(OH)0.98 and Ca0.98(1)Fe2+0.02(4)Cu0.69(10)Zn0.30(6)As0.97(2)P0.03(1)O4(OH)0.98, respectively. The new chemical data on the austinite–conichalcite isotypic pair, coupled with previous analyses, supports a possible miscibility gap between the compositions (Zn0.25Cu0.75) and (Zn0.50Cu0.50). Zincolivenite has unit-cell parameters a = 8.4594(9), b = 8.5324(8), c = 5.9893(6) Å, V = 432.30(12) Å3 and space group Pnnm; its crystal structure was refined to R1 = 0.0230 for 523 unique reflections with Fo > 4σ(Fo) and 47 least-square parameters. Its chemical composition is Cu0.73(5)Zn1.25(5)As1.01(1)O4(OH)1.01. The refinement of the crystal structure supports the ordering of Cu and Zn in two different crystallographic sites. Micro-Raman spectra of austinite, conichalcite and zincolivenite are discussed, with a focus on the O–H stretching region where local Zn and Cu arrangements affect the position of Raman bands in zincolivenite. These arsenates probably play an environmental role in the Peloritani area, where the occurrence of high contents of some potentially toxic elements in soils and stream sediments has been reported.

The Phoenician island-city of Motya, off the west coast of Sicily, has long been a focus of archaeological research. Earlier excavations identified a large rectangular basin interpreted, by analogy with Carthage, as a ‘kothon’ or artificial inner harbour. Recent investigations of this feature, however, lead the author to a new interpretation. Rather than a harbour, the so-called ‘Kothon’ is revealed as a sacred freshwater pool at the centre of a monumental circular sanctuary hosting three large temples. The pool, watched over by a statue of Ba'al, also served as a surface for observing and mapping the movement of stars, as emphasised by the alignment of structures and features positioned around the sacred enclosure.

This article examines the relationship between oral traditions of cursing and the oldest Greek curse tablets from Selinous and Himera in western Sicily. As much early Greek writing is thought to record or reflect the spoken word, it is perhaps unexpected that these early Sicilian texts carry few signs of orality or speech. There are no verbs of speaking, incanting, cursing, singing, binding; no deictic language; no metre. Rather, the oldest curse tablets in the Greek world show clear signs of written literacy. Sicilian curse tablets from 500–450 bce employ verbs of writing to curse their victims (ἐνγράφω, ‘I inscribe’; καταγράφω, ‘I write down’; ἀπογράφω, ‘I enrol’), and exhibit textual distortion, scribal symbols, abbreviations, and columnar lists of names – features that ground these texts in the realm of writing. It is suggested that Greek curse practice developed alongside and in response to the spread of legal writing in the late sixth-century law courts of western Sicily.

A new occurrence of kintoreite, ideally PbFe3(PO4)(PO3OH)(OH)6, is described from the Tripi mine, Alì, Peloritani Mountains, northeastern Sicily, Italy. Kintoreite occurs as yellow equant crystals, up to 0.05 mm in size, on quartz, associated with another alunite-supergroup mineral currently under study. The studied grains of kintoreite are chemically zoned, showing the occurrence of two distinct domains. Electron microprobe analyses gave (in wt.%): SO3 5.47(27), P2O5 17.55(14), Al2O3 7.81(35), Fe2O3 23.81(44), PbO 35.11(41), H2Ocalc 9.93, total 99.68 (darker domains) and SO3 6.03(5), P2O5 16.66(23), Al2O3 4.22(2), Fe2O3 27.31(6), PbO 33.78(22), H2Ocalc 10.25, total 98.25 (brighter domains). On the basis of 14 O atoms per formula unit (apfu) and (P+S) = 2 apfu, the darker and brighter domains have chemical formula Pb1.00(Fe3+1.89Al0.97)Σ2.86[P1.57S0.43O7.43(OH)0.57][(OH)5.58(H2O)0.42]Σ6.00 and Pb0.98(Fe3+2.21Al0.53)Σ2.74[P1.51S0.49O7.49(OH)0.51][(OH)5.18(H2O)0.82]Σ6.00, respectively. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction was performed on a grain extracted from the same sample. Unit-cell parameters are a = 7.2191(10), c = 16.834(3) Å, V = 759.8(3) Å3 and Z = 3; space group R$\bar{3}$m. The crystal structure was refined on the basis of 226 unique reflections with Fo > 4σ(Fo) and 31 least-square parameters to R1 = 0.0415. Kintoreite is isotypic with other alunite-supergroup minerals. Micro-Raman spectroscopy suggests the possible occurrence of H2O groups, supporting the possible protonation of (OH) groups as a charge-balance mechanism in this mineral. Kintoreite may play an environmental role in the Alì area, where previous authors detected high concentrations of potentially toxic elements in soils.

Excavations of the remains of the medieval church of Santa Maria di Campogrosso (Sicily) were conducted by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences as part of scientific cooperation with Soprintendenza per i Beni Culturali ed Ambientali di Palermo. Based on the records of post-medieval historians, the construction of the church was placed in the second half of the 11th century, which contradicts the findings of architectural historians, who dated the building to the 13th-century and even later. As a result of archaeological excavations carried out in 2015–2018, it was possible to locate unknown fragments of the church’s structure and the remains of the cemetery adjacent to it. The 14C dating carried out for samples obtained from the walls of the existing building as well as from bone remains from the churchyard in combination with stratigraphic information from archaeological trenches and the chronology of coins indicates a high probability of the church construction in the second half of the 12th century and confirms the end of the monastery complex existence at the end of the 13th century.

The urban plan of ancient Motya on the Isola di San Pantaleo on the west coast of Sicily and its relationship to developments in Phoenician and Punic societies have been investigated since the early 1960s. Data from geophysical surveys in the north-eastern quadrant of Motya show the regular organisation of urban insulae framed by two broad roads. These results, combined with data from previous nearby excavations, improve the modelling of Motya's layout, and contribute to the wider discussion of Phoenician/Punic and broader Mediterranean urban traditions between the sixth and fourth centuries BC.

Extensive settlement activity at the Bronze Age site of Mokarta in western Sicily has previously been inferred, but the extent and condition of its subsurface remains have never been established. The authors use geophysical prospection, historical and modern remote-sensing data and soil chemistry to identify previously undocumented structures and activity areas extending beyond those exposed by previous excavations. This exercise not only has implications for the multifaceted social organisation of Late Bronze Age communities in Sicily, but, more generally, demonstrates how minimally invasive investigative techniques combined with existing data can reveal subsurface archaeological sites and the impact of post-depositional processes.

How did the evolution of the rule of law become stunted in Sicily during the 19th century? The work of economist Yoram Barzel, particularly his property-rights approach to understanding the political economy of state formation, is uniquely suited to understanding the failure of Italy's unification process to secure the rule of law in Sicily during the 19th century. This failure can be explained by a lack of a credible commitment to the rule of law in the state formation process. I argue that this lack of credible commitment manifested itself in the abolition of previously existing parliamentary institutions as an independent collective action mechanism, as well as prior constitutional agreements that existed in the Kingdom of Sicily. The resulting uncertainty over the security and legal definition of property rights over land raised the transaction costs of competing for resources through productive specialization and market exchange. In turn, it reduced the relative costs of competition for land ownership and the use of enforcement through other means, such as rent seeking or organized crime.

This paper re-evaluates the role of the Palici, a pair of indigenous Sicilian deities, in Aeschylus’ fragmentary tragedy Aetnaeans. Past readings of this play focus on ‘linguistic colonialism’, through which Greeks took possession of native gods and thereby demonstrated their cultural superiority. By contrast, this analysis situates the play within more nuanced models that envision cultural contact as a two-way process and highlight the diversity inherent within the categories of ‘Greek’ and ‘Sikel’. By reading the play in its fifth-century Sicilian context, particularly in light of new archaeological discoveries at the sanctuary of the Palici (Rocchicella di Mineo), this study establishes that – although the play does constitute a form of cultural imperialism – nonetheless we can gain more from focusing on the play’s politics of negotiation and accommodation, rather than appropriation and displacement. A reassessment of three aspects of the Aetnaeans – the birth of the Palici, their parentage and the play’s multiple settings – shows that Aeschylus had access to reliable information about the Palici and reworked it in his play in order to develop a new and uniquely Sicilian cultural synthesis in which indigenous deities play an important role.

In one of his fragments, Empedocles addresses his protégé Pausanias, predicting or promising that he will learn pharmaka, a word that is usually understood to mean herbal ‘drugs' or ‘remedies’ for disease, an interpretation that in turn seems to have been encouraged by a modern understanding that Empedocles was an empirically minded medical doctor. An alternate interpretation is suggested, however, by the recently published Getty Hexameters which use the word pharmaka several times to refer to hexametrical incantations that will protect a group of houses or a city from danger. These hexameters, moreover, are inscribed on a lead tablet of late-classical date that most probably came from the Sicilian city of Selinus, a date and a provenance that put its composition in close proximity to Empedocles himself.