Mazara/Mazar : nel ventre della città medievale (secoli 7.-15.) : edizione critica degli scavi (1997) in via Tenente Gaspare Romano

The project The Archaeology of Regime Change. Sicily in Transition. 6th-13th centuries, (SICTRANSIT - ERC advanced grant 693600) has made it possible to study with a wide range of archaeological and scientific analyses the precious contents of pits, wells, latrines and silos excavated in 1997 in the historic centre of the city of Mazara in Sicily. The richness and diversity of the materials found, the integrity of the contexts in which they were unearthed and their chronological span (from the end of the 7th to the 16th century) proved invaluable in reconstructing consumption, trade, production, food habits and religious taboos in relation to the important social and cultural changes that affected Sicily with the passing of the Byzantine, Muslim, Norman, Swabian and Aragonese dominations. The material history of Mazara, the second most important city after Palermo in the Islamic period and an influential bishopric under the Normans, gains new light with an interpretation from the bottom up, starting from the most humble remains of daily life. The relevance of the results obtained for this important city has made it possible to broaden, revise and complete knowledge not only of medieval Sicily, but in many ways also of the central Mediterranean area between the end of antiquity and the Middle Ages