Page 26 - escursioni_A

Itineraries

Box 2.2 Pre-historic hunter-gatherers, fishermen and painters

Recent studies on the submarine morphology of the coasts between
Trapani and the Egadi Islands and the very good knowledge on sea
level changes confirmed that Favignana and Levanzo were connected
to Sicily during the Holocene. Hence, the nomadic hunthers-gatherers
inhabiting north-western Sicily were able to follow the big wild herbi-
vores (oxes, boars, donkeys and deers) feeding on this area, which rep-
resented a peninsula and probably hosted a patchwork of woodland,
shrubland and grassland. Not surprisingly, the human settlements
found on the two islands (e.g. caves of Genovese, Grotta dei Porci at
Levanzo, Grotta d’Oriente e Grotta Uccerie at Favignana) are among
the oldest of Sicily (upper Paleolithic-Mesolithic: 11,900-6,800 BC).
As for the numerous caves spread along the NW coast of Sicily
(Mt. Cofano, Isolidda, Uzzo, etc.), most of them have been inhabited
since early Mesolithic (9,000 BC). On the main island hunting activi-
ties appear to be less important: the main food resources were plants
and marine organisms (mostly molluscs but also fish). In the same
period also at Favignana and Levanzo, again separated from the Sic-
ily, a shift towards marine resources is recorded, testified from the
famous tuna depicted at the cave of Genovese.

References

Mannino M.A., Catalano G., Talamo S., Mannino G, Di Salvo R.,
Catalano G., Schimmenti V., Lalueza-Fox C, Messina A., Petruso
D., Caramelli D., Richards M.P., Sineo L., 2012. Origin and diet
of the prehistoric hunter-gatherers on the Mediterranean Island
of Favignana (Egadi Islands, Sicily). PLoS ONE 7(11): e49802.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049802
Tusa S., Di Maida G., Pastoors A., Piezonka H., Weniger G.-C., Ter-
berger T., 2014. The Grotta di Cala dei Genovesi: New studies on
the Ice Age cave art on Sicily. Prehistorische Zeitschrift, 88(1): 1-22.

75