Abitati aperti e insediamenti d’altura tra il Salso ed il Platani: riflessioni sul sistema insediativo del territorio agrigentino in età bizantina

Abstract

The study on the territory between the Salso and the Platani has allowed to implement knowledge
on the settlement dynamics during the Byzantine age of this peculiar area which, in those centuries,
has taken on a border value between Sicily to the west of the Platani and that to the east, as suggested by the
construction of the fortifications on the Kassar, in a central position along the road between Agrigento and
Palermo. At the end of the 7th century. AD, following the first Saracen raids on the island coasts, the settlements
along the coastal strip are abandoned, at the same time in the hinterland there is a profound militarization
of the landscape characterized by the systematic occupation of high-altitude sites in mutual relationship
of intervisibility connected to the control and defense of the territory and a road system that has changed
profoundly compared to previous centuries which favors routes halfway up the hill and mountain ridges.

Keywords: Agrigento, Eraclea Minoa, kastron, militarization, byzantine age.