La rioccupazione della Villa Romana di Patti Marina (ME) tra l’VIII e il IX secolo d.C.: nuovi dati

Abstract

The Roman Villa of Patti is an archaeological site of now renowned historical and archaeological significance
in Sicily. The location of the villa, close to the sea and the river, makes this settlement a strategic point in the
analysis of the settlement stratification of the area from the 1st century B.C. to the 9th century A.D. and beyond. The
methodological approach, set up in this study, in the creation of a new survey of the structures and the related study of
the materials made it possible to gather valuable information regarding the changes and continuity of settlement dynamics,
highlighting the links between the buildings and their use in the early medieval period. The lithic slab pavements,
the construction techniques used and the ceramic set found indicate a design coherence between the buildings placed
both outside and inside the body of the villa, likely dating between the late 8th century and the first decades of the 9th
century AD. Analysis of the new settlement in the Villa of Patti suggests that it may have been part of an agricultural
estate, potentially linked to the diocese of Tindari and an ecclesiastical aristocracy. Similarities with other areas of eastern
and northeastern Sicily broaden the reflection on the socio-economic dynamics and mobility of the period. The
data obtained from this research suggest considering the reoccupation of the Villa of Patti not only as the installation
of an open village linked to private property but also as a crucial node within a network of settlements (including high
ground defensive systems) that supported rural life, in a context of tensions and transformations such as that of the
Arab-Byzantine frontier.

Keywords: Sicily, villa, earlymedieval, frontier, byzantine.