Un edificio di culto con area cimiteriale in località Catena a Troina: rapporto preliminare delle campagne di scavo 2017-2019

Abstract

In this paper we present some results of the first three excavation campaigns conducted in the area of Catena at Troina
(EN), a town in inland Sicily, as well known for being chosen by the norman Ruggero d’Altavilla as a strategic centre
in the fight against the Muslims, seat of the first norman cathedral and first bishopric in Sicily, as little known from an
archaeological point of view. The cult building and the cemetery areas identified during the 2017-2109 excavations
constitute the first post-classical archaeological finds at the site, testifying to a long-standing occupation of the area
south of the Rocca, repeatedly mentioned in documentary sources for its ruins. The comparison with the archaeological
sources allows us to put forward some hypotheses on the phases and functions of the elements identified, in the long
period between the Byzantine age and the 16th Century.