Monte San Mauro near Caltagirone. Four tombs for an aristocratic group of VIth century B.C.
A short excavation campaign conducted at Monte San Mauro near Caltagirone (Sicily) in 1973 led to the rediscovery of four archaic tombs in the north–eastern necropolis, a cemetery unknown to Paolo Orsi who long worked on the site in the early years of the twentieth century. The tombs, concentrated in an apparently isolated group in a zone delimiting the necropolis from the settlement site, presumably belonged to the same family. The high social status of the group is shown, in particular, by the presence of an iron spear in tomb 165, rare in archaic tombs in Sicily, and by the composition of the grave goods in tomb 164, belonging to a young lady. Undoubtedly the richest of the burials so far found at Monte San Mauro, tomb 164 is distinguished from all the others both by the tomb type used (an hypogean chamber expressly built and reserved only for the more affluent strata of society in view of its high cost) and by its rich assemblage of grave goods, comprising vases and balsamaria in pottery, faïence and bronze placed at the side of the body of a young woman. The funerary artefact of greatest interest is undoubtedly the terracotta protome, a product of the pottery shops of Samos, like many of the plastic vases in the tomb. The question is posed whether the protome is to be considered a common purchased object, since produced by the same shops as the plastic balsamaria, designed for the trade in perfumes, or whether its presence in the tomb reflects some other purpose: it might indicate a closer connection with a Samian environment, or even suggest that the young lady inhumed in tomb 164 actually came from Samos herself.
An examination of the four tombs also confirms the decidedly Greek character of the archaic site of Monte San Mauro. This was already clear from previous finds on the site, the identification of which with Euboea, a colony of Chalcidian Leontini, has recently been proposed.
