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KRASTOS (Ancient city) SICILY
Fortifications on the mountain overlooking the village of Castronovo.
The Arab name, which dates from mediaeval times, means castle or fortified area.
The fortifications have been partly explored. They date from the end of the 6th
or the beginning of the 5th c. B.C. Some archaeological evidence connected with
the Greek world has been found, while no documentation remains of a possible settlement
by Sikeloi or Sikani.
Since the site commanded the large communication route between Akragas
and Himera, this fortified center could well have been an Akragan outpost on the
road to Himera. On the basis of a papyrus (Oxyrh. Pap. 4.665, 11. 1-7), which
recounts the raids of Syracusan mercenaries in central Sicily during the second
quarter of the 5th c. B.C., this fortified site could well be identified with
the city of Krastos.
From the same area come various small bronzes in the shape of knucklebones,
some surmounted by snakes, birds, or bulls. These bronzes have generally been
considered comparable to many others found on the fringes of the territory belonging
to the Greek colonies in Sicily, but a recent theory suggests that they represent
the pre-coinage stage of the Sikel-Sikan culture. No evidence of life after the
end of the 4th c. B.C. remains at the site.
D. Adamesteanu, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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