Segesta, Santuario di Contrada Mango: la campagna di scavo 2023 e le nuove scoperte

This paper illustrates the new acquisitions resulting from the excavation campaign conducted by the University of Palermo in 2023 at the Contrada Mango Sanctuary in Segesta. The research has focused on the foundations of the temple, extended (towards west) with the section preserved in situ referable to the north wall of the cella. The investigation also focused on the east side of the peribolos, where we assume the access to the sacred area was located, and some elements of a balustrade were brought to light. New acquisitions also result from the unexpected discovery in February 2024 of some finds from the excavations at Mango by V. Tusa, which had not been traced during the study of the old excavations published in 2023. Of these materials we mainly illustrate a few items of particular interest: a series of sauroteres and bronze spirals for reinforcing the shaft of spears; a statue of small size and some fragments of marble sculptures; fragments of miniature columns and the frieze of the model temple reconstructed by G. Montali on the basis of other architectural elements already traced among the Tusa finds; and some fragments of late 14th-early 15th-century ceramics (mostly of Sciacca production), that document not only the last occupation of the area but also a phase of Segesta life that is almost completely unknown or still blurred in the contours.