Paesaggi urbani e rurali nella Sicilia di Tommaso Fazello: note di geomorfologia e archeologia

The studies of Sicilian ancient landscapes, the histories of sites, towns and marks of antiquity, have necessarily to trace back to Tommaso Fazello’s book. Before him, nobody else had offered such a detailed depiction of ancient Sicily, and the methodology of his research is still very authentic. In addition to describing the ruins of ancient cities and identifying them (Selinunte is for instance a very special case), one could affirm that Fazello’s interest was also in the natural characterization and transformation of both rural and urban landscapes. In brief, it is possible to define the figure of Fazello in terms of a geoarchaeologist ante litteram. The descriptions of some towns – the aim of this paper is to put emphasis on Palermo and Camarina, and also on Gela and Alesa (although Fazello did not correctly identify Gela and Alesa) – testify to a continuous focus on the peculiarities of landscapes, both on the morphology and resources of territories. In conclusion, it is possible to make a direct comparison between Fazello’s descriptions and the real features of the landscape, which could take place through the analysis of the historical and current cartographies as well as the geomorphologic and archaeological data.