Sicans ( lat. Sicani ) - the oldest known from ancient sources, the population of Sicily [1] , presumably pre-Indo-European . In the XIII century BC e. were driven back by the Siculas and Elimites , and subsequently Hellenized . The Sicans correspond to the archaeological culture of Castellluccio .
Content
Origin
Timaeus from Tavromenia considered the Sycans an aboriginal population (his work did not survive, but Diodorus of Sicily refers to it (V, 6.1-3) .An autochthonous culture has indeed existed on the island for many millennia: an important historical evidence is the discovery of cave paintings dating from around 8000 BC [2]
According to Thucydides [3] , the Sycans immigrated from the Iberian Peninsula (probably from Catalonia), [4] [5] driven out from there by the ligurs from the Sican River. Thucydides borrowed this information from the Sicilian historian Antiochus of Syracuse , whose source is unknown, [6] however, the tradition of the Sicans recalls the history of the appearance of the Balars in Sardinia.
A number of modern scholars view the Sycans as an Illyrian tribe that seized lands that previously belonged to the natives. [7]
Culture and Historical Information
Archaeological studies show that the culture of Sikans was influenced by Mycenaean Greece . [8] Also in the material culture of pre-antique Sicily there is a significant resemblance to the culture of Malta from the era of megalithic temples . Thus, the ceramics of the settlement of Onina in Sicily reveals similarities with the ceramics of the Maltese prehistoric settlement of Borj in Nadur .
According to Greek mythology, the city of Kamik was the capital of the Sikans.
Sikan language
Notes
- ↑ Bronze Age of the Western Mediterranean
- ↑ Sicilian Peoples: The Sicanians , Best of Sicily (October 7, 2007).
- ↑ Thucydides, His. VI, 2,3,4.
- ↑ Sicily: Encyclopedia II - Sicily - History , Experience Festival (October 7, 2007). Archived December 31, 2013.
- ↑ Aapologetico de la literatura española contra los opiniones , Ensayo historico (October 7, 2007).
- ↑ Greek Identity in the Western Mediterranean .
- ↑ Fine, John. The ancient Greeks: a critical history . - Harvard University Press, 1985. - P. 72. - ISBN 0674033140 .
- ↑ Fine, p.72
See also
- Prehistoric Malta
- Prehistoric sicily
Literature
- Ilyinskaya L. S. Ethnic and cultural contacts of the Western and Eastern Mediterranean in the Mycenaean era: Sicily and Aegeid. M., 1983
- Ilyinskaya L. S. The oldest island civilizations of the central Mediterranean in ancient historical tradition. M. 1987.
- Nemirovsky A.I. History of early Rome and Italy, Voronezh, 1962.