At the end of the 20th century in Montechiaro, in the province of Agrigento, a large sanctuary dating back to the Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC) was identified and excavated. Consecrated to the cults of prosperity and fertility, it was probably linked to the production and export of sulphur which wa...

The tegulae sulphuris are fundamental archaeological finds for understanding and studying the production activities and commercial relations that took place in Agrigentum. They are clay tablets with inscriptions from right to left that showed the name of the workshop that produced them or who contr...

Sulphur is a very common chemical element in nature. It can be found in its free state, in which case it is a clear citrine yellow colour, or combined with other elements such as limestone or gypsum which give it a brownish or light grey colour. It can be volcanic or sedimentary in origin: the depos...

Every year in July in Agrigento the Feast of San Calogero is celebrated. It is said that the monk Calogerus came to Sicily to spread the Christian faith and during a period of plague, he walked the streets to ask for bread for the poor. Afraid that he would get too close to their houses, citizens ...

Mills were machines used by the Romans to transform wheat into flour. Though the existence here of water mills also in previous times has been ascertained, those found in the town in question were all made of lava stone and placed inside the tabernae. The grindstones had a circular brickwork bas...

Tabernae and cauponae were two different types of establishments in ancient Rome. The cauponae were restaurants where people went to eat and drink, and their furnishings included a brickwork counter in which were placed the earthenware containers or amphorae that stored food; they were also equippe...

Thanks to 71 different and well-preserved stamps, the Italic terra sigillata pottery findings from the Hellenistic-Roman quarter have made it possible to identify the origin and understand commercial relations in the city. Testimonies have confirmed that Agrigentum was part of an extensive distrib...

Most coins from ancient Akragas had a depiction of an eagle on the obverse and a crab on the reverse. The eagle was one of the symbols of Agrigento, the bird of Zeus, the greatest power; while the crab was likely connected with the name Akragas, which sounds similar to the word karkinos, Greek for...

Emporium is a Greek word (ἐμπόριον) derived from the term ἔμπορος (emporos), meaning merchant, in turn derived from πόρος (poros), meaning passage. In ancient times, the term emporium referred to wholesale trading centres located mainly on the coast....

From some surveys carried out by Schmiedt and Griffo in the 1950s, it is reasonable to assume that the coastline bent slightly inland, with a small natural port created by an inlet. Recent geological surveys have confirmed the hypothesis and also reveal flooding and silting that would have cove...