2013

In 2013, the archaeological excavation lasted from 02 of September to 25 of October. The fieldwork has continued to work from the previous seasons, and is based on the agreement between University of Warsaw and Parco Archeologico di Eloro e della Villa del Tellaro e delle Aree Archeologiche di Noto e dei Comuni Limitrofi.

The excavations in 2013 has been possible thanks to the grant of National Science Centre (N N109 104940), as well as grant of Ministry of Science and Higher Education (SPUB 2012). Director of both projects: Dr Roksana Chowaniec.

The fieldworks in two trenches (I and II) have been continued and, for the scientific reasons, have been extended. A huge quantity of archaeological artefacts, confirming the development and further functioning of the town, was discovered in the course of systematic, stratigraphic excavation. The new research has discovered the 3rd–5th c. AD stratigraphic levels, generating material of North African origin, including a diverse range of amphorae types, African Red Slip Ware and oil lamps, as well as glass artefacts (e.g. conical beakers or lamps), dated to the 4th–6th c. AD.

However, the excavations have also delivered splendid material dated to earlier periods. There is a homogeneous stratum of earlier date – 1st–2nd c. AD, as suggested by finds of coins, pottery (most of all terra sigillata), oil lamps, glass vases and single bone and metal artefacts. 

The extraordinarily items which show that the town boomed under the Roman administration, in the Late Republic and during the Pax Romana, have been found. An excellent example might be a handle of ceramic oil lamp (the most probable close to the type of Loeschcke III), in the form of an acanthus leaf (sometimes also describe as “plane tree leaf”), with green glaze.

This type of oil lamps was produced in the region of Campania-Lazio, in the second to third quarter of the 1st c. AD. The manufacture was characterized by the production of ceramics with transparent glaze in olive-green or yellow-brown colours. The splendid number of such oil lamps has been found in in the area of Mount Vesuvius, for example in Pompeii. 

Besides that, a hairpin, made of bone, decorated with a small female bust, with hair style arranged in increasingly higher layers of ringlets and waves from the Flavian period , fragments of finely ribbed glass bowls (Isings form 3a) dated to the 1st c. AD, fragments of a cast hemispherical bowl of amber glass, dated to the late 1st c. BC–mid-1st c. AD (Jenning group 6) and numerous fragments of terra sigillata, including examples of sigillata italic, have been discovered. 

The presence of these various artefacts, as well as the stratigraphic context, with wall plasters and, inter alia the

remains of imitation-marble fresco painting (a finto marmo), indicate the continuity of life in Akrai after the decline of Syracuse.