Audiotur 2. Archaeological Collections: Room 2

LAZZARO CAVE: A SHELTER WITH A PREHISTORIC SANCTUARY.

In the showcase 10, there are fossil remains coming from the Lazzaro Cave (cattle, goats, pigs).

In showcase 11, a large batch of ceramics from the Ancient Bronze Age of the Castelluccio culture (2200-1450 BC), from the Lazzaro Cave is exhibited. On the upper shelf there are vases, drawers, glasses and various fragments decorated with black striped motifs, a fictile plate (a sort of astragalus) and a miniature fruit bowl. On the middle shelf, we see the base of an idol and a fictile horn, this can probably be assigned to the cultural sphere. Belonging, instead, to the daily sphere, bone tips, spindles, blades, knives and basalt axes.

The Lazzaro Cave was an inhabited shelter, perhaps including a place of worship, which was frequented both in the Neolithic (8th-3rd millennium BC) and in the Iron Age (11th-8th century BC).

Also in showcase 11, on the upper shelf, are ceramic fragments and millstones from Balata and Scicli, confirming the occupation of the internal territory respectively between the Copper Age (Saint Ippolito culture) and the Ancient Age of Bronze.

A VILLAGE OF THE ANCIENT AGE OF BRONZE IN CAVA ISPICA.

The showcase 8 displays a rich series of flint, vases and tools from a village in the Ancient Bronze Age (2200-1450 BC), located in Baravitalla along the left side of the northern part of Cava Ispica. Some finds were found in the village while others constituted the funerary equipment of the Tomb with Fake Pilasters, one of the monumental burials of the necropolis. On the upper shelf some fruit bowls are exhibited, as well as biconical vases, a punch, a spatula and a fragmentary "globule bone". On the middle shelf, the probable little idols and the bobbins are exhibited. From the Tomb with Fake Pilasters come five fruit bowls and four vessels drawn from them. On the lower shelf are pestles, millstones and hatchets from the village.

CAVA ISPICA: THE LARDERIA CATACOMBS AND THE "TESORETTO" (SMALL HOARD OF COINS) OF CONSTANTINE'S SUCCESSORS.

In the showcase 9, there are exhibits that confirm the continuity of life in Cava Ispica through the classical and Roman-imperial age. On the first shelf, we find the remains of the funerary objects of the catacomb of the Larderia and also a small hoard of coins, perhaps a real "treasure chest" with issues of Constans (347- 348 AC), Gaul Caesar, Constantine the second and Julian (350- 361 AC ). On the lower shelf millstones, hatchets, axes and a pithos with lead grappa are exhibited.