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Metal Age Craftsmanship in Sicily



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Angelo Vintaloro

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DOI:10.17265/2159-550X/2026.02.005

World Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences

This work embodies over 30 years of research, and this publication is incredibly moving for me because it was created in collaboration with Sebastiano Tusa, Aldina Cutroni Tusa, Maurizio Tosi, and Vincenzo Tusa, who have always been dear to my heart. Great Masters not only in their profession but also in their lives, for whom respect was a priority because they were all linked by deep friendships. The area’s history, spanning at least 12,000 years and linked to the extensive and continuous humanization of the land, required special attention, but now it seems that every piece has been placed in the right place within the panorama of Sicilian antiquity. The Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods (10,000-8,000 BC) held the greatest surprises, revealing an unexpected humanization of this hinterland in several locations, even remote ones. It was the period of hunting and gathering, and prehistoric man likely found ideal conditions for better survival in this area. Groups of hunter-gatherers pushed towards this hinterland which reached its peak with the transition to the Neolithic, and therefore with the advent of agriculture and livestock farming. Another established fact is that the two major historical entities of the territory, Corleone and Montagna Vecchia, should not be separated, because one is consequential to the other, but always within a single Chora, of which Montagna Vecchia constituted the natural stronghold inhabited during external incursions by other peoples colonizing Sicily. The latest discoveries have confirmed this fact, which was achieved by traversing inaccessible areas and crossing an often impenetrable nature that has also put our physical safety to the test. However, the result achieved is amply rewarding, as the vast amount of data collected now allows us to have a “scientific historical” and, above all, a clearer view of the evolution of Montagna Vecchia/Corleone. To achieve this goal, we long ago abandoned the study of sources, especially literary ones, which are highly unreliable and riddled with errors. For example, Arab-Sicilian sources provide us with unrealistic distances in Arabic miles between the cities in this area, while those (Scuderi, Tusa, & Vintaloro, 1997; Vintaloro, 2020)  from the 17th to 20th centuries merely represented a “competition” to see who had the most important ancient city and to whom a name was attributed, a name rarely found today. This was merely a desire for parochialism that has unfortunately diverted methodical and scientific study of the area. Archaeological research in this area, conducted using rigorous scientific methods, only began in 1991. Unfortunately, Corleone enjoys a reputation that will not be easy to shake: land of the Mafia. Indeed, in the 1950s and 1960s, the Superintendencies expanded into the interior of Sicily with their research, but no one ever wanted to delve deeper into the Corleone area, where a terrible Mafia war was raging at the time. A simple glance at an archaeological map of Sicily prior to 1991 reveals a lack of knowledge about this area. Thanks also to Ferdinando Maurici, a renowned medievalist, for his scientific collaboration in reconstructing the region’s history during a particular period, present-day Corleone arose. We hope this work will stimulate further research, providing the necessary depth to support our conclusions and placing this area in its proper rank among Sicilian archaeological sites.

Corleone, Sicily, Mediterranean, Mediterranean prehistory, Italy

Angelo Vintaloro. (2025). Metal Age Craftsmanship in Sicily. History Research, February 2026, Vol. 8, No. 2, 123-132.