KAUKANA
Sicily.
An anchorage mentioned
by Ptolemy and known also as base of Belisarius' fleet
before his departure for Malta during the Greek-Gothic
war (535-536 A.D.). The site is in the neighborhood of
Cape Scalambri, modern Punta Secca, ca. 10 km to the E
of the Greek city of Kamarina. Within an area that
stretches for some hundreds of m along the coast and
ca. 200 m inland, ruins of 25 buildings had been visible
before excavation. Coins, lamps of African type, sherds
(of undecorated ware and of impressed terra sigillata
chiara), and technical details of the masonry indicate
continuity of life from the second half of the 4th c. to
the beginning of the 7th c. A.D.
Structures of one group, rather simple in plan, with
rectangular outline comprising two or more rooms of
considerable size, were most likely used as storerooms.
Elsewhere the plan is more complex with spacious courtyards, sometimes circular, closed toward the outside. These
courtyards provide access to the ground floor rooms and
to those of the upper story by means of large staircases
built in masonry. These are country houses but grandly
conceived; being independent and often at considerable
distance from one another, they could even have been
fortified farms.
At the E end of the habitation quarter, in the center
of a complex of buildings, a small cemetery church has
been identified, with three naves paved with poorly preserved mosaic floors. Numerous terracotta lamps with
chrismon and the beautiful bronze lamp handle with the
same motif within a laurel wreath follow an iconography
which goes back to the 4th c. A.D.
The structures of Kaukana accessible to visitors are
within a fenced area opening onto the Provincial Route
for Marina di Ragusa-Punta Secca; other edifices are
along the seashore. The creation of an archaeological
park is in progress.
The finds (pottery, bronzes, glass) are exhibited at the
Archaeological Museum of Ragusa.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ptol.
Geogr. 3.4-7 (ed. C. Mueller);
Procop.
Vand. 1.14.
B. Pace, “Sul sito di Kaukana,”
RivStAnt 12 (1908)
267ff; P. Orsi,
Sicilia Bizantina, ed. G. Agnello (1942);
S. L. Agnello,
Corsi di Cultura sull'Arte Ravennate e
Bizantina (1962) 102ff; G. V. Gentili,
La Basilica bizantina della Pirrera di S. Croce Camerina (1969); P. Pelagatti in
ArchStSir 12 (1966) 23ff; id. in
Kokalos 14-15
(1968-69) 355
P.
P. PELAGATTI
