Medieval Settlement atop Monte Bonifato: A Case Study in Function over Form

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 1: Landscapes, Food, and Health" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Defensive Settlement or late medieval escape for nobility? When it comes to castles and many of their associated settlements it seems the latter has been pushed in English language literature more than the former for a few decades now. In this paper, we present a case study that showcases the development of a stronghold and associated settlement atop Monte Bonifato, Western Sicily, in the context of political upheaval within the island of Sicily and the greater Mediterranean as a whole. We present data from three years of work atop Monte Bonifato, highlighting how its morphology fits more with earlier, Norman castles than the date usually ascribed to it, how the mountaintop was encircled by walls in a series of building events to make it ever more defensible, and how a spatial study of pottery types might yield more information on why the summit was used and why it was subsequently abandoned at a time when other castles and fortified settlements were being redeveloped.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 1: Landscapes, Food, and Health   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37935.0