GNGTS 2023 - Atti del 41° Convegno Nazionale

Session 1.1 GNGTS 2023 Archaeoseismological study of the Segesta site (western Sicily): first results from geophysical investigations C. Bottari 1 , P. Burrato 2 , P. Capizzi 3 , G. Dardanelli 4 , L. Ferranti 5 , M. Lo Brutto 4 , A. Maltese 4 , R. Martorana 3 , A. Canzoneri 3 , A. Carollo 3 1 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Catania, Osservatorio Etneo, Catania 2 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Roma1, Roma. 3 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e del Mare, Università degli Studi di Palermo, 4 Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, 5 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e delle Risorse, Università di Napoli Federico II Introduction The archaeological site of Segesta is one of the most important Elimian settlements of western Sicily, well-known also for its thermal springs, as documented by historical sources. It is located on the north-western slope of Monte Barbaro (429 m. a.s.l.), a calcareous hill near the confluence of two river valleys named Fiume Freddo and Fiume Caldo, respectively, and characterized by fortified and naturally sheltered steep slopes. The site was developed over time in three different areas (Fig. 1a): 1) the Aphrodite Temple on top of a rural hillside (270 m a.s.l.) located outside the city walls and built around 430 BCE; 2) the Acropolis on top of Monte Barbaro identified as the public area with the main Greek-Roman buildings like the Agora and the Theatre; and 3) the Mango Sanctuary at the south-eastern foothills of Monte Barbaro, probably used for religious purposes. Since its foundation in the 9 th century BCE, the ancient site of Segesta (known as Aegesta ) underwent four periods of occupation at least. We focused on the Greek-Roman one that ended with an abandonment probably related to a collapse phase. Since 2000, archaeological excavations carried out by the Scuola Normale di Pisa have revealed the occurrence of oriented collapse of buildings, large-scale destruction and temporary abandonment in the Acropolis area (Ampolo and Parra, 2018). This phase, dated around the mid- 3 rd. century CE (220-240 CE), could be possibly related to an earthquake not documented by historical sources. This study focuses on the origin of the site destruction - dynamic (earthquake), static (ageing) or anthropic (war) – by performing a multidisciplinary study based on the analysis of historical, archaeological, geological, and geophysical data. Here, to better characterize the different behaviour of the three historical buildings mentioned above, we show