The Troina Project involves regional survey and selective excavation to investigate the long-term archaeological history of the Troina region. The project has three main objectives:

• Examination of the ancient environment from c.100,000 BC onwards.


• The population expansion into the upland areas from the plains (e.g. Catania), during the transition from the Neolithic to theBronze Age.


• The formation of the territorial identity of Troina, which probably began at the end of the Bronze Age, and the relationship between the indigenous and Greek populations, followed by changes during the Roman and medieval periods.

The house or enclosure of Casa Sollima consists of the lower courses of an oval drystone structure (12 × 10m). The foundations appear to have been made up of quite small stones, perhaps in a foundation trench. The upper part of the wall made up of larger stones must have provided the setting for a wooden superstructure. The inside of the structure was remarkably well preserved. Whilst there was no clear evidence of a man-made floor below the surface level, the area of a hearth (which had collapsed into an earlier pit) had been lined with local marl slabs, and this remnant of flooring could imply that such slabs might have covered a larger area within the ‘house’, and have been robbed out when the structure was abandoned. The enclosure appears to have been divided longitudinally into two by a less substantial partion wall, judging by the foundation structure. The southern part had an elaborate hearth and numerous postholes. The stone house appears to have replaced an earlier area of occupation which contained three large storage pits filled with extensive dumps of daub and domestic refuse from an earlier building. The northern part had its own hearth, two smaller storage pits, and other postholes. (Caroline Malone-Simon Stoddart)