Excavations undertaken by the Superintendency of Agrigento on the coast near Sciacca at the mouth of the river Carabollace identified a large sector of a late antique settlement. The remains consisted of at least two rectangular buildings, divided into several rooms, with rubble foundations, probably used as warehouses. The position itself, on the coast by the river mouth, indicates the settlement’s probable function as an emporium, situated on the coast facing North Africa and, probably, on the route cited in the sources as linking Agrigentum to Lylibaeum. Here, the Tabula Peutingeriana marks, with a monumental icon, the presence of the thermal statio of Aquae Labodes, perhaps fed by the waters of the Carabollace itself.

The pottery finds date the structures to between the second half of the 4th century and the 6th century B.C. The majority of the pottery was of African production: table and cooking wares and in particular amphorae. The finds confirm the commercial character of the site which was probably part of a system of smaller ports at the head of the deportatio ad aquam from the hinterland and linked, through coastal navigation, to a larger port where the imported goods arrived. Even the root of the river’s name, carabus-river boat, seems to allude to the navigability of the waterway in antiquity. Surveys identified traces of contemporary settlements at river mouths on the coast between Sciacca and Menfi and another village, a few kilometres away from Carabollace, by the river Verdura. Among the pottery finds forms were identified that were produced by ateliers in the Naples area and the gulf of Hammamet: a route still known at the time of Edrisi, linked Nabeul to the west coast of Sicily, with an intermediary stopover at Pantelleria, whose cooking ware was also well attested on this site.

The discovery of this settlement makes it possible to reconstruct the commercial traffic on the west coast of Sicily, within the context of the historical events – the Vandal occupation of Africa, the Gothic domination and the Byzantine conquest – which involved the island during the late antique period.