Byzantine ad enchytrismòs necropolis by the Emporion of Agrigento

At Agrigento, a few metres from the coast at the mouth of the river Akragas, the Archaeological Superintendency brought to light a small area of an ad enchytrismòs necropolis. The five burials in African amphorae, dating to the 6th-7th century A.D., were found below a thick layer of alluvial sand in the area of the town’s ancient Emporion. Tomb I comprised two amphorae cut longitudinally, the bones were placed inside the amphora and the burial closed using amphora fragments, the amphora were then placed one on top of the other. A preliminary analysis suggests this was a multiple burial in secondary deposition. Tomb II only produced a few bone fragments and was closed by a small plain ware pottery jug of African production. Below the neck of the amphora in burial III there was a supporting stone. In tomb IV, partially disturbed by modern digging, a few amphora fragments remained in situ covering a few bones. Lastly, tomb V presented an amphora whose mouth had been placed in a vertical position on the body of the vessel itself.

Amphora burials were widespread in the Greek period, but also among the non-Greek communities, they are often also attested in late Roman contexts and close to port structures, where it was easy to find the containers for this last, pitiful, reuse. Ad enchytrismòs necropolises are well known in central and northern Italy, also close to rivers, from the 3rd century until the 6th century A.D. However, in Sicily there has been no overall study of later Roman cemeteries with amphora burials. Such a study would provide important data regarding this particular type of burial, destined not only for infants but also for adults, as shown by the examples at Agrigento, and documenting the presence of libation systems.

As regards topography, the finding of the necropolis added new elements to knowledge of the Emporion area, which today is heavily urbanised, and from the 1920s onwards, was the object of trial trenches dug in order to obtain building permits. The site is characterised by a sand dune situated a few metres from the coast, today only partially preserved, which extends for circa 3 km between the mouth of the river Akragas and Porto Empedocle, the modern port of Agrigento. Here, a necropolis of archaic date was found, coeval with the first settlement of colonists in polis. A number of structures of late Roman and Byzantine date relating to warehouses and other parts of necropoli with “a cassa” tombs and burials covered with large slabs were found. The remains found to date have provided no evidence regarding the relationship between the necropoli and the residential areas, that is whether or not the urban space came to be occupied by cemetery areas, as in other known late antique contexts.

The Emporion of Agrigento was still fully functioning in the late Byzantine period, as attested by the biography of Gregorio, bishop of Agrigento who lived at the end of the 6th century A.D. Written by the monk Leonzio, seemingly no later than the 8th century, it contains a lively description of the peripolis which grew up around the port of Agrigento.