Articolazione funzionale degli spazi urbani a Gela nel periodo arcaico e classico: una revisione dei dati

On the basis of our recent hypotheses about the urban plan, the shape and the size of the Greek city of Gela in the archaic and classical period, this paper provides a re-examination of the archaeological data in order to shed light on the specific function of the public and private spaces of the polis. First, the public areas, namely the main official sanctuaries, are considered and the hypotheses about the location of the agora are evaluated. Then, all the archaeological contexts, so far interpreted by scholars as areas of worship dedicated to the chthonic goddesses and distributed as a sort of “sacred belt” around the urban center, are analyzed. With regard to these contexts, in particular, through the comparison with the residential quarters of Gela and of other contemporary Greek cities, this study proposes a more varied interpretation of the archaeological evidence, which takes into account the complexity of the religious practices in the daily life of the ancient community. Finally, our paper examines the residential and productive contexts in the peripheral areas and outlines the problem of the location of the port.