Monte Pellegrino - Valdesi Necropolis
“The name was most likely introduced by Emanuele Salinas, since it was he who gave the first news of the discovery. The town, called Calvello in the last century, is located halfway along Viale Regina Margherita, between
Favorita and Waldensian Park. The tombs came to light in 1897 during excavations to take land for the reclamation of the Waldesi-Mondello marshes.
Salinas focuses a lot on the section of the ground, 5-6 m thick, made by excavations and in the alternation of layers of earth with more or less crushed stone and stones; in the latter he recognizes «… hundreds of bands, chisels, points
of arrow and other artifacts of colossal dimensions and eminently paleolithic type… », excavations carried out in the“ Valdesi ”locality and all around the mountain.
The prehistoric village of Valdesi extends immediately north of the necropolis, towards the sea, as confirmed by the very few collected fragments of rather eroded pottery and a greater number of pieces of “hut plaster”; the
material is now kept in the Archaeological Museum (MANNINO 1985, pp. 109-114). All the material possessed by the Archaeological Museum "coming" from the Valdesi necropolis was purchased by the workers involved in the reclamation; it is, according to the use of time, chosen material. They are typologically different finds with different dating. Part of the lithic industry is of the Paleolithic type, probably coming from the nearby Grotta del Laghetto (MANNINO 1985, p. 148). The remaining material, datable to the Eneolithic, is distinguishable between the necropolis and the inhabited area. It is not easy to make evaluations for future research, the clues emerging are not many. Crossing the foothills several times I received the impression of a certain dispersion of the huts and I consider these to be quite deep due to the rapid accumulation of groundwater debris."
(Text source: Giovanni Mannino: Guide to the Prehistory of Palermo - List of prehistoric sites in the province of Palermo - Palermo: Sicilian Institute for Political and Economic Studies, 2008.
In-depth documents: Giovanni Mannino: Monte Pellegrino in Prehistory - New data: in the Archaeological Newsletter Superintendence of Palermo 24/2017
download the document: G_Mannino_The_Grotte_of_Monte_Gallo_Notiz
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Information contributions: Ignazio Caloggero Web
Photo: Necropolis of Valdesi, 1897. Photo by Emanuele Salinas
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