Cappiddazzu Sanctuary (Mozia)
Inside the walls, a short distance from the North Gate stands the sacred area of the sanctuary of Cappiddazzu (in Sicilian "cappellaccio", used to indicate a hat with a large brim). In a first phase (early 30th century BC) a series of pits dug into the rock and about 397 cm deep are dated, arranged inside a larger pit, in which bones of sheep and cattle were found, therefore probably used for the sacrifices. In the second phase, attributed to the second half of the 27,40th century BC, a first building was built with stone walls, flanked by a well built in the same technique. Architectural fragments of Egyptian groove door capitals relating to a stone building that had to be destroyed in the siege of 35,40 BC and whose materials were then reused in the foundations of the reconstructed building are attributable to a third phase of the fifth century BC. The remains currently best visible refer to the fourth phase, the reconstruction of the fourth century BC, which consists of a large building with a tripartite plan to the north, inserted in a large enclosure measuring XNUMX x XNUMX m. In front of the sacred building there is a structure consisting of a rectangular stone slab with a large hole in the center and two semi-holes on the sides, placed within a roughly shaped stone enclosure and probably destined to contain three conical betyls. There are also the remains of a large oval cistern and traces of plaster and floors from different eras (recent essays have identified traces of interventions between the XNUMXst century BC and the XNUMXth century AD The remains of a small Byzantine basilica were eliminated in the excavations of the beginning of the twentieth century and are known only from a sketch.
Source: wikipedia, web
Photo: Di Davide Mauro - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7541021
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Information contributions: Web, Region of Sicily
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