The shipsheds of Sicilian Naxos, researches 1998–2001: a preliminary report

Abstract

Remains discovered in excavations at Naxos in 1981–3, underlying structures belonging to the settlement which has been recognized as the mansio mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary, have now been firmly identified as the dockyard of the Greek city, the first Greek colony in Sicily and a Chalcidian foundation; an ally of Athens in the fifth century, it was therefore destroyed by Dionysios I of Syracuse in 403 BC. One rock-cut shipshed has been excavated for its surviving length (the lower end is lost under modern buildings); there is pottery evidence for the construction of its north wall in the mid-fifth century BC.As with the installation of the democracy after the return of the Chalcidian exiles from Leontinoi, the work may have been inspired and encouraged by Athens. Installations of an earlier phase are also starting to appear. A selection of pottery evidence and of the remains of roof components (tiles and antefixes) is published.The side walls of at least four shipsheds have been found just inside the city wall, and these respect the orientation of the fifth-century urban plan. The clear width of the shipshed excavated (5.45 m) confirms the evidence of other recent excavations: the previously held view that trireme shipsheds had a clear width of 5.75–6 m will have to be revised. The back 5–6 m of the shipshed do not seem to have been part of the slipway proper; possible explanations are suggested.

Raised Holocene paleo-shorelines along the Capo Schisò coast, Taormina: New evidence of recent co-seismic deformation in northeastern Sicily (Italy)

“…Based on these observations, PS2 was at least active between ≥3.9 and ≤2.2 ka B.P. The established time range supports the stratigraphic attribution of the slipways found in the Naxos site as coeval to PS2, by considering their archaeological ∼2.4 ka age (Blackman, 1968;Blackman and Lentini, 2003).…”

“…However, a dry (i.e. above water) length of ∼40 m is suggested by analogy with other slipway sites (Blackman, 1968;Blackman and Lentini, 2003). The Naxos slipways are perfectly aligned with the grid of the Classic city, suggesting that they must have been part of the original plan.…”

“…The Naxos slipways are perfectly aligned with the grid of the Classic city, suggesting that they must have been part of the original plan. Based on this, they can be attributed to the V century BC (Blackman, 1968;Blackman and Lentini, 2003).…”

“…During the Classic period, a new town was built above the Archaic settlement, which had been destroyed in 476 BC during a military sacking (Diodorus of Sicily, XI, 49). The new town had a rigidly regular plan, centered on three broad east-west trending plateiai, which were intersected every 39 m by a series of north-south streets (Blackman and Lentini, 2003). In 403 BC, Naxos was definitively destroyed by Dionigi I of Siracusa.…”

“…In the northern sector of the archaeological site, at a distance of ∼160 m from the modern coastline, ancient slipways have been discovered (Blackman, 1968;Blackman and Lentini, 2003). They were used in Greek times to preserve warships (triremes), drawing them out of the water when not in service.…”