L'INFORMATORE DEL MARMISTA

NR. 593 MAY 2011

USE OF STONE ON THE ISLAND KNOW AS THE DAUGHTER OF THE WINDS
The island of Pantelleria is located in the Strait of Sicily about 70 km from Africa and 90 km from Italy itself. It has an area of 83 square kilometres and the highest peak (836 m) is known as “Montagna Grande”. It central geographical location in the Mediterranean has always been strategic: in particular, from the point of view of stone applications, one of the rocks outcropping on the island - obsidian - has been intensely traded since pre-historical times; after being worked, it was a precious cutting material for tools and weapons, as well as ornaments and jewels. Obsidian is found on several islands in Italy (Sardinia, Lipari, Palmarola and Pantelleria): prehistoric trade routes have been identified on the basis of archeometric studies (Barca et al., 2007 with bibliography).   
....The volcanic landscape itself is a natural monument with lava pours of various ages, calderas and a volcanic lake rich in spa sources known as the “Mirror of Venus”. The Green Tuff ignimbrite is a very common rock, about 50,000 years old and outcropping over about one-third of the island with a maximum thickness of around 20 metres (Orsi & Sheridan, 1984): it is the marker level of the geological history of the island. Other common rocks are trachytes (those of Montagna Grande Cathedral are 35,000 years old) and rhyolites (the latter reach down to the sea at Punta Fram, made up of materials from the last volcanic eruption in 1891), followed by basalts of various agea. There are numerous secondary volcanic events: they include of jets high temperature steam (“favare”), “stufe” (natural heated grottoes) and numerous spa sources.
The first people to settle on the island were the Sesiotes, who left important traces especially in the Mursia region, such as the pre-historic “Muro Alto” (High Wall) and the acropolis, with elliptical constructions, grindstones, benches and flooring slabs in stone, as well as fire clay. The necropolis is adjacent to it: there are numerous tumulus burial mounds known as “Sesi”, which mostly have a circular plan (with diameters from 4 to 18 m) and are surmounted a flattened dome. Their interiors revealed finds such as objects in stone (blades, scrapers and shards), metal and ceramics. The most imposing is the “Sese del Re” or “Sese Grande”, dating back to around 1800 B.C., with three storeys built with a “stepped” masonry technique (Tusa, 1997). These funeral monuments were described at the end of the 1800s by Paolo Orsi, an archaeologist from Syracuse, who defined them “piles of ugly but carefully overlapping stones” with apertures and corridors leading to the burial chambers. However, the Sesi remained without protection for some considerable time and were a place for easy removal of processed stone. It was only in the second half of the 1900s that restoration of those still extant was carried out, while many others had already been dismantled to re-use the stones in “dammusi” homes and dry-stone walls or ground for grit and gravel.
...The use of local stone in homes continues today with material gathered on site through agricultural reclamation or from a handful of quarries in the interior. Farms also use stone for animal mangers (“schifi”), crushing mills, washtubs and ovens. Recent homes are almost always embellished by benches and tables in processed local stone. Sicilian “marbles” are used for external paving in the island's town, for grindstones and interior flooring.
There are many traces of historic quarries, both in the interior and near the sea. In particular, the fascist era saw cosiderable quarrying activity in the Mursia area: here, one of the quarries also partially affected the archaeological area, where defensive trenches were also built. Today, the large depot square with machinery is a place that most be recuperated and valorised: here, as in many other sites, unauthorised tips of objects and various materials (including asbestos) are both a terrible wound in the environment and a serious problem requiring urgent action to preserve the unique natural environment that is the strategic economic resource of the island.  
The landscape of Pantelleria is characterised by dry stone walls built using volcanites and pyroclastic rocks to protect the vineyards, olive groves and capers. These terraces, in many places now in a state of abandon, deserve to be preserved, on a par with the so-called “Pantelleria gardens” or “Arab gardens”, compounds with imposing circular walls up to 5 m high.  
The biological deterioration of stones in outcrops and various applications is highlighted by a particular yellow-orange colouring because of lichens: they grow on the constructions and dry stone walls all over the island, as well as the outcropping rocks, chromatically enhancing the dominant colour of the rocks (black, grey and greenish). (by Laura Fiora)