In Agrigento, a district of Akragas destroyed in 406 BC resurfaces

An entire district of the ancient Greek city of Akragas, unknown for over two thousand years, is coming back to light on the Montana houses plateau, in the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento. Bringing it back to the surface are the layers of rubble left by the Carthaginian siege of 406 BC, the event that overwhelmed the city.

The discoveries come from the third excavation campaign conducted by the University of Milan, directed by Professor Claudia Lambrugo, with the collaboration of Park archaeologist Maria Concetta Parello and the support of the Fai.

Two excavation areas of about ten meters by ten have been opened on the plateau. Among the structures found is a system originally intended to capture groundwater, later converted over time: first transformed into an animal shelter, then, in the nineteenth century, adapted for rural use. The stratification of subsequent uses tells a history of the site extending well beyond the Greek era, into much more recent times.

The news currently comes from a single source (University of Milan, Valley of the Temples Archaeological Park); independent confirmation of the excavation campaign’s details is not currently available.

The find is part of a multi-year effort on the site, which the third campaign allowed to deepen by focusing on an area that had remained unexplored until now. The two trenches opened on the plateau remain the starting point for future work, which will need to clarify the overall extent of the district buried by the siege of over two thousand years ago.

The Carthaginian siege of 406 BC marked one of the most dramatic moments in the history of Greek Sicily: Akragas, then among the richest and most populous cities of the ancient Mediterranean, was put to fire and sword by Carthaginian troops as part of the Greek-Punic wars that bloodied the island for over a century. The destruction layers identified on the Montana houses plateau now offer a direct vantage point on that event, making it possible to reconstruct not only the urban layout of the district but also the phases of its abandonment and its subsequent, partial reoccupation in distant historical periods.