IMMAGINI DI GELA: LE NECROPOLI E IL PROFILO CULTURALE DELLA POLIS TARDO-ARCAICA. I MATERIALI DELLA COLLEZIONE E DEL PREDIO LAURICELLA.

This work aims to reconstruction of the social profile of the Late-Archaic Gela, setting off by archaeological data and in particular by the analysis of the necropoleis. The excavation data from Predio Lauricella, collected by Paolo Orsi, have been re-edited; the Predio Lauricella is an area of the modern city that insists on a large burial ground of Late-Archaic and Proto-Classic age. The Lauricella Collection, the only wide collection from Gela preserved together with the Navarra, was collected by his owner with excavations conducted in the same terrains, later dug by Paolo Orsi; it allows to transform the Lauricella Collection in a formidable tool for the archeological research. The first chapters are devoted to reconstruction of the archaeological situation in Gela between the 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, when the institutions of the young Italian state, represented by Paolo Orsi, were fighting a strong battle to protect the archeological heritage from private interests. These are the ‘pictures of Gela’, pictures of the modern and the ancient city; many of these pictures come from the necropoleis, where many attic vases were buried with their owners. The whole of data collected allow to fill the lack of information offered by the ancient sources and to observe through the burial customs which were the dynamics that led to take the power by Kleandros and Ippokrates and then to the establishment of the Dinomenid dynasty.