[SOUND] [MUSIC] The early history of Motya, the second millennium history of Central Mediterranean is a very intriguing topic, because it was unknown until some decades ago. So, we are now opening a new chapter in the history of this middle city. And we are now focused on early stages of the city, which actually was a village in the prehistoric times, and a very flourishing community. We have finds in several spots on the acropolis, that is their much raised part of the island, on the Eastern side. There are some highlights, some finds, which give us an information about this early connection. One of the earliest one is, white painted fragment. It is a special production from Cyprus, then we have, many others, kinds of finds but, some of them are connected with the Mycenaeans. And Italo-Mycenaeans which was traded it to Motya. So the new information, the presence of Mycenaeans was not surprising, but what was surprising was the presence of Levantine stuff. We found the Levantine pottery that means that not only the Mycenaeans were traveling to the west in the second millennium, but also the people of the east. Exactly the inhabitants of the city of Levant. All this stuff was, of course, bought or exchanged by the local inhabitants, prehistoric inhabitants of Motya. And another extraordinary find were two daggers, two swords made of bronze, which are belonging to a type, which is well known in the production of Mycenaeans swords. So this was, with the possibly pumice made of a rock crystal, another positive evidence towards the presence of Mycenaean's in Motya. Or this had to be interpreted as relics of an ancient warrior of someone who traded with Motya, or was present in Motya. So it's very interesting, it's very new, this information, this data. In the following stage, this trade continued, even though there is some retraction in the life of the village. And then, there is the final stage of the Bronze Age, which is just at the limit, at the edge with the Iron Age. And in this area, we do not yet have a stable presence of Phoenicians on the island. But we have the material, Phoenician material, which arrives in Malta and it has been found in local indigenous context. So, the history has become quite long, quite complicated. With several steps of presence. I want to just drive your attention on these basalt stones. These are grinders. They were used to produce food, and to transform cereals. But there were also used as ballast in the sheeps. And the great quantity of this that we found in earlier stages in Motya is connected with this ballast use. Since the sheeps arriving from the east used to transport these stones, which were then used by the new inhabitants of the island. So we are exactly at the early date of the rising settlement of the Phoenicians that we'll see in the next lesson. The island of Motya in the middle of the Mediterranean, is a strategic point to study, also in prehistory, exchange, trade, and cultural mixing in this area of the Mediterranean. And here, we are in the Museum of Ancient Egypt University of Rome. And we are now using a tool for investigating this relationships early in the past of the prehistory of the Mediterranean. And this tool is a stone is a very typical vitreous stone which is known as obsidian. And it is produced by volcanos. And it has a property, it was used as blade in antiquity and it was traded. Intensively traded, already in the Neolithic Period. So, starting from one of the producing centers of destructing center, which is the island of Pantelleria, where our university was active in the 60s of the last century. We were able to trace the ancient trade and these kind of hubs which existed in the center of the Mediterranian of prehistoric trade. These hubs were connected by the sea routes of Phoenicians, which were crossing through them and connecting them. And this meant a complete revolution of Mediterranean relationships in antiquity. So we can conclude, watching the map of the island, which in colors we have in green the prehistoric village or settlement, which was a very huge one. And in the northern side of the island, or the northeastern seashore of the island, there was the prehistoric necropolis. While in purple, to the south, you see the earliest Phoenician settlement. And in pink the expansion of the earliest phase of settlement just over the Acropolis, and on the northern side of the island. So this drawing, this map, shows the dynamic of the expansions of the earliest which becomes a settlement, a landfall by definition. And then a small town in the earliest decades of life of this Phoenicians foundation. [SOUND]
