The Late Antique and Early Byzantine periods are crucial for understanding Sicily's socio-economic and cultural transformation from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Recent research has demonstrated that the island continued to play its long-established role as a Mediterranean hub, prompting renewed scholarly interest in a period that has long been affected by a historiographical bias centred on notions of "decline" and "decadence". A wealth of new evidence from archaeological excavations and field surveys has revealed the complexity of Sicilian society, the vitality of its economy, and its integration into multiple Mediterranean exchange networks.
Despite significant advances, delays in the publication of older excavations, the scarcity of synthetic studies, and the limited accessibility of existing datasets continue to hinder the resolution of several key questions concerning this important transitional phase in Sicilian history. For this reason, many scholars argue that a new multidisciplinary approach to the period is urgently needed.
The FIRS project therefore focuses on five key sites in western Sicily, investigated during the second half of the twentieth century but still largely unpublished. These include the rural settlements of Campanaio and Castagna, the Roman villa of Durrueli, and the port cities of Palermo and Lilybaeum.
By analysing the material culture recovered during the excavations and exploring the distribution of artefacts at a micro-regional scale, the project aims to investigate the multiple factors that shaped changes in trade networks, social behaviour, and cultural practices between the fifth and seventh centuries AD.
Location of the five case-study sites investigated by the FIRS project in western Sicily.