This summer, Prof. Roger Wilson led excavations at Kaukana, an ancient Roman village located near Punta Secca, a small town in the south-eastern province of Ragusa (Sicily). Prof. Wilson directed students from UBC and Sicily, focusing on what proved to be an exceptionally well-preserved structure on the south side of Kaukana, only yards from the beach.

Combing through the sand-buried site, the 15-member team found a tomb inside a room in a house dating from the sixth century AD. In the tomb, the team found two skeletons, one of a woman between the ages of 25 and 30, with teeth in excellent condition and no signs of arthritis. The other was of a child of indeterminate sex between the ages of five and seven. The position of their bones showed that the woman had been laid to rest first. The tomb was then re-opened to bury the child. A hole in the stone slab covering the tomb might indicate that the originally pagan rite of offering libations for the dead continued into early Byzantine times. The presence of a Christian cross on a lamp found in the room and on the underside of a grave slab suggests that the deceased were Christians.

Around the tomb, the team found cooking pots, glass and several amphorae, of which one is virtually intact. These could have been used to carry oil and wine to the site. The team also found the remains of two hearths where meals had been prepared. One wall in the room was designed with niches. A knife, seafood, and fragments of stemmed goblets and other glass vessels were left there, as though forgotten after the last party.

The UBC initiative -- in collaboration with Prof. Giovanni Di Stefano of the Superintendency for the Cultural Heritage of Ragusa -- is the first major exploration of this historic site since 1972.

Source : the Intute, Arts and Humanities section.