Survey da Piazza Armerina a Sophiana: la ricostruzione di un antico percorso. Risultati preliminari

The present work derives from the survey project “PARS. Da Piazza Armerina a Sophiana: ricostruire un percorso” carried out by a group of first-year students of the Specialization School in Archeological Heritage from the University of Bologna (November 2022). The selected area, located between the well-known Villa del Casale (Piazza Armerina, EN) and the archaeological site of Sophiana (Mazzarino, CL), has been highly valued by several human groups since the Paleolithic, resulting in a long-lasting and ongoing tradition of research. So, the present paper and the project itself greatly suit this durable and promising line of research. Their aim is to obtain new data to better understand past settlement dynamics, reconstruct the ancient environment and the connecting path between Villa del Casale and Sophiana, so that it can eventually be evaluated through archaeological trekking. Preliminarily to the survey, the authors realized a GIS to observe the available archaeological remains to carefully plan the field work, select the most promising areas and apply the most suitable methodology. Subsequently, the documentation of the pottery sherds found in the field led to the proposal of broad chronological identifications