MARZAMEMI, THE NON-PLACE RESISTANCE

Art and Culture Cooking Events Places History Tradition

Photo Source: Antonino Rampulla

Of the beauty that surrounds us, we often notice it only when we see that it is appreciated by others. For example, Scicli has always been there, around the corner. However, we really noticed its beauty only thanks to Commissioner Montalbano... Even the wine of Pachino, the now famous all over the world Nero d'Avola, we realized when it was good only after decades of selling it cheap to French, Piedmontese and Tuscan as a cutting wine. If with the Nero d'Avola of Pachino body was given to the reds of Burgundy, Chianti and Barolo, so bad it was not to be... But only if the "others" is good, then it is really good . It is not a bad thing to get there later: it is simply important to get there sooner or later. The problem arises when one forgets or does not know well what made a thing recognized as beautiful.

And for what Marzamemi has been recognized as beautiful? For the fishermen who in the very first morning returned to port after a night of hard work to pull on nets? For the humble but nice Arabian houses that housed the workers of the Balata tonnara? For the kitchen of the grandmothers who with simplicity and few ingredients that the nearby land of Pachino offered, exalted the freshness of what the sea had generously given that day?

The beauty of Marzamemi has the distinction of being administratively disputed: it is a fraction of both Pachino and Noto. Some dwellings fall exactly between the two municipalities and sometimes the owners have been handed over double municipal taxes... The sandy beach of Marzamemi, Spinazza, is the closest to the campsite. Part of Marzamemi is on the sea level: this has necessitated the construction of a dam, on top of which, thanks to frequent stairways, it is possible to walk around to enjoy the view of the sea. The oldest settlement of Marzamemi is concentrated on a peninsula. The eighteenth-century historical center, from Piazza Regina Margherita to the Balata, (from the Arabic balad, port), is characterized by the mixture of Arab and Sicilian styles, poor and noble, from ancient Church of San Francesco di Paola (patron of Marzamemi), the Palace of Villadorata, the low houses of fishermen and the tonnara. The promenade overlooks the harbor looking at the lively Brancati island.

The beauty of Marzamemi, today, should be exalted, unprocessed. Marzamemi should not look at the model of Taormina or Ibiza. Marzamemi must look at himself, shining with his own light. The problem is not the proposal of a festival of border cinema or the tasting of goblets of stars. The problem is losing or not knowing how to live the correlation with Marzamemi frontier place, of meeting, coexistence and dialogue between cultures. The problem is not understanding or not knowing how to communicate the link between this earth, the my passion and that wine. The problem is not whether a jazz trio is more or less the place of a rock band. The problem is how clear and strong is the identity of the place in which you play. Pompeii hosted the Pink Floyd...
Stun is the song of the sirens of the non-place. But Marzamemi, for Marzamemi, with determination must resist.

Text Source: Antonino Rampulla

ARCHIVE NEWS

CART RUTS MODELED ON SOFT ROCK?
Read also RACK OR HOUSING FOR CLOGS? Some cart ruts from the Targia district, in Syracuse, and most of the cart ruts from Granatari Vecchi, in Rosolini, give the impression of having been impressed, modelled, on a rock that was originally viscous, not entirely solid. As absurd as this hypothesis may seem, especially in Granatari Vecchi, the softness of the shapes and the at least anomalous uniformity of the rock bank, as if it were a concrete casting, which hosts the cart ruts, is unicum compared to the lithic context in the area. In Targia this phenomenon is less impressive but if we consider the cart ruts essentially cart tracks, therefore furrowed roads indirectly resulting from the repeated passage of carts along the same route, we do not understand why such uniformity and smoothness is present, in the majority of cases, also on the parts not affected by the passage of the...

RACK OR HOUSING FOR CLOGS?
Read also CART RUTS CUT FROM QUARRIES In the presence of slopes, even slight ones, in some cart ruts in the Targia district, in Syracuse, central holes are found with a diameter of between 30 and 50 centimeters and a depth of 15-20 centimeters, spaced about 50 centimeters apart. Neither the position (they are not exactly in the center of the cart ruts and perfectly aligned with each other), nor the shape appear perfectly regular: either the passage of time and any wear have profoundly modified their original shape or, simply, they have never had a systematic regularity. However, the offset in position between one hole and another is never completely “off-axis”: there is always a portion about twenty centimeters wide that coincides with the same portion of the previous and subsequent hole. The best preserved and most defined holes are found in the cart ruts usually called Scala...

CART RUTS CUT FROM QUARRIES
Back to CART RUTS AND A FEW TOO MANY PROJECTIONS I will skip any preamble, referring to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily. The easy academic tendency has been, in most cases concerning cart ruts, to consider them in terms of the latomie, or quarries, with which very often (for example in the cases of the Targia or Pizzuta districts) they share the same territory. According to this theory, the carraie would have been indirectly created due to the wear of the rock at each passage of carts or sleds loaded with extracted stone blocks. I will not repeat the arguments presented so far in order to demonstrate that this is a theory that has little solid foundations on an in-depth analysis of the cart ruts. However, I will add a piece by demonstrating the implausibility of a connection between them in both chronological and functional...

CART RUTS AND A FEW TOO MANY PROJECTIONS
Read also THE POLISHING OF THE CART RUTS I will skip any preamble, referring to to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily.Considering the possibility that the cart ruts were gradually dug by the passage of carts pulled by pack animals, for example pairs of oxen, observing certain sections of the cart ruts present in the Granatari Vecchi district, in Rosolini, and in the Pizzuta district, close to the Vendicari Reserve, two questions arise: 1. Why force the animals to pass over rough surfaces and protrusions high, compared to the base of the furrows, even 60-70 centimeters? 2. Why, in the presence of such obstacles, not opt for a detour? For Mottershead, Pearson and Schaefer such protrusions appeared later, since at the time of the passage of the wagons, a layer of earth covered the rocky bank, thus not making the obstacle...

THE POLISHING OF THE CART RUTS
Read also THE PROBLEMATIC EDGES OF THE CART RUTS I will skip any preamble, referring to to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily. To proceed with this comparison I have chosen a probable capital and the corner of a recess present in a block of the northern walls of Eloro that would seem to resemble a pinax, that is, a niche that would have housed a fresco of the heroa, but which a more careful observation refers to a system functional to the grip of the block through a pincer winch. Both elements, like the curt ruts, have remained at the mercy of the elements for millennia, and are therefore subject to comparable wear and tear due to the passage of time. The finishing of the capital should be of a high standard, since it is an architectural element that also has an aesthetic function. The recess, on the other hand, should have...

THE PROBLEMATIC EDGES OF THE CART RUTS
I will skip any preamble, referring to to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily.As can be seen in other sites around the world, in some cart ruts I visited, in particular in the Cugni district in Pachino, in the Granati Vecchi district in Rosolini and in the Targia district in Syracuse, a clear border can be seen, a sort of frame, next to the grooves, more marked externally, barely noticeable internally. The borders I measured have a width of 14-20 centimeters and a height of 8-10 centimeters. Not all cart ruts have such frames present or particularly evident, regardless of the degree of wear or degradation. They are found above all in cart ruts with less deep grooves. As already described in detail, given the presence of furrows with a depth of even 65-70 centimeters, the wheels of a possible vehicle would have had to have a...

THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART FOUR)
Click here to return to third part Clapham Junction As in the Maltese site Misrah Ghar Il-Kbir, also in the Targia and Granatari Vecchi districts the cart ruts intersect and cross each other in a similar way to the track switches in a railway station. The nickname Clapham Junction that was given by David H. Trump to the Maltese site, derives precisely from the similarity with the famous English railway station. For Sagona these are agricultural furrows and water channels, for Mottershead, Pearson and Schaefer these are abandoned paths due to obstacles and wear. Obviously we do not know what the morphology of the Syracuse and Rosolini territory was at times when the cart ruts were traced, but considering the current context, there certainly would have been no agricultural reason to build them, given the presence of fertile land, springs and fresh water courses just a few kilometers...

THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART THREE)
Click here to return to SECOND PART Considerations on the theses of Mottershead, Pearson and Schaefer I find this study extremely interesting, even if I am perplexed by this emphasis on the loss of hardness of the wet rock given that Malta is among the European territories at greatest risk of desertification (as is unfortunately also the south-eastern area of Sicily). We don't know exactly what the climate was like in Malta when the cart ruts were made, as we don't even know for sure how old they were made. However, it might be understandable to take the humidity factor as a starting point. n strong consideration, in relation to a territory constantly subject to rainfall, but why would the ancient Maltese have had to intensely travel with loaded carts right after a downpour, with all the inconveniences that for example the mud would have entailed? The Maltese territory is...