THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART FOUR)
Art and Culture Cooking Events Places History Tradition
THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART FOUR)
Photo Source: Antonino Rampulla
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 away. Furthermore, considering the size of the Targia site (which, calculated with Google Earth, is about 5 hectares, therefore at least double the size of the analogous Maltese site), how many obstacles would they have had to encounter before deciding to change area? In any case, at least in one point at Targia one has a clear impression that three pairs of sunken tracks converge into one, similarly to what happens today in a train station.
cart-ruts-scala-greca-porta-scea-targia-siracusa-bordatura.jpg
Sea level

In the Pizzuta district, the cart ruts that runs along the cliff, close to the sea, is interrupted by the detachment of a large section of rock, which remained lying on the rocks below: it would be interesting to understand when this detachment occurred. In any case, given the excessive proximity of certain sections of the cart ruts to the cliff's precipice, a situation that goes hand in hand with the erosion of the area that probably once hosted the structures of the port of Eloro, of which potential evidence can be found in the (dangerous...) path that runs alongside the ancient Syracusan sub-colony, the coastal landscape must have appeared very different from today. Of course, as already mentioned and as demonstrated by an interesting study on the now submerged fish markets of some Roman villas, the sea level, two thousand years ago, was on average 1.2 meters lower.
The cart ruts of contrada Pizzuta, which today seems to run a little too dangerously along the sea, probably originally was not right next to it.
marzamemi-latomie.jpg
A widespread problem

The cart ruts problem does not only concern the uncertainty about how, when and by whom these furrows were traced, but also concerns some details, in the surroundings, that have no apparent logical explanation. For example, there are dense lines traced on the rock, which recall the tracks left on the ground by a tracked vehicle (found, in particular, at Granatari Vecchi and Noto Antica); or, next to many furrows there is a border, which we have already mentioned, with respect to which it is not clear what indirect mechanism could have caused it or, if created intentionally, what its purpose would have been; or again, in particular at Porta Scea, in Targia, in the middle of a stretch of roadway, transverse lines are found every 70 centimetres. Above all, the problem of cart ruts concerns the fact that they are not only present in places colonised by the Greeks or Romans, but they seem to be widespread throughout the world.
marzamemi-latomie.jpg
Click here to read THE PROBLEMATIC EDGES OF THE CART RUTS RUTS
Text Source: Antonino Rampulla
ARCHIVE NEWS
CART RUTS MODELED ON SOFT ROCK? 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? 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 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 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 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 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 THREE) 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...
THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART TWO) THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART TWO)
Click here to return to FIRST PART The Greek chariot In relation to the faithful reconstructions of the tools used at the time, recently made in Selinunte and in Valle dei Templi, and in comparison with Study of a Roman Cart by Paola Miniero, the axles of Greek carts of the time had to be no higher than half a meter from the ground and the gauge (i.e. the distance between one wheel and the other) had to measure between 140 and 150 centimeters. They had to plausibly be pulled by at least a pair of pack animals (as represented in the numerous numismatic and artistic testimonies that have come down to us) and have wooden but iron-shod wheels. Another reference for estimating the gauge is the width of two oxen side by side: the width of an ox is about 70-80 centimeters, so the minimum gauge between one wheel and the other, to maintain a certain stability, had to be at least 140...