Case Bastione: a prehistoric settlement in the Erei uplands (central Sicily)

Case Bastione is a large settlement occupied from the Late Neolithic to the Bronze Age and lying within the western Erei uplands in the valley of the Morello river (central Sicily). The first excavation seasons (2007, 2009, 2013) investigated the Late Copper Age and Early Bronze Age layers (mid 3rd to mid 2nd mill. cal. BC). The campaigns have yielded extensive evidence of domestic structures, and also of a number of craft activities, such as textiles, pottery making, lithic production and possibly metallurgy. Data about the absolute and relative chronologies, based on radiometric dating and the typological analysis of the rich pottery complex, are discussed. Abundant zoological remains also highlight the role of animal husbandry in the subsistence strategies of the village community. The paper ends with a preliminary discussion of geomagnetic and archaeometric analyses carried out during the 2013 campaign.