Marcellino Valley in Villasmundo - Melilli
Valle Marcellino in Villasmundo, a hamlet of Melilli, is a place of notable historical and archaeological interest.
In this place, along the course of the Marcellino river, numerous testimonies have been found dating back to the prehistoric age of the ancient bronze up to the Middle Ages.
The great historical importance of this place is linked to the fact that the oldest Greek imports from the West were found there, today kept in the Paolo Orsi regional archaeological museum in Syracuse. These remains have in fact allowed us to move, without any doubt, the dating of the relationships between the Greeks and the native populations of Sicily to much more remote times than those established before the exploration of the Syracuse site. It is also believed that the Marcellinus finds are even older than the finds found in Pithecusa, considered the oldest Greek colony in the West.
In the valley it is still possible to admire a necropolis dating back to the Late Bronze Age with tombs equipped with a dromos and with monolithic tomb doors. On the summit, traces of an ancient village were found where large quantities of prehistoric ceramics were found. In medieval times, the necropolis was transformed to be used as village housing.
