1. Introduction

The research seeks to outline the main developments in settlement organization in the Plain of Catania (Sicily’s most extensive at 430 km²) and its surroundings, from the Archaic to the Late Roman period (Fig. 1). The area makes for a perfect case study due to the number of excavation and survey projects carried out within it over the last few decades (Fig. 2). The Plain is located in the interior of the Ionian-Etnean region, its geographical limits being the Etna Volcano to the north, the Hyblean Plateau to the south and the wide extension of the Erean Mountains to the West (Fig. 3). The plain originated in the alluvial deposits of the Simeto, Dittaino, Gornalunga and San Leonardo rivers [1], which cross it through an East to West axis towards the Ionian Sea, and there formed a low sandy coast [2].

The rural landscape of Eastern Sicily is not one of the most intensively studied in the Mediterranean. Although archaeologists have documented plenty of settlements, cemeteries, monuments, artefacts scatters and other landscape features for over a century, the resulting data are still limited in quantity and variable in quality. This problem is particularly prevalent in the countryside of the Ionian-Etnean region since archaeological studies here have traditionally favoured urban over rural landscapes, and this has only recently begun to be redressed [3]. Indeed, the territory of Leontinoi/Lentini [4], as well as that of Katane/Catina/Catania, Morgantina/Aidone and Kentoripa/Centuripe, was located around the alluvial plain: a few scholars have focused it in the context of the political edges of each political entity, but not its role in economis and settlement patterns dynamics [5].

Research interest in the archaeology of the Plain of Catania accelerated at the end of 1980s, but the first attempt at systematic research on the region’s rural landscapes started only in the mid 1990s [6]. The quantity of legacy data available for the Plain of Catania and its surroundings offers a real contribution to bridging the knowledge gap of settlement patterns and rural landscape changes in Eastern Sicily [7]. Using it for new archaeological landscape research is necessary due to the changing nature of the surface archaeological record, the impact of the environmental degradation on it, and finally due to the paucity of regional survey results available for this part of the island [8]. Simply put, old reports of surface finds may be the only surviving record of past activity in rural landscapes. Another element that makes the use of legacy data necessary for any landscape study in Sicily is the general sparsity of data on rural archaeological landscapes, a problem likely related to the tradition focus of archaeological studies on the ancient coastal settlements and to a simplistic view of the structure of the agricultural production in antiquity.

The use of archaeological survey data for evaluation of landscape dynamics is concerned with the distribution of settlements and changes in number of recorded sites over time [9]. By relating intensive survey projects results to legacy data available for the research area, it is possible to quantify shifts in the use of specific environments on a regional scale, allowing us to model and visualize settlement dynamics over time. Here the results of a semantic integration approach applicated to the analysis of survey-based legacy data is presented, which may allow further assessments of the spatial configuration of possible land-use areas [10]. The field work (1997-2007) consisted of intensive archaeological surveys carried out according to the Forma Italiae Project’s methodology [11]: mostly covering the western portion of the plain of Catania (476 km²), due to their unexploited potential, these archaeological surveys data are of considerable interest in any attempt to analyse rural landscapes and route networks in antiquity [12].

2. Methodology

The use of legacy data for archaeological landscape research is a theme which has been widely considered in archaeology in the last decade [13]. In order to reach a clear understanding of the taphonomic processes that shaped the Plain of Catania’s ancient landscapes from the Greek to the Late Roman Age, we need to reassess the available archaeological data in the light of literary evidence, epigraphy and numismatics (Fig. 4). Furthermore, scrutiny of cartography, aerial photography and satellite imagery is necessary in order to interpret this level of archaeological data as traces of ancient rural landscapes bound up with settlement dynamics and route networks [14].

During the data collection process all periods that have left traces in the area were considered, as the transformations of landscapes can only be clearly understood through a long-term perspective [15].

The datasets created through the digitization process are based on:

• archaeographic data from the field surveys project on the western edges of the Plain of Catania (1997-2007) [16] (Fig. 5);
• published reports of archaeological excavations and survey projects carried out in the study area [17];
• archaeological sites gazetteers and archive catalogues created by the local cultural heritage institutions (Soprintendenze di Catania, Enna e Siracusa);
• topographical data obtained from the field-work planned for the georeferencing of legacy data in points 2 and 3 (i.e. archaeological sites whose position was not previously clearly determined) [18].

When evaluating the current state of archaeological corpus of evidence now available for the Plain of Catania, clear difficulties connected both to the research methods and the quality of the documentation have to be confronted: surveys and excavations were undertaken in different periods, employing varying investigative methodologies with differing objectives [19]. Open and linked archaeological geodata for the area, that is to say computerized geographical data, does not exist [20]: for the Catania region, only the official restricted areas layer of archaeological sites (Piano Paesaggistico) is accessible, and only through the WMS service for GIS platforms [21].

Archaeological landscapes carry an impressive amount of data since they consist of many layers made up over centuries, each with specific characteristics and comprising a wide range of archaeological material (pottery, coins, glasses, metals, buildings, residues of conurbations, and so on) from different periods [22]. Digital representation of archaeological data in open formats may play a crucial role not only in cultural heritage preservation, since it offers significant advantages in the dissemination, use, and comprehension of information stored in old reports, archives, collections and museums catalogues, but also in research [23]. This holds particularly true for the data on pottery distribution from survey and excavation projects carried out in Eastern Sicily. However, the majority of legacy data for the research area is available in the form of old maps and paper gazetteers attached to published works. Indeed, useful archaeographic data [24] is variously dispersed in old reports, papers, conference proceedings and monographs, and unpublished theses. This heterogenous data - mainly consisting of pottery catalogues, drawings and pictures - was harmonised through the creation of a geodatabase, whose main feature is the management of different datasets [25].

However, even though well-proven tools for organizing and querying information, relational databases do not support global and flexible data-integration mechanisms with other sources, and suffer from limited modelling and reasoning capabilities [26]. In order to take advantage of the rich information collected from the plain of Catania, the relational database was modelled through the OntoCeramic 2.0,4 an OWL 2 ontology: through a taxonomy which refines and extends OntoCeramic 1.0, [27] it models and integrates new field survey and legacy data on pottery distribution [28]. Moreover, the ontology represents the main pottery features such as classes, shape, typology, fabrics, and production chronology [29]. OntoCeramic 2.0 was entirely mapped in the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM) [30], fomal ontology which provide the structure and relationships for Semantic Web data [31], and have been developed for use in cultural heritage applications generally, and archaeology specifically [32]. Due to its capacity to deal with the archetypal elements of real space and time (i.e. topography and chronology), an ontology is able to compare old and new archaeological data, regardless of the degree of accuracy in its acquisition and publication process [33].

The final aim of the data digitisation and integration process was to carry out spatial analysis, a useful tool in order to understand settlement pattern dynamics [34]. The importance of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for spatial analysis is undeniable [35]: indeed, GIS is not only the ideal medium through which archaeological data can be visualised, but also the best digital environment in which to integrate, map and analyse heterogenous data (viz. databases, archaeographic data, maps, historical and modern cartography, DEM, aerial orthophotos, photogrammetry) [36]. Ultimately, the archaeological landscape analysis of the Plain of Catania was carried out from a contextual perspective through an integrated GIS modeling approach using computer technology, archaeology, semantic web and topographical analysis [37]. Through the connection of the available body of archaeological knowledge with an indexed collection of ancient texts and mapped places [38] and with other indexed mapped archeo-databases - where available - it would be possible to elaborate a more accurate comparative settlement system analysis, on the basis of shared and divergent chronological and topographical characteristics.

4. The Greek age

The field survey of the western edges of the Catania Plain has highlighted significant settlement exploitation during the Archaic Age. A significant increase compared to the early Iron Age is indicated by the indigenous and Greek production materials found in twenty-six topographic units. The most sizeable occupation was usually identified on lofty positions, above 400 m a.s.l., naturally defended and strategically located with respect to the road system that crosses the territory, as in the case of Montagna di Ramacca [39]. In the early seventh century BC, the development of a series of medium and small-sized sites located in positions very close - within a few kilometers - of the major indigenous centers is evidenced. One of these sites is Poggio delle Forche (352 m a.s.l.), located near the Ramacca Mountain [40]: among the ceramic sherds found on the plateau (UT R79), the majority are Licodia Eubea Ware (56 fragments) [41] or Greek imports, including Corinthian A transport amphora sherds [42] (Fig. 6). Similar settlement characteristics are noted for the Archaic occupation of Monte Turcisi (303 m a.s.l,), a steep-walled hill overlooking the Catania Plain from the East, wedged between the valleys of the rivers Dittaino to the north and the Gornalunga to the South. A small phrourion encloses its slightly extended top (1.5 ha): the survey identified a large area of pottery sherds (200 x 40 m) that extends homogeneously along the western slopes of the hill, at varying altitudes: a large amount of ceramics found date from the sixth to the second half of the fifth centuries BC (Fig. 8). Today the ascription of the fortification to the Archaic age is under discussion [43], but the reasons for the settlement on the top of Monte Turcisi in the sixth century are clear [44]: from the naturally defensible hill top it was possible to control the routes that crossed beneath its slopes, one going up the valley of the Margi river from the south and the other up the valley of the Dittaino river from the east [45]. However, the proximity of Monte Turcisi to the indigenous settlement of Monte Iudica (765 m asl) cannot go unremarked [46].

The survey data testify not only to the existence of sites located on the heights, but also the development of a different model of land use compared to the Proto-historic age [47]: the numerous scattered sherd zones identified on the western edges of the plain of Catania (R97, R80, R61, R67, R102) [48] can be interpreted as small-scale rural production centers [49]. It is likely that, as in other region of the island [50], starting from the end of the seventh to the sixth centuries BC, exploitation of the territory for agro-pastoral purposes began: the planned increase of production may be related to the growing demand for raw materials by the Greeks [51].

Compared to the sixth century BC, the evidence decreases substantially in the course of the Classical Age: in fact, the total number of sites dating to the fifth century BC shrinks from twenty-six to thirteen (Fig. 7). Numerous sites (11) were not resettled and others (12) there are indications of settlement continuity from the mid-fifth century BC onward only. This picture may be explained in the context of the political instability that characterized the first half of the century, marked by the violent career of Hippocrates of Gela (498/497-490) [52], and then by the events related to the campaigns of Hieron I of Syracuse (478-466 BC) [53] and the Hellenized indigenous leader Ducetius (460-440 BC) [54].

These events have certainly to be considered in order to obtain a clear understanding of the rural settlement dynamics on the edges of the territories of Morgantina, Catania and Lentini, poleis deeply involved in these conflicts [55]. The survey highlighted the chronology of the settlement which extended on the top of Poggio delle Forche (UT R125), a small hill south-east of the Ramacca Mountain. The considerable quantity of ceramic artefacts related to daily life, i.e. common ware, household objects (loom weights) and Ionic-Massaliote transport amphorae, may suggest the existence of a stable settlement, active between the Archaic period and the middle of the fifth century BC. By contrast, after a hiatus of information for the second half of the fifth century, the survey data from Monte Turcisi produced numerous ceramics dating from the early fourth to late third centuries BC.

In the survey area, ceramic sherds dating to the late fourth-third centuries BC were identified in 27 topographical units: compared to the previous period, there is an impressive increase in the number of settlements (> 90%) (Fig. 7). However, 11 areas are characterized by chronological markers attesting their use since at least the early fifth century BC. In the Hellenistic age, settlement patterns seem to reach a certain stability. On the other hand, the number of never previously settled areas (14) may be seen as part of the settlement system’s evolution, likely involved in the agrarian expansion that took place between the second half of the fourth and the early third centuries BC [56]. Numerous Hellenistic sites are located in 100 masl positions, usually near springs and water courses. At this time, the most relevant Greek settlements, Montagna di Ramacca and Castel di Iudica, both in decline since since the early fifth century BC - seem to be completely depopulated [57]. Imported material culture from Southern Italy and Greece is recorded in lower surroundings, pointing to the existence of a dispersed rural landscape embedded in the Mediterranean commercial networks. On the basis of archaeological and technical evidence, new research carried out on the fortification located on Monte Turcisi effectively demonstrated that it was built on its summit in the early fourth century, and used until the end of the third century BC at least [58]: its role was likely part of a broader strategy to control and protect the rural landscape developed in the Plain of Catania, under the influence of Syracuse, against a possible Carthaginian attack [59]. As highlighted by M. Jonasch, the long walls of the Epipolai in Syracuse, the reconstruction of the city walls from Lentini and Akrai and the foundation of subcolonies, including Adrano in the surrounding area, would offer a suitable setting for the establishment of a military outpost on Monte Turcisi in order to control the access to the Ionian-Etnean area and to ensure the grain production of the Plain of Catania [60].

5. The Roman age

The number of Republican Roman sites reflects the substantial continuity of Hieronian rural settlement and a further expansion dated to the second-early first centuries BC. Compared to the previous phase, the number of total sites increased (24): in 11 topographical units clear traces of continuity are recorded, characterized by the great quantity and quality of the finds, distribution over vast areas and close proximity to river courses and roads. Indeed, some scatter areas can be interpreted as rural occupation-sites, linked to the exploitation of the land: for the first time since Prehistory, settlements are again to be found in the plain, while some of the sites located in impervious positions are definitely abandoned, including the phrourion of Monte Turcisi, part of the rural fortification system of the Hieronian kingdom [61].

Survey data points to a substantial consolidation of the settlement system between the Late Republican and Early Imperial age (Fig. 7) [62]. During the first century, the number of sites recorded in the study-area increases from 24 to 35: 18 archaeological sites are characterized by signs of settlement continuity, a marker of the developing strength of landholding during the Republican period. The high number (17) of newly-settled areas is also of great interest: although the framework should be considered with caution due to the lack of stratigraphic data, the settlement pattern dating to the Early Imperial age could be considered as a result of the deduction of Catina as a colony. The increase in the number of rural sites could be related to changes in local landownership brought about by the Augustan distribution of lands to his veterans [63]. Although the area shows no clear signs of centuriation, the Plain of Catania was the only territory available for a wide land redistribution [64]. The same is suggested by the survey data from the Catania Plain, where relevant archaeological areas (likely villae and farms) were first occupied in the Augustan Age, as indicated by the material culture. The settlement continuity of Early Imperial sites (23 on 35 UT) is also accompanied by a significant number of never settled areas (24). The material culture recorded on the surface points to the development of a new form of rural settlement during the Middle Imperial Age: small scatter areas dating to the second century AD are largely characterized by the presence of tiles, common and coarse ware sherds and the lack of sherds relating to sumptuous goods, occuring in residual percentages where they are recorded. This kind of site is usually located within a buffer area (< 2 kilometes) of likely “central places”: on the basis of the recorded presence of imports (fine wares and amphora sherds) and even visible structures, these sites could be interpreted as likely landowners’ mansions.

During Late antiquity (middle third to fifth century), survey data points to a further increase in the number of identified settlements [65], which rises from 52 to 77, an increase of 48%; 45 sites out of 77 show traces of settlement continuity, usually associated with a relevant increase in the sherds’ distribution area. New foundations date to the middle of the third century, all usually located at low altitudes: for the first time, a complex settlement system characterized the western edges of the Plain of Catania (Fig. 7).

In the middle Dittaino valley, the survey has documented a homogeneous increase in the number of areas of fragments compared to the Early Imperial Age, in particular in relation to the fertile hills of the western sector. In this area, there is the only villa investigated on the edge of the Catania Plain, in the locality of Castellito (Ramacca) (Fig. 9a) [66]. The archaeological site extends on the top of a low knoll (106 m above sea level) located near the Dittaino river, which flows immediately to the east. The structure of the building is organized around a peristyle from which a series of rooms with mosaic floors is accessible (fig. 9b). Stratigraphy indicated a chronology spanning the third to the end of the sixth centuries AD, and there are numerous signs that indicate the long life of the site [67]. About 2 kilometers north-west of the villa, an area of ceramic sherds (UT R16) was identified at the foot of a low knoll: these materials documented a settlement whose life goes from the beginning of the second century AD until the late seventh century: the presence of a fair amount of ceramics, supported by some fragments of tiles, could indicate the existence of a modest rural settlement, perhaps a production unit directly dependent on the villa (Fig. 9c). In the Dittaino River region, the field survey did not identify any area with characteristics that may suggest the existence of other contemporary settlements comparable to the villa of Castellito. E. Procelli and R.M. Albanese have proposed identifying the site with the core of the Massa Capitoniana [68]: in addition to the undoubted proximity of the site to the layout of the Catina Agrigentum road [69], both the survey data and the topographical analysis that tends to confirm this hypothesis clarify its centrality with respect to the surrounding rural landscape.

The significance of the change which occurred during the Imperial Age in the rural settlement pattern of the Plain of Catania should be considered in the light of the new role of Sicily in the context of the central-western Mediterranean economic system whose fulcrum was the nearby provincia Africa [70]. Indeed, the use of previously unsettled areas of the alluvial plain, whose geomorphological characteristics probably limited agricultural yield, is documented only from the late third century AD. The close topographical relationship between the structure of the rural settlement and the layout of the internal road-system that connected Catania and Agrigento is also evident. Around the middle of the fourth century AD, in order to facilitate the deportatio ad aquam of the cereal production towards the major Sicilian ports, Catania and Agrigento, the centers responsible for the storage of the product - the villae, stationes and vici to be considered linchpins of the rural settlement system - were concentrated along the road. On the basis of the observation of the differences noted between the various forms of settlement attested during the survey, the existence of a composite settlement system can be assumed. These developmental trajectories are understandable if you look at the processes of formation of the large late antiquity estates property, which in Sicily and southern Italy take the specific form of the massa fundorum [71]. The villae were at the top of the hierarchical system that organized the high income of the massae, places where the agricultural product was stored according to the model proposed by D. Vera [72]. These most significant settlements (villae) persist throughout Late antiquity as cornerstones of the rural productive landscape and gatherers of local agricultural production [73]. These sites, usually located in tight topographical relationship to the main land routes and riverways along the road connecting Catina to Agrigentum, maintained their role into the Early Medieval period [74].

6. Discussion

The changes in settlement dynamics that took place in the Plain of Catania from the second half of the eighth century BC are closely linked to the economic and social structure transformations that occurred in the wider Ionian-Etnean region (Fig. 10). Events such as the foundation of the Greek colonies of Catania and Lentini [75], the expansion of the territorial state of Syracuse [76] and the long Roman rule (second century BC-middle of the fifth century AD) have clearly affected the settlement organization of the area and connected its economic underpinning to the broader Mediterranean world dynamic [77]. The traditional historiographic narrative describes the Plain of Catania throughout antiquity as capable of producing grain and other agricultural products in quantities well beyond the consumption requirements of its resident population [78]. However, it is likely that the ancient sources have been largely misunderstood due to the erroneous overlap between the territory of Lentini and the plain of Catania in not accurate analysis of ancient sources: in fact, the plain cannot be regarded as an example of a typical fertile floodplain, because until the land reclamation works of the first half of the twentieth century, most of it was characterized by swampy areas and ponds owing to the clayey structure of the soil and the meandering paths of the rivers (Fig. 11) [79]. As recently noted, when ancient authors discuss the fertility of the Ionian-Etnean area, they usually refer to the Etna Volcano area and the low hills which surround the wide alluvial plain [80]. Indeed, the hilly lands of Lentini’s territory were actually renowned in antiquity for the production of grain [81] and chose to underline this fact using the barley grain on its coins [82]: but as written by Aristotle (History of Animals 2, 17) the city also possessed good pasture lands on which animals grew fat, that is probably the vast green and seasonally wet expanses of the alluvial plain. Despite this, there are numerous references to the fertility of the plain, and to its intensive and extensive exploitation for agricultural purposes in antiquity: the origin of this myth, tightly linked with that of Sicilia frumentaria, can probably be traced to the agricultural policy of the Syracusan monarch Hieron II (269-215 BCE), when Sicilian agricultural production was, for the first time, comprehensively mobilized through a sophisticated administrative system designed to collect an annual grain tithe from the cities and rural settlements within his kingdom. [83] Hieron’s administrative system was so effective at harnessing the productivity of the island that the Romans retained the annual grain tithe, the decuma, and applied it to the whole of Sicily, as Cicero’s “De frumento” (In Verrem II, 3) clearly describes [84]. Between the third and first centuries BC Sicily witnessed an immense political and economic transformation. The role of Sicily in the annona during the Imperial Age has been the subject of a long historiographical dispute, due to the sparsity of data in texts and the well-known importance of the grain production of North Africa and Egypt from the end of the first century BC [85]. As is well known, classical archaeology is often stigmatized as being text-driven, because the subjects often take their orientation from - and adapts their whole narrative to - the lead given by literary sources [86].

As a result, the huge cereal production capacity of Greek and Roman Sicily, even organized for wheat monoculture, is a sort of historical and archaeological given [87]: as well-outlined by F. De Angelis in a famous paper (2006), it is necessary “to move from coarse-grained to fine-grained reconstruction of ancient Sicilian economics […]. The ancient texts were expressing ideas which sometimes reflect obliquely or not at all what was actually happening on the ground. In addition, extending one or two ancient passages to a long period of time, not to mention the whole of antiquity, is very problematic because it produces a static and one-dimensional picture of the ancient world. This practice has created the notion that the economics of ancient Greek Sicily were solely about agriculture and grain, in large part because the stories have been taken at face value. The written sources need to be combined with more archaeological economic history, in order to get a fuller picture of the past” [88]. In order to understand properly the economics that made possible Greek and Roman Sicily’s monumental and cultural achievements, as pointed out by R. Wilson in 1990, the extension of archaeological research beyond the traditional field of “urban” and monumental rural contexts (i.e. villae) was required [89]. Today, for the archaeology of rural landscapes in Sicily it is necessary to consider not only new data sources such as zooarchaeology and archaeobotany from the countryside, but also the substantial amount of the aforementioned legacy data. Covering Greek and Roman rural sites (villages, cemeteries, isolated farms, pottery kilns, quarries, etc.), they have passed largely unnoticed and under-appreciated for their potential to contribute to the discussion about the real economic and political significance of Sicily’s agricultural resources in the context of the Classic Mediterranean world. Furthermore, a careful and global data analysis allows us to understand that the economic base of Sicily consisted not only of agriculture, but also the exploitation of its numerous natural resources: mineral extraction such as sulfur in the Erei Mountains [90], limestone quarrying in the Hyblean area [91], and the timber supply from the woods of Etna [92] stand as examples. It follows that the large and barren areas of the western edges of the Plain of Catania and the mires and meres of its central and south-eastern sectors [93] should be considered in a contextual analysis of the changes in settlement systems that occurred thoughout the Greek and Roman ages [94]. The alluvial plain was not entirely an ideal place for extensive cereal agriculture, but even so large parts of it were likely embedded in the economic system through the exploitation of uncultivated areas in other ways: pastoralism in the semi-arid hilly environments and breeding, fishing and salt production in wetlands, for example [95]. However, there are few archaeological indicators useful for clarifying the contribution of other such production activities to the the basis of the local economy [96]: pastoralism, breeding and the exploitation of uncultivated lands were activities conducted in natural environments whose extreme characteristics have been mitigated through a series of land reclamation works in the first half of twentieth century, as the example of the swampy south-eastern sector of the Catania Plain may clearly demonstrate [97]. Indeed, even if it is an assumption, the abundance of water in the area likely favoured the development of animal-breeding from the early stages of Prehistory [98]. More directly, the discovery in the desolate territory of Ramacca of the marble epitaph of Abdalas [99] - magister Ovium of Domitia Longina [100] - is a good archaeological indicator for the importance of herding in the context of a great imperial estate (saltus), which extended in the interior through the vast and desolate hills towards Enna [101].

Demonstrably, in data analysis of Greek and Roman rural settlement it is necessary to go beyond stereotypes related to an agrarian production dedicated to monoculture: throughout antiquity, the pairing of agricultural activities with exploitation of uncultivated lands should be an expected part of everyday life [102]. Though we can’t reconstruct with certainty a single estate’s boundaries before the Medieval period [103], for a long time, the rural economy of ancient Sicily was often treated as the same as the villa economy - which is a nonsense for the province as a whole - and even within the villa economy, the concentration was almost exclusively on arable and pastoral farming, not on any other means of exploiting the land [104]. Nevertheless, as we know from historical sources, certainly exploitation of uncultivated lands was a structural feature of the European economy in the transition from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages (the sixth to tenth centuries) [105].

7. Conclusions

It must be emphasised, therefore, that the reconstruction of land-use is a problem we particularly have to grapple with in order to understand the evolution of the rural landscape in Greek and Roman Sicily: in order to grasp the relations between settlement patterns and economy [106], a global approach is required also for data management [107]. Indeed, archaeological landscapes contain an impressive amount of complexity because different levels of preservation and loss of individual features through time have resulted in any given landscape comprising a wide range of fragmented features dating from different periods [108]: T.J. Wilkinson admits even that there is little chance of achieving any form of total landscape archaeology [109]. In this light, the legacy data available for Sicily is of fundamental importance for the archaeology of rural landscapes: indeed, it is clearly necessary to connect our dataset to as broad as possible an amount of archaeological, topographical, historical, numismatical, epigraphical and archaeobotanical data, sufficient to understand settlement dynamics on a regional scale [110]. As the case of the digital corpus of stone inscriptions I.Sicily led by J. Prag clearly demonstrates [111], only the systematic process of digitizating legacy data, linking it to archaeological resources available on the Web will allow scholars to begin a proper contextual spatial analysis of settlement patterns and economy of Greek and Roman Sicily [112]. Therefore, the OntoCeramic 2.0 project may be a first step towards the definition of an ontology for the complex reality of archaeological landscapes of ancient Sicily, the artificial and natural processes that shaped them, and island’s social, cultural, and economic changes. Semantic Web and ontologies can help archaeologists in combining datasets, but the creation of linked and open data structures available for ancient Sicily is required, in order to bring archaeological resources together and make them interoperable [113]: this may allow in future functionality such as federated cross‐search across different datasets, and the mapping of heterogeneous data to scholars, independent researchers and authoritative structures [114] to build a broader data source platform.

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