Hybla Heraia
The ancient Roman itineraries locate the site between Akrai and Calvisiana. It must have been an indigenous site of considerable importance and, from the first half of the 6th c. B.C., one which came into friendly contact with Greek colonists. This is attested by grave goods of mixed nature which are found in the Greek cemetery in the Rito district to the S of Lower Ragusa. The site of the Sikel city must have corresponded to the height of the Castello near Lower Ragusa, while Sikel graves, the earliest of which belong to the so-called Finocchito culture (750-630 B.C.), were discovered in the nearby grottos of Molino and S. Maria delle Scale. In the Pendente district have been found traces of the Greek settlement, whose necropoleis occupied a large strip of the plateau which faces Ragusa to the S. On the height of Rito 76 Greek graves, dating between 570 and 490 B.C., were explored; together with the often considerable grave gifts, the fragmentary statue of a lion was found. Other sculptural fragments, always in the area of the Greek cemeteries, were found near the present railroad station of Upper Ragusa.
Not only the importance in the late Roman period of the road that passed through Hybla and joined Akrai at the ford of the Dirillo attests continuity of life in this ancient center, but especially the cemeteries of the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, found in large numbers on the plateau to the S of the habitation center. Of these necropoleis one can visit the Latomia in the district Tabuna.
The recently established Archaeological Museum in Ragusa houses the finds from the site of Hybla and from the entire province.
BIBLIOGRAPHYP. Orsi, NSc (1892) 321-22; id., NSc (1899) 402ff; T. Ziegler, “Hybla,” RE IX.1 (1914); B. Pace, Arte e Civiltà della Sicilia antica 1 (1935) 196; A. Di Vita, “Recenti scoperte archeologiche in provincia di Ragusa,” Arch. St. Sir. 2 (1956) 30ff; A. M. Fallico, “Esplorazione di necropoli tarde,” NSc (1967) 407ff; G. Uggeri, “La Sicilia nella ‘Tabula Peutigeriana,’” Vichiana (1968); P. Pelagatti, “Ii Museo Archeologico di Ragusa,” Sicilia Archeologica 11 (1970).
G. SCROFANI