Lipari

An acropolis site on Lipari island of the Aeolian Islands off the north coast of Sicily. Occupation started in the Neolithic c 4000 BC, when obsidian was exploited. In the Bronze Age, Lipari became an important trading center. Mycenaean pottery has been found dating to 1500-1250 BC. The remains of Hellenistic buildings indicate its importance in Classical times. The volcanoes have created is one of the finest stratigraphies of archaeological deposits anywhere. Later in prehistory, Lipari remained important because of its strategic position, which allowed communities positioned there to control trade routes through the Straits of Messina and up the west coast of Italy. The site was abandoned some time in the 9th century BC and not reoccupied until the foundation of a Greek settlement by a mixed group of Cnidians and Rhodians in the early 6th century BC.

The largest of the Aeolian islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily. Lipari was important in prehistory because it possessed a source of the much-prized volcanic glass, obsidian; later in prehistory it remained important because of its strategic position, which allowed communities positioned there to control trade routes through the Straits of Messina and up the west coast of Italy. There are important prehistoric settlement sites not only on Lipari, but also on several of the other Aeolian islands, including Filicudi, Panarea and Salina. The most complete sequence occurs on the acropolis of Lipari itself, where excavations by Bemabd Brea in the late 1950s revealed a stratigraphy documenting occupation from the Middle Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age. The site was abandoned some time in the 9th century bc and not reoccupied until the foundation of a Greek settlement by a mixed group of Cnidians and Rhodians in the early 6th century bc.