The Sicilian island of Pantelleria, midway to Africa, has yielded fresh Roman treasures that have spurred local officials to call for a full-fledged open-air archaeological park across the island.
"We've unearthed amphorae and urns in a necropolis that came to light during building work. The finds on the island have now reached a critical mass that makes an archaeological park imperative," said Sicilian culture chief Lino Leanza.
"With the prehistoric village of Mursia, the San Marco acropolis, the Punic-Roman shrine at the Lake of Venus and the late Roman settlement at Scauri, we have all the potential for putting the island on the world culture map," Leanza added.
He laid particular emphasis on a collection of marble Roman heads depicting Sicilian governors and emperors.
Pantelleria was a crossroads for all the major civilisations of the ancient world and this should be reflected by making it an open-air museum, the official argued.
Any such project would have to "take into account" the thousands of migrants who reach the stepping-stone island each year on their hopeful way to points north, he added.
But the art superintendent at the western Sicilian city of Trapani, which governs the island, is confident of getting government money to fund the project.
"My superintendency fully endorses the idea of a so-called territorial park stretching across Pantelleria," said the official, Giuseppe Gini.ù
