Nuovi rilievi al Riparo Cassataro (Centuripe, Enna).

New surveys in the Riparo Cassataro - The Riparo Cassataro, located in Contrada Picone, Centuripe (EN), has been known since the 1970s for its rock paintings which have been dated to the Epipaleolithic through to the Early Bronze Age on the basis of stylistic comparison and of artifacts found in the surroundings area. Riparo Cassataro has high potential for landscape archaeology research, because of its location, along the middle valley of the river Simeto, an area with smooth morphologies rich in evidence of prehistoric occupation. The paper presents new documentation and new considerations of the evidence using methodologies for the study of rock-shelter. The paintings were analyzed using software for the enhancement of raster images based on decorrelation techniques which have revealed new figures. Below the wall decorated with red and black figures, the engraved horizontal slab is characterized by the presence of several cup-marks which have been drawn by contact relief and revealed through three-dimensional photogrammetry. The analysis of placement and alignments of the cup-marks has been integrated by searching for possible celestial asterisms and by analysing the position of the shelter since both an archaeostronomical study or analysis of ‘skyscape archaeology’ can be useful for confirming or rejecting the possibility that the shelter may have had a calendar value. Our preliminary had yet to provide positive results. The results indicate the intentionality of replicating specific figures in two main areas on the rock surface, while some superimposition suggests that the images were not the results of a single event but rather a series of episodes confirmed by the stratification of signs. The study of Riparo Cassataro may therefore represent a starting point for further and more extensive investigations.