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# Agrigento Park Reports a Previously Unknown 5th-Century BC District at Case Montana
- URL: https://thegreekfiles.com/akragas-case-montana-unknown-district-406-bc-siege/
- Published: 2026-10-17T07:05:41.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-17T07:05:41.000Z
- Description: The Valley of the Temples park says its third campaign at Case Montana has exposed walls and building traces from a 5th-century BC district of Akragas, destroyed in the Carthaginian siege of 406 BC.
- Author: J E Cowie
- Tags: News

On the Case Montana plateau, inside the Valley of the Temples at Agrigento, excavators are working on a stretch of [ancient Akragas](https://thegreekfiles.com/three-campaigns-one-unnamed-building-roman-frescoes-beside-akragas-assembly-hall/) that, by the park's own account, was until recently completely unknown. The Parco Archeologico e Paesaggistico della Valle dei Templi announced the find as the third excavation campaign in the area approached its end. Qui Licata published the park's press release in full on 16 October 2026\. ClassiCult had carried the same text two days earlier.

![Map showing where Agrigento is](https://thegreekfiles.com/content/images/2026/10/map_agrigento.jpg)

Agrigento, Free municipal consortium of Agrigento, Italy

## What the Park says it found

The campaign has opened two test pits of about 10 by 10 metres on the Case Montana plateau. According to the park, both are bringing to light monumental evidence of an Akragas district of the 5th century BC. The release speaks of "possenti muri" (mighty walls) and "tracce di edifici" (traces of buildings), destroyed in the Carthaginian siege of 406 BC and preserved beneath thick layers of collapse.

The wording matters. The park says walls and traces of buildings, in a district. It does not call them houses, and the text quoted by Qui Licata and ClassiCult gives no function for the buildings and no size for the district. The park's headline claim is the discovery of an unknown quarter with a datable destruction. Anything more specific would be interpretation.

![The Kolymbethra garden in the Valley of the Temples, Agrigento](https://thegreekfiles.com/content/images/2026/10/shot2_the-kolymbethra-garden-in-the-valley-of-.jpg)

The Kolymbethra garden in the Valley of the Temples, Agrigento

## Water works in the stream bed

The mission has two further lines of work. In the bed of the stream, clearing away reeds and vegetation let the team record new hydraulic installations: drainage conduits and channels, some built and some cut directly into the calcarenite bedrock. The park says these are probably part of the dam of the ancient Kolymbethra's artificial lake. ClassiCult's standfirst describes the works as serving the great Greek basin.

Beneath the plateau, the emptying of the Ipogeo Nuovo has continued. It was found in December 2023, and the park says its long history now looks better clarified in sequence. It began as an ancient conduit for drawing groundwater, then became a shelter, with a question mark in the park's text over whether it was for animals. It ended with nineteenth-century use as a rural outbuilding.

## The team

The mission is directed by Professor Claudia Lambrugo of the University of Milan and Maria Concetta Parello, an archaeologist of the park. It has the support of the FAI (Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano) and forms part of a five-year research and excavation project. The aims of that project are set out in a framework agreement that the three bodies signed in 2024, which the park says it and its director, Roberto Sciarratta, strongly wanted.

Thirty-three undergraduate, master's, specialisation and doctoral students from the University of Milan's Department of Cultural and Environmental Heritage are taking part. Lambrugo coordinates them with Professor Alessandro Pace.

In the early days, Professor Andrea Zerboni of the University of Milan and Eleonora Regattieri of the CNR, Italy's National Research Council, in Pisa surveyed the area to clarify its environmental and geomorphological setting. They were also picking the best positions for core drilling in 2027\. They took core samples of speleothem flows from inside the Ipogeo di Porta V and the Ipogeo Nuovo as well. Laboratory analyses over the coming months are meant to reconstruct when the calcareous concretions formed.

## Dates and what came next

The park says the campaign ends on 24 October 2026\. La Sicilia, in a piece by Lorenzo Rosso dated 15 October, reported a public presentation planned for the following morning at the Sala Convegni of Casa Sanfilippo. The FAI, the park and the University of Milan were to present the book *La Kolymbethra di Agrigento – Un giardino d'eccezione* (Società Editrice Allemandi) alongside the results of the new research. La Sicilia listed FAI cultural director Daniela Bruno, park director Roberto Sciarratta, Agrigento Superintendent Angelo Di Franco, Parello and Lambrugo as due to attend. GrandangoloAgrigento reported that the book was presented on Friday 16 October.

## Reading the announcement

There is little to push against here: the account comes from the park, which co-directs the dig, and it ties the destruction of the buildings to the Carthaginian siege of 406 BC. What an outsider can fairly note is how thin the public detail still is. A campaign press release gives test-pit dimensions, a century and a siege date. Its text gives no function for the buildings and no size for the district. Until the excavators publish those, the claim is the park's own — a 5th-century BC district of Akragas "fino a poco tempo fa completamente sconosciuto" (until recently completely unknown) — and the rest is for the report to show.

## Sources

Augusto, A. (2026) 'I Cartaginesi la distrussero nel 406 a.C.: l'antica Akragas "rinasce" sotto la Kolymbethra', Qui Licata, 16 October 2026, available at: [https://www.quilicata.it/i-cartaginesi-la-distrussero-nel-406-a-c-lantica-akragas-rinasce-sotto-la-kolymbethra/](https://www.quilicata.it/i-cartaginesi-la-distrussero-nel-406-a-c-lantica-akragas-rinasce-sotto-la-kolymbethra/?ref=thegreekfiles.com) (Accessed: 17 October 2026).

ClassiCult (2026) 'Campagna di scavo 2026 a Case Montana e Kolymbethra: Akragas sotto le ceneri dell'assedio', ClassiCult, 14 October 2026, available at: [https://www.classicult.it/campagna-di-scavo-2026-a-case-montana-e-kolymbethra-akragas-sotto-le-ceneri-dellassedio/](https://www.classicult.it/campagna-di-scavo-2026-a-case-montana-e-kolymbethra-akragas-sotto-le-ceneri-dellassedio/?ref=thegreekfiles.com) (Accessed: 17 October 2026).

GrandangoloAgrigento (2026) '"La Kolymbethra di Agrigento - Un giardino d'eccezione"', GrandangoloAgrigento, 16 October 2026, available at: [https://www.grandangoloagrigento.it/agrigento-notizie/la-kolymbethra-di-agrigento-un-giardino-deccezione](https://www.grandangoloagrigento.it/agrigento-notizie/la-kolymbethra-di-agrigento-un-giardino-deccezione?ref=thegreekfiles.com) (Accessed: 17 October 2026).

Rosso, L. (2026) 'Dopo oltre 2.000 anni scoperto un quartiere dell'antica Akragas sepolto dall'assedio cartaginese', La Sicilia, 15 October 2026, available at: [https://agrigento.lasicilia.it/news/cronaca/3081933/dopo-oltre-2-000-anni-scoperto-un-quartiere-dell-antica-akragas-sepolto-dall-assedio-cartaginese.html](https://agrigento.lasicilia.it/news/cronaca/3081933/dopo-oltre-2-000-anni-scoperto-un-quartiere-dell-antica-akragas-sepolto-dall-assedio-cartaginese.html?ref=thegreekfiles.com) (Accessed: 17 October 2026).

## Picture credits

- Top picture: Valle dei Templi in Agrigento, Sicily, Italy: the path towards the so-called Temple of Concordia. Photo: Cayambe, [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/?ref=thegreekfiles.com), via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Valle%5Fdei%5FTempli%5F%E2%80%93%5Ftowards%5FTemple%5Fof%5FConcordia.jpg?ref=thegreekfiles.com)
- Photo: Luciano Tronati, [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/?ref=thegreekfiles.com), via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:117%5FKolymbethra%5F%28dal%5Fgreco%5F%22Piscina%29.jpg?ref=thegreekfiles.com)
- Map: drawn from [Natural Earth](https://www.naturalearthdata.com/?ref=thegreekfiles.com) (public domain) and [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q13678?ref=thegreekfiles.com).