- Sicani
Sicani — the most ancient pre-Indo-European population of Sicily known from ancient sources. In the 13th century BC, they were displaced by the Siculi and Elymians, and were subsequently Hellenized. The Sicani correspond to the Castelluccio archaeological culture.
Timaeus of Tauromenium considered the Sicani to be the indigenous population (his work has not survived, but it is referred to by Diodorus Siculus (V,6,1-3). As Thucydides (416 BC, Thucydides, Hist. VI,2,3,4) claimed, the Sicani came from Iberia, driven out by the Ligures [possibly a mistranslation of Λιγυών (Ligyó̱n), which is translated as Ligures, while Ligures in modern Greek is Λιγουρίας, and Λιγυών is closer to 'thin']. Thucydides borrowed this information from the Sicilian historian Antiochus of Syracuse, whose source is unknown; however, the tradition about the Sicani resembles the story of the appearance of the Balares in Sardinia.
A number of modern scholars consider the Sicani to be an Illyrian tribe that seized lands previously belonging to the aborigines.
Archaeological research shows that the culture of the Sicani was influenced by Mycenaean Greece. There is also considerable similarity between the material culture of pre-antique Sicily and the culture of Malta during the era of megalithic temples. For example, pottery from the Ognina settlement in Sicily shows similarities with pottery from the Maltese prehistoric settlement of Borġ in-Nadur. According to Greek mythology, the capital of the Sicani was the city of Camicus.
VARIANT NAMES: Greek Σικανοί, Latin Sicani, Russian Sikanes.
Sources:
Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015