Sicily at a Crossroads

In ancient times, Sicily was already a crossroads where diverse cultures and ethnic groups met. This ancient Greek vase very obviously depicts a black person from sub-Saharan Africa. The next item from the museum shows an Arabic ceramic object, made in Arab-occupied Spain and brought to Sicily during the few hundred years when it was an Arab territory. The Norman conquest of Sicily in the late 11th century brought Sicily into the Western-Catholic-European sphere, where it eventually became a possession of the Holy Roman Emperor.