Generally, the Sicels occupied a region extending from Cape Peloro, north of Messina, into the Peloritan and Nebrodi mountains, southwest toward Henna (Enna) and southward beyond Etna, to include a strip of coastal and inland areas toward Sicily's southeastern tip. They had extensive --usually peaceful-- contact with the Sicanians (Sicily's earliest race), who their settlements gradually displaced toward the west. Coincidentally, the Sicels were present in the first part of Sicily colonised by Greeks, whose initial, exploratory incursions began as early as 800 BC.

There are theories that the Sicels came from Liguria or Latium, and some scholars have also suggested an affinity with the Lucanian culture. A close link with the Etruscans (themselves early arrivals from beyond Italy) seems less likely. The Sicels' distinctive religious cults, characterised by worship of the Palikoi and other deities, co-existed well with veneration of the Hellenic gods. The Greek writer Thucydides attributes an Italic origin to the Sicels, and evidence supports this, but the accuracy of the quasi-historical musings of certain Greek writers (particularly Diodoros Siculos) has been called into question for a long time.

Identifying typically "Sicel" gene markers has, for the moment, proven challenging. In considering the earliest Sicilian societies, the very term "indigenous" is rather subjective because "modern" humans actually migrated to the Mediterranean region, albeit tens of millennia ago. (Nobody has "always" been here; in terms of remote human ancestry, we're all "African.")

The Sikelian language shared at least some characteristics with the languages that evolved into Latin; Siculan was probably an Italic tongue. Unlike Sicanian, Siculan was clearly Indo-European. It is generally accepted that the Sicels were related to various Italic peoples, such as the Italoi and Opicans, who were eventually assimilated by Oscan-speaking peoples, and this explains a degree of cultural affinity with the Italoi (of nearby Calabria). It is believed that Siculan was not written until the Greeks introduced their alphabet in Sicily. The Siculan "Inscription of Sciri" (near Caltagirone) consists of characters similar to Roman ones, though with some Greek elements. The verb "to be" in Sicel appears to have been esti --similar to Greek and to the Latin est.

So far as we know, the most important Sicel towns were Agyrium, Centuripae, Henna and three towns called Hybla, all still inhabited today. Their society was a loose federation which one of their last great leaders, the Hellenised Ducetius (Docetios), tried to restore and then liberate from Greek influence in a series of revolts in the 440s BC. In the end, the Greek Syracusans defeated the Sicels and destroyed their shrine at Palické.

Even Ducetius' name seems Latin (akin to the Latin dux meaning "leader"), but his education was Greek and he spent time at Corinth. When it was convenient, he played Greek against Greek, an effective strategy because Sicily's Greek cities were, in effect, independent states. In 446 BC, following a series of military defeats, Ducetius founded the Siculo-Greek city of Cale Acte, on the northern coast in what is now the province of Messina. He died around 440.

Genetic Research: In general, studies of population genetics in Sicily tend to confirm, rather than refute, what we already presume to know about the various Sicilian peoples based on available historical, archeological and ethnological information. Here is a brief summary of an early genetic study involving potential identification of Sicily's three "native" peoples correlative to genetic factors in the current population:

V. Romano, F. Calì, A. Ragalmuto, R. P. D'Anna, A. Flugy, G. De Leo, O. Giambalvo, A. Lisa, O. Fiorani, C. Di Gaetano, A. Salerno, R. Tamouza, D. Charron, G. Zei, G. Matullo and A. Piazza

- - - Annals of Human Genetics, January 2003 (Volume 67, Number 1, Page 42).    

About the Author: Palermo native Vincenzo Salerno has written biographies of several famous Sicilians, including Frederick II and Giuseppe di Lampedusa.