ARCHITECTURAL SHAPE AND CULTURE OF THE ASHKELON ANCIENT CITY

Scientific product of the official Italian Mission in Israel ASKGATE, under the auspices of the MAECI year 2020 The Mediterranean Sea is one of the ancient cornerstones of the Earth. Different peoples met and clashed in the Mediterranean area, leading to the birth of a culture that marks its distinction in the choral dimension. Manifestation of civilization is architecture in its different scales. The city, therefore, is a synthesis of many units that are recognized in a common structural and cultural denominator. Traces of certain dynamics can be found in the city of Ashkelon, on the south-east coast of the Mediterranean. The path presented proposes a reading of the urban layout of ancient Ashkelon in order to obtain those cultural traits of Mediterranean matrix, putting it in relation with the other urban realities of the basin. The dialogue that different peoples, at different times, but inhabitants of the same place, have managed to weave in the mutual recognition of belonging to the same culture, the Mediterranean one, is made up in an overall picture