Page "Palermo" Paragraph 7

Evidence for human settlement in the area now known as Palermo goes back at least to the Mesolithic period, perhaps around 8000 BC, when a group of cave drawings at nearby Addaura represent a new level in the representation of the human figure.

According to Thucydides, the Sicani people arrived from the Iberian Peninsula ( perhaps Catalonia ).

During 734 BC the Phoenicians, a sea trading peoples from the north of ancient Canaan, built a small settlement on the natural habour of Palermo.

Some sources suggest they named the settlement " Ziz.

" The Greeks, who were the most dominant culture on the island of Sicily due to the powerful city state of Syracuse to the east, instead called the settlement Panormus.

Its Greek name means " all-port " and it was named so because of its fine natural harbour.

Palermo was then passed on to the Phoenician's descendants and successors, the Carthaginians.