The Mediterranean Sea provided a broad boulevard for the migration of tribal groups in the prehistoric period when tools were still fashioned only from stone--the period before about 3000 BC that is now referred to as the Stone Age.


The size of the island of Sicily and its accessibilty to Europe, Africa and Asia Minor made it a natural crossroads in the migratory pattern. Cave paintings recently discovered at Monte Pellegrino near Palermo show habitation of the area even before 8000 BC, in the Paleolithic segment of the Stone Age.