654 ' HENRY S. WASHINGTON 
the southeast rises out of the same channel and is surrounded 
similarly by deep waters, while the neighboring limestone islands of 
Lampedusa and Malta are inside the hundred-fathom line, on the 
edges of the shallow banks which border, respectively, the east coast 
of Tunis and the south coast of Sicily. : 
The island is elliptical in shape, with a length of about 13.5 
kilometers from northwest to southeast, a breadth of about 8 kilo- 
meters from northeast to southwest, and an area of 33.3 square 
kilometers. Seen from the sea it presents a roughly mountainous 
and forbidding appearance, which is increased by the prevailing 
dark color of the rocks, so that it is often spoken of as ‘“L’Isola 
Nera,” the Black Island. 
HISTORY 
Pantelleria was inhabited in prehistoric times by a people of 
unknown race, who have left traces of their occupation in the 
peculiar constructions which are known as sesi, found only in the 
northwestern part of the island (Fig. 1). These are built of rough 
blocks of lava and are shaped like an elongated dome with a length 
of 40 to 50 feet, a width of about half this, and a height of from 15 to 
25 feet. Each contains several small chambers, separate from each 
other, and entered by a rather small opening near the ground. In 
many respects they are almost unique, but they show some analogies 
with the talajots of the Balearic Islands and the nuraghi of Sardinia. 
These latter, however, are better constructed and far more elabo- 
rate, and evidently belong to a higher type of civilization than that 
of Pantelleria. : 
The island was known to the Greeks, who called it Koocovpa 
(Strabo), Kooctpa (Ptolemy), and other variants, while the Romans 
named it Cossyra (Ovid and Pliny), Cossyrus (Silius Italicus), 
Cosura (Seneca), etc. The origin of its present name, which dates 
from about the fourteenth century, is unknown, and its etymology 
uncertain. Its history has been briefly sketched by D’Avezac,* 
who, however, does not mention the sesi. According to him it was 
probably first inhabited by the Phoenicians or Carthaginians. 
Traces of this remote occupation are still to be found in the dialect 
1 D’Avezac, Iles de l’ Afrique, Paris, 1885, p. 104. 
