"Sicily's central location and natural resources have meant that various peoples have sought to conquer, control and settle on the island throughout its 3000-year history. Its Italian identity, with which we are familiar today, emerges only comparatively recently. Under the successive rule of Greeks, Muslim Arabs, and medieval Normans, the island achieved a distinctly heterogeneous identity, becoming at times a major political actor in the Mediterranean and one of the wealthiest and most culturally prosperous places in the region. This book is the catalog that the British Museum is publishing for its major Spring 2016 exhibition, Sicily: Culture and Conquest. Written by two curators at the British Museum, this book highlights Sicily's long history as a cultural crossroads and battleground between empires and faiths. The book is illustrated with 200 images of objects from the British Museum's collection of Sicilian art and artifacts spanning almost 3000 years. Through text and art, the book uses art, architecture, and a remarkable selection of objects--from monumental metopes and beautiful mosaics to reliquary pendants and chess pieces (many revealing a distinct Sicilian character and style)--to provide a visually stunning insight into the key periods of Sicily's extraordinary past"--