Abitato di Monte Sirai

Our Story

A rich history

The first traces of life extend from the Neolithic to the Nuragic age. As an urban centre, perhaps founded by the Phoenicians of Sulky or Portoscuso, Monte Sirai was already permanently inhabited around 730 BC. The strictly Phoenician period (8th-6th century BC) is documented in both residential and funerary contexts. The houses, built on four blocks arranged longitudinally, were made up of rooms arranged around a central courtyard, the true fulcrum of all domestic activities. A sanctuary with a bipartite cell dedicated to the goddess Astarte (whose cult statue is preserved in Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Cagliari) was built by partially reusing some previous structures of a single-tower nuraghe. In fact, the walls of Monte Sirai were built around the first years of the 4th century BC. (375 BC) and remained in operation until its dismantling following the Roman conquest of 238 BC. The historical events that marked the transition to Punic domination have left tangible traces in terms of archaeological stratification. In fact, at the end of the 6th century BC. In the housing sector, conspicuous traces of destruction were found in the living standards of the second half of the 6th century BC, attributable to the Carthaginian offensive. During the early 5th century BC. Later, during the 4th century BC. there was a substantial recovery with the preparation of the fortifications and the installation of the "tophet", while during the first half of the 3rd century BC. The definitive abandonment of the plateau occurred towards the end of the 2nd century BC. (110 BC), probably due to the repression of brigandage by the Roman armies. The last traces of sporadic use of the plateau are made up of a coin from the 4th century AD. found in the tophet area and from a ceramic find from the 7th century AD. History of the excavations The investigations, started in 1999 as part of the Monte Sirai excavation mission of the CNR (later UniSS) - Ca-Or Archaeological Superintendence, have been conducted since 2008 by the Municipality of Carbonia - Villa Sulcis Archaeological Museum (scientific direction C. Perra) under the MiC excavation concession regime. Bibliography P. Bernardini, "The origins of Sulcis and Monte Sirai", in Studies of Egyptology and Punic antiquities, 4, 1989, pp. 45-66; P. Bartoloni, "Monte Sirai: genesis of a settlement", in Meeting "The Phoenicians", Cagliari, Autonomous Region of Sardegna, 1990, pp. 31-36; P. Bartoloni-S. F. Bondì-L. A. Marras, Monte Sirai, "Itineraries" series, Rome, Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1992; P. Bartoloni, "The urban layout of Monte Sirai in the Republican age", in Proceedings of the 817-829; P. Bartoloni, The necropolis of Monte Sirai, Rome, Institute for Phoenician and Punic civilization, 2000; Mount Sirai. The works and the days, edited by P. Bernardini, C. Perra, Carbonia, 2001; P. Bartoloni, "Monte Sirai 1999-2000. New investigations in insula B", in Rivista di Studi Fenici, 30, 2002, pp. Sassari, C. Delfino, 2004 (Sardegna archaeological.