The Prehistory and the Proto-history

Relatively recent discoveries suggest that the two major islands may have been frequented (or populated) by men for at least 5000 years b.C. (Ancient Neolithic). This is what several findings, especially in the form of obsidian and flints, make us think. The main economic activities of the times were hunting, fishing and collecting. Perhaps, primitive forms of agriculture were also practiced.

The ancient settlement of Cannai (Sant’Antioco) belongs to the Cultures of San Ciriaco and Ozieri (Recent Neolithic), while the ones individuated in the Cronicario area (Sant’Antioco) and Campu Scià Maìn-Tupei (Calasetta) probably date to a more recent period (Sub-Ozieri facies: end of the Recent Neolithic). All these sites have given us the remains of ancient instruments or objects made with flaked or smoothed stones (like arrow-heads, scrappers, mullers…) or ceramic fragments pertaining to vessels, pots, statuettes…; many rests of food have also been found, especially bones and shells.

The Copper Age is witnessed by Monte Claro ceramic fragments found here and there in the island, apart from some stone monumental structures presumably used as graves: a small dolmen or allée couverte and some stone circles.

In Sardinia the domus de janas (houses of fairies or ;witches; in the Sardinian language) are typical monuments of the Recent Neolithic, whereas the menhirs are more commonly attributed to later times. The former are artificial hypogees, often subdivided into different rooms, used as graves up to the late Medieval Age. Menhirs, instead, are apogeal monuments usually made of simple long stones fixed into the ground; they may have be the objects of cults, but, at the same time, they were also like sorts of landmarks. In Sant’Antioco’s island some examples of domus de janas can be found  at Is Pruinis, Serra Nuarxis and Sisineddu, whereas two menhirs are in Santa Caterina’s isthmus, which represents the natural access to the island. The two stones are locally known as Su Para e Sa Mongia (“the friar and the nun”) and are the object of awful popular legends.

The Proto-history of the archipelago is particularly rich with archaelogical evidences, especially in the forms of the famous Sardinian nuarxis or nuraghes, nuragic pits, villages and “giants tombs”. Here it is impossible a detailed description of the more than sixty sites dating back to that age; nevertheless, we cannot help mentioning – among the possible examples – the nuragic centres of Grutiacqua and Corongiu Murvonis. There we can still find the remains of nuragic monumental towers with their own villages and “ giants’ tomb”. The only nuragic building excavated by archaeologists in Sant’Antioco’s island is the “giants’ tomb” called Su Niu de Su Crobu (“The Nest of the Crow”), located in a highly evocative natural setting. Farming and agriculture - especially in the fertile Cannai valley – but also forms of trading, had been at the basis of the nuragic economy up to the meeting and the fight with foreign people that took different cultural models with them.

The Phoenicians

The most ancient centre founded by the Phoenicians in Sardinia, and that one which collects the most representative remains of that age, is certainly Sulci, located in the Cronicario area inside the modern town of Sant’Antioco, dating back to about 750-740 b.C. Archaeological excavations resulted in the discovery of rectangular houses on the sides of a street and a complex building with rooms surrounding a central courtyard, a silo for the storage of goods or food and a cistern for water supply.

The foundation of the Phoenician town was accompanied by that of the tohpet (see photograph…), that is, a particular form of necropolis and sanctuary typical of the Phoenician-Punic civilization in the Western Mediterranean sea; an open air sacred area where only the ashes of dead born babies or children were buried. In fact, dead children were burst along with offers of small animals like lambs or birds, then put inside urns covered with plates which in their turn  were put down in the ground.

The tophet of Sant’Antioco is a monument able to excite strong emotions, since the copies of many urns have been left in the place of their finding.

The Punics

The trades of Sulci flourished surprisingly during the Punic domination (VI^th century b.C.). Not much is known about the Punic town, even if it is certain that a new way of life was imported (or imposed) by the newly-come. Certainly the town enlarged; the burial rites changed since inhumation was introduced to replace incineration; moreover, engraved steles were added to the urn in the tophet. The hypogean necropolis expanded from the hill whose top is nowadays occupied by the Savoyard Castle as far as Sant’Antioco’s churchyard.

The graves were made of a subterranean room the access to which was granted by a ladder carved on the rock. Small niches are still visible on the grave walls: their function was to contain parts of the offerings for the dead.

The new urban setting was characterized by a system of fortresses gifted with towers and walls curtains, the development of which is still visible in several areas of the modern town: Monte Cresia (“the Mount of the Church”), the Acropolis, near the Savoyard castle and the tophet.

The Romans

The end of the II^nd century b. C. marks the conclusion of the Punic domination and the Roman conquest of Sardinia.

Several remains witness that period. To start with, it should be mentioned the so-called Roman bridge that granted the entrance to the town; then the ruins of an Italic temple, built between the II^nd and the I^st century b.C. upon a part of the Punic necropolis and the slopes of the acropolis.

But are the Roman graves and their contents that give us an idea of that time’s life.

During the Republican Age the most widespread funerary rites are those of cremation; the ashes of the dead were put inside small stone, terracotta or lead-made urns; these, in their turn, were put inside the Punic graves; nevertheless, there are some traces of monumental graves like that one popularly known as  Sa Presonedda (“The Small Jail”), with its square room gifted with niches and decorated with concave brackets.

The necropolis of the Imperial Age is placed upon the preceding Punic necropolis; it is characterized by different types of graves starting from the so-called cappuccina-like graves (covered with tiles as in a double pitch roof) to simple hollows in the ground or incineration burials; the findings in the tombs prove the commercial and cultural links between Sulci and Roman Africa. In fact, pots, sigillata chiara ceramic vessels, oil-lamps and, above all, a number of amphoras (originally containing oil or a fish-sauce called garum finally used as biers) come from North Africa.

To the Imperial Age it also dates back the podium, a small amphitheatre located on the South-East slope of the acropolis.

Some precious mosaics (like the famous “facing panthers around a vessel” mosaic) and statues portraying personages belonging to the Imperial family evoke the idea of a large, important city.

Between the end of the II^nd and the beginning of the III^rd century a group of Hebraic people was sent to Sulci; in the meantime, Christianity was spreading in the whole area. Both the events are largely witnessed by the catacombs located under the ancient basilica dedicated to Saint Antioco.

These catacombs are some of the most important evidences of Christian archaeology in the Western Mediterranean sea; divided into two main groups, namely, Sant Antioco’s catacombs and his supposed mother’s (Santa Rosa) catacombs, they were created simply opening passages among the previous Punic graves and adding new types of graves to the old ones: loculuses excavated on the walls, arcosoliums (i.e., graves excavated on the walls surmounted by sometimes painted arches), hollows in the ground and stone-made box graves.

Archaeological Museum

The opening of the new museum should grant a decorous exhibition to the most important among the several thousand findings of the island. An important section should be dedicated to the recent discoveries of the prehistoric settlements of the Cronicario and Cannai (Sant’Antioco) and Campu Scià Maìn-Tupei (Calasetta).

Two limestone statues representing lions (dating about to half of the VI^th century b.C.), found at the basis of the acropolis slopes, are probably one of the best evidences of the Phoenician-Punic Age. From funerary depositions series of potteries come, including jugs, amphoras, plates and cups (whose surfaces are characteristically covered with a sort of red paint), or individual elements like golden jewels, necklaces and the typical green jasper-made scarabs, apart from a number of vessels, goblets, oil-lamps, pixides and black painted unguentaries imported from Attica.

The already mentioned mosaic with panthers (dating from the II^nd centuryb.C.) and a small female marble statue (I^st century b.C.) rank among the most notable Roman findings.

Some interesting evidences from the island of Sant’antioco’s and the surrounding area are now kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari; it is the case with a bronze proto-Sardinian statuette of a mouflon and a group of statues portraying the Julio-Claudian Imperial family.

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