Monte Sirai is an archaeological site near Carbonia, in the

province of South Sardinia The province of South Sardinia (; ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia, Italy, instituted on 4 February 2016. It includes the suppressed provinces of Province of Carbonia-Iglesias, Carbonia-Iglesias and ...

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It is a settlement built at the top of a hill by the

Phoenicians Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syrian coast. They developed a maritime civi ...

Sulci Sulci or Sulki (in Greek , Stephanus of Byzantium, Steph. B., Ptolemy, Ptol.; , Strabo; , Pausanias (geographer), Paus.), was one of the most considerable cities of ancient Sardinia, situated in the southwest corner of the island, on a small isla ...

(today's Sant'Antioco). The history of studies in Monte Sirai has a very precise date: the fall of 1962, when a local boy casually found a female figure carved on a stele of the

tophet In the Hebrew Bible, Tophet or Topheth (; ; ) is a location in Jerusalem in the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna), where worshipers engaged in a ritual involving "passing a child through the fire", most likely child sacrifice. Traditionally, the sacrifice ...

. Following further inspections, in August 1963, the local Soprintendenza and the Institute of Near Eastern Studies of the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

started excavations, leading to a fairly comprehensive study of the entire town.

History

Given the excellent location of the hill, the site was inhabited since the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

age. Some nuragic towers witness an important anthropization in the first half of the II millennium BC.Carbonia, abitato di Monte Sirai-Sardegnacultura
/ref> The first Phoenician records date back to 730 BC circa, at the same time of other coastal cities of Sardinia. The town is built around the so-called mastio, a sacred place that undergone several renovations, perhaps with defensive function. The discovery of a statue of the goddess

Astarte Astarte (; , ) is the Greek language, Hellenized form of the Religions of the ancient Near East, Ancient Near Eastern goddess ʿAṯtart. ʿAṯtart was the Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic equivalent of the East Semitic language ...

(now in the National Museum of Cagliari), discovered in 1964, confirms a use of religious type. Carbonia-parco-arceologico-monte-sirai-modell

The town was affected by the Carthaginian conquest in the 6th century BC. A dozen new families settled subsequently in Monte Sirai, as witnessed by many hypogeum-tombs of Punic types; the rite of

cremation Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a corpse through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India, Nepal, and ...

, prevalent during the Phoenician period, was substituted by the

entombment A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immurement'', althou ...

. The city wall was strengthened around 375 BC, roughly the period of appearance of the first local

. A subsequent restoration of the fortifications was carried out after the

First Punic War The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years, in the longest continuous conflict and grea ...

; under the Roman rule all the military facilities were dismantled. Around 110 BC the site was inexplicably abandoned. Subsequent frequentations are witnessed by some

Constantin Constantin is an Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian and Romanian male given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, ...

ian era

coins A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by ...

found in the tophet area.

Ancient DNA

According to a study published in 2018, ancient Phoenician DNA found in the settlement suggests that there was integration and cultural assimilation between Sardinians and Phoenicians in Monte Sirai.

Gallery

File:Monte Sirai.jpg, Monte Sirai File:Necropoli_punica_2_(Monte_Sirai).JPG, Punic hypogeum File:Tomba Monte Sirai.jpg File:M. Sirai - Carbonia.JPG

Notes

Bibliography

* P. Bernardini, ''Le origini di Sulcis e Monte Sirai'', in ''Studi di egittologia e di antichità puniche'', 4, 1989, pp. 45–66; * P. Bartoloni, ''Monte Sirai: genesi di un insediamento'', in Incontro "I Fenici", Cagliari, Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, 1990, pp. 31–36; * P. Bartoloni-S.F. Bondì-L.A. Marras, ''Monte Sirai'', collana " Itinerari" , Roma, Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1992; * P. Bartoloni, ''L'impianto urbanistico di Monte Sirai nell'età repubblicana'', in ''Atti del X Convegno di studio "L'Africa Romana"'' (Oristano, 11-13 dicembre 1992), Sassari, Gallizzi, 1994, pp. 817–829; * P. Bartoloni, ''La necropoli di Monte Sirai'', Roma, Istituto per la civiltà fenicia e punica, 2000; * ''Monte Sirai. Le opere e i giorni'', a cura di P. Bernardini, C. Perra, Carbonia, 2001; * P. Bartoloni, ''Monte Sirai 1999-2000. Nuove indagini nell'insula B'', in ''Rivista di Studi Fenici'', 30, 2002, pp. 41–46;

External links

* * {{Authority control Populated places established in the 8th century BC Populated places disestablished in the 2nd century BC 1962 archaeological discoveries Former populated places in Sardinia Archaeological sites in Sardinia Phoenician colonies in Sardinia