The complex is located near the sea, on the bay of Porto Conte, bounded to the W by the promontory of Capo Caccia and to the E by Punta Giglio.
The complex consists of a nuraghe and a village of huts, to which the interest of archaeologists has mainly focused.
The nuraghe consists of a central tower rewrapped by a straight-convex-curvilinear bastion that includes two smaller towers at ENE and SSE. The entrance to the facility is at ESE. The secondary towers are kept in the basic rows. The structure is dated to middle bronze.
The village, dating back to the beginning of the Iron Age, is located N/W of the nuraghe. The houses, of sub-circular and sub-rectangular shape, are divided into “isolated” with several rooms that are generally connected to a central courtyard. The blocks are separated by narrow streets and paved squares.
The excavations have revealed circular communal spaces, furnished with seat counters and large stone basins, and others connected to production functions. Of exceptional interest is the closet hut, which has returned numerous copper panels, mainly of the plane-convex type, for a total of 43.7 kg. The panels were kept inside a Phoenician amphora of the Bartoloni B2 type dating from the end of the 8th century BC to the first half of the 7th century BC. A second closet of 44.6 kg was found inside an amphora of Phoenician inspiration but obviously of Nuragic manufacture.
Alongside conspicuous Phoenician and Levantine-made ceramic materials, the village has returned Greek ceramics, including a “skyphos” with hanging semicircles from the first half of the 8th century BC, which represents the oldest Euboic import product in the central Mediterranean.
Based on numerous clues such as the local production of Bartoloni B2 amphora (deduced from the presence of cracks created during cooking), the abundant quantity of Phoenician ceramics for transport, canteen, and kitchen, with the typical Levantine pot, has been correctly hypothesized and further reinforced by the epigraphic attestation of an anthroponym of probable philistine origin, the stable presence of Phoenicians from the Syro-Palestinian coast, perhaps settled as “prospectors” in the interior of the Nuragic settlement.
The close relationship woven within the indigenous community and the subsequent transmission of new cultural models can be perceived in the elements of material culture: imitation of allogeneic ceramic forms and the use of a fast lathe for the creation of askoid jugs with orientalizing decoration.
The presence of Levantine and Greek production material at the site seems to indicate a non-competitive but co-managed trade between Phoenicians and Euboic Greeks, at least for the 8th century BC and the first half of the 7th century BC. However, a stable Greek presence in Sant'Imbenia is not conceivable, since the ceramic material, with all the verisimilitude conveyed by Eastern trade, refers to the symposium sphere, contrary to Phoenician production where amphorae for transport and ceramic use predominate daily.
Positioned in a strategic place along the maritime route to and from the Iberian Peninsula, and located near territories particularly rich in metals, such as silver (Argentiera), iron (Rogue) and copper (Calabona), Sant'Imbenia must have been an active center for the marketing and sorting of local products and allogens.
In the 7th century BC, the settlement declined. The commercial framework had changed, the Phoenicians were channeling their traffic to their colonies and coastal airports in the S/O and S/E of Sardinia.

History of excavations
The first systematic investigations were conducted between 1982 and 1990 by Susanna Bafico, Fulvia Lo Schiavo, Ida Oggiano and David Ridgway.

Bibliography
S. Bafico-R. D'Oriano-F. Lo Schiavo, “The nuragic village of Sant'Imbenia in Alghero (SS). Preliminary note”, in Proceedings of the Third International Congress of Phoenician and Punic Studies, Tunis, 1995, pp. 87-98;
“Phoenicians and indigenous people in Sant'Imbenia (Alghero)”, in Phoinikes b Shrdn. The Phoenicians in Sardinia: new acquisitions, exhibition catalog, (Oristano, Antiquarium Arborense, July-December 1997), curated by P. Bernardini-R. D'Oriano-P.G. Spanu, Cagliari, Historical Memory, 1997, pp. 45-53;
I. Oggiano, “The Phoenician Ceramics of Sant'Imbenia”, in The Phoenician Ceramics of Sardinia: Data, Problems, Comparisons. Proceedings of the First Sulcitan International Congress (Sant'Antioco, September 19-21, 1997), edited by Fr. Bartoloni-L. Campanella, series “Collection of Phoenician Studies”, Rome, 2000, pp. 235-58.

How to get
There From the SS 131, near Sassari, take the road to Alghero to the junction with the SS 127bis. Continue on the same road to the entrance of the city and always continue on the SS 127bis, in the direction of Fertilia-Porto Conte, until the appropriate signs are identified. The archaeological area is located about 50 m from the hotel structure of the Hotel Baia di Conte.