Iglesias, Temple of Genna Cantoni

The town is located along the S/E offshoots of the Linas Massif, on a pass along the valley penetration route between the Campidano di Cagliari and the Domusnovae plain.
Near the Punic temple, in the town of Matzanni, there was an important sacred complex from the Nuragic age, dating back to the Iron Age, divided into three well-shaped temples and clusters of circular rooms that could be interpreted as huts. Among the finds are a golden bronze plate probably made of Etruscan production, from the 7th century BC, a spear tip and the bidder's bronze known as “Barbetta”, whose features betray traditional Near Eastern traditions.
The continuation of the cult and the valorization of the area by the Carthaginians seems to reproduce, with important historical implications, the situation highlighted in the temple of Antas, where the Punic cult dedicated to Sid is closely linked to the previous devotion to a Nuragic god defined as “father”.
The real political and economic motivations that led to similar phenomena of syncretism and the revitalization of tradition are easily framed among the activities promoted by Carthage in Sardinia and aimed mainly at the acquisition of metals, according to a project pursued by the North African metropolis starting from the 5th century BC and aimed at the Guspinese and Iglesiente mining basins.
The Punic temple is built with isodomed blocks of calcarenite and is presumably oriented on the N/S axis. It has a regular plan of 7 x 12 m. The crowning consisted of a continuous Punic “Egyptian throat” molding of the type present in the temples “with Doric half-columns” and “Egyptian gorges” of Tharros, and of the temple of Antas. In the layers of collapse surrounding the temple, some angular elements have also been identified.
The roof of the gate was made of wood, as would suggest the joints identified on some blocks and functional to the roof truss. There are also fragments of the wall and floor plaster that embellished the interiors.
The scarce ceramic finds refer to a period of visit to the site dating back to the second century BC, while a coin by Antoninus Pio (86-161 AD), found at the Nuragic temples of Matzanni, seems to be the only evidence that brings back to the Roman imperial phase.
In view of the current state of the studies, it is not possible to specify with certainty the date of the original structure of the sanctuary. The architectural techniques and the historical-strategic meaning of Carthaginian perspective, however, would lead us to hypothesize the construction of the temple in the first half of the fourth century BC, in a period shortly after the construction of the temple of Antas and in a historical phase marked by the consolidation of the Punic presence in central-southern Sardinia.

History of excavations
Reported in 1900 by Domenico Lovisato and, later, by Antonio Taramelli, Giovanni Lilliu, Ferruccio Barreca and Sabatino Moscati, it has not been subjected to systematic archaeological excavations or targeted investigations.

Bibliography
G. Lilliu, “Nuragic Antiquities in the Diocese of Ales”, in The Diocese of Ales-Usellus-Terralba: Aspects and Values, Cagliari, Fossataro, 1975, pp. 155-157;
F. Nicosia, “Etruskische Zeugnisse und Einflüsse”, in Kunst und Kultur Sardiniens: vom Neolithikum bis zum Ende der Nuraghenzeit, Karlsruhe, C.F. Murler, 1980, p. 207, n. 32; R. Zucca, “. Loc. Genna Cantoni”, in I Sardi. Sardinia from the Paleolithic to the Roman Age, edited by E. Anati, Milan, Jaca Book, 1984, pp. 107-108.

How to get there
The archaeological area can be reached through the SS 130 by turning off the SS 196 to km 27, near the entrance to Villacidro, from which you finally travel 13 km to Monti Mannu. At the end of the paved road, you enter a dirt road, following it for about 2 km to the sacred area of Matzanni. A further road starts in the town of Vallermosa and climbs up the east side of Mount Su Cuccurdoni Mannu and reaches the archaeological area.