It is located in the northern portion of the current center of Sant'Antioco, in a peripheral position compared to the Phoenician town it served, in a place known as “Sa guardia 'e is pingiadas” (the pot guard), whose origin can be traced back precisely to the presence of numerous ceramic containers that emerged in the area.
The tofet of ancient Sulky is set on a trachitic relief, in the area called, not surprisingly, Sa Guardia and Is Pingiadas: it is an open-air sanctuary where, inside urns, the incinerated remains of children born dead or died within a few years of age are buried. In the sanctuary, the urns were placed, initially, taking advantage of the natural cracks in the ground, then widening around them and arranged in several layers. During the Punic period, steles were placed inside the sanctuary, which act as an ex-vote for grace received (the intention of the faithful was to thank the deity probably for the birth of a new child). The urns and steles commemorating the depositions were subsequently placed even in the flatter spaces and were superimposed in several layers. In the flat part, they were surrounded by some walls that served as fences for the deposition areas. On the height of Tofet, in the following era, a part of the fortified wall was erected, which incorporated the sanctuary inside the walls: in fact, there is a quadrangular structure in ashlar work, to be related to the fortified walls of the Carthaginian era, inside which, during the Roman era, a tank was built for collecting water, of which only the perimeter remains, with the bottom covered by hydraulic mortar. The term tofet, taken from biblical tradition, indicates a sacred open-air area surrounded by an enclosure, where the ashes of children born dead or died in the first years of age were placed in special containers. For a long time, also due to obviously pro-Roman ancient sources, the tofet was believed to be the place responsible for the sacrifices of the first-born of eminent families, immolated to the cruel deity to demand the prosperity of the community.

History of excavations
The first archaeological investigations at the necropolis of Is Pirixeddus date back to the mid-nineteenth century, when some underground areas were brought to light, already mentioned by Canon Giovanni Spano who, in the Sardinian Archaeological Bulletin, made a clear reference to the burials found on the western slopes of the hill on which the Savoy fort of Su Pisu stands today. Since the hypogeans were reused starting in the eighteenth century for housing purposes or as cellars by the less well-off classes of Sant'Antioco society, today there has been no systematic and organized survey of the territory, also because a significant part of the necropolis now lies below the modern inhabited center. Based on the knowledge deriving from a century of archaeological research, it is now possible to hypothesize that the original extension of this burial complex was greater than 6 hectares and that it included a number of tombs of not much less than 1500 units. As far as the Phoenician phase of the necropolis is concerned, it is witnessed only by sporadic discoveries identified in the current Via Perret. Some time after the activities of Canon G. Spano, Antonio Taramelli describes the discovery of two hypogea at the parish church, during the excavations of June 1906. In the following years, the investigations then focused on the catacombs under the same parish, built in the early Christian era, reusing and readjusting the Punic tombs.
In 1942, Salvatore Puglisi published the results of the excavation carried out in three intact Punic hypogeums on Via Belvedere, about 200 meters south-east of the Basilica. Then, with Gennaro Pesce, the research continued again in the following years: in 1954, the first hypogeum located on the eastern side of the Hill of Mont'e Cresia, in the town of Is Pirixeddus, also reused in early Christian times and known as the “Tomb of the Fresco” came to light and from then on the area will be affected by continuous investigations for about fifty years. These investigations will then have a further impetus thanks to the commitment of the Superintendence for the Provinces of Cagliari and Oristano, thanks to the activity of Ferruccio Barreca between 1970 and 1986 who, in addition to excavation work, took steps to ensure that annual maintenance and conservative restoration work were

carried out.

Bibliography
Autonomous Region of Sardinia, Tofet — Sant'Antioco, in “Sardinia Culture — Catalogue of Cultural Heritage”
A. Unali, Sulky — Sant'Antioco, in M. GURGUIS (edited by), Phoenician and Punic Sardinia. History and materials, Corpora delle Antichità della Sardegna series”, Nuoro 2017, pp. 129-138.
C. Olianas, The Children's Necropolis: the “Tofet”, in the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, project “Cultural Heritage of Sardinia Virtual Archaeology”
P. Bernardini, Recent investigations in the sanctuary of the Tofet of Sant'Antioco, in “Proceedings of the V International Congress of Phoenician and Punic Studies. Marsala-Palermo, 2-8 October 2000”. III, Palermo 2005, pp. 1050-1069.
C. Tronchetti, For the chronology of Sant'Antioco's Tofet, in “Journal of Phoenician Studies2, VII, Rome 1979, pp. 202-205.
M. Gras, P. Rouillard, J. Teixidor, L'Universe phénicienne, Paris 1995.
C. Tronchetti, San Antioco, Sassari 1989.
P. Bartoloni, The Municipal Archaeological Museum “F. Barreca” of Sant'Antioco, Sassari 2007.
P. Bartoloni, The Phoenicians and the Carthaginians in Sardinia, Sassari 2009
M. Guirguis, History of Studies and Excavations at Sulky and Monte Sirai, in “Journal of Phoenician Studies”, vol. 1-2, Rome 2005.
A. Taramelli, S.Antioco - Excavations and discoveries of Punic and Roman antiquities in the area of ancient Sulcis, in “New Sardinian Archaeological Bulletin”, 1908, pp. 145-162.

How to get there
The tofet is located in the northern part of the current center of Sant'Antioco.