Olbia, Punic City

The city of Olbia, located in coastal Gallura, overlooks a large gulf, between Capo Figari-Golfo Aranci and Capo di Coda Cavallo-San Teodoro
Olbia was the only center of the N/E coast of Sardinia that, in the Punic age, reached the levels of southern and western coastal cities. It was long considered to have a Greek foundation based on its toponym, but without any archaeological basis, since the remains of the ancient settlement are mostly from the Punic and Roman ages.
The numerous materials and the greater number of structural emergencies from the Punic period have suggested, until a decade ago, the founding of Olbia in the 4th century BC. But the presence, both in the surrounding area and in the urban site itself, of material dating back to at least the third quarter of the 7th century BC, suggests the founding of the city in the middle of the Phoenician age, like other centers of Sardinia. Among the various materials that can be attributed to this period, we can remember a fragment of the Bartoloni B2 amphora, a loop fragment of painted chiota amphora, and the “xoanon”, that is, a wooden statuette, found in the sacred nuragic well of Sa Testa.
Punic Olbia had to ensure a more incisive Carthaginian presence in Tyrrhenian trade and probably played a major role in the control of agricultural products in the area.
The extension of the Punic settlement can be assumed thanks to the location of the necropolises; this must have been limited to the square that in medieval times housed the castle-village of Terranova. During the remediation work carried out at the beginning of the last century in the area of the inlet to the N of the city, tombs from the Punic Age were found, which were then destroyed.
The suburban Punic necropolises, mostly known from the excavations carried out by Doro Levi, are those of Funtana Noa (4th century BC) and Abba Noa (3rd-1st century BC) in the north of the city, and that of Joanne Canu (mid-3rd-beginning of the 2nd century BC) in S. The burials were mostly in an earthy pit and a well, in smaller numbers than
the cassone type. In pit tombs, burials were often placed inside wooden coffins and the use of large amphorones to close access is documented.
In the later of the Olbia necropolises, that of Joanne Canu, the return of the Hellenistic rite of incineration is attested; the ashes were placed in terracotta or lead urns or simply placed on the ground and protected by fragments of amphora.
The main features of Olbia's fortifications, to be attributed to the first half of the 4th century BC, are visible at the corner of Via Torino and Via Mameli and consist of a straight wall made of large square blocks, sometimes ashlar, and a surrounding tower preserved inside a private courtyard.

History of excavations
The main archaeological investigations, which involved the area of the Punic necropolises, were carried out between 1936 and 1938. The most recent ones date back to 1989, when, under the apse of the church of Saint Paul the Apostle, remains from the Hellenistic and Roman Republican periods were found, attributable to a sacred building. Between 1990 and 1991, underwater surveys at the entrance to the Gulf of Olbia allowed the recovery of late Punic amphorae and a statue of Hercole-Melqart. In 1993, in Via Regina Elena, an urban warehouse with materials dating from the 4th to the 2nd century BC was unearthed, while in 1996, in Via delle Terme, a Punic warehouse/backroom was found with Greek and Punic amphorae, and ceramic with black attic and Italic paint.

Bibliography
D. Levi, “The Punic Necropolises of Olbia”, in Studi Sardi, 11, 1949, pp. 5-120;
R. D'Oriano, “Olbia and Northern Sardinia”, in Màche. The battle of Mare Sardonio. Studies and research, curated by P. Bernardini-P.G. Spanu-R. Zucca, Cagliari, Historical Memory, 2000;
R. D'Oriano-I. Oggiano, “Iolaus the Cyst of Olbia: archaeological evidence between the 8th and 6th centuries BC”, in The Mediterranean by Heracles. Studies and research, curated by P. Bernardini-R. Zucca, Rome, 2005, pp. 169-198.