Sant'Antioco, Acropolis

It is located as the crow flies north of the Savoy fort, along the slope of Via Castello, and near the excavations of the ancient necropolis of Is Pirixeddus.
When the Phoenicians arrived in Sant'Antioco, in the 8th century BC, they settled in an area not far from the coast: studies and archaeological investigations have attested that it was a peaceful occupation, without acts of violence or destruction, based on integration with the indigenous population, who lived near the hill where today stands the Savoy fort, an area that has returned traces of Nuragic settlement. On that same hill, the acropolis of the Phoenician village was built, with continuity of life up to the late Roman era.
The area has been partly investigated: the structure was set up on natural rock banks, partly already investigated, and studies have attested that the oldest phase is to be identified with the Punic era fortification walls, implemented with the double wall technique, using well-square blocks of ignimbrite for the elevations, while the internal space was filled with a mixture of earth and stones.
The type of the walls, in the absence of reliable excavation data, makes it possible to date them back to the fourth century BC.
South of the fortified complex, the remains of a building from the Roman Age interpreted by scholars as a place of worship: on a base that is preserved for about 10 meters, the colonnade was set up, with nine columns remaining; the paving attests to two construction phases, the oldest one visible to the south of the columns, of the type called “signinum” (i.e. in cocciopesto mixed with white tiles), which was then covered by a layer of darker cocciopesto, preserved between the columns and the outer edge of the building.
To the south of the columns there is a large plinth consisting of large ashlar blocks of ignimbrite, from which a further level rises to a height of 1 m., whose perimeter consists of the same type of blocks, while the flooring, of which few remains remain, is in mosaic with white tiles. The building was a pseudidiptera sine postico (i.e. a temple surrounded by columns on the sides and front where the access steps were probably set), closed to the west and with the front facing east. The phases of life and use of the temple can be traced back to the second century BC and the second century AD.

History of excavations and studies
The area of the acropolis has been the subject of several excavation and investigation campaigns, starting in the Eighties of the last century, when the site was investigated by the Archaeological Superintendence for the Provinces of Cagliari and Oristano, under the scientific direction of Dr. Carlo Tronchetti.

Bibliography
Autonomous Region of Sardinia, Tempio — Sant'Antioco, in “Sardinia Culture — Catalogue of Cultural Heritage”
A. Unali, Sulky — Sant'Antioco, in M. Guirguis (edited by), Phoenician and Punic Sardinia. History and materials, Corpora delle Antichità della Sardegna series”, Nuoro 2017, pp. 129-138.
M. Gras, P. Rouillard, J. Teixidor, L'Universe phénicienne, Paris 1995.
C. Tronchetti, Sant'Antioco, series “Archaeological Sardinia. Guides and Itineraries”, Sassari 1991.
C. Tronchetti, The problems of the territory of Sulcis in Roman times, in V. Santoni, Carbonia and Sulcis. Archaeology and territory”, Oristano 1995, pp. 265-275.
C. Tronchetti, For the Roman topography of Sulci, in P.G. Spanu (edited by) Materials for an urban topography, status quaestionis and new acquisitions. V Conference on Late Roman and Medieval Archaeology in Sardinia (Cagliari-Cuglieri 24-26 June 1988), Oristano 1995, 103-116.
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.