The necropolis is located within the current town of Sant'Antioco.
The parts of the burial area that can currently be visited are those reused as Christian catacombs, the access to which is located inside the parish church, dedicated to the saint of the same name.
The necropolis of Is Pirixeddus covers a wide chronological span: established in the middle of the Punic Age (end of the 4th century BC) it continued in use until the Late Antique Age (end of the 6th century – beginning of the 7th century AD). ). The studies have also revealed a Phoenician phase of the funerary area identified, thanks to sporadic finds, near the current Via Perret, in the lower part of the modern town, towards the sea, and can be dated to the 7th century. BC: these are burnt skeletal remains associated with a jug with an expanded rim dating back to the mid-7th century. to. C.; its location seems to be about 400 meters away from the archaic urban centre.
The funerary area was located outside the urban perimeter for hygiene and safety reasons. The Punic necropolis was later reused by the Romans in the Republican Age (between the 2nd and 1st century BC) and then in the Imperial Age (at least for the 1st century AD). From the 4th-5th century A.D. the necropolis was reused by the first Christians as a catacomb and this led to the modification of the original plan: various burial chambers were joined together through openings on the walls shared between several rooms, in order to create new spaces; new burials were created by digging rectangular pits in the floor or by creating recesses in the wall in which to place sarcophagi or, again, by creating arcosolium burials in the walls; some tombs have pictorial decorations.
The two main groups of catacombs, those of Sant'Antioco (larger) and Santa Rosa (much smaller than the first), are located under the parish church. Another burial core was reused in the modern era and until the 1970s. such as homes, cellars and closets. The best-known part of the necropolis is the one found on the eastern and north-eastern slopes of the hill occupied today by the Savoy fort of Su Pisu: in this area it is possible to appreciate the most widespread typology within the funerary area, that of the tomb an underground chamber, equipped with an access corridor (dromos) that leads to the burial chamber, passing through a landing that was used to position the deceased: the body was placed on a wooden stretcher, while it could be mounted inside the chamber the sarcophagus, sometimes sculpted and finely decorated. The funerary chamber could have been composed of a large room divided by a partition and whose front part could have been decorated either with very simple sculpted architectural elements (a projecting strip represented a capital for example), or with real high reliefs: it is the case of two tombs, one discovered in 1968, the other in 2002, in which the partition (in the first) and the central pillar (in the second) were decorated with a life-size high relief, representing an Egyptian character, i.e. dressed and depicted in the Egyptian style. The chambers could house one or more deceased over time and, when the density of the hypogea did not leave space for new burials, new chambers were obtained by excavating those already built previously at different levels. In addition to the hypogea with a large chamber divided by a partition, there are those with a single burial chamber, which represent an older typology.
It is noted that, in general, the tombs do not have a precise orientation that characterizes them, but seem to have been excavated without a particular order.
The deceased was placed, wrapped in a shroud or tunic, inside the funeral chamber on a wooden stretcher or inside a sarcophagus, with his personal kit and with all the objects related to the funeral ritual, such as pottery. in terracotta, the ointment jars in terracotta or polychrome glass and his personal objects, such as necklaces of amulets and pearls in glass paste, scarabs, jewels (rings, necklaces, earrings), razors and objects of various kinds thanks to which scholars have been able to establish whether it was a man, a woman or a child, and in some cases they can reveal what profession he carried out in life.

History of the excavations
The first archaeological investigations at the necropolis of Is Pirixeddus date back to the mid-nineteenth century, when some hypogea 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 today the Savoy fort of Su Pisu stands out. Since the hypogea were reused starting from the eighteenth century with a residential function or as cellars by the less wealthy classes of Sant'Antioco society, today no systematic investigation has been carried outmatic and organized nature of the territory also because a significant part of the necropolis today lies below the modern inhabited center. On the basis of the knowledge deriving from a century of archaeological research, it is now possible to hypothesize that the original extension of this burial complex was more than 6 hectares and that it included a number of tombs of not much less than 1500 units. As regards the Phoenician phase of the necropolis, it is testified only by sporadic discoveries identified in what is now Via Perret. Some time after the activities of Canon G. Spano, Antonio Taramelli describes the discovery of two hypogea near the parish church, during the excavations of June 1906. In the following years the investigations concentrated on the catacombs under the same parish, built in the early Christian by reusing and adapting the Punic tombs.
In 1942 Salvatore Puglisi published the results of the excavation carried out in three intact Punic hypogea near Via Belvedere, about 200 meters south-east of the basilica. Subsequently, with Gennaro Pesce, the research continued in the following years: in 1954 the first hypogeum located on the eastern side of the Colle di Mont'e Cresia, in the locality of Is Pirixeddus, came to light, also reused in the early Christian era and known as "Tomb of the Fresco" and from then on the area will be subject to uninterrupted investigations for about fifty years. These investigations will then have a further boost thanks to the commitment of the Superintendency for the Provinces of Cagliari and Oristano, thanks to the activity of Ferruccio Barreca between 1970 and 1986 who, in addition to the excavation works, took steps to ensure that annual works were carried out maintenance and conservative restoration.

Bibliography
C. Olianas, Sant'Antioco – Necropolis of Is Pirixeddus, in the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, "Cultural Heritage Sardinia Virtual Archeology" project.
P. Bartoloni, Sulcis, Rome 1989.
P. Bartoloni, Testimonies from the Phoenician necropolis of Sulky = Sardinia Corsica et Baleares Antiquae 7, 2009, pp.71-80.
P. Bartoloni, 1987, The 2AR tomb of the Sulcis necropolis, in "Rivista di studi phoenici", RSF vol. XV, 1, Rome, pp. 57-73.
P. Bartoloni, In the margin of a Punic tomb of Sulcis, in "Quaderni-Rivista di archeology" n. 10/1993 edited by the Superintendence of archaeology, fine arts and landscape for the metropolitan city of Cagliari and the Provinces of Oristano and South Sardinia, Cagliari 1993, pp. 93-96.
P. Bartoloni, The "F. Barreca" municipal archaeological museum of Sant'Antioco, Sassari 2007.
P. Bartoloni, The Phoenicians and the Carthaginians in Sardinia, Sassari 2009
P. Bernardini, The lions of Sulci, in "Sardò 4", Sassari 1988.
P. Bernardini, Arrangement of coffins and grave goods in Punic tombs: three examples from Sulcis, in "Rivista di studi fenici", vol. XXVII, 2, Rome, pp. 133-146.
P. Bernardini, Recent discoveries in the Punic necropolis of Sulcis, in "Rivista di studi phoenici", vol. XXXIII, Rome 2005, pp. 63-80.
P. Bernardini, Recent research in the Punic necropolis of Sulky, in S. Angiolillo, M. Giuman, A. Pasolini, Research and comparisons 2006. Study days of archeology and art history, Cagliari 2007
P. Bernardini, Aspects of the Punic funerary craftsmanship of Sulky. New evidence, in M. Milanese, P. Ruggeri, C. Vismara (eds.), Proceedings of the XVIII Roman Africa Conference (Olbia, 11-14 December 2008), Rome 2010, pp. 1257-1270.
M. Guirguis, History of studies and excavations in Sulky and Monte Sirai, in "Rivista di studi phoenici", vols. 1-2, Rome 2005.
S. Muscuso, The scarabs from the Ferruccio Barreca archaeological museum of Sant'Antioco, in S. Celestino Pérez, E. Rodrìguz Gonzàlez (ed.), A journey between the East and the West of the Mediterranean. Actas del IX Congreso Internacional de Estudios Fenicios y Púnicos, Mytra 5, Merida 2020, pp. 1233-1249.
M. Guirguis, E. Pompianu, A. Unali (eds.), Quaderni di Archeologia Sulcitana 1. Summer School of Phoenician-Punic Archeology (Proceedings 2011), Sassari 2012.
S. Muscuso, The Punic necropolis of Sulky, in M. Guirguis, E. Pompianu, A. Unali (eds.), Quaderni di Archeologia Sulcitana 1. Summer School of Phoenician-Punic Archeology (Proceedings 2011), Sassari 2012.
S. Muscuso, The Punic necropolis of Sulky: the Steri tombs, in R. Lai (ed.), Annals 2011 of history and archeology of Sulcis, Monastir 2011, pp. 69-88.
S. Muscuso, The F. Barreca Museum of Sant'Antioco: the vascular typologies of the Punic necropolis, in "Sardinia, Corsica et Balearic antiquato - An international journal of archaeology", VI/2008, pp. 9-40.
S. Puglisi, Excavation of Punic hypogean tombs (Sant'Antioco), in "Proceedings of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. News of antiquity excavations", (1942), pp. 106-115.
A. Taramelli, S.Antioco - Excavations and discoveries of Punic and Roman antiquities in the area of ancient Sulcis, in "Nuovo bullettino archeologico sardino", 1908, pp. 145-162.
C. Tronchetti, Sant'Antioco (Cagliari) - Excavation in the Punic necropolises", in "New archaeological bulletin archeolgico sardo", 1985, pp. 285-286.
C. Tronchetti, New acquisitions on Punic Sulci, in AA. VV., Meeting «The Phoenicians», Cagliari 1990, pp. 63-68.
C. Tronchetti, The problems of the Sulcis territory in the Roman age in V. SANTONI (ed.), Carbonia and Sulcis. Archeology and territory, Oristano 1995.
C. Tronchetti, Tomb 12 (A.R.) of the Punic necropolis of Sant'Antioco, in P. Bernardini, R. D'Oriano, P.G. Spanu (ed.), Phoinikes B Shrdn. The Phoenicians in Sardinia-new acquisitions, Cagliari 1997, pp. 115-116.
C. Tronchetti, Tomb 12 AR of the Punic necropolis of Sant'Antioco, in "Quaderni-Rivista di archeology" n. 19/2002, edited by the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the metropolitan city of Cagliari and the Provinces of Oristano and South Sardinia, pp. 143-171.