The site is located in the southeastern part of the Gulf of Oristano and is located on a complex of alluvial bumps near the lagoon system formed by the Marceddà, San Giovanni and Santa Maria ponds.
The area where the vestiges of the ancient city of Neapolis are located, frequented since the Neolithic Age, was inhabited continuously from the last stages of the Bronze Age and until the middle of the 8th century, when the Phoenician Emporium was established. An important lagoon/port center, it was attended by oriental people already in a pre-colonial phase, with a probable stable presence of Philistines attested by the discovery of a fictile plastic fragment probably depicting the face of a bearded man, created according to stylistic and formal models attributable to the Syro-Palestinian area and dating back to the XII-XI century BC; according to some scholars, the find is to be attributed to the upper part of a philistine sarcophagus bearing the representation of a funerary mask Maria, whose facial features and the folded hands underneath are schematized according to the usual stylistic features of philistine craftsmanship; according to another theory, the fragment is part of a funerary vase, always attributable to philistine culture. Recent studies have, however, confirmed its funerary value, a fact that implies the safe residence in the center of Neapolis of people of philistine origin, probably included in the Nuragic community given the absence of settlement structures attributable to different cultures. Recent archaeological investigations have revealed that the origins of the city of Neapolis, formerly attributed to the Carthaginian phase, must instead be placed in an earlier era: the conviction that the Phoenicians, as part of their activity of penetrating the territory of the Gulf of Oristano that led them to the founding of Othoca and Tharros, settled on a center already inhabited by an indigenous population, giving it the connotation of a commercial empire. In the current state of knowledge, it is not possible to identify the characteristics of this Phoenician settlement, attested, however, by significant finds of material culture: the stable presence of the Phoenicians in the site is documented by everyday artifacts intended for the canteen, the pantry and the preparation of food, dating back to the VIII-VI centuries BC, and are consistently inserted into the Phoenician colonial context because they highlight contacts with Tyre, Carthage and the Iberian area, as well as an affinity with the island contexts of Tharros, Sulci and Nora), while the isolated discovery of the bucchero and Etruscan amphorae testifies to contacts with southern Etruria in the late Orientalizing period. The Punic phase of Neapolis is certainly better documented: founded at the end of the 6th century BC by the African metropolis of Carthage with the function of a collection and sorting point for agricultural resources coming from Campidano and metals from the Montevecchio area that were then shipped to be marketed, the city is witnessed, in addition to structures identified within the urban circuit dating back to the VI-V century BC, also by numerous imported finds that confirm its vocation commercial center of the town, well integrated into the traffic circuit of the Western Mediterranean, even for the following phases (so much so that the amphorary containers found in the area span a chronological arc that dates back to the 7th and 2nd centuries BC). It is precisely the findings of material culture that circumscribe the function of the various areas of the inhabited center and of the immediately neighboring areas: a stretch of walls dating back to the fourth century BC constitutes a clear physical border in the North-West part; the high presence of amphorae of various origins in the Northern sector characterizes the commercial function of this sector, intended for the arrangement and storage of imported goods; even the North-East sector would seem to have been destined for the same commercial function; the sector to the south, far from the streets of water, it was the place dedicated to the storage of goods to be exported; the suburban spaces in the North-East housed a necropolis with pit tombs dating, based on materials, to the V-IV centuries BC and, in the vicinity, an artisanal sector dating back to the fourth century BC attested by the presence of slag and concotta clay with traces of vitrification that can be connected to a smelting plant; also in the North-East, just beyond the urban limit, a favissa was found containing (in addition to various objects including pinakes, dense fruits, etc.), numerous fictilian figurines (datable to the 4th-3rd century BC), made both by hand and in matrix, depicting suffering devotees, who with their hands indicate, touching them on the body, the headquarters of diseases to invoke healing (oculopathies prevail) and, this extraordinary discovery, would attest to the existence of a place of worship dedicated to a health divinity, confirming religious practices widespread throughout the Punic world.

History of excavations and studies
The area of Neapolis has been known in literature since ancient times: mentioned as a coastal center by Ptolemy (III, 3, 2), which includes the city among the poleis of the western coast of the island of Sardinia; moreover, its identification with the Neapolitanus portus, known from portolani and nautical charts of the thirteenth century, as well as the mention of Domo de Neapolis, referring to a modest rural village mentioned in the documents around the middle, would be unequivocal of the thirteenth century it seems to refer to this context.
The importance of the archaeological context was already evident in the 19th century when Vittorio Angius described the extension of the predominantly commercial settlement and the characteristics of the monumental emergencies.
Archaeological research in the area was started in the middle of the 19th century and resumed in 1951, but they were active in an intense and almost continuous way from the Seventies of the last century until today.

Bibliography
P. Bartoloni, Sardinia before the Phoenicians: Mycenaeans, Cypriots and Philistines, in Phoenician and Punic Sardinia. History and materials, edited by M. Gurguis, Corpora series of Antiquities of Sardinia, Sassari 2017, pp. 39-43;
E. Garau, Neapolis, in Phoenician and Punic Sardinia. History and materials, edited by M. Gurguis, Corpora series of Antiquities of Sardinia, Sassari 2017, pp. 39-43;
E. Pompianu, The Gulf of Oristano in the Phoenician and Punic Ages. The occupation of the territory through the study of material culture, Research Doctorate “The Mediterranean in the Classical Age. History and culture “, XXI cycle, University of Sassari, Department of History, 2009;
E. Garau, Amphorae imported to Neapolis between the 7th and 4th centuries BC, in Id., Drawing landscapes of Sardinia, Ortacesus, 2007, pp. 35-57;
R. Zucca, The archaic center of Neapolis, in E. Garau, Drawing landscapes of Sardinia , Ortacesus 2007, pp. 11-15; E. Garau, From Qrthdsht to Neapolis.
Transformations of urban and peri-urban landscapes from the Phoenician phase to the Byzantine phase, Ortacesus 2006;
P. Bernardini, Neapolis and the Phoenician region of the Gulf of Oristano, in Zucca 2005, pp. 67-123;
E. Garau, Mediterranean traffic in Neapolis (Guspini-Ca) between the 7th and 4th centuries BC, in Bondà S.F., Vallozza M. (edited by), Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans: cultural interactions in the ancient Mediterranean, Proceedings of the Study Days (Viterbo, 28-29 May 2004), 2005, pp. 127-138; B. Sanna, New Terrecotte illustrated by Neapolis, in “Notebooks of the Archaeological Superintendence for the Provinces of Cagliari and Oristano”, 19 (2002), pp. 181-198;
E. Acquaro, On an alleged fragment of a philistine sarcophagus in Sardinia, in “Studies of Egyptology and Punic Antiquities”, 17, 1998, pp. 47-53; M. Pittau, The Neapolis of Sardinia: Punic or Greek emporium? , in A. Mastino (edited by), Roman Africa, Proceedings of the Seventh Study Conference (Sassari 15-17 December 1989), Sassari 1990, pp. 557-567.
F. Fanari, The ancient port of Neapolis-Santa Maria di Nabui-Guspini (CA), in QuadSoprcaor 6, 1989, pp. 125-138;
S. Moscati, R. Zucca, The fictilian figurines of Neapolis, in “Proceedings of the National Academy of High Schools, Memoirs”, Series VIII-v. XXXII, 1989;
P. Bartoloni, A philistine anthropoid sarcophagus from Neapolis (Oristano-Sardinia), in “Journal of Phoenician Studies”, vol. XXV-1, Rome 1987, pp. 97-103;
R. Zucca, Neapolis and its territory, Oristano 1987, pp. 100, 151-182; V. Angius, sv. Guspini, in G. Casalis, Historical and Statistical-Commercial Geographical Dictionary of the States of His Excellency the King of Sardinia, VIII, Turin, G. Maspero, 1841.

How to get there
Take the SS 130 to the junction for Villasor and take the SS 196 that leads to Guspini. Once in the town, take the SS 126 up to km 94, where you turn towards Sant'Antonio di Santadi. From the fork, go about 15 km and turn off to a road of agrarian penetration. After about 200 m you are in the archaeological area.