ANTAS
(“Metalla”) Sardinia, Italy.
In SW
Sardinia in the territory of Fluminimaggiore, to the N
of Iglesias, on the Rio Antas. Surrounded by limestone
quarries and lead and iron mines worked since antiquity,
the site seems identifiable with Metalla on the Tibula-Sulcis road (
It. Ant. 85; Ptol. 3.3.2.).
The most important monument has been completely
uncovered. It is a Roman temple, datable in its final
form to the beginning of the 3d c. A.D., oriented SE-NW
and rectangular in plan. It is on a low podium and is
entered by means of a flight of steps on the SE. On the
exterior, large square blocks of limestone masonry are
accurately worked and laid in perfectly regular courses.
On the interior, enough remains of the upper level to
permit reconstruction of its plan. The pronaos has four
columns on the front and two on each side; the cella,
in antis, has a limestone pavement covered by mosaic
in white tesserae with a band of turquoise-colored tesserae delimiting a narrow quadrangular area in the center.
The cella has two symmetrical lateral entrances reached
by steps; large squared blocks constitute the foundation
of pilasters built against the interior walls to support the
roof beams. From the back wall of the cella open two
smaller cellae. The architectural decoration includes
Doric and Ionic capitals and carved antefixes and gutters with leonine heads. The temple was dedicated to
Sardus Pater, who according to the literary sources was
considered the son of Hercules and colonizer of the
island to which his name was given. In an earlier phase
the temple honored a Phoenician god sd, to whom,
toward the end of the 6th c. or the beginning of the 5th
c. B.C. was dedicated a sanctuary. The principal nucleus
consists of an altar open to the sky, surrounded by a
series of courtyards and a large external enclosure
entered from the SE.
A few hundred meters to the SW of the temple are
the ruins of a nuraghic village whose modest dwellings,
circular in plan, were later reused by the Romans. Tombs
from the Imperial age have been found in the locality
called S. Marinedda. The limestone quarries that provided the stone for the temple are at the N extremity
of the Antas valley on the slopes of Mount Conca S'
Omu. A short distance from the quarries is a rectangular
room where fragments of votive sculpture have been
found. The material from the excavations is in the National Museum at Cagliari.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Lamarmora,
Viaggio in Sardegna, II
(ed. ital., 1927) 371f; E. Aquaro et al.,
Richerche puniche
ad Antas, Ist. di Studi del Vicino Oriente (1969)
PI.
D. MANCONI