SULCIS
(S. Antioco) Sardinia, Italy.
A city
on the island of the same name, facing the SW coast
of Sardinia. The historians (
Strab. 5.2.7,
Paus. 10.17.9)
attribute its foundation to the Carthaginians, but
probably the locality was earlier the site of a
Phoenician colony superimposed upon a nuraghic settlement. A secondary colony of Sulcis was the little center
near Mount Sirai, a few kilometers toward the interior
of the island. During the civil war Sulcis took the part
of Pompey and thus was subject to heavy confiscations
imposed by Caesar in 46 B.C. In the 1st c. A.D. it became
a Roman municipium and was inscribed in the Quirina
tribe. Numerous inscriptions from the 1st and 2d c.
record public works and statues erected in honor of the
Emperors. The life of the city continued into the
medieaval period in spite of the Saracen invasions.
Systematic excavation, which began in 1954, has localized the site of the ancient city, whose urban complex
extended to the N and S of the isthmus which unites
it with Sardinia. The remains consist of a few fragments
of mosaic pavements from the Roman Imperial period.
The walls surrounding the city were constructed to the
W, on Mount “De Cresia,” and continued to the port. On
the N side, about midway up the hill of the Fortino, the
various building phases of a sacred structure of Classical
type have been discovered. It is oriented E-W, and surrounded by a portico with columns. In the area immediately to the N is a vast complex of courtyards. It includes three rectangular enclosures, two of which overlap, that are aligned on the outer side with another broad
enclosure. The complex has been identified as the tophet,
which in part takes advantage of the natural rock formation. The earliest objects from this sanctuary, which
is contemporaneous with the origin of the city, date
from the 9th to the 7th c. B.C. The uppermost stratum
extends to the Republican period. The necropoleis of
Sulcis extend along the sides of the two hills on which
the modern city lies. The tombs are of the Punic type,
and were reused by the Romans and again by the early
Christians. The remains of a painted arcosolium in one
of the tombs and crematory urns scattered on the surface of the area date from the time of Constantine. A
few remains from the Roman period have been found
at Is Solus, probably within city limits in the Republican
epoch. They include large cisterns, a drainage basin for
water, a funerary mausoleum in stone in Via Eleonora
d'Arborea, and from a house in Via Garibaldi a pavement from the 2d c. A.D. To the E, on the isthmus, is a
Roman bridge with a single arch. Remains of the docks
from the ancient port are along the beach. Imperial
statues were found at Su Narboni, and on the property
of the Rivano family. It is not known where the temple
dedicated to Isis and Serapis (
CIL X, 7514) was located.
The objects from the excavations are presently preserved
in the Antiquarium, in small local private col!ections, and
in the National Museum at Cagliari.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Taramelli,
NSc (1908) 145ff
I;
(1914) 406ff
I; (1925) 470ff; E. Pais,
Storia della Sardegna e della Corsica, (1923) 20, 112, 361ff; A. Lamarmora,
Viaggio in Sardegna, I (1927) 128ff; P. Mingazzini,
Studi Sardi 8 (1948) 73ff
PI; G. Pesce,
Sardegna punica (1961) 43f
MPI; id., in
EAA 7 (1966) 551ff
I.
D. MANCONI