Located in the Villanova neighborhood, a short distance from the port, the archaeological area of Vico III Lanusei came to light in 1996-97 during construction work on a private building.
The site, located between September XX Street and the former Tobacco Factory, offers a comprehensive picture of the city’s history and evolution through the centuries. Two excavation campaigns carried out by the Soprintendenza ai Beni Archeologici under the guidance of Donatella Mureddu have uncovered archaeological remains dating from the Roman period to the 19th century. The base of the archaeological site shows a settlement of the late Republican age on which part of the eastern necropolis of the imperial Karales had been built. Later, around the end of the fifth century, the necropolis was dismantled to make way for a building (perhaps a craftsman’s workshop), built with materials recovered from the demolition of pre-existing structures: in fact, the masonry incorporates memorial stones with funerary inscriptions, a sarcophagus, and a lithic ashlar with a cavity to hold ashes.
After a phase of abandonment, the building was for a time converted into a mausoleum, before being abandoned again and finally destroyed for good by fire. The discovery of ceramic, metal, and marble artifacts, as well as also animal bone remains, provided insight into how, after the destruction of the building until the nineteenth century, the area was used as a dumping ground.
