The Punic community that, in the fifth century B.C. C., inhabited the important urban center of Sulky, today’s town of Sant’Antioco, chose to build its necropolis on the rocky flanks gently sloping toward the plain, lapped by ponds, the site of the civilian settlement. The tombs, dug and built into the soft tufa of the heights, are underground chambers, often of considerable size, which are accessed by walking down a stepped corridor that, open on the ground level, descends in oblique ramps deep into the ground until it reaches the threshold of the tomb, placed usually about two or three meters above the surface. The Sulci necropolis facility is well known in its general characteristics; careful analyses describe its architectural types, the components of the grave goods, the performance of rituals, and the scenographic and ideological apparatus of the funeral ceremonies that took place here. The sector was later converted back into stage and theater space during the Imperial Roman phase. For some years now, the Municipality of Sant’Antioco and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologia della Sardegna, have activated a recovery program in the western sector of this large funerary complex. The area covered by the intervention project is located immediately behind the hill of the Savoy fort and overlooks the lowest band of the funerary facility, which has returned a series of graves of special interest. Thanks to this collaboration, it is now possible to take a diachronic tour of the different eras of use of the site, from the Punic period (VI-III B.C.), to the Roman period (II-IV A.D.), with pit, capuchin and amphora tombs, to the reuse of some Punic hypogea by the early Christians (IV-VII A.D.).
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