The depot-laboratory constitutes an essential component of the New Archaeological Museum, in that within it the materials recovered in the course of the archaeological investigations carried out in the area are preserved, before their installation in the Museum’s halls, where they are returned to their original context, so that they become comprehensible. The activities taking place in the repository by the staff of the Soprintendenza ai Beni Archeologici for the provinces of Cagliari and Oristano, concern the census of the material, the compilation of the inventory cards and their computerization, preparatory work to the creation of a more detailed database edited by the Museum, which will be able to allow access to the entire cultural heritage of the museum.
Inside the facility, a restoration laboratory is operational and photographic and graphic documentation of the finds is prepared, the latter by ATI-IFRAS. All artifacts contained in the premises are arranged according to a logistical plan that takes into account ongoing and future excavations in the Carbonia area. Currently, the operational units of the Superintendency, together with the staff of ATI-IFRAS, are engaged in archaeological research at the Roman villa in the P.I.P. area and in the necropolis of Cannas di Sotto.
The visit to the workshop held on the occasion of the 2013 edition of Monumenti Aperti offered an interesting exhibition dedicated to one of the most important discoveries in recent years that took place at Nuraghe Sirai, namely the discovery of the oldest glass-making workshop in the archaeological scope of Sardinia and also the only one from the Phoenician period found in the West.
