L'insediamento fenicio e punico di Pani Loriga. Risultati preliminari degli scavi 2016-2017 alle 'Casematte' (Area C)

This paper illustrates the results of the first two excavation campaigns (2016, 2017) in a sector of the Phoenician and Punic settlement of Pani Loriga (Santadi, Sardinia): the area of the s.c. "Casematte" (Area C), located along a terrace flanking the "acropolis". Activity focused on "ambiente 1", the first of a series of eleven rectangular structures. These were identified and partially explored in the late 1960s by Ferruccio Barreca and Giovanni Tore, who also assigned them a defensive function. On the basis of the stratigraphic sequence recognized so far - it should be emphasized that the excavation is still in progress - it is now possible to date the use of the "ambiente 1" between early 5th and 4th centuries BC. The finding of particular objects, such as a kernos, associated with rooster and deer bones and river pebbles, and of many domestic artifacts, concentrated in a small structure near the NW corner, led us to propose that ritual activities took place in this area. However, only further investigations will explain the function of the structure, as well as of the entire complex.