Truncu 'e Molas

While growing numbers of intensive field surveys are demonstrating clear differences in rural settlement systems, it is also becoming increasingly clear that more detailed archaeological information and, above all, environmental evidence are required to shed light on rural production and agrarian organisation. In the wake of the geophysical surveys and intensive surface collections of the Terralba Project, we decided to organise a large-scale excavation of one of these sites with the explicit aim to document material culture and environmental remains relating to agrarian production at these sites and in the surrounding Punic countryside of west central
Sardinia.

The site at Truncu‘e Molas was selected for excavation on the basis of the geophysical surveys that had demonstrated the presence of numerous buried features. A small test trench (2 x 2m) had moreover confirmed the preservation of substantial archaeological deposits up to 80cm below the ploughsoil that could be dated to the late fifth/early fourth century BC and later.

Fieldwork

Fieldwork took place in June-July 2007. We began by stripping the topsoil over an area of 20 x 20m, which we subsequently expanded to nearly 20 x 50 m. This revealed a limited number of possible walls and other features that were carefully excavated by hand. The absence of a clear building plan, ploughmarks and a truncated stratigraphy eventually confirmed that recent agricultural activities, in particular the repeated planting and uprooting of vines, had damaged the site to just below the original floor level of the settlement. Although much of the building’s ground plan had therefore effectively been destroyed, it was yet also clear that all originally subsurface features had been well preserved in situ. These include two wells, two large basins of what we think was a double wine-press and three amphorae tightly placed upright. In addition, enough stone wall-bases have survived over sufficient length to give a rough idea of the layout of the site. As is confirmed by comparison of the distribution of the excavated walls and other with a later wall partially built across them, our expanded trench covered the entire area originally occupied by the Punic building. We have accordingly concluded that fieldwork on this site has been completed.

Project Links

Truncu 'e Molas on Fasti Online

Research in Sardinia

Terralba Project

Overview of the trench at Truncu 'e Molas (Terralba, 2007)

Publications

Forthcoming

  • van Dommelen, P., C. Gómez Bellard and C. Tronchetti: Insediamento rurale e produzione agraria nella Sardegna punica: la fattoria di Truncu ‘e Molas (Terralba, OR), in C. Del Vais (ed.), Studi in ricordo di Giovanni Tore. Oristano: S'Alvure.
  • van Dommelen, P., C. Gómez Bellard and C. Tronchetti: Une ferme punique en Sardaigne: fouilles sur le site de Truncu’e Molas (Terralba, Oristano), in R. De Simone (ed.), Festschrift Antonella Spanò. Palermo.

2010

  • Pérez Jordà, G., J. Morales Pérez, R. Marlasca Martín, C. Gómez Bellard and P. van Dommelen 2010: La alimentación en una granja púnica de Cerdeña, in C. Mata Parreño, G. Pérez Jordà and J. Vives-Ferrándiz Sánchez (eds), De la cuina a la taula. IV Reunió d'Economia en el Primer Mil·lenni a.C. (Saguntum Extra 9). Valencia: Universitat de València, 295-302.
  • van Dommelen, P., C. Gómez Bellard and G. Pérez Jordà: Produzione agraria nella Sardegna punica fra cereali e vino, in M. Milanese, P. Ruggeri, C. Vismara and R. Zucca (eds), L'Africa romana. I luoghi e le forme dei mestieri e della produzione nelle province africane (Atti del XVIII convegno di studio, Olbia, 11-14 dicembre 2008) (L'Africa romana 18). Rome: Carocci, 1189-1204.

2008

  • van Dommelen, P. and C. Gómez Bellard: Una fattoria punica in località Truncu 'e Molas, Terralba ieri & oggi 44: 37-39.
  • van Dommelen, P., C. Gómez Bellard and C. Tronchetti: The Punic farmstead at Truncu 'e Molas (Sardinia, Italy): excavations 2007, Antiquity 82 ((315)): http://antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/vandommelen1.
  • van Dommelen, P., C. Gómez Bellard and C. Tronchetti 2008: La excavación de la granja púnica de Truncu ‘e Molas (Terralba, Cerdeña), in Excavaciones en el exterior 2007. Informes y trabajos (Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural Español). Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura, 67-70. [pdf]

  • van Dommelen, P., N. de Bruijn, H. Loney, R. Puig Moragón and A. Roppa: Ceramica punica dal sito rurale di Truncu 'e Molas (Terralba, Sardegna), in J. González, P. Ruggeri, C. Vismara and R. Zucca (eds), L'Africa romana. Le ricchezze dell'Africa. Risorse, produzioni, scambi (Atti del XVII convegno di studio, Sevilla, 14-17 dicembre 2006) (L'Africa romana 17). Rome: Carocci, 1617-1626.

2007

  • van Dommelen, P., C. Gómez Bellard and C. Tronchetti : La excavación de la granja púnica de Truncu ‘e Molas (Terralba, Cerdeña), Saguntum 39: 179-183.