Terralba Surveys


The Terralba Rural Settlement Project was set up in 2002 to investigate the composition and organisation of the Punic rural settlement pattern in the Terralba district of west central Sardinia and to gain an understanding of the Sardinian agrarian economy in the wider context of the Carthaginian colonial network. Using geophysical prospection (resistivity and magnetic survey) and intensive surface collections, the Terralba project investigates eight rural sites in great detail in order to obtain information about both the lay-out and composition of the rural sites and their fittings and building materials.

Fieldwork

During two fieldwork campaigns in 2003 and 2004, eight sites were intensively surveyed, while a 2 x 2 sq. m. trial trench was also excavated in 2004. A study campaign in 2005 has been dedicated to the cataloguing and documentation of the surface finds.

The Terralba pottery database comprises just under 4,000 fragments, about half of which (1962 frr.) are surface finds from one of the eight sites investigated; the other half (1868 frr.) come from the trial trench that was excavated in one these sites, no. 03 (Trunc’ ‘e Molas). All of these fragments have been examined macroscopically using hand lenses and a microscope and classified on the basis of their ceramic fabric. In addition, a sample of 180 fragments has been selected for detailed macroscopic description and thin-section analysis.

Project Links

Research in Sardinia

Excavations at

Results


The Terralba Rural Settlement Project has significantly contributed to current knowledge of rural settlement in the Punic world in general and the island of Sardinia in particular. Because very few excavations have been carried out, the detailed investigations carried out by the Terralba project constitute a substantial body of fresh evidence that will considerably advance our understanding of specific elements of Punic rural settlements such as construction, lay-out and portable artefacts used as well as of the economic activities carried out at these sites and their connections to other parts of the Punic world. The positive identification of iron metallurgical activities at two sites is a significant feature in this respect. Ultimately, this evidence will shed further light on the role of these and other rural settlements in the Carthaginian colonial strategies.


In the second place, the robust pottery database in combination with the extensive thin section analysis programme will contribute substantially to our knowledge of domestic pottery used in the Punic world, in particular where and how it was produced and in which contexts it was used. In the third place, the use of a range of geophysical techniques on relatively small sites with mud-brick architecture only and the collaboration with the geophysicist Prof. G. Ranieri (U. of Cagliari) has contributed to the field of geophysical survey, too, by demonstrating that mud(brick) structures are much more amenable to geophysical detection than usually assumed.

Publications

2004

  • van Dommelen, P. and L. Sharpe 2004: Surveying Punic rural settlement: the Terralba Rural Settlement Project, Sardinia, Antiquity 78 (299): http://antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/vandommelen/.

2006

  • van Dommelen, P. 2006: Punic farms and Carthaginian colonists: surveying Punic rural settlement in the central Mediterranean, Journal of Roman Archaeology 19: 7-28.
  • van Dommelen, P., L. Sharpe and K. McLellan 2006: Insediamento rurale nella Sardegna punica: il progetto Terralba (Sardegna), in A. Akerraz, P. Ruggeri, A. Siraj and C. Vismara (eds), L'Africa romana. Mobilità delle persone e dei popoli, dinamiche migratorie, emigrazioni ed immigrazioni nelle province occidentali dell'Impero romano (Atti del XVI convegno di studio, Rabat, 15-19 dicembre 2004) (L'Africa romana 16). Rome: Carocci, 153-173.

2007

  • van Dommelen, P., M. Kostoglou and L. Sharpe 2007: Fattorie puniche e l’economia rurale della Sardegna punica: il progetto Terralba, in A. M. Arruda, C. Gómez Bellard and P. Van Dommelen (eds), Sítios e Paisagens rurais no Mediterrâneo Púnico (Caderns da Uniarq 3; 6o Congresso Internacional de Estudos Fenícios e Púnicos). Lisbon: Colibri/Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa, 51-67.
  • Ranieri, G., L. Sharpe, A. Trogu and C. Piga 2007: Time lapse electrical resistivity tomography to delineate mud structures in archaeological prospections, Near Surface Geophysics 5.6: 375-382.

2008

  • van Dommelen, P., N. de Bruijn, H. Loney, R. Puig Moragón and A. Roppa 2008: 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, 1697-1706.