This season, Padova University continued its excavations in the area occupied by the former naval base in the north-eastern sector of the Nora peninsula. Excavations continued in trench 1 and the trench opened last year to the west of the latter. In the past, various tombs of Phoenician and Punic date have come to light in trench 1. This year a new ‘a fossa’ tomb (tomb 22) cut into the sandstone bedrock was discovered. The tomb contained two overlying burials with grave goods; unarticulated human bones had been dumped on top of the later of the two burials, probably the result of periodical cleaning of the nearby underground tombs.

Further west, the trench opened in 2017 was deepened in three points. In the first (A) a cut was documented corresponding with the trench dug by G. Patroni in 1901; when the sandstone bedrock was reached at 0.97 m a.s.l. a series of cuts in the rock were documented that probably relate to quarrying cuts made in the Roman period, after the Phoenician and Punic necropolis went out of use. The area was finally obliterated by substantial dumps, above which a wall dating to a later phase was intercepted. A Roman quarry face was also identified in area B, which cut a Punic hypogean tomb leaving part of the entrance shaft and the anti-chamber. Lastly, in area C a “bathtub shaped” cistern was excavated, which also cut a Punic hypogean tomb that had also been previously cut by the Roman quarrying activity.