The first excavation campaign at the abandoned village of Bisarcio took place from the 10th September to the10th October 2012 and was a collaboration between Sassari University, the municipality of Ozieri, the Archaeological Superintendency of Sassari and Nuoro and the Società Oben. In the geography of medieval Sardinia, Bisarcio, Episcopal seat of the diocese of the same name, is situated in the north-eastern part of the Giudicato of Torres. It stands along the main road between Porto Torres, Sassari and the link to the road for Cagliari, in line with the bordering dioceses of Ploaghe (to the west) and Castra (to the north-east), and in a zone not far from the border with the Giudicato of Gallura. Bisarcio is of particular significance for medieval Sardinia as it was the seat of the diocese from the 1080s until the 16th century, and an important village, capital of the medieval _curatoria_ of the same name. At the end of the 1500s, Giovanni Francesco Fara described the village as almost destroyed, with a few huts “that preserved nothing of the grandeur of the ancient buildings” while in the _ Relazione sugli stati di Oliva_ written in 1769 by Vincenzo Mameli De Ormedilla the village resulted as having not long been destroyed, with some houses almost intact. The archaeological interventions concentrated on the Episcopal complex, represented by the basilica of Sant’Antioco di Bisarcio and related structures, and on the area interpreted as a village. In the area around the basilica, two excavation areas were opened, the first (area 5100) was a 10 x 10m square, dug with the aim of assessing the quality of the archaeological deposits present in the immediate vicinity of the basilica. The second intervention was the opening of a rectangular trench (area 5300) dug in order to find out how the slope, on the summit of which the basilica stands, was formed. The area identified as the site of the remains of the village of Bisarcio, is uncultivated, characterised by piles of stones and an uneven surface due to the outcropping of the structures below. The most visible traces of the village are situated north of the church, but it cannot be excluded that in the past it also extended to the east, where today there are numerous modern buildings. When the work began, ruins of various dimensions, their perimeter walls visible, were present north of the church. The best-preserved buildings were the church of Santa Croce, whose apse was clearly visible, and the remains of a large structure presumably high status private property or public building, as it was much larger than the others were, and had more than one storey. A high-density survey identified the remains of over 120 buildings. They were recorded and a plan of the village was created that gave an understanding of the urban planning, the roads, the rows of houses, private and public spaces, the probable cemetery, and the relationship with the Episcopal complex. Following this complex phase of topographical investigation and recording, during which a drone owned by the Società Oben was used, two excavation areas were chosen. They correspond with two separate buildings (areas 100 and 300), whose stratigraphic excavation aims to define the formation processes, determined by the dynamics of the abandonment, collapse and robbing of the village. Already in the superficial layers, the excavations showed the presence of proto-historic (Iron Age I) and Roman pottery. It is not to be excluded that the geophysical survey picked up structures dating to these periods. Finds from the site of Bisarcio are present in the Archaeological Museum of Ozieri and clearly attest the long settlement history on this site. However, there are no details as to how or where they were found, the generic toponym “Bisarcio” is given as the find site. In the 2012 trenches, materials were recovered that although in secondary deposition constitute the first elements on which to base the division of the site into periods, with finds from the early Iron Age, the late Hellenistic, Roman, medieval and post-medieval periods.

Area 8300 is situated in a vast architectural complex that extends to the north of the Basilica of Bisarcio and which is now a large fortified courtyard. A complex sequence of construction site activity and fills in the area dating from the late 17th century until the mid 19th century covered an occupation phase that the material finds show was of a very different date to the preceding one. In fact, two layers were identified that obliterated a construction site phase, which however no longer related to the demolition of structures but the construction or restoration of the fortified curtain wall. The pottery provided a _terminus_ _post_ _quem_ of the late 14th century. This evidence consisted of traces of the scaffolding used during 14th-century restoration, which stood directly on the levels of a domestic midden. The latter contained numerous layers of ash within which there were abundant food remains. Below the midden there was a phase relating to the filling of the area. When the porticoed space had gone completely out of use, the area, where by this time the fortified structure was being built, was used as a rubbish dump, mainly of ash and charcoal, evidence of the builders’ intense work on the site at the end of the 14th century. The excavations in area 5100 provided new data regarding the stratified deposit situated east of the enclosure surrounding the monumental basilica of Bisarcio, close to the north side of the cathedral. Thus far, stratigraphic contexts dating to between the first millennium B.C. and the first decades of the 21st century have been identified. An imposing wall was uncovered in correspondence with a large deep hole dug in the 17th century, which cut it. The excavation of the fill was completed during this campaign. An area used as a midden for domestic waste was identified, which contained abundant faunal remains and cooking vessels with a low amount of fragmentation and sporadic wall sherds from transport containers. Based on a preliminary analysis, this activity dates to the Iron Age. An extension of the excavations in the western part of the sector produced evidence that provided a better understanding of another structure pre-dating the creation of the medieval cemetery of Bisarcio. In an adjacent area, traces of iron working were identified, attested by the presence of abundant iron slag mixed with ash and charcoal found _in_ _situ_. In the absence of ceramic finds, the presence of a coin minted by the Republic of Genoa (1138-1339) could date this activity to the medieval period. During this campaign, the complete sequence for the late medieval cemetery, situated in the western part of the area, was documented with the discovery of two more burials.

Area 8300 is adjacent to Area 7700, a further part of the courtyard investigated between 2014 and 2015 where the excavation revealed a sequence relating to a late construction phase of the rectory, phases that can now be considered to have been fully investigated. The various construction phases and the phases during which the building went out of use and was abandoned have been defined, and date to a period between the first half of the 9th century and at least the second half of the 15th century. At this time, the line of the curtain wall and the remains of the large building were probably very similar to their present appearance and what can still be read in the stratigraphy of the remaining walls. This transformation coincided with a serious political crisis aggravated by the struggle between the Aragonese and the house of the Arborea. So far, five of the site’s six occupation periods have been identified in the area in question. Area 5100, immediately north of the northern side of the Basilica of Sant’Antioco di Bisarcio, covers a quadrangular area of 100 m2, divided into four squares, Sectors 1, 2, 3, and 4 each 25 m2. The excavations in these sectors were deepened according to the objectives of the various campaigns (fig.13). During the last two seasons, an L-shaped area, sector 5, was opened covering 24 m2 situated along the wall surrounding the bishop’s residence, the western and southern parts of Sector 1. There remains more to investigate in the Period IV cemetery situated below the village of Bisarcio, which probably developed around the apse and along the north side of the church from the 11th-12th century onwards, at the same time as the foundation of the ecclesiastical complex. The excavation of a limited area of this vast cemetery began in 2013, which the diagnostic material has dated to between the first half of the 14th century and the 17th-18th centuries. The cemetery was inserted into the pre-existing landscape constituted by ruined buildings with the distribution of the tombs conforming to the available space. This season the number of burials excavated was substantially increased. At the end of this season, the excavation in Sector 5 identified a more representative sample of burials for the post-medieval phases. Another part of the pre-existing building was also uncovered on which the wall enclosing the complex was built, although its function and chronology have yet to be defined. During the 2017 campaign, 15 single burials in simple earth graves belonging to 11 juveniles and four adults were identified. They can be dated to the cemetery’s three phases of use. Due to lack of time, only 11 were fully excavated while the other four will be completed next season.

The site, excavated in 2012, is organised into two distinct centres, religious and civic. The ecclesiastical part is characterised by the Romanesque cathedral of Bisarcio and the remains of the bishop’s residence and the rectory, which housed the clergy. The bishop’s residence was a fortified citadel, delimited by a defensive wall and the buildings forming it. The excavation documented an ample diachrony of a multi-stratified site in a dominant position, a central place within the territory, characteristics that decided the choice of the area as the bishop’s seat, around the mid 11th century. Excavation also took place in the area of the rectory and large cemetery (13th-18th century), relating to the neighbouring abandoned village of Bisarcio, which was the object of an archaeological evaluation. _Area 8300_ The main aim of the 2018 campaign was to investigate the last portion of the large rectangular building north of the basilica and to check for a possible different use of the space surrounded by the east and south walls (structures of the present curtain wall), with respect to the larger area already investigated during previous campaigns (from 3013 to 2017) that can be attributed to the remains of the bishop’s rectory of Bisarcio. Area 8300 is situated within a vast architectural complex that develops to the north of the basilica and which today appears as a large fortified courtyard. During this season’s campaign, the work aimed to complete the excavation of the entire surface area between the curtain wall structures and to understand the function of the northernmost part of the space, delimited by wall US 8324 and the northern perimeter. The part excavated in 2018 was the northernmost part of the building, between the north and east perimeter walls (US 8371 and 8372) of which several blocks belonging to the first course of the west perimeter wall (US 7709) are visible. The latter were uncovered to a modest height and only partially in length. The wall had undergone progressive robbing. A completely different stratigraphic sequence from that uncovered elsewhere was documented in this part of the room. The sequence was badly disturbed by actions that substantially pre-dated the abandonment of the building, which have compromised the legibility of the evidence and interpretation of the original context. This area primarily presented the robbing of the walls, evidence of the building site for the walls, and recent disturbance caused by restoration work on part of the curtain wall, which cut, starting from the present floor surface of the courtyard, all of the stratigraphy down to the original floors, compromising its correct reading. _Area 5100_ Area 5100, immediately north of the north side of the basilica of Sant’Antioco di Bisarcio, covers a quadrangular area of 100 m2 divided into four squares, sectors 1, 2, 3, and 4, plus an extension denominated sector 5. In 2018, excavations took place to the east of the perimeter wall of the episcopal complex and close to the north side of the basilica. During recent investigations research concentrated on sector 5 where work continued on the analysis of the cemetery deposits present in this part of the area, of which the latest phase was identified in 2017. The investigation of the 12th century construction site levels, relating to the building of the eastern perimeter wall of the episcopal complex, also continued. These levels extended over a pre-existing building whose chronology and function remain to be clarified, but probably dated to the late antique period. The recent excavation campaigns have made it possible to begin to define the characteristics of a large sample of the necropolis used by the inhabitants of Bisarcio, dating, at present, to between the late medieval and modern periods. To date 53 burials have been identified divided between three burial phases (tab. 2). The overall number of burials also includes the 17 burials, found in 2015, dating to between the late 18th and early 19th centuries, which cannot be attributed to a specific cemetery phase, but appear to be the result of a random event in a period when Bisarcio was already in a state of abandonment.