The site of Santa Barbara is situated on a hillside at the edge of a plateau at C. 64 m a.s.l. and c. 1.35 km south-east of the town of Baudladu. The name Santa Barbara de Turre dates to the early 13th century and refers to the _domo_ (rural complex) of the same name mentioned in several of the administrative documents that form the Condaghe di Santa Maria di Bonarcado. The archaeological complex comprises a complex nuraghe, a village with phases ranging from the Nuragic to medieval periods, a late antique/medieval necropolis, and a curtain wall with towers c. 440 m long surrounding the residential area. After an interruption in the research of 29 years, the 2018 excavations concentrated on the southern sector of the village, where the late antique structures had been identified, in particular the one denominated “structure 9”, a room in a building c. 10 x 6 m, aligned E-W and divided into two rooms. A semi-circular wall was integrated into the east side of the northern perimeter wall, which the excavation revealed to be part of a pre-existing structure. The investigation concentrated on the east room (4 x 3 m) of the building. After the removal of the post-excavation covering (soil and sand) put down in 1989, a layer of soil mixed with ash and fragments of carbonised wood was uncovered, the result of a fire that destroyed the building and led to its definitive abandonment. Below the layer of burning, there was a hearth area on the east side, attested by the find of several fragments from cylindrical terracotta firedogs and a tile slab covered and surrounded by abundant ash, carbonised vegetal residue and fragments of cooking ware, mainly coarse ware cooking pots datable to between the 5th and 6th century A.D. The floor surface of beaten earth was contemporary with the hearth, and was altered by the intense heat of the fire that destroyed the building. Close to the threshold, on its south side, several nails and other iron elements from the door were found together with several fragments of well-preserved carbonised wood from the door itself. The beaten earth floor rested on a loose foundation of middle-sized stones collected on the site. The _terminus_ _post_ _quem_ for its construction was provided by a fragment of ARS Hayes 84 (second half of the 5th – first quarter of the 6th century A.D.). The removal of the loose foundation revealed a semi-circular wall, the continuation of the wall identified to the exterior of the northern perimeter wall. This was what remained of a circular hut whose walls were partially dismantled to allow the construction of the floor in the late antique building and reuse the blocks, and partially saved, in the exterior part of the wall, to be reused. In fact, a dividing wall was built from the external wall to create two small storerooms. Fragments of a Late Roman amphora and some faunal remains were found inside the eastern storeroom. The continuation of the investigation inside the building revealed the pre-existing walls and thus the plan of the nuragic hut, which had an external diameter of c. 6 m. The nuragic phases produced a large quantity of ceramic materials: spindle whorls, rims, bases, handles, datable to between the late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age (13th – 10th century B.C.).

In 2019, work took place in the western room of structure 9 (room B). The removal of the first layers of humus revealed part of an original stone floor preserved in the south-western part of the room. This differed from the floor documented in room A, which was a simple beaten earth surface. Underneath the paving, there were several layers of earth and stones with small and medium blocks that contained abundant pottery fragments, the majority of which could be dated to the Nuragic period. This material was clearly out of contexts as it was of later date and constituted by fragments of coarse ware cooking pots datable to between the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., coherent with what was recorded in room A during the 2018 campaign. The layers in question were interpreted as deposits of materials, probably deriving from ruins or the demolition of earlier structures, which were used to raise the floor surface for the construction of structure 9, as the latter, in the area occupied by room B, was at a lower level than its eastern part. Work also took place in the new sector of the excavation (Sector 1 – Area 3000) opened in an area of the site that has never been previously investigated. This is the south-western part of the archaeological complex, which is thought to be a late antique/early medieval necropolis where a number of burials in stone coffins were uncovered by clandestine excavations in the past. Following the removal of the grass and an accumulation of very small stones, the result of modern stone clearing, a series of alignments of straight and curved walls emerged that clearly indicated the presence of buried structures. Among these, there was a structure with a double facing built of medium and small basalt blocks, sub-circular in plan with an external diameter of c. 2 m. Inside the structure a beaten earth surface (US 3008) was uncovered, which overlay an arrangement of small stone slabs and broken tile forming a sort of paving (US 3014). Based on comparisons with similar structures found in early medieval funerary contexts e.g. Sant’Imbenia (Alghero), Santa Filitica (Sorso) and Santu Miali (Padru), this has been interpreted as a construction linked to cult functions, and the rites of _refrigeria_ in honour of the deceased. As regards the chronology, thus far the excavation data has not provided any precise indications. The above mentioned parallels provide an ample chronology ranging between the 5th and mid 9th century A.D. The continuation of the excavations across the whole of Sector 1 during the coming campaign should provide more data regarding the chronology and function of this structure.