Season Team

• AIAC_2585 - Su Padrigheddu - 2016
  In the years 2014-2016, as part of the of the fieldwork campaigns of geophysical prospection, systematic surface collections and trial trenches undertaken by the S’Urachi Project in the wider are of the nuraghe of S’Urachi (see site #3372), the site of Su Padrigheddu was also investigated. In 2014, georadar and magnetic prospections recorded a number of substantial anomalies around the NE corner of the Su Padrigheddu eucalyptus trees, which more or less coincided with the likely edge of occupation around S’Urachi. Systematic sampling of surface finds in 2015 yielded substantial quantities of pottery in the same area along the tree stand, including unambiguous Nuragic pottery fragments of Iron Age date, including askos and decorated fragments. In 2016, a 1.5×1.5 trial trench dug at the NE corner of the tree stand yielded a very large and remarkably coherent collection of pottery and animal bone, which ranged from the Nuragic Final Bronze and Iron Ages to the Phoenician and Punic periods – but without stratigraphic coherence, as no stratigraphically intact deposits were encountered. Deep-ploughing of the area in the 1970s to prepare the planting of the eucalyptus trees had clearly comprehensively destroyed all archaeological deposits.
• AIAC_3372 - S'Urachi - 2014
  Nella seconda campagna di scavo a Luglio 2014 è proseguito lo scavo in due aree già aperte nel 2013 ed è cominciata una ricognizione geofisica nelle aree immediatamente a Est e Nord del nuraghe. Dopo il lavoro preliminare del 2013, la campagna 2014 ha segnato l’inizio di un attento scavo stratigrafico di depositi archeologici ben conservati intorno al nuraghe. Sebbene le due aree oggetto di scavo sono solamente distanti 25 m e sebbene siano entrambe adiacenti l’esterno del muro difensivo o antemurale del nuraghe, lo scavo del 2014 ha messo in luce contesti molto diversi. L’area D è definita da un numero di strutture che furono costruite contemporaneamente al nuraghe ed al suo muro difensivo. Sono state messe in luce due stanze separate da uno stretto corridoio che conduce al muro difensivo, dove è stata individuato il corrispondente accesso del nuraghe. Una delle stanze (A) era parzialmente costruita sulla torre (7) del muro esterno, e il corridoio dell’ingresso venne riempito intorno al II sec. a.C. Questo dato dimostra che in quel momento il monumento aveva perso le sue funzioni originarie e che la vita quotidiana a S’Urachi era strutturata in modo diverso dai secoli precedenti. L’area E, al contrario, non ha rivelato strutture successive/ post nuragiche; il focolare Punico o “tannur” protetto da un muro ad L è l’unica costruzione venuta in luce. Fino ad oggi sono state osservate due fasi in questa struttura; una fase non è ben conservata ed è databile al III o II a.C., e una fase precedente di datazione incerta. La maggior parte dell’area E può essere descritta come un largo deposito di scarti domestici, per la maggio parte ceramica e ossa animali. L’insieme ceramico è dominato da prodotti locali, anche se frequenti sono la ceramica a pareti fini ed anfore, e può essere datato tra il VI e il IV sec. a.C. La ricognizione geofisica è stata portata avanti usando il magnetometro e il geo-radar, ma il terreno smosso ha seriamente compromesso il georadar. Sono stati indagati 1.3 ettari ad Est del nuraghe verso il sito di Su Pudrigheddu. Vicino al nuraghe sono stati segnalati abbondanti evidenze di numerose strutture crollate, mentre forni, fornaci e una o due case sono state messe in luce ad Est. Dato lo stato del terreno, sono state aperte trincee al fine di ottenere una migliore comprensione della natura e cronologia.
• AIAC_3372 - S'Urachi - 2016
  The fourth campaign took place over four weeks in July 2016, and was primarily a study season, dedicated to the study of ceramic finds and of the faunal remains. In addition, three trial trenches in the wider area around the nuraghe were excavated. Botanical and selected faunal samples had furthermore been transferred to the University of Valencia and Brown University for respectively archaeobotanical and geochemical analysis. The study of ceramics focused primarily on two large contexts, namely tower 7 and the associated Punic room in area D, and the domestic midden of area E. The former had been excavated in 2013 and 2014 (see reports) and the provisional date of the associated deposits was comprehensively confirmed by the formal identification of 1422 diagnostic fragments: while older finds of 6th to 4th century date are present, the bulk of the pottery can be dated to the 3rd and 2nd or indeed just the 2nd century BC. The evidence of the fine ware in particular (176 fragments) makes it clear that the assemblage cannot be dated beyond the end of the 2nd century BC. The domestic trash deposits had mostly been excavated in 2014 and 2015 (see reports) and the 2694 fragments examined ranged in date from the 7th to the 3rd century BC, again more or less as provisionally observed during excavation. It was particularly evident that the upper stratigraphic contexts were more mixed and younger, while from context 027 downwards all finds dated to the 7th and 6th centuries BC. These contexts also yielded notable numbers of Ionian cups, Etruscan bucchero and Etruscan-Corinthian wares. The faunal analysis has examined all bones recovered in three years of excavation, i.e. 9,048 fragments from area D and 16,684 from area E. Of these, respectively 6,876 and 11,514 were undiagnostic, leaving 2,172 and 5,170 identifiable fragments. The resulting faunal assemblage is not only remarkably large but particularly worth noting is the contrast between the two areas, with the 7th-6th century remains of area E showing a prominence of cattle, while sheep and goat dominate the 3rd-2nd century deposits of area D. Following up the surface and geophysics surveys of 2014 and 2015, three exploratory trenches of about 1.5x1.5 m were dug across the area previously surveyed in order to assess the stratigraphic integrity of the archaeological deposits. The trench sunk at the edge of the Su Padrigheddu area showed that deep ploughing in the 1970s has comprehensively destroyed the entire Iron Age site as documented by the surface finds collected at the time. The trench about 50m to the N was stratigraphically intact but archaeological non-informative. A third trench dug to the N of the nuraghe revealed a Punic-period drain and the top of a double-faced wall of possible Nuragic date at a depth of about 1.60m below the present field surface. All in all, the study campaign made it possible to process most of the pottery and animal bone excavated in previous years. The new insights not only enable us to begin publishing part of the site in detail, but also help guiding the ongoing excavations in both areas D and E.