ARCHEOLOGY Phoenician-Punic colonization, characterized by permanent sattlements and territorial acquisitions. Among the stable commercial ports of call which gradually became cities, Tharros is particularly important historically. It was founded in an area where the Sinis Penisula forms a wide loop. Sheltered from the dominant "Mistral" wind from the west, protected from the tides, provided with fresh water and a natural defence system, Tharros became a powerful Carthiginiamn maritime stronghold, the centre of widespread international mercantile activity. The fertility of its soil and the richness of its metals offered an assured commercial counterpart. Its artistic splendour is proved by the funerary wealth of the two great necropoli, by the jewels and various examples of clay figurines, as well as by the temples, found within its walls in great number: from Ashtart's temple on Capo San Marco to the tophet on the hill of Muru Mannu. Even when, in 238 B.C. Tharros was finally subjected ti Roman dominion, it was capable of reacting to the start of an economic crisis, by countering it with new prosperity, as has been archeologically documented, in a renewal of the building trade, during which thermal baths, acqueducts and urban streets were constructed. The age of Constantine is witness to the Sard-Punic-Roman integration. The hypogeum temple to Mars and Venus - a few kilometres from Tharros - is valid evidence. It originated around a so-called miracolous spring, which was a place of veneration of the Nuragic people. It survived to the late Roman period absorbing the various expressions of faith of the people who inhabited Sinis. It is, in other words, an eloquent testimony, not only of the culture and civilization of those times. The progressive weakening of the Roman Empire left Sardinia exposed to Vandalic conquerors, who were followed by Byzantine conquerors in 534 A.D. However business activity with the Mediterranean which was still thriving in both the Vandalic and Byzantine periods, was undermined by Arabic raids. In 1070, during the Judicial Period, the inhabitants of Tharros moved to Oristano, a small village of Roman origin, which played an important role later as the capital of the Giudicato of Arborea. |