Location
The archaeological site of Mount Sirai is just 3 km. from the city of Carbonia (road s.s. 126) and is easily reached via an asphalt road.
Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it's the only Punic settlement, discovered and explored, not on the coast but in the Sardinian hinterland.
Phoenician Foundation
The founding of Mount Sirai is owed to the Phoenicians who settled in Sulcis on the island of Sant但ntioco as early as the first half of the VIII century or perhaps to the inhabitants who, during the same time-period, occupied the area of Portoscuso where a Phoenician Necropolis has been found. Mount Sirai grew to be a fairly large urban centre and extended around the old nuraghic tower occupying an area equal to that of today痴 visible, inhabited centre. The Phoenician centre was built around a sacred place, today known as the keep because upon its discovery, it was thought that its use was mainly military or defensive. This building rises in part on the preceding Nuraghe's base and has undergone many restorations throughout the centuries. It has been ascertained that the nuraghic tower was still in good condition during the Phoenician Age and that worship took place inside the cella.
In the valley to the north of the urban centre, a large incinerator Necropolis was located made primarily of individual tombs. However there is some evidence, rare as it may be, of individual burials. To date 95 tombs containing vases used in rituals and small objects have been found.
Punic Period
The Phoenician community in Mount Sirai had about 200 years of peaceful commerce, agricultural and domestic activities until about 540 B.C. when Carthage decided to conquer Sardinia. In any event, as with all Phoenician cities in Sardinia, Mount Sirai was completely destroyed by the Carthaginian conquest. The new inhabitants lived around the keep, restoring only a part of the surrounding buildings in this sacred place, it too having been destroyed by the Carthaginians. More specifically, the nuraghic tower where the Phoenician temple was located was completely destroyed. After its defeat in approximately 520 B.C., the urban centre of Mount Sirai was lived in by no more than 13 families of north-African decent. This would explain the presence in the Necropolis, relative to this time period, of 13 underground burial rooms (therefore of Carthaginian type) that represented the same number of families. Afterwards, in the Punic Age, the few inhabitants of Mount Sirai, a marginal and economically depressed area, dedicated themselves mostly to agriculture; life on the hill was more or less peaceful but definitely lacking of tight commercial links with nearby Sulcis up until about 360 B.C.
The Necropolis
Outside of the Acropolis and to the north is the Necropolis where a dozen tombs with hypogeum rooms (with dromos access and generally closed by a stone door) were found. The artefacts found in the tombs were decorated using bas-relief. The decoration appearing in tomb n. 5 is quite unique; reproduced backwards on a column is the symbol of the goddess Tanit, Carthaginian divinity. The symbol is reversed perhaps due to a mistake by the artist.
Expansion and importance of the Centre
Around the year 360 B.C., Carthage expanded and fortified some of its most important Sardinian cities including the urban centre of Mount Sirai which, thanks also to its natural, pleasant position, became impregnable. Its walls, their type and structure identical with those of many other Sardinian Punic centres, were built with numerous stone rows and formed by red, trachyte-stone square blocks. After the construction of the containing wall, Mount Sirai began rapidly growing in size and importance. It was settled perhaps by a small garrison and certainly new, numerous colonies. The urban centre grew and spread in good part over the ruins of the antique dwellings of the Phoenician Age. It's during this period that the first settlement of the sacred area of the tophet appeared, testimony of the arrival of yet other inhabitants bringing new and different traditions to Mount Sirai. Life in Mount Sirai continued peacefully and with no other important events for over a century. A few garrisons composed of mercenary troupes settled in the fortified centres at the outset of the first Punic war between 264 and 241 B.C. with the hopes of thwarting the disembarkation of Roman military contingencies.
The End of Mount Sirai
Suddenly and for no apparent reason, about 110 B.C., the urban centre of Mount Sirai was abandoned. It didn稚 happen slowly and progressively but rather in a sudden fashion; this is understood by the state of the dwellings and the objects found left by the inhabitants. The causes of this sudden abandonment of Mount Sirai are probably due to some natural calamity such as the reduction of water resources.
