Location
The island of Sant’Antioco, situated opposite Sardinia's south-eastern coast, includes the homonymous city where the remains of antique Sulci are found. Sant’Antioco is actually a small island connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus which is believed to have been made by man in the Punic period. It was a flourishing centre during the Phoenician and Punic period that underwent noteworthy development during the Roman Republic era due to its strategic position; it controlled the entrances to the southern part of the island and the entire mineral basin of the Sulcis-Iglesiente.
In the late Republic Age, near the so-called Acropolis, there was a public area arranged in a terrace manner on which a temple was situated.
When did it acquire the name Sant’Antioco?
The small island took the name Sant'Antioco in the II century A.D. after the arrival and death of the homonymous saint. Sant’Antioco was initially a physician in Mauritania and had been in Galazia and Cappadocia on a mission to convert the people until he was arrested and suffered the torture of Emperor Hadrian; he was abandoned on an oarless boat which brought him to Sulci where he lived in a cave praying and converting. Finally the Roman authorities in Cagliari decided to arrest him but he died before his arrest the 13th of November 125 A.D.
The Saint’s history is confirmed by the discovery in 1615, in the catacomb in the church dedicated to the Saint, of an inscription that dates back between the VII and VIII centuries in which beatus sanctus Antiochus pontifex Christi is named. It would seem to indicate that Antioco was the bishop of Sulci.
The Tophet
It’s situated about 400 m north of the Acropolis on the top of a high, rocky protrusion. The name Tophet comes from the biblical tradition; archaeologists intend a typical type of Necropolis-sanctuary where habitants from the Phoenician and Punic centres of the western Mediterranean laid their infants born dead and those that died right after birth. Beside the infants, often times small burnt animal bones were found. The Tophet ritual is used to thwart off similar mourning events from the family and to implore the favour of new, happy births. The sacrificing of small animals is considered to be a purifying ritual.
Many original urns have been left in the Tophet and others have been substituted with copies. This allows us to form a fairly precise idea of their original aspect.
The chronology of this sanctuary’s history goes from the VII century to the I century B.C. and therefore to the Roman era
A few meters west of the Tophet is a strange monument; it has still to be identified. It’s a high, big rock, carved by man in a functional method and probably has to do with the religious aspects of the Punic world. The most probable hypothesis is that it's a sacrificial altar.
The funeral ritual included the cremation of the infants' bodies and the animals. The ashes were then put in an urn sometimes together with small objects, often times with amulets. The urn was then covered by a small plate and put on the ground and beginning in the Punic era, a stele was often laid in memory of the sacrifice.
