Site-Based Survey at S'Urachi: Deep History, Thick Shrubs and Historical Connections in West Central Sardinia

Summary

The nurage of S’Urachi is a Bronze Age stone monument that has served a central place in the landscape of west-Central Sardinia for millennia. Since 2013, the archaeological site has been the subject of an ongoing investigation into the daily lives of local inhabitants living around the nuraghe from the Bronze Age through the Roman period. The project—a joint effort of an international team funded by Brown Universtiy and the Comune di San Vero Milis—has investigated the immediate surroundings of S’Urachi through micro-topographical, soil, and geophysical survey as well as targeted excavation. In complement to this research, we carried out intensive pedestrian survey in 2015 to investigate the long-term trends in occupation and use of the site. The unplowed landscape with heavy vegetation required an innovative, more intrusive survey approach than is traditionally used in Mediterranean survey. The results shed light on trends of occupation in the late Iron Age and Roman periods and patterns of garbage deposition from the Early Modern period onwards. This poster presents our preliminary results, highlighting the methodology developed for coping with the environmental challenges at S’Urachi and the future plans for prospection in and around the site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage