Tharros
Ancient city in W Sardinia, on the peninsula between the village of S. Giovanni di Sinis and Capo S. Marco. It was mentioned by the historians (Sall. Crispi Hist. rel.; Lipsia [1893] II, fr. 12 p. 64) and by the geographers (Ptol. 3.3.2; It. Ant. 84; Rav. Cosm. 5.26). The city, founded by the Phoenicians on an earlier nuraghic settlement, was an important way station on the commercial route between Carthage and Massilia. In the 3d c. B.C. it passed under Roman domination and was abandoned after the Byzantine period. The presence on Capo S. Marco of a chapel of the Canaanite type with a rectangular plan led to the identification of that spot as the original Semitic establishment.
There are two necropoleis: the earlier is N of the inhabited area outside the walls; the other to the S of the urban center. Both were robbed in the 19th c. They consist of chamber tombs excavated in the rock with vertical pit burials or with an access dromos. The grave goods, datable between the 7th and the 2d c. B.C., are in the museums of Oristano, Cagliari, Torino, and London.
The urban settlement in the Punic period was located along the E slope of the peninsula. In front of it extended the complex of port structures, now submerged. On the upper hillside fortification walls have been identified. The houses were probably constructed on stepped terraces descending along the hillside. At the foot of the slope arose a sacred area of the Semitic type and a monolithic temple from the 4th-3d c. B.C. which was ornamented along part of its flanks by Doric half-columns and pilasters. The city's drainage system survived intact. It is made up of channels excavated in the rock, as is the hydraulic system which carried water from wells and cisterns that were also dug in the rock and faced with waterproof plaster. The tophet, which is the largest in Sardinia, consists of a rectangular area characterized by small walled courtyards, and is delimited on the E and the N by the city walls. It was erected on the NE border of the inhabited area and dates to the 3d-2d c. B.C. The urns contain the remains of cremations.
Under Roman domination the urban complex, in part overlapping the plan of the Punic city, consisted of insulae placed along a network of streets oriented NS-EW. Among the most significant public buildings are two bath buildings and a castellum aquae. Of the first bath building only the caldarium survives. The second, which is larger, is in the area called Convento Vecchio. Disposed on three levels of stepped terraces it includes the remains of the apoditerium, the frigidarium with two swimming pools and a mosaic pavement of black and white tesserae, the tepidarium, and three interconnected caldarii. For the last of these and for other large buildings brick was used, or brick alternating with courses of small stones. Dwellings, dating from the 2d-3d c., have either a central or an anterior courtyard but the various rooms are not distinguishable; only the hydraulic and drainage systems remain. Later monuments include an Early-Christian baptistery from the 5th-7th c., near the smaller bath building; and the church of S. Giovanni Battista (5th c.), with 19th and 20th c. restorations. It was built on the N necropolis, around which the last population of Tharros settled.
BIBLIOGRAPHYG. Spano, Notizie sulla città di Tharros (1851); A. Lamarmora, Itineraire de l'île de Sardaigne (1860) 574ff; E. Pais, Storia della Sardegna e della Corsica, I (1923) 103, 368; G. Pesce, “Il primo scavo di Tharros,” Studi Sardi 14-15 (1955-57) 307ffPI; id., Boll. del Centro di Studi per la Storia dell'Arch. 17 (1961) 5ffPI; id., Oriens Antiquus 2.1 (1963) 142; 3.1 (1964) 137fI; id., Tharros (1966) MPI; id., EAA 7 (1966) 800ff; F. Barreca, NSc 12 (1958) 409ff.
D. MANCONI