504 Cadinu
centers with close relationships to bishoprics in which the cathedral, burial
areas, and their defense systems carved out a space—the civita—in close con-
tact with the ancient city. The nuclei of these civitates, like Cagliari, Olbia, or
perhaps Oristano, were active around the eleventh century, but precise topo-
graphical information about them is lacking.16
While it is possible to identify the early nuclei of what would become the
future cities of Sassari and Oristano, it is more difficult for Cagliari as a result
of the Pisans’ destruction of the city in the thirteenth century.17 However, a
major city like Santa Igia, which was probably founded on the ancient Roman
city of Karales, but built according to medieval models, should have left some
traces.18 In this sense, it is worthwhile to attempt to locate its position in re-
lation to concrete urban forms, like the persistence of medieval roads and
holy places, rather than to chase the faint signs of the ancient city below, like
these centuries and their religious institutions; an examination of the cultural compo-
nents of Byzantine, Arab, and Judicial ancestry can be found in Zedda and Pinna, “La
nascita dei giudicati,” pp. 27–118. A more general overview of the era can be found in
Maria Silvia Lusuardi Siena, Fonti archeologiche e iconografiche per la storia e la cultura
degli insediamenti nell’alto Medioevo (Milan, 2003).
16 Philippe Pergola, “Civitas episcopale tardo antica e sede diocesana altomedievale: conti-
nuità o mutamento?” in Materiali per una topografia urbana, Status quaestionis e nuove
acquisizioni, edited by Pier Giorgio Spanu (Oristano, 1995), pp. 193–200; Pier Giorgio
Spanu, “Iterum est insula quae dicitur Sardinia, in qua plurimas fuisse civitates legi-
mus (Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia, V, 26). Note sulle città sarde tra la tarda an-
tichità e l’alto medioevo,” in Le città italiane tra la tarda antichità e l’alto medioevo, ed.
Andrea Augenti (Florence: 2006), pp. 589–612; Rossana Martorelli, “I nuovi orientamenti
dell’Archeologia Cristiana in Sardegna,” ArcheoArte. Rivista elettronica di Archeologia e
Arte, supplement n. 1 (2012), pp. 424–427.
17 Regarding Oristano, see Maura Falchi and Raimondo Zucca, Storia della Sartiglia di
Oristano (Oristano, 1994). On Sassari, see Marisa Porcu Gaias, Sassari. Storia architettonica
e urbanistica dalle origini al ‘600 (Nuoro, 1996); and the recent results of the archaeologi-
cal projects under way: Daniela Rovina and Mauro Fiori, eds, Sassari. Archeologia urbana
(Ghezzano (Pisa), 2013).
18 The Roman city of Karales (Cagliari) is, in the current state of knowledge, known only
through a series of excavation data that are insufficient for determining the salient plan-
ning features like the walls, the road system, or size. Among the few fixed points are
the locations of the Carmine forum and the amphitheatre. A synthesis can be found in
Rossana Martorelli, “Archeologia urbana a Cagliari. Un bilancio di trent’anni di ricerche
sull’età tardoantica e altomedievale,” Studi Sardi 34 (2009), pp. 213–237. A reduction of the
ancient city and its partial fortification in the form of a castrum evoked by the sources
of the Byzantine period can be presumed; see Spanu, La Sardegna bizantina, pp. 20–38.
Further reflections upon the era can be found in Mongiu, “Cagliari e la sua conurbazione.”