274 Milanese
of the shift in administrative functions that accompanied the relocation of
a public archivium to areas further inland.17 Thus far, no useful archaeologi-
cal information from Oristano in the giudicati era has been found. The only
known data comes from emergency interventions conducted in front of the
later cathedral,18 which revealed a sixth- to seventh-century cemetery (around
the church of the Assumption and St. Michael) and subsequent phases of the
cathedral’s construction site during the giudicati period. Urban excavations
near the Tower of Mariano II, like those at the convent of Santa Chiara, were
not documented, and are known only from a study of decontextualized ceram-
ic materials recovered during the restoration.19 Still unpublished excavations
were also carried out in the area of Oristano’s city walls by Raimondo Zucca at
the Torre di Portixedda (1992–1993) and by the archaeological Soprintendenza
near Porta Sant’Antonio.
In the case of Porto Torres (Turris Libisonis), the seat of another giudi-
cato, the information currently available has come from excavations led by
Francoise Villedieu20 and Letizia Pani Ermini, who offered details on the suc-
cessive use of the basilica of San Gavino (infra Coroneo).21 Aside from a small,
intact, but decontextualized Forum Ware pitcher from the public baths, there
is no archaeological information on either private or public constructions (the
palace) in the medieval (giudicati) era, and no stratigraphic sequence, con-
texts, or artifacts concerning the medieval period.22
17 Pier Giorgio Spanu and Raimondo Zucca, I sigilli bizantini della ΣΑΡΔΗΙΝΙΑ (Rome, 2004).
18 Raimondo Zucca, “L’Aristane dei Bizantini,” Quaderni Oristanesi (1987), pp. 47–56;
Salvatore Sebis, “Aristiane, II. Intervento di scavo nel sagrato della cattedrale di Oristano,”
Quaderni della Soprintendenza archeologica delle Province di Cagliari e Oristano 5
(1988), pp. 136–139; Anna Depalmas, “Ricerche archeologiche nell’area della cattedrale
di Oristano: materiali dello scavo,” Quaderni della Soprintendenza Archeologica delle
Province di Cagliari e Oristano 7 (1990), pp. 201–217.
19 Marco Marini and Maria Laura Ferru, Le ceramiche del Convento di Santa Chiara: storia
dell’artigianato a Oristano in epoca giudicale e spagnola (Cagliari, 1998).
20 Francois Villedieu, Turris Libisonis. Fouille d’un site romain tardif à Porto Torres. Sardaigne
(Oxford, 1984).
21 Francesca Manconi and Letizia Pani Ermini, “Nuove ricerche nel complesso di San Gavino
di Turris Libisonis,” in Insulae Christi: il cristianesimo primitivo in Sardegna, Corsica
e Baleari (Oristano, 2002); Letizia Pani Ermini, Indagini archeologiche nel complesso di
S. Gavino a Porto Torres: scavi 1989–2003 (Rome, 2006).
22 Daniela Rovina, “Sardegna centro-settentrionale,” in La ceramica invetriata tardoantica
e altomedievale in Italia. Atti del Seminario (Certosa di Pontignano 1990) (Florence, 1992),
pp. 543–548; Marco Milanese, “Ceramiche d’importazione in Sardegna tra IX e XIII sec-
olo,” in Pensare/Classificare. Studi e ricerche sulla ceramica medievale per Graziella Berti
(Florence, 2010), pp. 147–157.