280 Milanese
agriculture, and forests.37 Intense excavation of broad areas of the large de-
serted medieval village of Geridu (Sorso), where 326 taxable families ( fuochi)
lived at the beginning of the fourteenth century,38 has also shed light on spatial
organization, which appears to have been hierarchical and based on the func-
tions and symbols of power, economic activity, material culture, and con-
struction techniques (Fig. 11.2). They also brought to light the remains of the
inhabitants of a large villa of free farmers in northwest Sardinia, located
a few kilometers from the urban center of Sassari and overlooking the sea.39
The construction of the monumental Catalan-Gothic church of Sant’Andrea
di Geridu, as well as one dedicated to San Giacomo in the nearby village of
Taniga, all express the power exercised by newly arrived Catalan-Sardinian
feudal lords over the village communities in the second quarter of the four-
teenth century.
Although Geridu is documented in written sources in the condaghe of San
Pietro di Silki from the early twelfth century onwards (1112–1115),40 a radical
intervention seems to have redesigned its form in the late thirteenth century,
leading to a reorganization of houses that are listed as taxable hearths in the
census conducted at the onset of the fourteenth century. These were identified
as part of a new rational urban planning, divided into long lots and subdivided
into contiguous single-family homes, which probably coincide with the tax-
able units described in the written documents (Fig. 11.3). The strategy of the
excavation, which aimed to be as extensive as possible, has enabled us to un-
derstand some of the nodes in the topography and the stratigraphic dynamics
of the site. So far, finds have been limited to pottery (Cobalt-Manganese and
Spiral Ware) from the late twelfth or first half of the thirteenth century and the
remains of some stone structures demolished for the new ground plan of the
village. Therefore, according to the current state of knowledge, Geridu could
well serve as a model for large rural villages in northwestern Sardinia between
37 Milanese, “Il villaggio medievale di Geridu.”
38 Amounting to about 1,500–2,000 inhabitants in the early fourteenth century. Geridu was
the most heavily populated center in the Curatoria of Romangia, and, after Sassari, one
of the largest in northern Sardinia; see Milanese, “Il villaggio medievale di Geridu”; Marco
Milanese, ed., Vita e morte dei villaggi rurali tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna. Dallo scavo della
villa de Geriti ad una pianificazione della tutela e della conoscenza dei villaggi abbando-
nati della Sardegna (Florence, 2006); Alessandro Soddu, “Il villaggio medievale di Geridu
(Geriti),” in Milanese, Vita e morte dei villaggi rurali, pp. 115–137.
39 Relations between the community of the village of Geridu and the seignioria of the Doria
still demand clarification.
40 Milanese, “Il villaggio medievale di Geridu”; Soddu, “Il villaggio medievale di Geridu.”