292 Milanese
with archaeology’s scope. Further, by addressing and answering some of these
questions, excavation and material analysis can make a profound impact on
the study of the social complexity, conflicts, and dynamics that governed re-
lations between local, partly dependent communities and the monasteries,
while also taking into account the transformations that occurred when new
subjects inserted themselves into the rural regions of Sardinia from the mid-
eleventh century onwards.
6 The Incastellamento Process
The work of the sixteenth century humanist Giovanni Francesco Fara incor-
rectly dated the foundations of some of the principal citadels of the lordships
(Castelgenovese, Bosa, Alghero) of northern Sardinia to the early twelfth cen-
tury. At one of the first incastellamento conferences (in Cuneo, Italy) John
Day noted that the first half of the twelfth century was the key period for the
Figure 11.6 Excavation of the medieval village of
Silki (Sassari). Traces of the wall of a
house dated to the last phase of the
site ( fourteenth century).