310 Milanese
by the state bureaucracy of the Soprintendenza and the short-sightedness of
the municipalities, which causes a significant loss of historical and archaeo-
logical information about the history of the urban centers.
The archaeological analysis of the rural landscapes of Sardinia has changed
the traditional historical interpretation, based on written records. Research
over the past two decades has led to the discovery of hundreds of medieval and
post-medieval abandoned villages and expanded considerably the archaeolog-
ical heritage of Sardinia. The extensive excavation of the village of Geridu is a
different case, for it is currently the only Sardinian medieval village explored
archaeologically on a grand scale and with the most up-to-date methodolo-
gies and techniques. This archaeological site is an important training example
for discussion and debate between historians and medieval archaeologists: the
extensive application of technology and bio-archaeology broadened the inter-
pretation so that today new histories unfold from this site. The excavation has
further provided enough material culture to help create a new museum, and
the first, dedicated to the abandoned villages of Sardinia; another novel contri-
bution by medieval rural archaeology.136
For many of the abandoned medieval villages of northern Sardinia, chrono-
logical data is crucial during field-walking campaigns. Forum Ware, generally
dated between the ninth and eleventh centuries, was found on sites known
from written documents only from the twelfth century onwards. Thus archae-
ology helps anticipate the history provided by the written sources and opens
up important scenarios on issues of continuity and discontinuity, starting with
the late antique pottery dated to the fifth–sixth centuries AD and found on the
same site. Issues such as this need to be highlighted by connections, welds, and
breaks with the contribution of stratigraphic excavations on a larger sample
of sites. Such a lively and innovative research program has only two require-
ments: the identification of sites through surveys, which have largely already
been identified and selected, and more extensive excavations. The limitations
of private property, a rigid and refractory legislation that remains against real
synergy within the different state institutions dealing with archaeological heri-
tage, the waste of resources, and finally the local myopia of marketing authori-
ties are currently preventing a real breakthrough in the development of the
island’s heritage.
136 Marco Milanese, “Dal progetto di ricerca alla valorizzazione. Biddas–Museo dei Villaggi
Abbandonati della Sardegna (un museo open, un museo per tutti),” Archeologia Medievale
XLI (2014), pp. 115–126. In 2013 the Museum Biddas was awarded the first national
Riccardo Francovich, dedicated to museum innovations with the discipline of medieval
archaeology.