330 Martorelli
the thirteenth century.62 It seems possible that the inhabitants moved to an-
other site, as the old town’s proximity to the harbor and the port, which had
been the most important economic and political center both in the Roman
and early medieval period, was now threatened by Arab raiders sailing in
the Mediterranean.63 According to traditional historiography, after the fall of
Carthage in 698, Arab ships sailing out of North African ports repeatedly tried
to invade Sardinia. Thus, coastal inhabitants moved their towns to safer places.64
What exactly happened during the decline of the Roman Empire is one of the
most challenging questions facing archaeologists working in the Mediterranean,
because of the diffusion of legends, unfounded information, and local urban
histories. Sardinia is a perfect example, where the Muslim invasion is frequently
cited as a reason for the death of cities and towns. The question is still open,
but it is certain that Sardinian coastal towns experienced radical changes in
this period: all of them were deserted and their inhabitants moved toward the
interior of the island, gradually founding other towns or small villages, such as
Tharros, Oristano,65 Nora-Pula,66 Neapolis,67 Porto Torres-Sassari,68 and so on.69
Sant’Antioco, in the southwest part of the island, may have been the only de-
populated town whose population did not move inland.70
62 Archeologia urbana a Cagliari.
63 Ibid., p. 228.
64 Ibid., pp. 231–232. On Arabs and Sardinia, see the most recent Fabio Pinna, “Le testimoni-
anze archeologiche relative ai rapporti tra gli Arabi e la Sardegna nel medioevo,” RiMe—
Rivista dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea 4 (2010), pp. 11–37.
65 For further reference, see Rossana Martorelli, Tharros, San Giovanni e le origini del cris-
tianesimo nel Sinis (Ghilarza, 2010), pp. 34–36.
66 Giorgio Bejor, “Una città di Sardegna tra Antichità e Medioevo: Nora,” in “Orientis ra-
diata fulgore.” La Sardegna nel contesto storico e culturale bizantino. Atti del Convegno di
Studi (Cagliari, Pontificia Facoltà Teologica della Sardegna, 30 novembre–1 dicembre 2007)
(Cagliari, 2008), pp. 107–108.
67 Raimondo Zucca, ed., Splendidissima civitas Neapolitanorum (Rome, 2005), pp. 263–264.
68 Letizia Pani Ermini, ed., Indagini archeologiche nel complesso di S. Gavino a Porto Torres:
scavi 1989–2003 (Rome, 2006).
69 For a general survey of Byzantine towns in Sardinia, see Pier Giorgio Spanu, “Iterum est
insula quae dicitur Sardinia, in qua plurimas fuisse civitates legimus (Ravennatis Anonimi
Cosmographia V,26). Note sulle città tra la tarda antichità e l’alto medioevo,” in Le città
italiane tra la tarda antichità e l’alto medioevo. Atti del convegno (Ravenna, 26–28 febbraio
2004), ed. Andrea Augenti (Florence, 2006). On the raising of levels in late Roman towns,
see Martorelli, Archeologia urbana a Cagliari, p. 230.
70 Rossana Martorelli, “Le catacombe di Sant’Antioco,” in S. Antioco da primo evangelizza-
tore di Sulci a glorioso Protomartire “Patrono della Sardegna”, eds. Roberto Lai and Marco
Massa (Sant’Antioco, 2011), p. 78.