338 Rovina
have been dedicated to uncovering the history of both Sassari and settlements
preceding it at its present location. There remain, however, various lacunae,
due, above all, to the scarcity of written sources from the Middle Ages and
their complete non-existence before the twelfth century.8 However, new data
and important findings from a long urban excavation campaign from 2000
to 2010, involving the entire historical center of Sassari, has recently become
available.9 When the foundations and pavement of the streets and piazzas of
the ancient part of the city were being redone, inspection of all open trenches
in the subsoil—and when necessary stratigraphic archaeological surveys—
was possible. This systematic examination of the medieval city’s entire sub-
strata led to a fundamental new historical reconstruction, and permitted a
better understanding of old incidental finds that had not been scientifically
documented. Based on this new data, it is possible to confirm that the urban
development of Sassari definitively dates to the thirteenth century, built over a
tenth/eleventh-century rural village.
Sassari’s position atop a plateau, along with its notable number of springs,
ensured that it was naturally defensible and well suited for controlling the
surrounding territory. It was a favored site for human settlement since the
Neolithic period (ca. 5000 BC). Remains of the prehistoric era, all of which can
be traced back to grottos of a funerary or residential function, can nonethe-
less not be related directly to the historical center, but only to its immediate
vicinity.10 In the Roman era, the most important center in northern Sardinia
was Turris Libisonis (present-day Porto Torres), a Roman colony founded on
8 Antonello Mattone and Marco Tangheroni, eds, Gli Statuti Sassaresi. Economia, Società,
Istituzioni a Sassari nel Medioevo e nell’Età moderna (Cagliari, 1986); Angelo Castellaccio,
Sassari medioevale (Sassari, 1996); Meloni, Simbula, and Soddu, “Introduzione”; Simbula
and Soddu, “Gli spazi dell’identità.” For archaeological data antedating recent investiga-
tions, see AA.VV., Sassari le origini (Sassari, 1989).
9 Daniela Rovina, “Scavi urbani a Sassari. Problemi metodologici e primi risultati,” Sardinia
Corsica et Baleares antiquae III (2005), pp. 103–112; Daniela Rovina, “Interventi di archeologia
urbana a Sassari,” in Ricerca e confronti 2006. Giornate di studio di archeologia e storia
dell’arte, eds Simonetta Angiolillo, Marco Giuman, and Alessandra Pasolini (Cagliari,
2007), pp. 341–348; Daniela Rovina and Mauro Fiori, eds, Sassari sottosopra, Catalogo
della mostra Sassari dicembre 2009–marzo 2010 (Sassari, 2010); Daniela Rovina and Mauro
Fiori, eds, Sassari. Archeologia urbana (Pisa, 2013). The Superintendence of the Beni
Archeologici of the provinces of Sassari and Nuoro, the cultural organization “Laboratorio
provvisorio,” and a civic history research laboratory have collected documentation from
the urban excavation, which is currently being studied, with particular attention to the
archeometry, paleo-botanics, anthropology, and archaeo-zoology. Thanks to funding
from the Fondazione Banco di Sardegna, the lab is open to the public one day a week and
offers guided tours by archaeologists.
10 Rovina and Fiori, Sassari.