• What
  Necropolis and Tophet of Sulky or Solky, an old Phoenician town.
  
• Where
  It is situated on the north-east coast of the island of S. Antioco (CA)
  
• Period 
  VIII  cent. BC - Roman period
  
• Civilization
  Phoenician-Punic and Roman

Description
Sulci is the Roman name for what we now call S. Antioco.
It derives from the Latinization of the Phoenician name Sulky.
Since the III millennium BC. Sulci was populated by Paleosardinian people. First the population from the Cultura di Ozieri and then the Nuragic people lived on this Island long before the Phoenicians arrived.

The modern village of Sant'Antioco is built on the same site as the three previous towns: Phoenician (VIII century BC.), Punic (VI century BC.) (the Punic were Phoenicians who came from the city of Carthage which was on the coast of Africa near Tunisia) and Roman (III century BC.).

The Punic city was built along the coast at the back of the port and was protected by fortifications which were situated on the hills behind the city.
The most important archaeological sites are the Punic necropolis and the Phoenician­Punic tofet.

To the north-east of the Savoy fort there is a necropolis which consists of hypogeum, carved into tufa rock, which were in use until the Roman period.
During your visit you can also see what may possibly be a sacrificial altar which was built before the tofet and a vertical split in the rock where children may have been sacrificially burnt.

On the top of the rock there is the bottom of a tank and huge blocks which were part of a Punic defensive tower.
The tophet of Sulci is situated in a place called Sa Guardia 'e is pingiadas (the guard of the saucepans):
the guard: because of his raised position
of the saucepans: because saucepan was the name that the farmers in the sixteenth century used to give to the urns which they found in the ground by chance!!!

Tourist information

How to get there:
From Cagliari: take the 55 130 Main Road to Iglesias and then continue on the SS
126 to Carbonia-San Giovanni Suergiu as far as S. Antioco.

What to see:

• Civic Archaeological Museum
• Punic-Roman Necropolis
• Tophet
• Etnographic Museum "Su Magasinu e su binu"