Archeologia urbana ad Alghero: dalCastellasal Monastero di Santa Chiara

The aim of this research is to define, using material heritage, the historic and socio-economic dynamics that in medieval and post-medieval times governed the harbour town of Alghero, located in North-west Sardinia. Founded in the Middle Ages, the town was a stopover of primary importance for traffic in the Mediterranean basin; it has been the focal point of a detailed urban archaeology programme for some twenty years.The research concerns a heterogeneous set of findings, both ceramic and numismatic, in the excavations of a part of the old town occupied in the early Middle Ages by the Jewish quarter, which contributed to the busy trade of Alghero. An analysis of the ceramic relics enabled us to define from morphological, typological and functional standpoints the variety of pottery for the table and for transportation used by the community of Alghero in the Jewish quarter and before this existed.Numismatic findings enabled new data to be added to what is already known today regarding the circulation of coins in Alghero and North Sardinia.The possibility of matching up information on the areas of provenance of the ceramics and coins, important trading markers, led us to reach certain conclusive considerations on the internal organisation of the geopolitical and economic situation of which the town of Alghero was part, comprising Western Europe and the west Mediterranean basin.