IlTofetdi Sulci nel Mediterraneo centrale fenicio: lettura incrociata dei materiali archeologici e analisi integrata delle componenti”

The study begins by anIntroduction(Ch. I), devoted to the general premises and a historical assessment. Section I/Ch. II concerns the archaeology of thetophetin the middle Mediterranean. Archaic sites such as Carthage, Mozia, and Tharros were privileged, aiming to emphasize the peculiar features of each context, and the possible connections with the Sulcitophet; also late sanctuaries (in Sardinia and North Africa) were examined as usefull case-studies. Section II focused on the whole documentation from Sulcitophet: description of the site, analytical presentation of all data and contextual reconstruction (Ch. 3). Ch. 4 presents a topographical, physical and archaeological description of the sanctuary, and a critical review of the researches, including previous data and (Ch. 5) new acquisitions: recent excavations (chiefly in 1998) and studies on pottery. A descriptive analysis of the different types of materials is presented in Ch. 6, followed by a careful interpretation (Ch. 7), focused particularly on spatial and productive characteristics of this documentation. It deals with materials from the “West Sector” (archaic squares G and H), studied through an integrated analysis of each “deposition unity”. Section III contains a series of paragraphs about general topics (including historical-religious and socio-anthropological remarks), in the light of the eclectic character of thetophetand the variety of the approaches required for a full interpretation of this phenomenon.