Dall'archeologia dell'acqua: canali, vasche,piscine, pozzi... alle implicazioni cultuali nei santuari fenici e punici di Sardegna

The goal of this PhD thesis is to study and catalog the hydraulic structures and the hydrologic components into the sanctuaries of the Phoenician-Punic areas in Sardinia. The object of this paper is to verify the presence of tanks, wells, fountains, pools, basins, and natural lakes related to the sacred areas, and demonstrate their function as water supply or as ritual device. Usually it is not possible to clearly distinguish between these two functions because they are not mutually exclusive but it is possible to set some hypotheses. In fact, many water installations are already mapped in all Phoenician and west Mediterranean area, and for this reason it is possible to draw some correspondences over pools, sacred wells and sanctuaries next to spring water on the Phoenician and Punic settlements in Sardinia. The main difference between the Sardinia and the Mediterranean environment is the dense presence of the Nuraghi substratum in the island. In fact, Phoenician and Punic peoples reutilized these structures adapting it for their cults. For this reason there aren’t almost any traditional ablution, aspersion, or sacred ritual structures in the Sardinian sanctuaries.