Necropoli di Bonaria

On the western slopes of Bonaria hill, edging the monumental cemetery of Cagliari, lies a layered burial ground that speaks in several ancient tongues. The site had occasional prehistoric visitors, a few shards and bronze fragments hint at Nuragic presence, but its true funerary purpose began in the 4th century BC. Punic rock-cut chamber tombs, entered via shaft-like openings, were dug into the bedrock and furnished with grave goods between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC; these were partly explored in the 1800s but are now lost.

What remains are the Roman tombs, built from the 1st century AD. These are funerary cubicles with niches for cinerary urns and arcosolia, arched recesses, where sarcophagi were carved into the walls for burials. On the flatter western ground, simpler trench graves and 'cappuccina' tombs (tiled like a little roof) once stretched towards another necropolis that later gave way to the basilica of San Saturnino. Thirty of these were excavated in the late 1500s; more incineration pits were found atop the hill at the century's end, with further discoveries during the 19th-century cemetery construction. A quiet palimpsest of mortal rites.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.