The traces of the nuraghe are only small but important, one of the many present around the Monte Sirai high plains, that stood where later the religious building known as the “temple of Astarte” stood.

Fig. 1 - Monte Sirai; highlighted the area of the nuraghe (photo Unicity S.p.A.).

A curved stretch of the monument that has now disappeared, a single tower and place of memory, can be seen. Recent investigations tell us that the nuraghe was not destroyed by the Phoenicians, as an old interpretation suggested, but was a place of native worship open to Phoenician presence, around the 8th century B.C.

Figs. 2-3 - The circular shape of the nuraghe below the ‘tempio di Astarte’ (photo Unicity S.p.A.; map by BARTOLONI 2004, fig. 13)

Figs. 4-5 - Stretch of residual wall of the Nuragic tower; bronze figure with askoid jug (photo UNICITY S.p.A.; MOSCATI 1988b, p. 427)

The nuraghe was therefore still standing in the first Phoenician phase of Monte Sirai, as can be seen from the items from that period, that show more moments of integration than fighting: the Phoenician bronze figure (fig. 5) with a figure using a Nuragic jug, like an askoid one.