he upper areas of a building or settlement from ancient times are not easily reconstructible or definable, and even less so the roofs. Data from digs or from analysing materials from collapsed structures, and their arrangement, can be of some help.

The roofs of Punic buildings, both domestic and temples, were generally flat, and in this sense it is possible to hypothesise what the ones in Monte Sirai must have been like. There were no tiles.

Fig. 1-2 - Aerial photo and reconstruction of the roofs Monte Sirai (BARTOLONI 2004)

The flat roofs were placed on a framework of wooden beams: according to some experts, juniper or other wood that was not attacked by parasites was preferred.

In this case too, the results of the digs at Monte Sirai help to reconstruct the presence of a technique that is similar to the so-called “incannucciato”, or cane work: bunches of canes tied together were placed on the beams, then covered by a layer of crude clay.

Fig. 3 - Reconstruction of a house in Monte Sirai, with flat roof (BARTOLONI 2004)

The surface obtained in this way, both for floors and flat roofs, were covered by hydraulic plaster. These analogies can be supported because the layers found during the archaeological dig and coming from the collapse of the roofs is no different in composition from the underlying beaten floor.