The presence of Phoenician-Punic peoples along the eastern coast of Sardinia and, in particular, in the territory of Tortolì can be proved by items found, by some literary sources which, though from a period after the Punic one, are full of news useful for reconstructing historical events.

The poet Claudius Claudianus, who lived between the end of the IV and the start of the V century A.D., in his work De bello Gildonico, in verses 503-526, talks of Sardinia and describes it as a large human foot-shaped, fertile island, in a favourable position for those wanting to head towards Carthage or Italy. He tells of ships that have to be careful to avoid the rocks and dangers of the Sardinian coastline so some enter Sulci, an ancient colony of Carthage, while others stop in Olbia (fig. 1).

Fig. 1 - The verses of De bello Gildonico by Claudius Claudianus which talk about eastern Sulci.

Most scholars place the port of Sulci mentioned by Claudianus near the coastal pond of Tortolì, in the Arbatax-Capo Bellavista area. As well as the older settlements of Sulki (S. Antioco), Tharros and Karalis in the south-western part of the island, there were others along the eastern coast, indispensable for trading routes, both Phoenician and Punic, leading to central-western Italy, in particular, to Etruria.

The Itinerarium Antonini Augusti et Hierosolymitanum, a sort of register of stations and distances between places located along the Roman empire roads, indicates the port of Sulcis and this mention also helps place the site near the pond of Tortolì.

Sulci was also a stop on the eastern coastal road, at Portus Tibulas Caralis. Even in Punic times, the various towns were connected by a road network; but we can only presume where roads were as it is not possible to distinguish them from those of the Roman Period (fig. 2). However, it has been ascertained that the main Roman roads were along the routes of those built in Punic times.

Fig. 2 - The Roman road system in Sardinia. Sulci is highlighted in red (from Mastino 2005, p. 340, fig. 37).

The literary sources are confirmed by finds made during archaeological surveys carried out in 1966 in the ruins of the medieval castle of Medusa at Lotzorai, a short distance from the pond of Tortolì (figs. 3-4). Here they identified wall structures coming from a previous period building, almost certainly Punic, datable to the IV-III century B.C. based on the building technique used, found identical in the buildings of western Sulki (S. Antioco). This dating is confirmed by the remains of cultural material and by the strategic position on a hill that, though modest in height (25 metres a.s.l.), seems to place it as a military or religious building.

Fig. 3 - The position of the castle of Medusa compared to the pond of Tortolì (from Sardegnageoportale; reworked by M.G. Arru).

Fig. 4 - The ruins of the castle of Medusa, Lotzorai (from http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/index.php?xsl=615&s=17&v=9&c=4461&id=253747).

Finding Punic and Roman stone fragments on the island of Ogliastra, opposite the pond of Tortolì, is further confirmation of the Punic presence on the eastern coast.