Funerary Practices in Late Antique Sardinia: Overview and Potential

This paper offers an overview of state-of-the-art funerary archaeology of late antique Sardinia. It will expose the most recurrent issues faced by archaeologists working in the discipline. To do so, this paper will highlight some renowned studies and recent results coming from major excavations in south and central Sardinia, such as Cornus and Pill’e Matta. While providing a synthesis of the work done so far, this paper will eventually single out one often overlooked piece of evidence that has recently gained more attention internationally: burial manipulation. This involves the structured, often respectful, reuse of tombs. While aiming at increasing the relational understanding of the archaeological evidence by observing the interaction between late antique communities and their more or less recent past, this paper highlights the potential held by burial manipulation studies to answer some key questions about late antique Sardinia.