A New Punic “Mould for Ritual Bread” in Terracotta from Sarcapos (Villaputzu, Sardinia)

Abstract

In 2019, a University of Bologna excavation at the Punic-Roman settlement of Santa Maria near Villaputzu (SU) unhearted a new fragment of a terracotta “ritual bread mould”. The artifact is ring-shaped and decorated with a frieze of “Phoenician-Cypriot” palmettes and a braid motif. It comes from a peripheral sector of the settlement, and thus, for the Punic era, neither a connection with the nearby necropolis nor a different functional, productive, or cult-related intent can be excluded.