The ancient town of Tharros was founded by the Phoenicians around the end of the 8th century B.C. on the western coast of the island, precisely on the Capo San Marco, extreme southern offshoot of the Sinis peninsula, about 20 km from Oristano. The archaeological area is located between two hills, "Su Muru Mannu" ("the big wall") on the north and the hill of the San Giovanni’s tower on the south, separated by a thin strip of land.
The morphology of the territory and the favourable position determined certainly the choice of the place of settlement for one of the biggest cities of the ancient Mediterranean, that had a thousand-year-old history: having the sea both on the east and on the west allowed the ships to choose every time the better side for the mooring, depending on the wind. Moreover, the Sinis was already rich of ponds and cereal cultivations, that were favourable features for human settlement.
The human presence of the area started in the nuragic era. After some centuries of abandonment, the Phoenician town was founded, and from the 6th century on the Carthaginian were there, followed then by the Romans 3 centuries later. The decay of the town started with the arrival of the Vandals around the 3d century A.D., and only the Byzantine era gave the town its glory back. But in 1070, the capital of the Kingdom of Arborea was moved from Tharros to Oristano, so the city was definitively abandoned, becoming a quarry to build the new capital.
So Tharros’ ruins show a stratification of several cultures, even though today the ancient town appears more in its roman aspect than in its Punic and medieval aspect. But it’s important to consider that some ruins are still difficult to interpret for the coexistence of elements belonging to different chronological phases.
To the first period, the Nuragic era (15th-14th century BC), belong the circular basalt ruins, that are everything that remains today of the nuragic village.
Upon this village the Phoenicians then built the tophet, used from the 8th century B.C. on: today it ‘s not visible there. It was the typical sanctuary of the Phoenico-Punic towns, used to keep the urns of the dead young children, that were first dedicated to god Baal and then also to the goddess Tanìt. The "stele" (sacred stones) of the tophet were then used by the Romans to build other structures.
To the Carthaginian period belong the temple of the Doric columns, or "monumental temple" (4th-3rd century BC), and the ruins of the sandstone walls. The housing area is composed by houses and shops: the Punic style is shown by the big squared stones and small stones to fill, without any cement.
The two-columns temple, that has become the symbol of Tharros, has at the same time Punic and roman ruins, so that the interpretation is difficult.
To the roman period belong the ruins of buildings, the sandstone pavement, the basalt roads that still have the marks of the carts’ wheels, the "castellum acquae" that provided water to the public fountain, the three thermal baths and the forum.
The byzantine period has left the baptistery, with a baptismal basin, two Doric capitals and a sandstone seat.
The history of the excavations of Tharros started in the 19th century, when many interventions were made, some of them only in order to find treasures. So the finds of the area are now in many private collections and museums in the world, for example the British Museum or the Louvre. The official excavations have continued during the 20th century until the 80s.