Woman and child: The singular testimony of a Punic tomb in the necropolis of Monte Sirai (Carbonia-Sardinia, Italy)

In this paper we present a case of a double burial (T.310/326) from the Phoenician Punic necropolis of MonteSirai (Carbonia, Sardinia, Italy). This peculiar tomb, which comprises the inhumation of a woman, presentsunique constructive features, namely a big stone cover that confers a high visual reference to the necropolis.Furthermore, a cooking pot with two handles was laid on the tibias during thefinal closure of the tomb whichincluded remains from at least three birds of the Turdidae family. Strikingly, these remains were mixed withthose from a perinatal infant who could possibly constitute the progeny of the woman buried in the tomb. Thecombined XRD/FT-IR analysis showed that the infant remains underwent intense heat treatment, while the adultand bird remains remained unburned. This urned infant burial involving perinatal and animal remains has closeanalogies with practices of infant depositions in the contemporaneous Phoenician and Punictophetsanctuaries ofthe central Mediterranean.