The oldest traces of human presence in the Sulcis date back to the
Mesolithic (9000 BC). From the second half of the fourth millennium BC, in the late Neolithic, the tombs took on the appearance of
Domus de Janas, subterranean structures obtained by digging the rock sometimes gathered in vast necropolis as in the case of
Montessu. To the Eneolithic belong the cultures of
Monte Claro and of the
Bell Beaker which were widely spread in the Sulcis. In the early centuries of the second millennium BC in Sardinia developed the
Bonnanaro culture, linked to the previous culture of the bell-shaped vessel to which were added
Polada influences; Sulcis is one of the Sardinian territories in which this culture is most strongly represented. In the Middle Bronze Age also in the Sulcis spread the
Nuragic civilization resulting in the construction of dozens of
nuraghi (many of which of the complex typology as the Nuraghe Sirai or the Nuraghe Meurra), villages,
holy wells and
giant tombs. The occurrence of
nuraghi in the region seems to strongly be related to elevated outcrops giving the advantage of a raised position and stable foundations. Sulcis is named after the ancient
Phoenician (and then
Punic and
Roman) city of
Sulci (
Solki), near the present-day
Sant'Antioco. In the
Middle Ages the Sulcis was part of a
Curatoria of the
giudicato of Cagliari which included the entire south-western part of Sardinia. From 1258 to 1355, after the fall of the giudicato, it was under the rule of the
pisan
della Gherardesca family and then, from 1355, it was incorporated in the
Kingdom of Sardinia by the
Aragonese. The medieval
diocese of Sulcis retained its name until the move of the seat from Tratalias to Iglesias in 1506. It had two cathedrals: the first in the ancient city of Sulci, the Roman-Byzantine basilica dedicated to the founder of the diocese,
Antiochus of Sulcis; the second in a Romanesque church in the village of
Tratalias dedicated to Saint Mary of
Montserrat. From the
14th century to the
modern era, as a result of wars (
Sardinian–Aragonese war), the
black plague and
saracen raids, this territory was completely depopulated,
Giovanni Francesco Fara in 1580 described this region has wild and abandoned. In the 17th century there were only two inhabited villages in the entire Sulcis,
Portoscuso and
Teulada. In the 18th century, during the
Savoy era, began a process of repopulation, mainly carried out by families from the nearby
Iglesiente, particularly from
Iglesias, who were granted lands of feudal domains for the exercise of the
agriculture and
pastoralism. The distance of the concessions from the residential centers in the north, in the order of tens of kilometers, was such as to require the construction of permanent settlements for residential purposes and protection of the territory, the so-called
furriadroxius and the
medaus. This dynamic has therefore favored a colonization with a population dispersed in scattered settlements of small size, comparable to small modest farms but basically autonomous. The arrival of new families of settlers, over time, developed a tendency of furriadroxius to congregate around a
church. The original settlements, following these enlargements, turned into an aggregated group of more housing units, called
boddeu (set of furriadroxius), similar to a village but with no roads. Most of the inhabited centers of the Sulcis, today
communes or villages, have developed between the 18th and 19th centuries because of expansion of boddeus, taking the name of the ancient medieval centers disappeared. Today, Sulcis is one of the poorest places in Italy, characterized by sky-high unemployment and emigration. ==See also==