Mauro Puddu has spent most of his years as an archaeologist researching Sardinia. After studying at the Università degli Studi di Cagliari for his BA in Cultural Heritage and his first Masters in Classical Archaeology, he decided to broaden his research horizons taking a second Masters at University College, London, in theoretical Archaeology. During his PhD research at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Classics he applied the knowledge acquired in Italy and the United Kingdom to study the funerary practices of Roman-period Sardinia. In a decade of research, the author has taken part in numerous successful archaeological projects, among which were the excavation of ‘La Sella del Diavolo’, Cagliari, run by the Soprintendenza archeologica di Cagliari; the Al-Mafjar Project in Jericho, Palestine, run by Birzeit University and the Khalili Research Centre, University of Oxford; and the Interamna Lirenas Project, run by the University of Cambridge. In recent years, during research on future projects and publications, Mauro has been working around London and Cambridge on a vast number of projects, which included the excavation of the Westminster School next to Westminster Abbey.

• PREFACE ; 1. ROMAN-PERIOD SARDINIA: A SEMIOTIC THEORY OF IDENTITY ; 2. BURIALS OF SARDINIA: METHODOLOGY OF DATA COLLECTION ; 3.FUNERARY PRACTICE AND THE URBAN COMMUNITIES OF SULCI ; 4.FUNERARY PRACTICE AND RURAL COMMUNITIES OF MASULLAS ; 5. FUNERARY PRACTICES AND URBAN COMMUNITIES IN KARALES ; 6. CONNECTING THE DOTS: SULCI, MASULLAS, KARALES AND THE MEDITTERRANEAN ; 7. SARDINIA’S COMMUNITIES AND THE MEDITERRANEAN AT LARGE ; APPENDIX 1 ; APPENDIX 2: COARSE WARE TYPOLOGY OF CERAMICS FROM MASULLAS

'By incorporating a robust theoretical framework, the author joins others […] in rejecting the now-outdated conception of “Romanized” cities along Sardinia's coast versus a “native” rural hinterland… The author is at his strongest when dealing with theory.' —Allison L.C. Emmerson, American Journal of Archaeology, September 2020