Tharros (also spelled Tharras, Archaic Greek: Θάρρας, Ptolemaic Hellenistic: Τάρραι/Τάρρας, Tárrai/Tárras; Latin: Tarrhae/Tarrhas) was an ancient city and former bishopric on the west coast of Sardinia, Italy.
It is currently a Latin Catholic titular see and an archaeological site near the village of San Giovanni di Sinis, municipality of Cabras, in the Province of Oristano.
Until some years ago, the archaeological findings in the area of Tharros supported the theory that Phoenicians founded the town in eighth century BC.
A submerged 100 m wall seems to be part of a port structure much older than the Phoenician one, since in 1200 BC sea level rose, swallowing the existing buildings.
[2][3] Archaeologists found a tophet, an open-air sacred place common for several installations of Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean, on top of a hill called Su Muru Mannu near the remains of a village built by the Nuragic peoples (1900-730 BC[4]).
A 2021 Ancient DNA study by Stefania Sarno et al., found that among 14 individuals, buried in the Punic Age southern necropolis of Tharros, there were people coming from North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula.