Studying the abandonment of medieval villages is useful for understanding the depopulation of inhabited centers not only on the island but in many European regions. This morning “Biddas” , the museum of the abandoned villages of Sardinia, was inaugurated on the second floor of the Baronial Palace of Sorso .
A unique case on a national level: history and archeology told through interactive tools to foster knowledge and fix the experiential memory of what was seen, experienced and learned in this museum space.
Visitors, who will be accompanied by the expert guides of the Sardinian Cooperative of Medieval Archeology , will have the opportunity to take a journey back in time to discover the characteristic processes of the island's depopulation from the contemporary age to the Middle Ages, through narration. of the abandoned medieval village of Geridu , the only one in Sardinia to have been excavated in extension. A room in the museum is dedicated to Geridu, where the main results of the research conducted to date in this village are illustrated, through reconstructions and activities that allow the visitor to see and appreciate directly the results of over 20 years of studies.
The mayor of Sorso , Fabrizio Demelas , said: “Biddas is not simply a museum of finds but an interactive and dynamic place, suitable for visitors of all ages”.
The archaeologist Marco Milanese , professor of the Department of History, Human Sciences and Education of the University of Sassari , added: "This is not an archaeological museum, but it is a space dedicated to the theme of depopulation, the passage is get out of the narrow logic of the archaeological museum to create a dynamic environment, an experience that directly involves the visitor. A museum that uses archeology to reconstruct history, with a narrative steeped in anthropology and sociology, to tell what happened in the villages between 1,300 and 1,500, to tell through the story of Geridu a story common to many villages of that 'epoch'.
