L’isola indecisa

Abstract

This article is a personal reflection on Asinara, an island whose nature appears unresolved, suspended, and undefined, resisting any unequivocal classification. Though now designated as a National Park, it bears the weight of centuries of history marked by quarantines, deportations, imprisonments, and enforced isolation, as well as various forms of occupation and more recent abandonments
that have persisted into the present day. These circumstances have hindered any conventional efforts at mapping and at stratigraphic analysis, bestowing upon the island an exceptional character that demands a holistic interpretation, free from fragmentations and reconstructions, in contrast to traditional approaches in historical and archaeological studies.

KEYWORDS: Asinara island, Unmappable landscape, Topography of abandonment.