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Necropolis Of Li Muri
The Necropolis of Li Muri is an archaeological site located in the municipality of Arzachena, Sardinia. The necropolis, thought to be a product of the Arzachena culture and dating from the second half of the fourth millennium BC, is composed of five stone cists. Four of the cists are surrounded by stone circles that originally marked the limits of the mound of earth and rubble that was erected over the burial. Bodies were interred inside the cists, probably individually (unlike in the rest of Sardinia where the graves were usually collective). The dead were accompanied by grave goods including pottery, stone vessels, hatchets and beads necklace of steatite and gemstones. The architecture of the necropolis shows strong similarities with contemporary sites of Corsica, Provence and the Pyrenees. The necropolis forms part of the Arzachena Archaeological Park along with two other antiquities: the Nuraghe The nuraghe (, ; plural: Logudorese Sardinian , Campidanese Sardinian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arzachena
Arzachena (; sdn, Alzachèna; sc, Altzaghèna) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Sassari, northern Sardinia, the second largest island off the coast of Italy. Arzachena lies half way between the original Costa Smeralda resort and Porto Rafael, both founded in the late 1950s. After Olbia and Tempio Pausania, it is the third largest commune in Gallura by inhabitants. The ''frazione'' of Porto Cervo is the main resort area of Costa Smeralda for summer tourism, which since the 1960s has replaced agriculture as the main local source of economic activity. Nearby there are numerous archaeological sites from the Nuragic period, including those from a local sub-culture known as Arzachena culture (the necropolis of Li Muri and others). History Located in an area once inhabited by the Arzachena culture, the region was known by the Romans as ''Turibulum'', after a mushroom-shaped rock which is today the symbol of the town. The oldest recorded use of the modern name is in a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the 20 regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia and immediately south of the French island of Corsica. It is one of the five Italian regions with some degree of domestic autonomy being granted by a special statute. Its official name, Autonomous Region of Sardinia, is bilingual in Italian and Sardinian: / . It is divided into four provinces and a metropolitan city. The capital of the region of Sardinia — and its largest city — is Cagliari. Sardinia's indigenous language and Algherese Catalan are referred to by both the regional and national law as two of Italy's twelve officially recognized linguistic minorities, albeit gravely endangered, while the regional law provides ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts of the world. This "Neolithic package" included the introduction of farming, domestication of animals, and change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of settlement. It began about 12,000 years ago when farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East, and later in other parts of the world. The Neolithic lasted in the Near East until the transitional period of the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) from about 6,500 years ago (4500 BC), marked by the development of metallurgy, leading up to the Bronze Age and Iron Age. In other places the Neolithic followed the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) and then lasted until later. In Ancient Egypt, the Neolithic lasted until the Protodynastic period, 3150 BC.Karin Sowada and Peter Grave. Egyp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pre-Nuragic Sardinia
The Pre-Nuragic period refers to the prehistory of Sardinia from the Paleolithic until the middle Bronze Age, when the Nuragic civilization flourished on the island. Paleolithic The discovery of Paleolithic lithic workshops indicate a human presence in Sardinia in the period between 450,000 and 10,000 years ago. According to the researchers, a hominid nicknamed "Nur" was the first to colonize the current territory of the island about 250,000 years ago, in the Lower Paleolithic; based on studies of a phalanx found in the Nùrighe caves of Cheremule, the researchers supposed that he may have been a pre- Neanderthal, but some have expressed doubts, assuming a morphological distance from hominids. During the last ice age sea levels were lower by about 130 meters; at that time Sardinia and Corsica formed a single large island, separated from Tuscany only by a narrow arm of sea. The oldest remains of '' Homo sapiens'' in Sardinia date back to the Upper Paleolithic; their track ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arzachena Culture
The Arzachena culture was a pre-Nuragic culture of the Late Neolithic Age occupying Gallura (the northeastern part of Sardinia) and part of southern Corsica from approximately the 4th to the 3rd millennium BC. It takes its name from the Sardinian town of Arzachena. Arzachena culture is best known for its megalithic structures, such as the characteristic "circular graves" and menhirs. Both the funerary architecture and the material culture show similarities with contemporary cultures in Catalonia, Languedoc, Provence and Corsica. In contrast to the people of the contemporary Ozieri culture in the rest of Sardinia, the people of the Arzachena culture were organized in an aristocratic and individualistic society focused on pastoralism rather than arable farming.Giovanni Lilliu, La società in Sardegna nei secoli, Prima dei nuraghi, p.13 The Arzachena aristocracy buried their dead in megalithic monuments in the shape of a circle, with a central chamber containing a single ind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cists
A cist ( or ; also kist ; from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle East. A cist may have been associated with other monuments, perhaps under a cairn or long barrow. Several cists are sometimes found close together within the same cairn or barrow. Often ornaments have been found within an excavated cist, indicating the wealth or prominence of the interred individual. This old word is preserved in the Nordic languages as "" in Swedish and "" in Danish and Norwegian, where it is the word for a funerary coffin. In English it is related to "cistern".''cistern'' Regional examples ;Sri Lanka * Bellanbedipalassa * Pothana * Ibbankatuwa Megalithic Stones * Udaranchamadama ;England * Bellever Forest, Dartmoor * Hepburn woods, Northumberland ;Estonia * Jõelähtme (Rebala) stone-cist graves, Harju County ;G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stone Circle
A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The best known examples include those at the henge monument at Avebury, the Rollright Stones, and elements within the ring of standing stones at Stonehenge. Scattered examples exist from other parts of Europe. Later, during the Iron Age, stone circles were built in southern Scandinavia. Stone circles are usually grouped in terms of the shape and size of the stones, the span of their radius, and their population within the local area. Although many theories have been advanced to explain their use, usually related to providing a setting for ceremony or ritual, no consensus exists among archaeologists regarding their intended function. Their construction often involved considerable communal effort, including specialist tasks such as planning, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grave Good
Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body. They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods may be classed as a type of votive deposit. Most grave goods recovered by archaeologists consist of inorganic objects such as pottery and stone and metal tools but organic objects that have since decayed were also placed in ancient tombs. The grave goods were to be useful to the deceased in the afterlife; therefore their favorite foods or everyday objects were left with them. Often times social status played a role in what was left and how often it was left. Funerary art is a broad term but generally means artworks made specifically to decorate a burial place, such as miniature models of possessions including slaves or servants for "use" in the afterlife. Although, in ancient Egypt they would sometimes bury the real servants with the deceased. Where grave g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steatite
Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the zones where tectonic plates are subducted, changing rocks by heat and pressure, with influx of fluids, but without melting. It has been a medium for carving for thousands of years. Terminology The definitions of the terms "steatite" and "soapstone" vary with the field of study. In geology, steatite is a rock that is to a very large extent composed of talc. The mining industry will define steatite as a high-purity talc rock that is suitable for manufacturing of, for example, insulators, the lesser grades of the mineral can be called simply "talc rock". Steatite can be used both in lumps ("block steatite", "lava steatite", "lava grade talc"), and in the ground form. While the geologists logically will use "steatite" to designate both fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gemstones
A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, and obsidian) and occasionally organic materials that are not minerals (such as amber, jet, and pearl) are also used for jewelry and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well. Most gemstones are hard, but some soft minerals are used in jewelry because of their luster or other physical properties that have aesthetic value. Rarity and notoriety are other characteristics that lend value to gemstones. Apart from jewelry, from earliest antiquity engraved gems and hardstone carvings, such as cups, were major luxury art forms. A gem expert is a gemologist, a gem maker is called a lapidarist or gemcutter; a diamond cutter is called a diamantaire. Characteristics and classification The traditional classification in the West ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corsica
Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the French mainland, west of the Italian Peninsula and immediately north of the Italian island of Sardinia, which is the land mass nearest to it. A single chain of mountains makes up two-thirds of the island. , it had a population of 349,465. The island is a territorial collectivity of France. The regional capital is Ajaccio. Although the region is divided into two administrative departments, Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud, their respective regional and departmental territorial collectivities were merged on 1 January 2018 to form the single territorial collectivity of Corsica. As such, Corsica enjoys a greater degree of autonomy than other French regional collectivities; for example, the Corsican Assembly is permitted to exercise li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Provence
Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It largely corresponds with the modern administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and includes the departments of Var, Bouches-du-Rhône, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, as well as parts of Alpes-Maritimes and Vaucluse.''Le Petit Robert, Dictionnaire Universel des Noms Propres'' (1988). The largest city of the region and its modern-day capital is Marseille. The Romans made the region the first Roman province beyond the Alps and called it ''Provincia Romana'', which evolved into the present name. Until 1481 it was ruled by the Counts of Provence from their capital in Aix-en-Provence, then became a province of the Kings of France. While it has been part of France for more than 500 years, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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