The Giants of Mont'e Prama are ancient stone
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
s created by the
Nuragic civilization
The Nuragic civilization, also known as the Nuragic culture, was a civilization or culture on Sardinia (Italy), the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, which lasted from the 18th century BC (Middle Bronze Age) (or from t ...
of
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 ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. Fragmented into numerous pieces, they were discovered in March 1974 on farmland near Mont'e Prama, in the
comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
of
Cabras,
province of Oristano
The province of Oristano ( it, provincia di Oristano, sc, provìntzia de Aristanis) is a province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia in Italy. Its capital is the city of Oristano. It has an area of , a total population of 160,746 (2016), ...
, in central-western Sardinia. The statues are carved in local
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
and their height varies between 2 and 2.5 meters.
After four
excavation campaigns carried out between 1975 and 1979, the roughly five thousand pieces recovered – including fifteen heads and twenty two
torso
The torso or trunk is an anatomical term for the central part, or the core, of the body of many animals (including humans), from which the head, neck, limbs, tail and other appendages extend. The tetrapod torso — including that of a human ...
s – were stored for thirty years in the repositories of the
National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari, while a few of the most important pieces were exhibited in the museum itself.
Along with the statues, other sculptures recovered at the site include large models of
nuraghe
The nuraghe (, ; plural: Logudorese Sardinian , Campidanese Sardinian , Italian ), or also nurhag in English, is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, developed during the Nuragic Age between 1900 and 730 B.C. ...
buildings and several
baetylus
Baetylus (also Baetyl, Bethel, or Betyl, from Semitic ''bet el'' "house of god"; compare Bethel, Beit El) are sacred stones that were supposedly endowed with life, or gave access to a deity. According to ancient sources, at least some of these ...
sacred stones of the "oragiana" type, used by Nuragic Sardinians in the making of "
giants' graves
Giants' tomb (Italian: '' Tomba dei giganti'', Sardinian: ''Tumba de zigantes'' / ''gigantis'') is the name given by local people and archaeologists to a type of Sardinian megalithic gallery grave built during the Bronze Age by the Nuragic civi ...
".
After the funds allocation of 2005 by the
Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and the Sardinia Region, restoration is being carried out since 2007 until present () at the ''Centro di restauro e conservazione dei beni culturali'' of "Li Punti" (
Sassari
Sassari (, ; sdc, Sàssari ; sc, Tàtari, ) is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 127,525 inhabitants, and a Functional Urban Area of about 260,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, ...
), coordinated by the
Soprintendenza
The Ministry of Culture ( it, Ministero della Cultura - MiC) is the ministry of the Government of Italy in charge of national museums and the ''monuments historiques''. MiC's headquarters are located in the historic Collegio Romano Palace (via ...
of cultural heritage for
Sassari
Sassari (, ; sdc, Sàssari ; sc, Tàtari, ) is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 127,525 inhabitants, and a Functional Urban Area of about 260,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, ...
and
Nuoro
Nuoro ( or less correctly ; sc, Nùgoro ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte Ortobene. It is the capital of the province of Nuoro. With a population of 36,347 (2011), ...
, together with the Soprintendenza of
Cagliari
Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...
and
Oristano
Oristano (; sc, Aristanis ) is an Italian city and ''comune'', and capital of the Province of Oristano in the central-western part of the island of Sardinia. It is located on the northern part of the Campidano plain. It was established as the pr ...
. At this location, twenty five statues, consisting of warriors, archers, boxers, and
nuraghe
The nuraghe (, ; plural: Logudorese Sardinian , Campidanese Sardinian , Italian ), or also nurhag in English, is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, developed during the Nuragic Age between 1900 and 730 B.C. ...
models, have been exhibited to the public at special events since 2009.
The exhibition has become permanently accessible to the public since November 2011.
According to the most recent estimates, the fragments came from a total of forty four statues. Twenty five have already been restored and assembled in addition to thirteen
nuraghe
The nuraghe (, ; plural: Logudorese Sardinian , Campidanese Sardinian , Italian ), or also nurhag in English, is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, developed during the Nuragic Age between 1900 and 730 B.C. ...
models, while another three statues and three nuraghe models have been identified from fragments that cannot currently be reconstructed. Once the restoration has been completed, it is planned to return the majority of the finds to Cabras to be displayed in a museum.
Depending on the different hypotheses, the dating of the ''Kolossoi'' – the name that archaeologist
Giovanni Lilliu Giovanni Lilliu (born in Barumini, Italy on 13 March 1914 – died in Cagliari, 19 February 2012), was a renowned archeologist, academician, publicist and politician and public figure and an expert of the Nuragic civilization. Largely due to his sci ...
gave to the statues – varies between the 11th and the 8th century BC.
If this is further confirmed by archaeologists, they would be the most ancient
anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
sculptures of the
Mediterranean area
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and wa ...
, after the
Egyptian
Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
statues, preceding the
kouroi
kouros ( grc, κοῦρος, , plural kouroi) is the modern term given to free-standing Ancient Greek sculptures that depict nude male youths. They first appear in the Archaic period in Greece and are prominent in Attica and Boeotia, with a less ...
of
ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
.
The scholar
David Ridgway on this unexpected archaeological discovery wrote: while the archaeologist
Miriam Scharf Balmuth said:
History of Prenuragic statuary
Venus figures
The first attestations of sculpture in Sardinia are much more ancient than the statues of Mont'e Prama. The oldest example is the figurine that is referred to as, the
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...
of
Macomer
Macomer ( sc, Macumère) is a town and ''comune'' of Sardinia (Italy) in the province of Nuoro. It is situated on the southern ascent to the central plateau (the Campeda) of this part of Sardinia, at the junction of narrow-gauge lines branching fro ...
, in
''non finito'' technique, dated to 3750–3300 BC by the archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu, however, the archaeologist
Enrico Atzeni has suggested that the statuette likely dates back to
Early 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 ...
(6000–4000 BC). More recent studies have stressed the similarities to the Venus figurines, already noticed by Giovanni Lilliu, and hypothesized a retro-dating to
Upper Palaeolithic
The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...
or
Mesolithic Age
The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously ...
.
Statuettes later than this one – but still pertaining to the
Mother Goddess
A mother goddess is a goddess who represents a personified deification of motherhood, fertility goddess, fertility, creation, destruction, or the earth goddess who embodies the bounty of the earth or nature. When equated with the earth or th ...
iconography – are many volumetric figurines produced by the
Ozieri culture
The Ozieri culture (or San Michele culture) was a prehistoric pre-Nuragic culture that occupied Sardinia from c. 3200 to 2800 BCE. The Ozieri was the culmination of the island's Neolithic culture and takes its name from the locality where early ...
, among which is the idol of
Perfugas
Perfugas (Gallurese: ''Pelfica'', sc, Pèifugas) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Sassari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about north of Cagliari and about northeast of Sassari.
Perfugas borders the following municipali ...
, representing a goddess suckling her child. The same symbolism was later used by the Nuragic civilization with the so-called "Nuragic pietà".
After the three-dimensional figurines of the goddess – but still belonging to the
Neolithic Age
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 pa ...
– are the idols in flat
geometric style
Geometric art is a phase of Greek art, characterized largely by geometric motifs in vase painting, that flourished towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages, . Its center was in Athens, and from there the style spread among the trading cities of the ...
, that could represent the goddess in her
chthonic
The word chthonic (), or chthonian, is derived from the Ancient Greek word ''χθών, "khthon"'', meaning earth or soil. It translates more directly from χθόνιος or "in, under, or beneath the earth" which can be differentiated from Γῆ ...
aspect, in that all examples of this type of idol have been found inside graves.
Investigations carried out after the fortuitous discovery of a prehistoric
altar
An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...
at
Monte d'Accoddi __NOTOC__
Monte d'Accoddi is a Neolithic archaeological site in northern Sardinia, located in the territory of Sassari. The site consists of a massive raised stone platform thought to have been an altar. It was constructed by the Ozieri culture or ...
(Sassari), have revealed that – alongside the production of geometric figurines – the great statuary was already present at that time in Sardinia, given that at the "temple of Accoddi" several
stelae
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
and
menhir
A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be foun ...
s were recovered. Beside the ramp leading to the top of the main building, excavations revealed the presence of a great menhir, with several others positioned around it. A sculpted face, engraved with spiraliform patterns and probably belonging to a statue-stele, has been assigned to the earliest phase of the site – called the "red-temple". A large
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
stele with a female figure in relief, has been attributed to the second phase – called the "great-temple".
Still in the time-frame of the Prenuragic age, but in this case during the
Eneolithic
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often v ...
period, there is a remarkable production of "Laconi-type" statue-menhirs or statue-stelae, assigned to the Abealzu-Filigosa
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
and characterized by a uniform tripartite scheme encompassing, from top to bottom: a stylized ''T''-shaped human face; the depiction of the enigmatic ''capovolto'' (the capsized) in the kind of ''trident capovolto''; and a double-headed dagger in relief.
After the spreading of Bonnanaro culture on the island, the tradition of the statue-stelae seems to die out, while it continues until 1200 BC with the Nuragic-related Torrean civilization
facies
In geology, a facies ( , ; same pronunciation and spelling in the plural) is a body of rock with specified characteristics, which can be any observable attribute of rocks (such as their overall appearance, composition, or condition of formatio ...
of
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 ...
, featuring warriors represented in the
Filitosa
Filitosa is a megalithic site in southern Corsica, France. The period of occupation spans from the end of the Neolithic era and the beginning of the Bronze Age, until around the Roman times in Corsica.
Location
The site lies on road D57, ...
sculptures.
Warrior figures
From aniconic baetyls to Nuragic statuary
During the Early
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
the "epicampaniform style", a late expression of the Bell-
Beaker culture
The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the Inverted bell, inverted-bell beaker (archaeology), beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the E ...
, became spread both in Sardinia and Corsica. From this cultural period the
Nuragic civilization
The Nuragic civilization, also known as the Nuragic culture, was a civilization or culture on Sardinia (Italy), the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, which lasted from the 18th century BC (Middle Bronze Age) (or from t ...
would arise, paralleling similar architectural developments in southern Corsica, in such a way that the
Gallura
Gallura ( sdn, Gaddura or ; sc, Caddura ) is a region in North-Eastern Sardinia, Italy.
The name ''Gallùra'' is allegedly supposed to mean "stony area".
Geography
Gallùra has a surface of and it is situated between 40°55'20"64 latitude ...
Nuragic facies shows a synchronic evolution with the
Nuragic torrean civilization.
However, while common architectonic traditions of Central-Western Mediterranean evidence the close relationships between islands, it is exactly the sculpture tradition that begins to diversify. In fact, while Early Bronze Age Sardinia abandoned the traditions of Eneolithic statue-stelae, in Corsica the production of menhirs continued without interruption, eventually originating the Torrean statue-stelae during the Middle and Late Bronze Age.
An intermediate stage of this process could be represented by the appearance of hammered relief sculptures during the Middle Bronze Age – in both Sardinia and Corsica: in the former country, baetyls were engraved with male or female gender characters in relief, while in the latter – perhaps due to the greater presence of metal implements – relief sculpture was applied for the first time to menhirs. In both islands, anthropomorphic statuary in the strict sense of the word would not exist between 1600 and 1250 BC, but gender characteristics and weapons were represented in Sardinia and Corsica respectively.
In a successive evolution stage, the relief technique was employed in Sardinia – for the first time after Eneolithic sculptures – to represent a human face, as shown in the famous baetyl of "San Pietro di Golgo" (Baunei).
There is no longer any dispute about the authenticity and Nuragic manufacture of the three statue-baetyls discovered in northern Sardinia, a region where a Corsican population of Nuragic culture was probably settled. At first the three statues were considered to be
Punic
The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of t ...
or
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
artefacts,
but these sculptures evidently portray warriors with an envelope-shaped, crested and horned nuragic helmet – as also suggested by the crest and by the circular cavities that probably held the horns (these latter still present in the statue-baetyl from
Bulzi
220px, Church of San Pietro del Crocifisso.
Bulzi ( sc, Bultzi) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Sassari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about north of Cagliari and about northeast of Sassari.
Bulzi borders the followin ...
, Sassari).
![Betili di Tamuli](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Betili_di_Tamuli.jpg)
According to the archaeologist Fulvia Lo Schiavo, the sculptures of northern Sardinia testify the existence of a Nuragic proto-statuary, an intermediate step of an evolutionary process that from the "eyed baetyls" of the "Oragiana type", would eventually lead to the anthropomorphic statues of Mont'e Prama. This hypothesis agrees with an earlier idea carried out by Giovanni Lilliu, following the examination of the "baetylus of
Baunei
Baunei is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian island of Sardinia. It is notable for being the location of the multi-day Selvaggio Blu coastal trek.
Geography
The municipality of Baunei is located about northeast ...
",
where the famous archaeologist saw the abandonment of the ancient
aniconic
Aniconism is the absence of artistic representations (''icons'') of the natural and supernatural worlds, or it is the absence of representations of certain figures in religions. It is a feature of various cultures, particularly of cultures which a ...
ideology and a revival of the human form representation:
This evolution suggests that besides the commissioners, also the sculptors of the statues of Mont'e Parma could have been Nuragic. In fact, within the Nuragic civilization craftsmen able to perform perfect stonework were certainly at hand, as demonstrated by the refined sacred wells and giant's graves built in the
isodomic technique.
[Quoted by .] The ability in handling stones and the spread of sculpture in the round throughout Nuragic Sardinia, is also attested by the nuraghe models mentioned above and by sculpted
protome
A protome (Greek προτομή) is a type of adornment that takes the form of the head and upper torso of either a human or an animal.
History
Protomes were often used to decorate ancient Greek architecture, sculpture, and pottery. Protomes we ...
s found in several sacred wells.
[
]
Discovery site
The majority of the sculptures were thrown in pieces upon the necropolis found at Mont'e Prama, a low hill 50 m AMSL
Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''.
The comb ...
and strategically located in the very center of the Sinis peninsula. Just one other fragmented sculpture – a human head – had been found elsewhere, near the sacred well of Banatou (Narbolia
Narbolia ( sc, Narabuìa) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Oristano in the Italian region Sardinia, located about northwest of Cagliari and about north of Oristano. As of 31 December 2016, it had a population of 1,784 and an ar ...
, OR). This site is ca. 2 km away from the nuraghe S'Uraki
The nuraghe (, ; plural: Logudorese Sardinian , Campidanese Sardinian , Italian ), or also nurhag in English, is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, developed during the Nuragic Age between 1900 and 730 B.C. ...
, and the head was found together with various ceramics finds, either Punic or Nuragic.
Given the location of the numerous fragments at Mont'e Prama and of the unique one at Narbolia, it is speculated that the statues were originally erected near the necropolis itself or in a still unidentified place within the Sinis peninsula, a region extending north from the Gulf of Oristano
The Gulf of Oristano ( it, Golfo di Oristano, sc, Golfu de Aristanis) is a gulf in the Sardinian Sea, near Oristano, in the western Sardinian coast.
It is limited from north by the Cape San Marco, in the Sinis peninsula, and from the south by ...
, between the Sea of Sardinia
The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...
and the pond of Cabras.
The Sinis peninsula was inhabited as far back as the Neolithic age
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 pa ...
– as attested by the remarkable archaeological area of '' Cuccuru s'Arriu ''. This site is well known for a necropolis dating back to Middle 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 ...
(3.800–3200 B.C), where in the graves, a female idol in volumetric style was normally placed. Subsequently, all the cultural shifts that took place on the Island during the millennia, are attested in the Sinis region. Among these, particularly relevant is the Bell beaker culture
The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the European Bronze Age. Arising from ar ...
, preluding the Bonnanaro culture (c. 1800 BC) that would eventually lead to the Nuragic civilization.
Due to its fortunate geographic position and the considerable number of important settlements, such as Tharros
Tharros (also spelled Tharras, Archaic Greek: , Hellenistic Greek, Tarras or Tarrae, Τάρραι) was an ancient city and former bishopric on the west coast of Sardinia, Italy.
It is currently a Latin Catholic titular see and an archaeologica ...
, the Sinis peninsula was a bridgehead for the routes toward the Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...
and the Iberian peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
, related from time immemorial to Sardinia. The Balearic Islands were in fact home to the Talaiotic culture
The Talaiotic Culture or Talaiotic Period is the name used to describe the society that existed on the Gymnesian Islands (the easternmost Balearic Islands) during the Iron Age. Its origins date from the end of the second millennium BC, when the i ...
, similar under many aspects to the Nuragic and Torrean civilizations. The Sinis peninsula is furthermore favoured by the proximity of Montiferru
Montiferru is a historical region of central-western Sardinia, Italy. It takes its name from the eponymous extinct volcano massif, whose main peak is the Monte Urtigu (1,050 m). Extending for some 700 km², the massif had originally a ma ...
, a region that hosts an ancient volcano
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...
, site of important iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...
and copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
s mines. The territory of Montiferru is also strictly controlled by a system of numerous nuraghes.
A statue similar to those ones of Mont'e Prama was found at the ''Crabonaxia'' site, in San Giovanni Suergiu
San Giovanni Suergiu, Santu Giuanni de Suergiu in sardinian language, is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italian region Sardinia, located about west of Cagliari and about south of Carbonia.
San Giovanni S ...
, Sulcis, located in Southern Sardinia.
Toponym
The hill of Mont'e Prama was covered in ancient times by dwarf fan palms, ''Chamaerops
''Chamaerops'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Arecaceae. The only currently fully accepted species is ''Chamaerops humilis'', variously called European fan palm or the Mediterranean dwarf palm. It is one of the most cold-hardy ...
humilis'', from which the name ''Prama'', meaning "palm" in the Sardinian language
Sardinian or Sard ( , or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken by the Sardinians on the Western Mediterranean island of Sardinia.
Many Romance linguists consider it the language that is closest to Latin among all its genealogica ...
, would originate.
The necropolis location is listed as "M. Prama" on the cadastral map of the municipality of Cabras, and on the 1:25000 maps of the Istituto Geografico Militare
The ''Istituto Geografico Militare'' (IGM), or Military Geographic Institute, is an Italian public organization, dependent on the Italian Army general staff (''Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito''). It is the national mapping agency for Italy.
Overvie ...
, sheet 216 N.E. The letter "M." in the location name has been given several interpretations, such as ''Mont'e'', ''Monti'', ''Monte'', and ''Montigru'', all still in use in Sardinian language. Even a relatively small hill is referred to as a "mount", such as the ''Monti Urpinu'' (Cagliari
Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...
) that is only 98 meters high on sea level.
In the past such a toponym, indicating the presence of dwarf fan palms on the spot, was recorded in some written documents. The theologian and writer, Salvatore Vidal, speaking of the Sinis Peninsula in his ''Clypeus Aureus excellentiae calaritanae'' (1641), reports the toponym ''Montigu de Prama''. The Franciscan friar
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
Antonio Felice Mattei, who in the eighteenth century wrote a historiography of Sardinian dioceses and bishops, mentions ''Montigu Palma'' as one of the localities within the Sinis peninsula.
Archaeological context and historical problematics
The exact date of the manufacture of the statues remains uncertain. The different hypotheses, brought forward by several scholars, encompass a time period between the tenth and eighth century BC, namely between the Final Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
and the Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
. In any case, the sculptures are believed to originate within a period of cultural transformation, but profoundly rooted in the Late Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
.
In this timeframe the Sinis peninsula – and the entire Gulf of Oristano as well – was an important economical and commercial area, a fact well-attested by the high concentration of Nuragic monuments: at least 106 are officially recorded, comprising giants' graves
Giants' tomb (Italian: '' Tomba dei giganti'', Sardinian: ''Tumba de zigantes'' / ''gigantis'') is the name given by local people and archaeologists to a type of Sardinian megalithic gallery grave built during the Bronze Age by the Nuragic civi ...
(''Tumbas de sos zigantes'' in Sardinian), sacred wells and nuraghes. During the blooming Nuragic period, this number must have been much higher, given that the intense agricultural works have led, in the course of centuries, to the dismantling of several monuments.
Beginning in the fourteenth century BC, the Mycenaean Greeks
Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland ...
landed in the Sinis peninsula and elsewhere in Sardinia, whereas the first presence of Philistines
The Philistines ( he, פְּלִשְׁתִּים, Pəlīštīm; Koine Greek (LXX): Φυλιστιείμ, romanized: ''Phulistieím'') were an ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan from the 12th century BC until 604 BC, when ...
is dated ca. 1200 BC. However, given that Philistines made use of Mycenenan-like pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...
and the long-standing relationships between Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...
and Sardinia, it cannot be ruled out that Philistines were present in Sardinia earlier than the thirteenth century BC.
During this period the trading of oxhide ingots
Oxhide ingots are heavy (20-30 kg) metal slabs, usually of copper but sometimes of tin, produced and widely distributed during the Mediterranean Late Bronze Age (LBA). Their shape resembles the hide of an ox with a protruding handle in each of t ...
between Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
and Sardinia also began. This exchange of ingots lasted until the end of the Bronze Age. The Sinis peninsula is considered to have been an important metallurgic area, given the proximity of Montiferru, controlled by numerous nuraghes.
During the Final Bronze Age the Nuragic civilization underwent fast social transformations: nuraghes were no longer built, and many were no longer used or became temples. Giant graves were no longer constructed, although many of them would be reused during the subsequent centuries. The same phenomenon occurs for sacred wells and other cultic places; some were abandoned, while others remained in use up to the Iron Age. There are no hints of invasions, wars among Nuragic communities, or destructive fires. Therefore, these important changes are attributed to internal factors, in turn determining a gradual cultural change, and social and territorial reorganization within the Nuragic society.
Another relevant element was the trans-marine navigation journeys that Nuragics made toward several locations in the Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
. Their presence is attested at Gadir, Huelva
Huelva (, ) is a city in southwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Huelva in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is between two short rias though has an outlying spur including nature reserve on the Gulf of Cádiz coast. The rias ...
, Camas ( El Carambolo), Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...
, Etruria
Etruria () was a region of Central Italy, located in an area that covered part of what are now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and northern and western Umbria.
Etruscan Etruria
The ancient people of Etruria
are identified as Etruscan civiliza ...
, Lipari Islands
Lipari (; scn, Lìpari) is the largest of the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the northern coast of Sicily, southern Italy; it is also the name of the island's main town and ''comune'', which is administratively part of the Metropolit ...
, Agrigento
Agrigento (; scn, Girgenti or ; grc, Ἀκράγας, translit=Akrágas; la, Agrigentum or ; ar, كركنت, Kirkant, or ''Jirjant'') is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. It was one of ...
(Cannatello), Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...
, and el Ahwat
El-Ahwat ( ar, الاحواط, "the walls") is an archaeological site in the Manasseh Hills, Israel. It located 10 miles east of Caesarea near Katzir.
The site was discovered in November 1992 by Adam Zertal during the Manasseh Hill Country Surv ...
.
These attestations – pertaining to the time period between late Bronze Age and throughout Iron Age – are constantly increasing in number, due to new findings and studies in progress of Nuragic pottery, formerly classified as generic barbarian ware and, as such, preserved in repositories of museums without being further analysed.
This dynamic scenario is further complicated by identification issues when attempting to distinguish between Nuragic people and the Sherden
The Sherden (Egyptian: ''šrdn'', ''šꜣrdꜣnꜣ'' or ''šꜣrdynꜣ'', Ugaritic: ''šrdnn(m)'' and ''trtn(m)'', possibly Akkadian: ''še-er-ta-an-nu''; also glossed “Shardana” or “Sherdanu”) are one of the several ethnic groups the Sea P ...
, one of the Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples are a hypothesized seafaring confederation that attacked ancient Egypt and other regions in the East Mediterranean prior to and during the Late Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 BCE).. Quote: "First coined in 1881 by the Fren ...
. Textual evidence from cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...
and relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
s of the New Kingdom of Egypt
The New Kingdom, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the sixteenth century BC and the eleventh century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth dynasties of Egypt. Radioca ...
relate that Sea Peoples were the final catalyst that put into motion the fall of Aegean civilizations
Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland ...
and Levantines states. The Sherden apparently took part as mercenaries in several conflicts
Conflict may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''Conflict'' (1921 film), an American silent film directed by Stuart Paton
* ''Conflict'' (1936 film), an American boxing film starring John Wayne
* ''Conflict'' (1937 film) ...
involving Egypt and often they are associated with Sardinia.
Scholars are still debating whether the Sherden were originally from Sardinia or whether they went there after having been defeated by the Egyptians. Egyptologist
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...
s David O'Connor and Stephen Quirke
Stephen Quirke is an Egyptologist. He is the current Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at University College London. He has worked at the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history ...
on this subject have said:
Between the twelfth and ninth centuries BC, Sardinia appears to be connected to Canaan, Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, and Cyprus by at least four cultural currents: the first two are the most ancient, they can be defined as Syrian and Philistine, and are exquisitely commercial in character. From the ninth century BC the third and fourth cultural currents began to appear in the West. One can be defined as "Cypriot-Phoenicia
Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
n", in that it was built by peoples originating from Cyprus and Phoenician cities; this movement had relationships with Sardinia but, most importantly, would lead to the founding of Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
. The fourth current interested the Island
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
to a largest extent, beginning from the eighth century BC, with the urbanization of important centres such as Tharros, Othoca and Neapolis.
The transformation of these coastal centres, mainly constituted of a mixed population with a large presence of Nuragic aristocracy – as demonstrated by the grave goods – gave a notable contribution to change the traits of the Island and of the Nuragic civilization, accompanying the decline of the latter until the Carthaginian invasion. However, it is certain that during the seventh century BC the Sinis peninsula and the Gulf of Oristano were still controlled by Nuragic aristocrats and that the end this supremacy coincided with the destruction of the Giants' statues.
The necropolis
The fragments of the sculptures have been found on top of a necropolis
A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead".
The term usually im ...
situated on the slopes of Mont'e Prama, a hill towered by a complex nuraghe at its top. The necropolis is composed of wall-tombs, mostly stripped of grave goods. Those up to now investigated contained human skeletons placed in a sitting and crouching position, belonging to female and male individuals between thirteen and fifty years of age. Presently (2012), the mortuary complex can be divided into two main areas: the first one, parallelepiped-shaped, was investigated by the archaeologist Alessandro Bedini in 1975; the second one is serpentine-shaped and has been excavated between 1976 and 1979, by Maria Ferrarese Ceruti and Carlo Tronchetti.
A paved road, delimited by vertical slab stones, runs parallel to the latter mortuary area. The construction of the road is supposed to be contemporary to the monumentalization of the necropolis. The Bedini excavations have unearthed an area containing thirty two slab-cist tombs, made of a stone different from the one used in the serpentine-shaped area. The cist tombs were mostly without their cover slabs, as these were wrecked during centuries of agricultural activities in the area. This so-called "Bedini's area" appears to have undergone three phases of development:
* the first phase is represented by circular well-tombs, the most archaic ones; they are similar to those discovered in southern Sardinia at the Temple of Antas
The Temple of Antas is an ancient Carthaginian-Roman temple in the commune of Fluminimaggiore, southern Sardinia, Italy. It is located in an area colonised by the Carthaginians and then by the Romans, attracted by its silver and lead deposits ...
, dedicated to Sardus Pater Babai, the eponym
An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Usage of the word
The term ''epon ...
ous god of Nuragic Sardinians;
* the second phase should coincide with the cladding of the tombs with stone slabs;
* the third phase is contemporary to the necropolis excavated by the archaeologist Carlo Tronchetti – and should correspond to the placing of the statues.
In the section excavated by Carlo Tronchetti, the beginning (spatial and chronological) of the necropolis is marked by a slabstone standing upright, juxtaposed with the first tomb at the southern side. The northern and more recent side is also delimited by a slabstone standing upright. Beside the cover slabs of the serpentine shaped layout, further small pits used for the deposition of human bones have been unearthed. Due to the presence of the "Bedini's area", the last three tombs do not follow the natural pathway, but have been built on the side of the pre-existing burials.
As of 2012, the necropolis had not been fully excavated.
Hypotheses on the necropolis appearance
Due to the incompleteness of the excavations
In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...
, it is not yet possible to determine the real appearance of the necropolis and grouping of the sculptures.
Some scholars have cast doubts about the original pertinence of the latter to the necropolis, in that the only evidence in favour of this fact would be the spatial contiguity between the statues and the mortuary complex itself. This led others to hypothesize that the statues had been conceived as telamon
In Greek mythology, Telamon (; Ancient Greek: Τελαμών, ''Telamōn'' means "broad strap") was the son of King Aeacus of Aegina, and Endeïs, a mountain nymph. The elder brother of Peleus, Telamon sailed alongside Jason as one of his Argo ...
s to adorn a temple, close to the necropolis, but dedicated to the Sardus Pater. According to this theory, the temple with statues would have been erected to commemorate nuragic victories against the Carthaginian invaders, during the sardo-punic wars. In this case, the statues would have portrayed the retinue
A retinue is a body of persons "retained" in the service of a noble, royal personage, or dignitary; a ''suite'' (French "what follows") of retainers.
Etymology
The word, recorded in English since circa 1375, stems from Old French ''retenue'', it ...
or the bodyguards of the deity.
Nearby the necropolis a rectangular structure has been erected, but this building is in concrete and clearly referable to the Roman age, even if it cannot be completely ruled out – due to the lack of excavations – that underneath the Roman building there was a nuragic megaron
The megaron (; grc, μέγαρον, ), plural ''megara'' , was the great hall in very early Mycenean and ancient Greek palace complexes. Architecturally, it was a rectangular hall that was surrounded by four columns, fronted by an open, two ...
temple. In any case, the presence of other sacral monuments in the vicinity of the necropolis is suggested by the finding of typical quoins employed in the construction of sacred wells.
Other scholars dispute this theory and tend to think that the statues and necropolis were part of the same complex. In this view it is incorrect to hold as a sole basis for this hypotheses the closeness of the sculpture to the mortuary complex. In tomb number six of the "Tronchetti's area", a piece of scrap for manufacturing shields was discovered, leading to the suggestion that the statues had been sculpted on the site and expressly for the necropolis.
Given some technical specificities, both the nuraghe models and the "oragiana type" baetyls, point to the same conclusion. In this case the necropolis and the statues could be reminiscent of giant graves. The layout of the complex recalls in fact the plan of a giant grave, and this suggestion is reinforced by the presence of baetyls, a feature typical of the ancient Bronze Age Sardinian tombs. This analogy would attest the ancient architects' will to perpetuate a link with the funerary traditions of their ancestors.
As studies stand now, the authors do admit that even this last hypotheses is not supported by sound proofs – as far as the aspect and original composition of the statues-tombs complex is concerned. It has nevertheless been suggested that, if the hypotheses is correct, the sculptures would have been arranged at the east and west sides of the serpentine-shaped necropolis, to form a sort of gigantic human exedra
An exedra (plural: exedras or exedrae) is a semicircular architectural recess or platform, sometimes crowned by a semi-dome, and either set into a building's façade or free-standing. The original Greek sense (''ἐξέδρα'', a seat out of d ...
reminiscent of the half-circle exedra of a giant grave. The boxers could have formed the most external part of this arrangement, whereas archers and warriors would have been located in the center, immediately next to the tombs. According to this hypotheses, the nuraghe models would have formed the crowning of the mound, being arranged on the cover slabs of the tombs.
History of the excavations
The first find most probably belonging to the monumental complex of Mont'e Prama was recovered in 1965. It is a fragmented head in sandstone, found at the bottom of the sacred well of Banatou (Narbolia
Narbolia ( sc, Narabuìa) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Oristano in the Italian region Sardinia, located about northwest of Cagliari and about north of Oristano. As of 31 December 2016, it had a population of 1,784 and an ar ...
). Originally, the fragment of Banatou was held as Punic, given the large presence of Punic artifacts and the alleged absence of Nuragic statuary. The uncovering of the statues at the necropolis of Monti Prama had to wait almost ten more years.
According to the account of the two finders, Sisinnio Poddi and Battista Meli, the finding took place by chance in March 1974, while they were preparing the sowing of two adjacent lots that they rented yearly from the "Confraternity of Santo Rosario" of Cabras. Although the ground was sandy, it was rich in stony artifacts and column fragments, regularly brought to light by the plough. The two farmers continued to accumulate the pieces aside, not understanding their archaeological value.
At the beginning of every sowing season the two finders noticed that the fragments of the previous year had considerably diminished, because they were removed from people aware of their historical value or employed as building material. It was the land's owner, Giovanni Corrias, that in front of a pile of stones and earth bearing the remains of a giant head, realized together with Sisinnio Poddi, that the head belonged to a statue. Corrias immediately informed the archaeologist Giuseppe Pau (Oristano), who in turn alerted the superintendence of Cultural Heritage for Cagliari and Oristano.
During the early stages of discovery, the archaeologist Giuseppe Atzori insistently pointed out to the authorities the failure to fence the site. Most of the sculptures at the Center for Restoration and Conservation of Li Punti (Sassari) are missing their heads and the cause lies in the fact that the site was unattended and was plundered for a long time. The looting was focused on the best parts of the sculptures, principally the head with the enigmatic eyes. Only later the area was purchased and excavation campaigns began.
According to the archaeologist Marco Rendeli, the history of the early researches is fragmented and defective and involves several archaeologists. Some of them performed short-term excavations (Atzori, 1974; Pau 1977), other researchers later carried out programmed investigations (Bedini 1975; Lilliu, Tore, Atzeni 1977; Ferrarese Ceruti-Tronchetti 1977).
General characteristics and stylistic comparisons
On the whole the statues are highly stylized and geometrically shaped, similarly to the so-called "Daedalic style", well established in Crete during the seventh century BC. The face of the statues follows a T-scheme typical of Sardinian bronze statuettes, and of neighbouring Corsican statues. The superciliary arch and nose are very pronounced, the eyes are sunken and symbolically rendered by two concentric circles; the mouth is incised with a short stroke, linear or angular. The height of the statues varies between 2 and 2.50 meters.
They appear to represent boxers, archers, and warriors, all standing upright, barefoot and with legs slightly parted. Feet are clearly defined, resting on a square base. A further characteristic is the presence of geometrical, decorative chevron (zig-zag) patterns, parallel lines, and concentric circles, in cases where it was not possible to represent such motives in relief. This happens both for the object and for bodily features. As an example, the braids coming down at the sides of the face are represented in relief, but the hair is rendered with incised fish-bone patterns. The archer brassards are slightly in relief, while the details are rendered with geometrical engravings. These peculiarities – together with other evidences – demonstrate that the Mont'e Prama statues draw heavily on the Sardinian statuettes.
The statues should have been painted, traces of colors have been recovered on some of them: an archer exhibits a red-painted chest, whereas a black colour has been found on other fragments.
It is difficult to find parallels for these sculptures in the Mediterranean area
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and wa ...
:
* archaeologist Carlo Tronchetti speaks of fully orientalizing commissioners and ideologies. Accordingly, other scholars – like Paolo Bernardini – identify in the sculptures Oriental influences, with some similarities to archaic Etruscan __NOTOC__
Etruscan may refer to:
Ancient civilization
*The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy
*Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization
**Etruscan architecture
**Etruscan art
**Etruscan cities
** Etrusca ...
sculptures;
* archaeologist Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway finds resemblances to Picentines, Lunigianian and Daunian sculptures of the 8th – 5th centuries BC, thus collocating the statues within the stylizing Italic and Aegean naturalistic current;
* according to Giovanni Lilliu Giovanni Lilliu (born in Barumini, Italy on 13 March 1914 – died in Cagliari, 19 February 2012), was a renowned archeologist, academician, publicist and politician and public figure and an expert of the Nuragic civilization. Largely due to his sci ...
the sculptures belong to the geometric style, underscored by the engraved ornamental signs, and take direct inspiration from the Sardinian statuettes of the "Abini-Teti" type. According to the distinguished archaeologist it is thus profoundly wrong to assign the statues to the Orientalizing period, with the possible exception of the colossal body structure;
* archaeologist Marco Rendeli considers unsatisfactory all the attempts to compare the Sinis statues to those found in Hellenic, Italic, and Etruscan areas. According to him the correct approach implies understanding the statues as a unicum, originated from interactions between Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
ine artisans and Nuragic commissioners. This uniqueness is confirmed also by the peculiar well-tombs of the necropolis, finding no parallels in other sites, either in Western or in Eastern Mediterranean.
Boxers
''Boxer'' is the conventional term referring to a category of Nuragic bronze statuettes, furnished with a weapon similar to the cestus
Cestus ( grc, Kεστός), in a general sense meant, for ancient Greeks and Romans, any band or tie.
However, it was more frequently used to refer to:
* The Girdle of Aphrodite
* Boxing gloves used by ancient Greeks and Romans, also written ''C ...
, that wraps the forearm with a rigid sheath, probably metallic.
The panoply of the warrior or wrestler – depending on different interpretations – also comprised a semi-rigid, curved rectangular shield.
It is generally believed that the boxers were taking part in sacred or funeral games
Funeral games are athletic competitions held in honor of a recently deceased person. The celebration of funeral games was common to a number of ancient civilizations. Athletics and games such as wrestling are depicted on Sumerian statues dating ...
in honor of the deceased, as seen elsewhere in the Mediterranean area.
Boxers make up the most numerous and uniform group within the Sinis statues, showing only minor variations in size and unimportant particulars.
Boxers are invariably represented bare-chested, with engraved navels or nipples; and they wear loin-cloths with the rears trimmed to a triangle, a typical feature of Sardinian bronze boxers and warrior figurines, such as the "archer of Serri" (from Serri, the findspot).
The upper part of the chest is protected by a belt from which –in some cases – shallow grooves depart, depicting the strings used to tie the loin-cloth.
The boxer heads are covered by smooth caps. Sleeves running from the elbow down, presumably originally in leather, protect their right arms. The sleeve terminates with a rounded cap into which the weapon, in metal or other material, was inserted.
The rectangular, curved shield is held by the left arm and raised above the head. It was most probably made of leather or other flexible material, given that it is bent on the long sides. Furthermore, internally it is framed with wooden twigs, whereas the external part is characterized by an embossed rim all along the perimeter. The shield appears to be fixed, on the internal side, to an armband decorated with chevron patterns, worn at the elbow of the left arm.
The figure of the boxer is attested in bronze statuettes, among which – beyond Sardinian specimens – is the notable figurine found at Vetulonia
Vetulonia, formerly called Vetulonium ( Etruscan: ''Vatluna''), was an ancient town of Etruria, Italy, the site of which is probably occupied by the modern village of Vetulonia, which up to 1887 bore the name of Colonnata and Colonna di Buriano: t ...
within the "tomb of the ruler".
The most similar bronze figurine, however, both for typology and for distinguishing marks, is the statuette from Dorgali
Dorgali ( sc, Durgali) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian region Sardinia, located about northeast of Cagliari and about east of Nuoro in the Seaside Supramonte mountain area.
Economy is mostly based on the ...
.
Archers
The fragments have, up to now, allowed restoration of five statues for this iconographic type.
Archers show more variation than boxers, despite their much smaller number. The most frequent iconography represents a male warrior dressed in a short tunic. A square pectoral with slightly concave sides is worn on top of a tunic. In some cases the tunic reaches the groin, in other instances the genitals are left exposed.
Beyond the pectoral, other elements of the panoply are represented, such as gorger and helmet. The different fragments of upper limbs often show the left arm furnished with a brassard
A brassard or armlet is an armband or piece of cloth or other material worn around the upper arm; the term typically refers to an item of uniform worn as part of military uniform or by police or other uniformed persons. Unit, role, rank b ...
holding a bow, while the right hand is extended forward like in the typical gesture of salutation commonly seen in Sardinian bronze statuettes.
Legs are protected by peculiar greave
A greave (from the Old French ''greve'' "shin, shin armour") or jambeau is a piece of armour that protects the leg.
Description
The primary purpose of greaves is to protect the tibia from attack. The tibia, or shinbone, is very close to the ski ...
s with notched borders, hanging by laces underneath the tunic; a leg guard shows a figure-of-eight outlined in its back, while a sandal is occasionally depicted on a fragmented foot.
Depiction of weapons is extremely detailed. In analogy to bronze figurines, the quiver
A quiver is a container for holding arrows, bolts, ammo, projectiles, darts, or javelins. It can be carried on an archer's body, the bow, or the ground, depending on the type of shooting and the archer's personal preference. Quivers were trad ...
is sculpted on the back, in a very refined way.
It is furthermore evident that there are two types of bow:
* a heavy one with a quadrangular cross-section and cross-ribbed
* a lighter one with circular cross-section, possibly pertaining to a mixed weaponry
Nuragic soldiers included archers, swordsmen, and warriors bearing a mixed weaponry, consisting of a bow and a sword. Bow and sword may be outstretched at the same time, such as in the "Uta-type" bronze figurines (from Uta, the findspot), or the sword may remain in the scabbard while the archer is shooting an arrow.
The quiver-scabbard pair is visible in at least one statue and finds parallels either in the "Uta" and in the "Abini-type" bronze figurines (the latter named after their finding spot, the Nuragic sanctuary of "Abini" in Teti
Teti, less commonly known as Othoes, sometimes also Tata, Atat, or Athath in outdated sources, was the first king of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. He was buried at Saqqara. The exact length of his reign has been destroyed on the Turin King List bu ...
). Archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu stressed in particular the similarity between the crescent-shaped hilt of the Mont'e Prama statue and the one held by the archer of Santa Vittoria di Serri, wearing the same loincloth
A loincloth is a one-piece garment, either wrapped around itself or kept in place by a belt. It covers the genitals and, at least partially, the buttocks. Loincloths which are held up by belts or strings are specifically known as breechcloth or ...
, trimmed in the back like a tailcoat
A tailcoat is a knee-length coat characterised by a rear section of the skirt, known as the ''tails'', with the front of the skirt cut away.
The tailcoat shares its historical origins in clothes cut for convenient horse riding in the Early Mode ...
, as the Monte Prama boxers.
Archer faces are similar to those of the boxers, with the hair gathered up in braids coming down at the face sides. The head is protected, up to the nape, by a calotte-shaped, crested, and horned helmet, with the ears left free.
Several fragments show that the horns are slightly curved and bending forward, of uncertain length and pointed at the end (different from the warriors); furthermore, there are traces of a support, obtained from the same stone, joining the horns approximately at their half-length.
The bronze figurine most similar to the archers of Mont'e Prama appears to be the archer from "Abini".
Warriors
This iconographic type – very often represented among the Nuragic bronze figurines – has been reported only twice among the Mont'e Prama statues, plus a third possible case, of which only one is in a good state of preservation. However, a reassembled shield, not assigned to any of the former three specimens, and numerous other fragments of a shield and (possibly) of a torso, suggest that the number of warriors was larger.
Initially, the fragments of round-shaped shields had been attributed to archers, but later the hilt of a sword and similarities of the shields geometrical patterns to those of some bronzetti, led to postulate the presence of one or more statues of warriors.
Warriors differs from archers essentially through their garb.
The best preserved head exhibits an "envelope-shaped", crested, and horned Nuragic helmet that – like archer helmets – must have presented the typical long horns portrayed in bronze figurines. Several small cylindrical fragments have in fact been found during excavations. Once recomposed, some of these horns appear to bear small spheres at their terminal ends, like in some bronzetti, either anthropomorphic (in this case only warriors, never archers) or zoomorphic
The word ''zoomorphism'' derives from the Greek ζωον (''zōon''), meaning "animal", and μορφη (''morphē''), meaning "shape" or "form". In the context of art, zoomorphism could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals. It c ...
.
The best preserved warrior statue is among the most striking pieces of Mont'e Prama. Besides the horned helmet – whose horns are broken – it is marked by the presence of an armour with vertical stripes, short on the back, but solid on the shoulders and more expanded on the breast.
By analogy with armours visible on several bronze figurines, it is thought that the breastplate
A breastplate or chestplate is a device worn over the torso to protect it from injury, as an item of religious significance, or as an item of status. A breastplate is sometimes worn by mythological beings as a distinctive item of clothing. It is ...
was built of metal strips applied on hardened leather. A panel, decorated and fringed, comes out from the lower part of the breastplate.
The shield is represented in a very detailed way, with chevron patterns reminiscent of geometrical drawings on pintadera Pintaderas are a form of stamp used by the pre-Hispanic natives of the Canary Islands. They were commonly made of fired clay. However, a number of wooden ''pintaderas'' have also been found. Most ''pintaderas'' come from archaeological sites in Gran ...
s, and with radiating grooves that converge toward the shield-boss.
The bronze figurine most similar to the warriors of Monte Prama is the one found at Senorbì
Senorbì is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cagliari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about north of Cagliari. It is the main center of Trexenta, located in an area traditionally devoted to the cultivation of cereals. The ...
.
Nuraghe models
Multi–towered nuraghe were the second highest megalithic constructions ever built – after the Egyptian pyramid
The Egyptian pyramids are ancient masonry structures located in Egypt. Sources cite at least 118 identified "Egyptian" pyramids. Approximately 80 pyramids were built within the Kingdom of Kush, now located in the modern country of Sudan. Of ...
s – during the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean protohistoric area. The central tower from nuraghe Arrubiu
The Nuraghe Arrubiu is one of the largest nuraghes in Sardinia. It is located in Orroli, in the province of South Sardinia. Its name means "red Nuraghe" in the Sardinian language, which derives from the basalt stones it had been built with.
The st ...
(Orroli
Orroli, meaning " downy oak" (''Arrólli'' in Sardinian language) is, a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italian region of Sardinia, located about north of Cagliari. As of 31 December 2010, it had a population o ...
), one of the largest in the Island, reached the height of thirty meters and the general plan of that monument consists of at least nineteen towers articulated around several courtyards, occupying an area of approximately 3000 meters square excluding the village that lies outside the walls. It was the result of a unified design covering both the keep and the pentagonal bastion all made at the same stage in the fourteenth century BC.
A nuraghe model is defined as the down-scaled, three-dimensional representation of Nuragic towers and castles, for sacred or political purposes. In analogy to the full-sized monuments, models can be divided into two general categories:
* complex nuraghe models, with a higher central tower surrounded by bastion
A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...
s and four further towers, the so-called quadrilobate (or multi–towered nuraghe)
* models of simple, single-towered nuraghe
Mont'e Prama is the archaeological site where the largest number of nuraghe models has been recovered.
At the restoration center of Li Punti it has been possible to reconstruct five models for complex nuraghes and twenty for simple nuraghes. The models of Mont'e Prama are characterized by their notable size, up to 1,40 m in height for quadrilobates and between 14 and 70 cm in diameter for the single towered specimens, and by some unusual technical features.
These big sculptures are modular, and unlike the remaining nuraghe models from Sardinia, in that the shaft of the mast tower is joined to the top part through an inter-space, whose pivot and binder is constituted by a core of lead. Upper platforms have been faithfully represented in the various nuraghe models. On the top of the towers a conical, dome-shaped element has been sculpted, indicating the covering of a staircase leading to the platform.
Several architectural elements have been represented with engraved signs. The parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...
of the platform has been portrayed with a single or double row of incised triangles, or with vertical lines, similar to miniaturized nuraghes from other Sardinian sites, e.g. the high-relief from nuraghe Cann'e Vadosu and the nuraghe model from the meeting hut of Su Nuraxi in Barumini
Barumini ( sc, Barùmini) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italian region of Sardinia, located about north of Cagliari and about northeast of Sanluri.
Barumini borders the following municipalities: Gerg ...
. Also the big slab-stones supporting the platforms have been rendered with decorative signs. The stone brackets and their function have been depicted by means of parallel incised lines or grooves and the blocks – abundantly found in archaeological sites after the collapse of top parts – confirm the perfect matching of these models with the Nuragic architecture of Middle and Recent Bronze Age.
Oragiana baetyls
The word "baetylus", probably from Hebraic
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
''Beth-El'' ("house of God"), originally denoted sacred stones of simple geometric shape and aniconic. In analogy to the religious meaning borne by their oriental counterparts, it is thought that for the Nuragics, they could represent the deity's house or the deity, in an abstract and symbolic way. This is suggested by their constant presence in the cultic places of Nuragic civilization, from sanctuaries such as '' Su Romanzesu'' in Bitti
Bitti ( sc, Bitzi) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian region Sardinia, about north of Cagliari and about north of Nuoro.
Bitti borders the municipalities of Alà dei Sardi, Buddusò, Lodè, Lula, Nule, Ona ...
, to giant graves.
These artifacts can be divided into cone-shaped and truncated cone-shaped baetyls. The distinction is chronologically relevant, in that the latter are more recent and pertain to isodomic stone block giant graves. At Mont'e Prama truncated cone-shaped baetyls with holes, of the so-called "Oraggiana" (or "Oragiana") type, have been found. According to archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu, the holes could represent the eyes of a deity, protecting and watching over the tombs. Nuragic baetyls are symbolic items typical of the Middle and Recent Bronze Age, sculpted approximately from the fourteenth century BC.
Their presence in the Mont'e Prama necropolis has been explained by Lilliu with two alternative hypotheses: the baetyls originated from a wrecked giant tomb or they are reproductions of more ancient specimens, due to a wish to preserve an ancient line of Nuragic tradition, in a sort of nostalgic commemoration. The double row of holes noticed in one of the baetyls from Mont'e Prama, unattested elsewhere in Sardinia, suggests that these artifacts are the same age as the necropolis. Some scholars believe in fact that they were expressly produced for the Monti Prama complex.
The dating problem
The construction date of the statues is the main problem concerning the site of Mont'e Prama, but no less important are the historical implications that can derive from the certainty of the date of destruction and abandonment.
Scientific investigations dating back to 1979 have not solved these problems and doubts are still raised despite the latest (2015) radiocarbon dating.
Absolute dating of the buried
Of the more than 150 tombs, thirteen are those whose osteological remains have been dated until today (2021) with the carbon-14
Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...
method. Previously the chronological data was provided by the stratigraphic excavation (in some limited areas), by the stylistic comparison with the bronze statuettes, as well as by the indications of various finds (pottery, scarab, and fibula). However, according to the scholar Marco Lazzati «.. ''the archaeological stratigraphy, in any case, provides only relative dates, indicating in which order the events occurred, without telling us" when" they took place''."
Absolute dating offers a fundamental contribution to the understanding of the site because it provides researchers with an objective and reliable chronological data capable of overcoming hypotheses based exclusively on formal factors, hypotheses once favored by art historians, but almost always lacking the necessary objectivity and reproducibility.
Radiometric dating is therefore essential to indicate with the greatest possible precision the events that affected the beginning, development, and end of the necropolis and therefore, of the statues. According to the archaeologist Mauro Perra: ''In the first place, the C14 datings proved those who argued that the chronology of the necropolis could not be related exclusively to the VIII-VII century BC, but that it was referable to rather broad chronological horizons between the Recent Bronze and the Early Iron, right.''
The C.14 method was applied to collagen samples that were poor from a quantitative point of view, but excellent from a qualitative one. The samples have an optimal carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent
In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...
- nitrogen
Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...
(C / N) ratio of '' 3.2 '' or '' 3.3 '', which being within the range '' 2.9 '' - '' 3,6 '', indicates collagen
Collagen () is the main structural protein in the extracellular matrix found in the body's various connective tissues. As the main component of connective tissue, it is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up from 25% to 35% of the whole ...
that is "not degraded or contaminated"
To confirm the extreme reliability of the material, it should be emphasized that the '' δ13C '' measured at the University of Groningen
The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...
was found to be identical in two cases to that measured by the University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
. In one case, that of tomb twenty from the "Tronchetti sector", the discrepancy was just 0.2%. Even the values of the sub-samples that were taken from it do not show such discrepancies as to highlight problems.
The dating of the statues through bone remains is made possible by the presence of many sculptural fragments in the tombs of the more recent phase. Above the small plate that sealed the bones, a fragment of a warrior shield (tomb number six) and a statue finger (tomb number twenty-eight) were identified; other fragments of organic limestone pertinent to statues or models of nuraghe) were found in tombs number four, six, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, I-bis, two-bis of the "Tronchetti sector".
In the "Bedini sector" sculptural fragments were recovered above the tombs of the most recent phase, but not inside them, probably due to the upheavals carried out during the night by clandestine excavations while the official excavations were still in progress. However, in the same sector a sculptural fragment was found, probably of a model of nuraghe, inserted within the well tomb ''i'' of the oldest phase of the necropolis. Having found the presence of scraps from the creation of the statues in sealed tombs, it indicates - according to scholars - a greater antiquity of the statues when compared to the burials.
* The first analyzes were carried out on the bone remains of three individuals, whose tombs (number eight in the "Bedini sector" and tombs number one and twenty in the "Tronchetti sector") all belong to the ''intermediate'' phase of the necropolis, a phase during which - according to the excavators of the site - Mont'e Prama was monumentalized with the affixing of the statues.
* Tomb N. XXXI is among the most ancient datings, in this case the deceased dates back to 1246 BC. +/- 57 years. The tooth MA115, of which the tomb of origin is not given, and the tomb “n” of the sector have a range between 1230 BC and 1239 BC.
* In addition to the aforementioned tombs from the intermediate period, there is the last Nuragic burial that occurred at Monte Prama within the ''J'' tomb. It was the subject of two different radiometric tests, but with identical results, placing the last Nuragic burial at the beginning of the Punic conquest of the island.
Despite the reliability of the analyzed collagen and of the procedures used to study it, controversies have arisen even regarding these data:
* according to the scholar Luca Lai, the recent C.14 dating would impose a "modification of the assumptions of the current interpretations of the site"
* for the archaeologists Marco Minoja and Carlo Tronchetti, the C.14 method alone is not sufficient: "to modify a functioning and tested system, relying only on partial data that do not lead to the construction of a coherent alternative system"
* for the archaeologist Luisanna Usai: "if one were to accept the close connection between statues and burials and in particular those of the Tronchetti necropolis, according to the calibrated radiometric datings, the sculptures should be dated to the 11th-10th century BC"
Chronological and stylistic relationship between the statues and the bronze statuettes
Starting from the considerations of the archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu Giovanni Lilliu (born in Barumini, Italy on 13 March 1914 – died in Cagliari, 19 February 2012), was a renowned archeologist, academician, publicist and politician and public figure and an expert of the Nuragic civilization. Largely due to his sci ...
on the relationship between statues and bronzes, in the archaeological field the debate is very heated among those who attest to the beginning of bronze production starting from the Iron Age, and in particular from the 9h century BC, and the supporters of the production of bronzes starting from 1100 BC to 1000 BC as proved by the stratigraphy of the Sacred Well of Funtana Coberta
Funtana Coberta ( Sardinian: ''Sa Funtana Coberta'') is a holy pit (subterranean temple) in Sarrabus-Gerrei, a traditional subregion of Sardinia, Italy. Dating to c. 1200–850 BC, it is included in the territory of Ballao, in the province of C ...
in Ballao
Ballao, (Ballau in the Sardinian language), is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italian region Sardinia, located about northeast of Cagliari, in the Gerrei traditional subregion.
It was founded around 1300, whe ...
(CA ). This last datation is also corroborated by the findings made during the excavation campaign on the Giant grave of Orroli
Orroli, meaning " downy oak" (''Arrólli'' in Sardinian language) is, a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italian region of Sardinia, located about north of Cagliari. As of 31 December 2010, it had a population o ...
, not far from the nuraghe complex of Arrubiu, where in an intact archaeological context they found bronze statuettes dated between the 13th century BC
In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave p ...
and the 12th century BC
Given the very close similarity between bronze statuettes and statues, the dilemma arises whether the statues were inspired by the statuettes - in this case being older - or if the statuettes are - in their greatest antiquity - the model that the Nuragic aristocracy imposed to the artisans: in this case the statues would be much less ancient than the bronze statuettes.
These differences among scholars are not resolved by the discovery of the new statues of boxers comparable to the ''warrior-priest'' of Cavalupo di Vulci. In this regard there are two opposing trends of thought:
* For some scholars, the bronze statuette of Cavalupo di Vulci
Vulci or Volci ( Etruscan: ''Velch'' or ''Velx'', depending on the romanization used) was a rich Etruscan city in what is now northern Lazio, central Italy.
As George Dennis wrote, "Vulci is a city whose very name... was scarcely remembered, b ...
is the cornerstone on which to anchor the dating of the entire Nuragic production. In fact, it was found in a ''closed context'' dated between the ninth and eighth centuries BC and since, so far, no other absolute dating has been carried out in Sardinia in closed contexts, the small statue of Cavalupo is the main chronological reference for all the bronze statues found in the contexts of the island.
* Another group of scholars believes that the bronze statuette of Cavalupo di Vulci ''"only represents a generic terminus ante quem for the chronology of the bronze statuettes"'' ; it constitutes a ''closed context'' but also a ''false context'' - in the sense of falsifying the dating of all the other bronzes - since the ''production'' and ''export'' from Sardinia to Etruria took place in much earlier times than its ''deposition'' in the Vulci tomb.
In any case - according to the archaeologist Marco Rendelli - the close stylistic relationship between the bronze statuettes and the statues of Mont'e Prama proves that the two forms of art must be, at least partially, contemporaneous.
The Egyptian scarab from tomb number twenty-five
The archaeologist Carlo Tronchetti is the author of a first attempt to date the scarab found in Mont'e Prama. The erroneous suppositions on the material, believed to be of bone or ivory, and the attribution to the category of Hyksos
Hyksos (; Egyptian '' ḥqꜣ(w)- ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''hekau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands") is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BC).
T ...
pseudo scaraboids led the scholar to erroneously date the artifact to the seventh century BC. In fact, recent analyzes have shown how the artifact is made of fired and glazed talc stone, ascribing it to the typical production of the New Kingdom.
The interpretation of the iconographic motif at the base of the artifact is debated. For some scholars it would be the stylization of a lotus flower
''Nelumbo nucifera'', also known as sacred lotus, Laxmi lotus, Indian lotus, or simply lotus, is one of two extant species of aquatic plant in the family Nelumbonaceae. It is sometimes colloquially called a water lily, though this more often re ...
; for others the engravings are part of the ''"encompassed central x cross"'' decoration. In any case, even the decoration cannot be compared with that of the Phoenician or Egyptian and Egyptizing scarabs of the seventh - sixth century BC, while it finds the most stringent comparisons with two other specimens from the Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
localities of Tall al-Ajjul
Tall al-Ajjul or Tell el-'Ajul is an archaeological mound or '' tell'' in the Gaza Strip. The fortified city excavated at the site dates as far back as ca. 2000-1800 BCE and was inhabited during the Bronze Age. It is located at the mouth of Wa ...
and Tell el Far'ah (S), localities considered to be interested in various periods both from the Egyptian presence and the Mycenaean and Sherden
The Sherden (Egyptian: ''šrdn'', ''šꜣrdꜣnꜣ'' or ''šꜣrdynꜣ'', Ugaritic: ''šrdnn(m)'' and ''trtn(m)'', possibly Akkadian: ''še-er-ta-an-nu''; also glossed “Shardana” or “Sherdanu”) are one of the several ethnic groups the Sea P ...
mercenaries’ one. The Sherden, in particular, have been associated to the Nuragic Sardinians by many scholars.
The scarab of Mont'e Prama is not the only Egyptian scarab found in a Nuragic context: archaeologists found them in the Nuraghe Nurdole in Orani
Orani, officially the Municipality of Orani ( tl, Bayan ng Orani), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Bataan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 70,342 people.
Geography
Orani is from Balanga and n ...
too, in the inhabited area of the Complex of Sant'Imbenia in Alghero
Alghero (; ca, label= Alguerese, L'Alguer ; sc, S'Alighèra ; sdc, L'Aliera ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ...
in the Nuragic complex of S'Arcu 'e Is Forros
The complex of S'Arcu 'e Is Forros is an important archaeological site located in the village of Villagrande Strisaili, in the province of Nuoro. Description
The site has lived two main constructive moments: the first included in the Middle Bronze ...
in Villagrande Strisaili
Villagrande Strisaili (Biddamanna Istrisàili in Sardinian language) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian region Sardinia, located about northeast of Cagliari and about northwest of Tortolì.
Villagrande Stri ...
.
According to some scholars, it is necessary to underline the general unreliability of the scarabs for the purposes of the chronology of the sites and monuments in which they were deposited. There are many documented cases of scarabs that have remained in circulation even for almost a millennium from the date of production, such as the New Kingdom scarabs found in Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
.
The pottery of Mont'e Prama
The dating of the ceramic fragments found in the necropolis of Mont'e Prama is controversial due to the general difficulty in distinguishing the pottery belonging to the Final Bronze Age from that of the Nuragic Iron Age. In fact, in the sacred wells, megara
Megara (; el, Μέγαρα, ) is a historic town and a municipality in West Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis Island, Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, befo ...
, sanctuaries and sacred caves, both the finds from the foundation period (1350 - 1200 BC) and those of the final bronze (1200 - 950 BC) are present together, and that pollutes the Iron Age strata.
However, in the recent excavations carried out in 2014 and 2015, the necropolis was confirmed to a more ancient dating, approximately,at least 1250 BC, due to the increasingly conspicuous discovery of cups belonging to the characteristic production of the Nuragic Recent Bronze inserted in the simpler funerary wells and belonging to the most ancient funerary ritual.
According to the archaeologist Giovanni Ugas, a miniature vase found in one of the oldest tombs in the sector excavated by the archaeologist Alessandro Bedini, constituting the oldest part of the necropolis, can be compared with another miniature from the sanctuary of Santa Vittoria of Serri and dated to the eighth century BC
This comparison has been criticized by other scholars as the jar of Santa Vittoria has ''X'' shaped handles, while the miniature of Mont'e Prama has rod-shaped handles, finding better comparisons with numerous other examples from the Sinis and Cabras, both from unknown locations, and from scientifically investigated contexts such as the sanctuary cave of Su Pirosu Benatzu of Santadi
Santadi is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italian region Sardinia, located about southwest of Cagliari and about southeast of Carbonia.
Santadi borders the following municipalities: Assemini, Domus de Mari ...
, of the nuraghe Sianeddu in the Sinis di Cabras, the sacred well of Cuccuru S'Arriu (First Phase) in Cabras and of the giants’ grave of Sa Gora'e sa Scafa in Cabras. These contexts and their miniature vases can be dated to the Recent Bronze.
Both the faired bowls and the convex-lipped bowls found in the part of the necropolis excavated by the archaeologist Carlo Tronchetti, considered less ancient than the portion excavated by Alessandro Bedini, may belong to both the Final Bronze and the early Iron Age. The archaeologist Giovanni Ugas, while recognizing the beginning of this vascular production in the Final Bronze, considers it preferable to date the artifacts of Mont'e Prama to the Iron Age.
Of the opposite opinion is the archaeologist Vincenzo Santoni, for whom the set of ceramics found in Mont'e Prama finds sure confirmation in numerous other Nuragic settlements of the Sinis and Cabras (''Nieddu'', ''Crichidoris'', ''Muras'', ''Riu Urchi''), in votive deposits (of ''Corrighias'' e di ''Sianeddu), in recent discoveries at Tharros
Tharros (also spelled Tharras, Archaic Greek: , Hellenistic Greek, Tarras or Tarrae, Τάρραι) was an ancient city and former bishopric on the west coast of Sardinia, Italy.
It is currently a Latin Catholic titular see and an archaeologica ...
by the archaeologist Enrico Acquaro, at the nuraghe Cobulas of Milis
Milis, Miris or Milis in sardinian language, is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Oristano in the Italian region Sardinia, located about northwest of Cagliari and about north of Oristano. As of 31 December 2004, it had a populati ...
, all datable to the Final Bronze.
For both the archaeologists Giovanni Ugas and Vincenzo Santoni the ceramics of Mont'e Prama find precise comparison in the Nuragic clay finds found at the Lipari castle, a site already frequented by the Nuragics during the so-called ''Ausonio I'' in the Recent Bronze but which, but which, regarding the vascular forms, present more precise comparisons with the site of Mont’e Prama in the phase of the so-called ''Ausonio II'' of the Final Bronze.
In the excavations carried out in 2014–2015, the dating of simple well tombs to a more ancient date, of at least the end of the Recent Bronze (about 1250 BC), is confirmed:
* Typical pottery of this period was found in the ''B/2014'' well, with stringent comparisons to the settlement of Brancu Maduli in Gesturi
Gesturi, Gèsturi in the Sardinian language, is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italian region Sardinia, located about north of Cagliari and about northeast of Sanluri in the Marmilla area.
Gesturi border ...
and above all in the silos de Sa Osa (Cabras); a truncated Recent Bronze cone cup (from about the 1300 BC), with comparisons in the Nuraghe Nolza of Meana Sardo
Meana Sardo, or Meana in Sardinian, is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian region of Sardinia, located about north of Cagliari and about southwest of Nuoro. As of 31 December 2004, it has a population of 2,028 ...
and in that of Nuracraba or of the Rimedio - Oristano
Oristano (; sc, Aristanis ) is an Italian city and ''comune'', and capital of the Province of Oristano in the central-western part of the island of Sardinia. It is located on the northern part of the Campidano plain. It was established as the pr ...
.
* The single-handled cup of the ''T'' tomb in the "Bedini" sector finds stringent comparisons with materials found in the Recent Bronze contexts of the Oristano area, such as the Nuracraba nuraghe, the lower layer of the Cuccuru ‘e is Arrius well, the N well of Sa Osa and the Sacred Nuragic spring of Mitza Pidighi in Solarussa.
*Identical comparisons are proposed for a similar cup found in the ''E/2014'' tomb of Mont'e Prama, with a straight vertical rim, rounded bottom, slightly convex bowl and a two-lobed straight handle.
* Another example of Recent Bronze nuragic pottery was found in the ''W/2018'' well, located in the land north of the Confraternity of the Rosary about six meters from the ''58'' fence. Just like in the ''J'' and ''T'' tombs, the vase was found under the skeletal remains, flattened on the bottom of the well but almost perfectly reassembled, with the edge upward. The vessel has the shape, surface treatment and color typical of the Recent Bronze Age: the closest comparisons are found in the ''N'' well 'of ''Sa Osa 62'', in the Nuracraba nuraghe and in Mitza Pidighi.
Dating of the A, A1, and B buildings
According to archaeologists Alessandro Usai and Silvia Vidili, in the buildings investigated in 2015 and 2016, the structures ''A'', ''A1'', and ''B'', constitute a progressive chronological sequence confirming the rise in the dating of Mont'e Prama. The ''B'' building (Early Iron pottery (850 -900 BC)) leans on the ''A1'' corridor (Nuragic Early Iron / Final Bronze pottery, 830 BC-950 BC) and the circular ''A'' building; ''B'' is therefore more recent than both ''A1'' and ''A''; and building ''B'' was not only built after building '' A '' but also after the construction of the ''A1'' atrium. The materials of the ''A1'' building, being attributed to the Early Iron-Final Bronze, present a significant uncertainty in the dating, placed between 830 BC and 950 BC.
The exact construction date of the ''A'' building is unknown, however it is certain that it is more ancient than the ''A1'' corridor since the masonry of ''A1'' is leaning against the wall of ''A''. As this building is older than ''A1'' and ''B'', it is possible that ''A'' was already built at the beginning of the Final Bronze if not earlier; this uncertainty is caused by the reuse in the Nuragic age but especially in the Punic age; during these periods the reuse (especially the Punic one) caused the removal of all the Nuragic materials making it impossible to date it through the context; re-use can delete the oldest phases with the overlapping of more recent materials, giving the impression that the building is much less ancient than its real dating; cases of reuse and restructuring pose the risk of a falsified chronology.
Relative and absolute dating of Nuraghe models
For the nuraghe models the dating difficulties - and the consequent controversies between scholars - are similar to those for bronze statuettes and pottery.
The models of Mont'e Prama - according to the archaeologist Alessandro Bedini - would have been sculpted in a period preceding that of the large statues, but in any case not before the 9th century BC
The 9th century BC started the first day of 900 BC and ended the last day of 801 BC. It was a period of great change for several civilizations. In Africa, Carthage is founded by the Phoenicians. In Egypt, a severe flood covers the floor of Luxor ...
.
Other scholars - believing this proposal to be equivocal - assign the Mont'e Prama models to 10th century BC, during the terminal phase of the Bronze Age. This latter hypothesis has recently received support from the only C14 dating available for these objects.
During the excavations inside the ''D'' tower of the Arrubiu nuraghe of Orroli, acorns were found in the same stratigraphy in which a basalt model of nuraghe was found. The C.14 exams carried out at the University of Madrid date this level of presence between 1132 BC. and 1000 BC.[ This absolute dating seems to be confirmed by the excavations carried out in the Matzanni cult complex at ]Vallermosa
Vallermosa, Biddaramosa in sardinian language, is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italian region Sardinia, located about northwest of Cagliari. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,995 and an area ...
, (Cagliari). In this site the sacred well ''A'' contained a model of a nuraghe, a ram, and human feet of a small bronze statuette, in a Final Bronze context.[
]
Date of destruction
The date of destruction (or the date of formation of the landfill) is determined by the presence of various fragments of Punic amphora
An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...
s underneath an archer bust, and other fragments of statues in the deepest and therefore older parts of the landfill, which excludes their infiltration in later periods.
The Punic fragments can be dated with certainty to the end of the 4th century BC or the beginning of the 3rd century BC; the Punic ceramic fragment constitutes the chronological limit ante quem non. Near the s'Uraki nuraghe, in the sacred well of Banatou in Narbolia
Narbolia ( sc, Narabuìa) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Oristano in the Italian region Sardinia, located about northwest of Cagliari and about north of Oristano. As of 31 December 2016, it had a population of 1,784 and an ar ...
, a fragment of a statue was found together with Punic votive statues and mixed Punic and Nuragic pottery, but unfortunately the difficulties in which the excavation took place do not allow a reliable dating of the find.
The last burial that took place in the necropolis of Monte Prama seems to be that of tomb J. Although it contains pottery dated to the tenth-eleventh centuries BC the buried one was dated using the C-14 carbon method in two different tests, and both placed the last Nuragic burial in the fifth century BC or in the fourth century BC, therefore in full Punic age; the difference between the date of the pottery and of the buried body could be explained by a reuse of the tomb in the Punic age
The date of the fourth century BC is also connected to the Punic intervention in the ''A'' building; this environment was in fact emptied of Nuragic materials up to the foundation level of the structure and even further down. Paradoxically, despite being older than the ''A1'' and ''B'' rooms, the ''A'' building only contains Punic material from the fourth century BC, when it was used by the Punics, perhaps, as a kitchen and home.
Finally, at Mont'e Prama tombs and a fragment of stele of Tanit
Tanit ( Punic: 𐤕𐤍𐤕 ''Tīnīt'') was a Punic goddess. She was the chief deity of Carthage alongside her consort Baal-Hamon.
Tanit is also called Tinnit. The name appears to have originated in Carthage (modern day Tunisia), though it doe ...
were found, similar to those found at the Punic necropolis of Tharros and at the sacred well of Cuccuru is Arrius, also from the Punic age. Coeval to the destructive intervention of the Punics, near Mon'te Prama are the destruction of the necropolis and Nuragic sanctuary at Antas (replaced by a temple to the Punic god Sid Addir) and at Tharros
Tharros (also spelled Tharras, Archaic Greek: , Hellenistic Greek, Tarras or Tarrae, Τάρραι) was an ancient city and former bishopric on the west coast of Sardinia, Italy.
It is currently a Latin Catholic titular see and an archaeologica ...
.
These three interventions are to be read as a strategy for conquest made by Carthage. Another hypothesis separates the moment of the formation of the landfill (fourth century BC) from that of the destruction which would have occurred rather in the seventh century BC, by the hands of the Phoenicians residing in Tharros; this thesis doesn't have a great consensus behind it since it is believed that in the Phoenician age, in a period between the fifth and seventh centuries BC, the idea that the Levantine settlements in the gulf area, from Tharros to Othoca to Neapolis, had developed an internal dynamic, an organization and a propulsive capacity such as to reverse the balance of power to the detriment of the indigenous element is very doubtful.
Ideological aspects of the monumental complex
In general, scholars see in the Mont'e Prama complex a self-celebration site for a Nuragic aristocratic elite and its idealized, heroic warriors.[Quoted by .] Its strategic location within the Gulf of Oristano would thus aim to transmit to foreign visitors, especially the Phoenicians settled in Sardinia, a message of dominion and power over the island.
Nuraghe models found together with the statues can be seen both as sacred symbols and as a claim for Nuragic identity:
* as symbols of identity, the various nuraghe models sculpted around the tenth century BC, would be a downright totem
A totem (from oj, ᑑᑌᒼ, italics=no or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system.
While ''the wo ...
of the Nuragic world, besides being a symbol of power like the statues. Nuraghe models are in fact present in big meeting or "reunion huts" of several nuraghes, among which su Nuraxi at Barumini
Barumini ( sc, Barùmini) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italian region of Sardinia, located about north of Cagliari and about northeast of Sanluri.
Barumini borders the following municipalities: Gerg ...
;
* as sacred symbols, nuraghe models could have been seen as guardians for the dead of a necropolis and/or as ritual devices, given their presence as altars in all the great Nuragic sanctuaries. This sacred/political ambivalence, the depiction of nuraghes in everyday objects such as buttons, smoothing tools, and others, attest through the so-called models, a real cult of the Nuraghe monument.
Despite a general consensus about values and ideologies underlying the monumental complex of Mont'e Prama, political implications and artistic influences are still hotly debated. As for political significance, some scholars tend to see in the small number of warriors, with respect to archers, a sign of military and political decay of the Nuragic society, caused by the establishment of Phoenician centers in Sardinia. This would be mirrored by the import and adoption of Levantine Levantine may refer to:
* Anything pertaining to the Levant, the region centered around modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, including any person from the Levant
** Syria (region), corresponding to the modern countries of the Lev ...
ideological models and by assignment of the statues to the orientalizing period spreading throughout the Mediterranean area during the eighth century BC.
Recent researches (2010) have nevertheless demonstrated that the old idea of a Nuragic civilization collapsing upon the arrival of Phoenicians and their colonization of Sardinia, is completely outdated. Phoenicians started to arrive in Sardinia around the ninth century BC, in small number, and remained scattered along the coastline. This period was the heyday of Nuragic society and Phoenicians started to cooperate with the Nuragics that, in turn, continued to administer harbours and economic resources.
According to archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu, the statues were not erected during a period of political decay, but during a great cultural revolution affecting aristocracy, economy and politics. The sculptures would thus reflect an independent and sovereign condition of Nuragic people.
Furthermore, the geometric "Abini-Teti style", rules out a possible placement of the statues within the orientalizing culture and period, only appearing in bronze artifacts of the seventh century BC. It is thus correct to speak of a Proto-Sardinian, oriental artistic trend. According to Giovanni Lilliu the statues belong to an indigenous artistic and political climax, with an almost urban character.
All these discrepancies among scholars are largely related to the chronological problem.
Possible manufacturing techniques
According to art historian Peter Rockwell, several metal tools have been used, probably made of bronze. In particular these tools can be noted:
* a stone-cutter's chisel
A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, stru ...
, that is a chisel with blades of diverse sizes
* an implement similar to a hand scraper, employed like or together with abrasives
* a dry-point to carve sharp lines in detail
* an instrument to produce holes, similar to a drill, whose usage by Nuragic people has been proven by archaeological finds
* a tool similar to compass
A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...
to engrave circular lines, such as those of the round eyes. About that tool Peter Rockwell wrote that:
It is sure that Nuragic civilisation knew the compass because one iron compass was found at "Nuraghe Funtana", near Ittireddu
Ittireddu ( sc, Itireddu) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Sassari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about north of Cagliari and about southeast of Sassari.
Ittireddu borders the following municipalities: Bonorva, Mores, ...
.
* a tooth chisel, that is a stone-cutter's chisel having a toothed and sharp edge, particularly suitable for marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...
sculpture, leaving the most interesting traces on the Giants. This tool was hit keeping it slanted on the surface, in order to create a first polishing with grooves of different tightness. According to scholars, this technique was introduced in Greece not before the sixth century BC.
Other examples of sculptures
Other similar sculptures are the finds from Viddalba ( Ossi), held at the Museum Sanna of Sassari, and from Bulzi
220px, Church of San Pietro del Crocifisso.
Bulzi ( sc, Bultzi) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Sassari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about north of Cagliari and about northeast of Sassari.
Bulzi borders the followin ...
, of which not even the exact provenance is known. They are characterized as being halfway between statues and baetyls.
The crested and pointed helmet again draws heavily on bronze figurines, in particular on the "archer of Serri" and on an archer found at the megaron temple of ''Domu 'e Urxia''. The sculptures are in limestone, the face has the familiar T-scheme, with two holes representing eyes. The crested helmet with front visor, is furnished with two hollows into which limestone horns, that have left some remnants, were fitted. If the crest recalls the helmets of some Nuragic bronzetti, the hollows hosting horns are in common with statue-menhirs of Cauria Cauria is an archaeological site in Corsica. It is located in the commune of Sartène
Sartène (; co, Sartè ; it, Sartena or ) is a commune in the department of Corse-du-Sud on the island of Corsica, France.
Its history dates back to m ...
and Filitosa, dated to 1200 BC and assigned to the Torrean civilization, closely related to the Nuragic one.
According to archaeologist Paolo Bernardini, monumental statuary appears also at the site of "San Giovanni Sergiu", in South Sardinia, most probably linked to a necropolis. At the site, a surface survey among the stones piled from a field tillage uncovered a head carved in sandstone, surmounted by a tall and bent headgear, embellished with tusks. The lineaments, extremely damaged, still preserve two nested circles representing eyes, identical to those of the statues of Mont'e Prama, and a sharp chin. Other fragments from the same site seem to belong to a human trunk with a cross belt, with a clear image of a small palm tree, sculpted in relief and partially painted in red.[Quoted by .]
Possible fragments of statues have been found in the sacred building of "Sa Sedda 'e Sos Carros" (Oliena
Oliena (, less correctly ; sc, Ulìana ) is a commune in the province of Nuoro, Sardinia, Italy.
History
The territory of Oliena has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic Era until today.
The first proofs about the above-mentioned presences ...
), dedicated to the cult of water; some quoins, used as raw stone material to level out the stone floor, show traces of relief decorations reminiscent of those on the fragments of shields from Mont'e Prama; this possible link is reinforced by the finding of a putative fragment of a foot.
See also
* History of Carthage
The city of Carthage was founded in the 9th century BC on the coast of Northwest Africa, in what is now Tunisia, as one of a number of Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean created to facilitate trade from the city of Tyre on the ...
* History of Sardinia
Archaeological evidence of prehistoric human settlement on the island of Sardinia is present in the form of nuraghes and other prehistoric monuments, which dot the land. The recorded history of Sardinia begins with its contacts with the various ...
* Late Bronze Age collapse
* Nuragic bronze statuettes
The Nuragic bronze statuettes (''bronzetti'' in Italian, ''brunzitos'' or ''brunzitus'' in Sardinian) are typical Nuragic Sardinian bronze sculptures of the final phase of the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age.
During the archaeological excavat ...
* Nuragic civilization
The Nuragic civilization, also known as the Nuragic culture, was a civilization or culture on Sardinia (Italy), the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, which lasted from the 18th century BC (Middle Bronze Age) (or from t ...
* Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples are a hypothesized seafaring confederation that attacked ancient Egypt and other regions in the East Mediterranean prior to and during the Late Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 BCE).. Quote: "First coined in 1881 by the Fren ...
* Tharros
Tharros (also spelled Tharras, Archaic Greek: , Hellenistic Greek, Tarras or Tarrae, Τάρραι) was an ancient city and former bishopric on the west coast of Sardinia, Italy.
It is currently a Latin Catholic titular see and an archaeologica ...
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External links
Prehistoric cybermen? Sardinia's lost warriors rise from the dust – The Independent
* In this vide
more images on Giants of Monte Prama.
{{Sardinia
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1974 archaeological discoveries
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Archaeology of Sardinia
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Prehistoric sculpture
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