The San Ciriaco culture, sometimes also called San Ciriaco Phase, is a 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 ...

, pre-Nuragic culture from

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 ...

and roughly dates to the second half of the 5th millennium BC (4500-4000 BC). It is named after a locality in the territory of

Terralba Terralba ( sc, Terraba) is a ''comune'' (municipality) and former Latin Catholic bishopric in the Province of Oristano in the Italian island region Sardinia, located about northwest of Cagliari and about south of Oristano. Terralba borders the ...

, in the

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), ...

. The economy of the San Ciriaco people was predominantly agricultural using the same plant and animal species as the preceding Bonu Ighinu culture. San Ciriaco ceramics encompass well-fired and thin-walled vessels with polished surfaces varying in colour from beige to black. Vessels exhibit angular or carinated shapes, possess slightly rounded or flat bases, and are undecorated. At

Monte Arci The Monte Arci is an isolated massif in the Uras plain in Campidano, south-western Sardinia, Italy. It is composed by three volcanic basalt towers, the highest one reaching an elevation of 812 m. The inner part of the massif is composed of ...

, larger workshops hint towards an intensified use of

obsidian Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...

, while imported flint from the

Gargano peninsula The Apulia Carbonate Platform in Apulia, Italy, was a major palaeogeographic element of the southern margin of the Mesozoic Tethys Ocean. It is one of the so-called peri- Adriatic platforms, which are comparable to the Bahama Banks in their carbo ...

found in cist 1 of the Li Muri necropolis at

Arzachena Arzachena (; sdn, Alzachèna; sc, Altzaghèna) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Sassari, northern Sardinia, the second largest island off the coast of Italy. Arzachena lies half way between the original Costa Smeralda resort and Port ...

documents far reaching contacts. While small artificial caves continued to be used for burials, now more elaborated underground rock-cut tombs, so called

hypogea A hypogeum or hypogaeum (plural hypogea or hypogaea, pronounced ; literally meaning "underground", from Greek ''hypo'' (under) and ''ghê'' (earth)) is an underground temple or tomb. Hypogea will often contain niches for cremated human rema ...

, were built, placing Sardinia well into the

megalithic A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

context of the

western 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 eas ...

. Some, like tomb 10 at Santa Pedru, reach a considerable size (15 x 7 m) and consist of five chambers. Stone

cists A cist ( or ; also kist ; from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle East ...

covered by

cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

were also built.

Bibliography

* *Gary Webster (2019). The Sardinian Neolithic: An Archaeology of the 6th and 5th Millennia BCE. BAR int. Ser. 2941. Oxford: BAR Publishing.

References

Archaeological cultures of Europe Neolithic cultures of Europe Archaeological cultures in Sardinia {{Italy-archaeology-stub

See also

Bibliography

References