Su Nuraxi, Barumini, Sardinia

Central tower of the Nuraghe at Saint Antine of Torralba

Su Nurraxi. Inside the central tower. The man here is 1.80 m.

Su Nurraxi. Going from the central tower to the east tower.

A giant tomb near Cagliari. The entrance is roughly 1 m high, one can stand once inside the construction.

The Nuraghe (Nu*ra"ghe) is the main typical archaeological monument of Sardinia. Image File history File links Inside_su_nurraxi_1. ... Image File history File links Inside_su_nurraxi_1. ... Image File history File links Inside_su_nurraxi_2. ... Image File history File links Inside_su_nurraxi_2. ... Image File history File links Cagliari_giant_tomb. ... Image File history File links Cagliari_giant_tomb. ... Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech/discourse) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... Sardinia (Sardegna in Italian, Sardigna or Sardinna in the Sardinian language, is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (Sicily is the largest), between Italy, Spain and Tunisia, south of Corsica. ...

It is typically a truncated cone tower, in the shape of a tholos, built with huge square blocks of stone, and usually located in a panoramic position. The monument has no foundations, and stands only due to the of the weight of stones, which may weigh as much as several tons. Some Nuraghes are more than 20 metres in height. Today, there are more than 8,000 Nuraghes in Sardinia, though it has been estimated that once the number was more than 30,000.
Another kind of Nuraghe has a corridor or a system of corridors. Some authors are reluctant to place these in the same category as tholos Nuraghe, as there are too many relevant differences, and prefer talking about "Nuragic village". The Eiffel Tower Fire-observation watchtower in Kostroma, Russia. ... The Treasure of Atreus tholos in 2004 Beehive tombs, also known as Tholos tombs (plural tholoi), are a style of Mycenaean chamber tomb from the Bronze Age. ...

Nuraghes appeared on the island in an undetermined epoch (not earlier than 6th millennium BC). Some elements have been dated 3500 BC, but it is supposed that most of them were built from the middle of the Bronze Age (18th-15th centuries BC) to the Late Bronze Age, though many were in continuous use until Rome entered Sardinia (2nd century BC). // Events c. ... (36th century BC - 35th century BC - 34th century BC - other centuries) (5th millennium BC - 4th millennium BC - 3rd millennium BC) Events ? - Formation of the Sahara Desert 3450 (?) - Stage IId of the Naqada culture in Egypt Significant persons Inventions, discoveries, introductions ? _ Irrigation in Egypt ? - First use of Cuneiform (script) Categories... The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ... // Events 1787 - 1784 BC -- Amorite conquests of Uruk and Isin 1786 BC -- Egypt: Queen Sobekneferu died. ... // Overview Events 1504 BC – 1492 BC -- Egypt conquers Nubia and the Levant. ... The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) consisted of techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally occurring outcroppings of ore, and then alloying those metals in order to cast bronze. ... See also Roman Republic (18th century) and Roman Republic (19th century). ... (3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - other centuries) (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium AD) // Events 175 BCE - Antiochus IV Epiphanes, took possession of the Syrian throne, at the murder of his brother Seleucus IV Philopator, which rightly belonged to his nephew Demetrius I Soter. ...

The uncertain date of the Nuraghes is a constant feature of Sardinian chronologies. Even though, according to Massimo Pallottino, a scholar of Sardinian prehistory and Etruscologist, the Nuragic civilization produced the most advanced and monumental architecture of the period in the western Mediterranean, including the region of Magna Graecia, of the existing 8000 only a few have as yet been scientifically excavated. Interest in Sardinian archaeology has been minimal, except for the black market trade in bronze statues. Magna Graecia around 280 b. ... The black market or underground market is the part of economic activity involving illegal dealings, typically the buying and selling of merchandise or services (for example sexual services in many countries) illegally. ...

The use or meaning of the nuraghe has not been clearly identified: whether a religious temple, or a dwelling, a military stronghold, the house of the chief of the village, the place for the meeting of the wise men or the governors. It could have been as well a combination of all or some of these items. Some of the nuraghi are, however, in strategic locations from which important passages could be easily controlled.

Undoubtedly nuraghes had a meaningful symbolic content, at least recalling wealth or power, or maybe the establishment of a village (eventually in the dignity of a State-village). Recent theories are oriented to consider that Sardinian villages might have been federated (very likely they were self-governed) and that the building of these monuments could depend on a prior planned distribution of the territory. It has to be remembered that Nuragic dwellers had developed particular skills in metallurgy, trading for bronze in many areas of the Mediterranean and being consequently a well known people.

Some famous nuraghes

The most important complex is the Nuraghe in Barumini (39°42′21″N, 8°59′26″E), centered around a three-story tower built around 1500s BC. This site was recently made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At this site Dr. Giovanni Lilliu discovered a fortified village that in times had been covered by ground and had became a hill. Other nuraghes are in Serra Orrios, Alghero, Torralba, Macomer, Abbasanta (see Losa and illustration), Orroli, Villanovaforru, Sarroch, Olbia. Centuries: 17th century BC - 16th century BC - 15th century BC Decades: 1550s BC 1540s BC 1530s BC 1520s BC 1510s BC - 1500s BC - 1490s BC 1480s BC 1470s BC 1460s BC 1450s BC Events and Trends Stonehenge built in Wiltshire, England The element Mercury has been discovered in Egyptian tombs... UNESCO logo UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. ... Site #86: Memphis and its Necropolis, including the Pyramids of Giza (Egypt). ... Country Italy Region Sardinia Province Sassari (SS) Mayor Marco Tedde (since June 10, 2002) Elevation 7 m Area 224. ... An archaeological site in northern Spain where large mammal remains and stone tools from 400,000 years ago suggest early hominid hunting or scavenging (Park 2005). ... Abbasanta is a small village set on the west side of Sardinia, on the main road that links Macomer to Oristano. ... The nuraghe Losa (in Sardinia, close to the village of Abbasanta)is a complex prehistoric building in the shape of a tholos tomb. ... For Pontic Olbia, the Greek colony on the Black Sea coast, see Olbia, Ukraine. ...

"Nuragici people" had developed arts, mainly in the form of little statues in bronze called "bronzetto", typically representing the chief of the village ("Sardus pater") or hunting or fighting men, animals, more rarely women. History of Sardinia Prehistory In 1979 human remains were found that were dated 150,000 BC. Following retrievals are of about 15,000 BC. It is supposed ancient Sardinians descend from a mysterious people: Shardana. ... Assorted ancient bronze castings found as part of a cache, probably intended for recycling. ...

Other monuments of the Nuragicis' are the so-called "Giants tombs", megaron temples, sacred dwellings, "sacred wells", sanctuaries, enclosures.

Nuragic art includes stone carvings or statues representing female divinities (Thanit, main religious entity, is a goddess); these works however have often been considered as partly a fruct of relationships with Phoenicians. Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plains of what is now Lebanon. ...

It has been recalled that round buildings, or circular plan buildings, are typical of nomad peoples, and indeed ancient Sardinians should effectively have been used to constantly move within their territory for better places or to avoid invasions or outside for new markets for their bronze.

The Nuraghe is today the symbol of Sardinia and of its unique ethnicity.

See also

• Talayot

The talayots are Bronze Age stone towers on the islands of Minorca and Majorca. ...

External links

• Nuraghe explained; further links.
• Satellite image of Su Nurraxi