Nuraghi are prehistoric cyclopean buildings typical of Sardinia. They are a testimony of a particular architectonic manifestation of the Mediterranean civilization that is datable from the Bronze Age and had defensive and settling purposes. The Nuragic complex of Su Nuraxi is the most significant example. It consists of a main body of five towers, surrounded by other towered walls and a large village of huts.
[expand title=”Archaeological area of Su Nuraxi“]
The Nuragic complex of Barumini, known as Su Nuraxi, stands on a central plateau in Sardinia, in an elevated position overlooking the Pardu ‘e s’eda valley. The nuraghe and the relevant village were part of a wider and more complex system of occupation of the territory, which included also other nuraghi on the plain and the plateau of the Giara di Gesturi. The exceptionality of the site is due to the fact that it was the first Nuragic complex to be extensively excavated with scientific methods, bringing the Nuragic civilization to scholars’ attention. Built in the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was used for a long time until the 7th century BC and, then, in the Punic and Roman age. The complex consists of a main tower connected to other four towers opening on a central court and surrounded by a bastion with seven towers joined by seven straight walls. The central tower was 20 m high and had a diameter at the base of approximately 10 m. A village of huts (approximately 50) with a circular plan, simple or complex, extends behind the keep, mainly eastwards. It is supposed that the nuraghe was a sort of fortified palace for the dominant family, the chieftain, and the huts of the village were inhabited by the rest of the population working in production activities such as sheep-breeding, farming and crafts. Some of them show a fireplace and a well. There are also more complex structures, maybe for collective use, meetings or worship. Among these, the so-called “Meeting hut”, which is characterized by a stone seat running along the internal perimeter.[/expand]
[expand title=”The Nuraghi of Sardinia”]
Nuraghi are typical buildings of the proto-Sardinian civilization. They consist of truncated-cone shaped towers built of more or less rough blocks, generally in a strategic position for the control of the territory, on hillsides, in the centre of plateaus and plains, on hilltops, near transit routes and water supply points. Nuraghi are proto-historical exemplary structures that show an original interaction between man and the environment and a widespread occupation of the territory (there are approximately 8000) aimed at the exploitation of raw materials, fields and pastures. The more complex ones, such as Su Nuraxi at Barumini, were supposed to represent the seat of local power. Built between the 17th and the 13th century BC, nuraghi were inhabited during the whole duration of the Nuragic civilization and, in some cases, were used also in the Punic and Roman age, sometimes even until the Middle Ages.[/expand]