Archaeology

It is around the middle of the second millennium B.C., during the Middle Bronze Age, that the beginning of the great age of megalithism is commonly fixed. This period saw the proliferation throughout Sardinia of those constructions that, by ancient name, are known as nuraghi. Even when the nuraghi were erected in flat areas, the choice of site favoured short rocky heights only slightly elevated above the surrounding countryside, both because such a position greatly diminished the inconveniences caused by the marshy soils that occupied the depressions, and because the presence of natural rock offered the raw material for the construction of the buildings. The elevated position also allowed a wide view of the surrounding countryside. Often, around the nuraghi there is a village of huts, of various sizes and in varying states of preservation.
There are basically two types of nuraghi in Gallura: the ‘tholos’ nuraghe and the ‘corridor’ nuraghe. The first is characterised, in its simplest form, by buildings with a circular plan and a truncated cone elevation that ends in a terrace. When this type of nuraghe was enlarged out of necessity, there was an aggregation of two, three, four or more towers joined together by rectilinear curtains or by bastions with a concave-convex course. These are buildings that featured vertically distributed covered spaces with false vaults (tholos), thus reaching considerable heights. On the other hand, the second type of nuraghe is the so-called ‘corridor’ type due to the prevalent presence of numerous corridors
of varying lengths and with varying degrees of turn. Covered by slabs, they sometimes acquire the value of real living quarters.

Among the monuments in the Arzachena area, the so-called Tombs of the Giants deserve special attention. Their considerable size is the inspiration behind the legendary characters evoked in their names. They are, in fact, communal burials. These constructions are composed of a rectangular burial chamber enclosed in an apsidal body at the end, which widens at the front into two arms of masonry delimiting, in semicircular form, the area of the exedra. The area of the tomb destined for worship consists of the exedra; it represents the most monumental part of the construction, a character heightened by the presence of a series of vertically inserted slabs forming a semicircle. The area of the exedra, in which there is almost always a seat or bench running at the base of the stones crowning it, was used for ceremonies linked to the cult of the dead, a function attested to by the discovery of the remains of offerings and the presence of betili, stones of sacred value evoking divinity.

The name ‘tafoni’, of Corsican origin, indicates those natural caves, characteristic of granite, to which particular degradation phenomena, both physical and chemical, are said to have given rise. The numerically high presence of such cavities, the frequency with which they appear scattered throughout the territory of Arzachena, and their use as dwellings, tombs, storerooms and stables (depending on the space available within them), have determined a widespread and characterising cultural phenomenon. To a certain extent, this phenomenon is still alive in the contemporary artefacts, which, resting on tafonate rocks, fulfilling the function of stable and storeroom, constitute beautiful examples of rustic architecture, where the natural and artificial elements merge into a harmonious and balanced whole.