In the 8th century A.D., the so-called “Tomba del Capo” in the necropolis of artificial grottoes in Sant'Andrea Priu was used as a church.

In the part reserved for those who were preparing for baptism, or penitents, called the inner narthex or endo-narthex (fig. 1), the semi-circular room of the prehistoric tomb was reused, where on the floor there are two simple, long narrow tombs dug out of the rock to the left of the entrance, that can be dated to the High Middle Ages. These “ground” tombs are a low pulvinus (cushion) sunk into the western head of the tomb and have a ferrule for housing the cover slabs. The south tomb is 1.94 metres long, 0.66 metres wide in the middle and about 0.5 metres deep. The north tomb is 1.87 metres long, 0.61 metres wide and 0.45 metres deep (fig. 2).

Fig. 1 - The Byzantine tombs in the inner narthex of the rock church (by CAPRARA 1986, p. 51).

Fig. 2 - Byzantine tombs dug into the inner narthex floor of the rock church (photo Unicity S.p.A.).

Opposite the entrance to the rock church, there is a large block of trachyte, about 8 metres long and 3 metres wide, on the top of which a tomb has been dug out, while in the southeast part stairs are cut out of the rock (figs. 3-4).

This tomb, with pulvinus, is on a northwest-southeast axis, is 188 cm long (6 Byzantine feet), about 55 cm wide and 35 cm deep at the pulvinus and 70 cm on the opposite side. There is a recess about 10 cm wide around the tomb that was used to rest the cover stone on. It is dated to the High Middle Ages, as are the two tombs dug out of the floor in the endo-narthex, that it is similar to.

Fig. 3 - S. Andrea Priu, the tomb outside the rock church (by AREA DI BONORVA)

Fig. 4 - S. Andrea Priu, the tomb outside the rock church (photo by M.G. Arru).

Fig. 5 - S. Andrea Priu, map of the tomb outside the rock church (by CAPRARA 1986, p. 55).