Detailed sheets

The “tomba a camera” (VIII)

The Tomba a Camera is about 10 metres above the level of the ground. It originally had a large entrance with a staircase, that has now collapsed.

A rectangular atrium leads into a bigger room, also rectangular, with a sloping roof supported by pillars made in the rock. On the long side of the cell and the short left side, auxiliary cells can be seen (fig. 1).

1
Fig. 1 - Layout of the Tomba a camera (by TARAMELLI 1919, fig. 46, page 106).

The characteristic of this tomb are the decorations engraved in the architrave ceiling of the cell, that represents the wooden sloping roof with a central beam and sixteen lateral beams (eight per side) of a rectangular pre-Nuragic home (figs. 2, 3).

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Figs. 2, 3 - Detail of ceiling in domus de janas VIII of S. Andrea Priu, known as the “Tomba a camera” (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).

The roof is supported by two pillars, one of which (the left) stands on a funeral bench saved on the left side, producing two false niches (figs. 4, 5).

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Fig. 4 - The two false niches (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).
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Fig. 5 - The funeral bench and two false niches (by TARAMELLI 1919, fig. 50, page 111).

Another element in this domus are the three hollows dug into the ante-cell floor i.e. Circular cavities contained in the rocky floor, used for collecting offers in honour of the deceased, and a dug-out tomb from the High Middle Ages.

 

Bibliografia

  • BONINU A., SOLINAS M., La Necropoli di Sant’Andrea Priu. Bonorva, Mores 1999.
  • CAPRARA R., La necropoli di S. Andrea Priu. Sardegna Archeologica. Guide e Itinerari, 3, Sassari 1986.
  • FOSCHI A., Bonorva. Loc. Sant’Andria Priu, in Anati E. (a cura di), I Sardi. La Sardegna dal Paleolitico all’Età Romana, Milano 1984, pp. 287-289.
  • MELONI G. M., Le domus de janas del Logudoro-Mejologu, in L’ipogeismo nel Mediterraneo. Origini, sviluppo, quadri culturali, Atti del Congresso Internazionale, Sassari - Oristano 23 - 28 maggio 1994, II, Muros 2000, pp. 789 - 802.
  • TANDA G., L’Arte delle domus de janas nelle immagini di Jngeborg Mangold, Sassari 1985, pp. 61-65.
  • TARAMELLI A., Fortezze, Recinti, Fonti sacre e Necropoli preromane nell’Agro di Bonorva (Prov. di Sassari), con rilievi e disegni del Prof. Francesco Giarrizzo, in Monumenti Antichi dei Lincei, XXV, 1919, coll. 765-904.
  • TARAMELLI A., Edizione archeologica della Carta d’Italia al 100.000, Foglio 193 Bonorva, quadrante II NE, Firenze 1940 (XVIII), pp. 48-49.
  • USAI L., La necropoli di Sant’Andrea Priu a Bonorva, in Almanacco Gallurese, 2013-2014, Muros, pp. 40-47.

 

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