Detailed sheets

The stone boxes positioned at the tangent points of the mounds

The lithic boxes (dimensions 0.40 x 0.50 m.) stowed close to the circles, have been linked to the cult of the dead, whose devotion was manifested by depositing periodic perishable offerings, of which no trace has been preserved since the boxes were found completely empty (fig. 1).

1
Fig. 1 - The site of Li Muri (from MORAVETTI, ALVITO 2010, p. 21, fig. 6).

Other offering boxes located in different points of the necropolis, in any case always positioned outside the circles, suggest that they might have contained artefacts used during the burial rite (fig. 2), as is testified by the few finds found inside, such as flint blades and pebbles with traces of red ochre.

2
Fig. 2 - Lithic box (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).

This hypothesis is also suggested by the inaccessible position of these boxes if, as was suggested by Editta Castaldi, the necropolis originally had to be structured as a series of small tangents one to the other (fig. 3).

3
Fig. 3 - 3D reconstruction of the funerary circles (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).




Bibliografia

  • ANTONA RUIU A., La necropoli di Li Muri, in ANTONA RUIU A., FERRARESE CERUTI M.L., Il nuraghe Albucciu e i monumenti di Arzachena, Guide e itinerari, 19, Sassari 1992, pp. 25-29.
  • ANTONA A., Arzachena. Pietre senza tempo, Sassari 2013, pp. 72-83.
  • CASTALDI E., Arzachena. Loc. Li Muri, in I Sardi. La Sardegna dal Paleolitico all’Età Romana, Milano 1984, pp. 284-285.

Menu