The megalithic circle is a type of burial used in the historical region of Gallura from the first half of the fourth millennium B.C., consisting of a series of concentric circles of stones, suitable for supporting a covering mound of earth, in whose centre a small quadrangular stone room, called a cista, was placed, where the deceased was laid (fig. 1).

Fig. 1 - 3D reconstruction of funerary circles (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).

Within megalithic funerary architecture, the singularity of the type of building found for the first time right in the site of Li Muri, was sufficient to define it, within Sardinian prehistory, as a particular aspect and a distinctive characteristic of the Gallura region.

It is precisely here, in northern Sardinia, that there is the largest group of this type of burial, also documented, as an addition to Li Muri, but not exclusively, in the cista tomb with circular mound of La Macciunitta in Arzachena (fig. 2) and in the megalithic circle of Pastricciali di Mezzu in Olbia.

Fig. 2 - La Macciunitta (from ANTONA, LO SCHIAVO, PERRA 2011, p. 243, fig. 2).

So far as is known, the rest of the island only shows the megalithic circle of Su Corrazzu de Is Pillois, recorded in the land registry of Guspini and presumably relating to the period between the second half of the third and the beginning of the second millennium B.C.

Fig. 3 - Megalithic circle Su Corrazzu de Is Pillois in Guspini (from Wikimapia http://wikimapia.org/#lang=it&lat=39.626837&lon=8.622476&z=20&m=b).