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History of the Giants’ tomb of Thomes

The oldest ceramic fragments found in the excavation of Thomes (fig. 1) date to the Middle Bronze 1 Age (facies of Sa Turricula 1600-1500 B.C.), the period when the tomb was built.

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Fig. 1 - Giants’ tomb of Thomes-Dorgali (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).

The Middle Bronze Age (1600-1300 B.C.) in Sardinia can be divided into three facies: Sa Turricula, Monti Mannu and San Cosimo (fig. 2).

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Fig. 2 - Giants’ tomb of San Cosimo-Gonnosfanadiga (from http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/mmt/1024/103511.jpg).


Allée-couverte Nuraghe were built during the early stages of the Middle Bronze Age while tholos Nuraghe were only built at the end of the Age. Villages with huts made with a stone base or with wood material and mud bricks have been documented. Simultaneously with the allée-couverte Nuraghe (fig. 3), collective tombs were also built, the so-called giants’ tombs, whose evolution from the orthostatic-dolmen type to one with an isodomic masonry technique almost certainly took place within the Middle Bronze Age 2 (facies of Monti Mannu).

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Fig. 3 - The Sa Fogaia-Siddi protonuraghe (from http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/mmt/1024/50562.jpg).

Artefacts from Roman times and the Medieval Age (III century B.C.-VI/VII century A.D.), albeit sporadic, document the inhabitation of the monument, or in any case of the area on which it stands, even during later ages than the Nuraghic one.

Bibliografia

  • DEPALMAS A., Il Bronzo Medio della Sardegna, in Atti della XLIV Riunione Scientifica. La Preistoria e la Protostoria della Sardegna, Firenze 2009, pp. 49-58.
  • FERRARESE CERUTI M. L., Architettura e ceramica dell’Età del Bronzo in Sardegna, in ANTONA A. LO SCHIAVO F. (a cura di), Archeologia della Sardegna preistorica e Protostorica, Nuoro 1997, pp. 509-513.
  • MANUNZA M.R., Dorgali. Monumenti antichi, Oristano, 1995, pp. 111-112, figg. 144-148.
  • MANUNZA M. R., La ceramica prenuragica e nuragica, in AA.VV., Ceramiche. Storia, linguaggio e prospettive in Sardegna, Nuoro 2007, pp. 30-35.
  • MORAVETTI A., Le tombe e l’ideologia funeraria, in AA.VV., La civiltà nuragica, Milano, 1990, pp. 120-168.
  • MORAVETTI A., Serra Orrios e i monumenti archeologici di Dorgali, Sardegna Archeologica. Guide e itinerari, 26, Sassari 1998, pp. 75-78, figg. 61-64.
  • MORAVETTI A. (a cura di), Carbonia-Fonni, in La Sardegna. I Tesori dell’Archeologia, La Biblioteca della Nuova Sardegna, vol. 3, Sassari 2011.
  • PULACCHINI D., Il Museo Archeologico di Dorgali, Sardegna Archeologica. Guide e itinerari, 27, Sassari 1998.

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