The Tombe Di Giganti and Temples of Nuraghic Sardinia

Proverbio Edoardo Romano Giuliano and Aveni Anthony , “Astronomical orientations of five megalithic tombs at Madau, near Fonni in Sardinia”, Archaeoastronomy (supplement to Journal for the history of astronomy), no. 11 (1987), S55–66, Figs 4 and 5; Hoskin Michael and Núñez José Morales Juan ,“The orientations of the burial monuments of Menorca”, ibid., no. 16 (1991), S15–42, pp. S33–39 and Figs 20–23

Whitehouse Ruth , “Megaliths of the central Mediterranean”, in Antiquity and man, ed. by Evans J. D. Cunliffe B. and Renfrew C. (London, 1981), 107–27, p. 114.

According to Castaldi E. (“Tombe di Giganti nel Sassarese”, Origini, iii (1969), 119–274, pp. 251–6, Appendix I), some 219 true tdgs were known at the time of writing. By adopting a looser definition (one inappropriate to our present purposes), Lilliu G. (La civiltà dei Sardi (2nd edn, Turin, 1975)) arrived at a total of 321. All the 78 tombs discussed here fall within the stricter definition, so that our survey covers more than one in three of the tdgs known in 1969, a number of which have been destroyed since.

Proverbio Romano and Aveni , op. cit.

Idem, “Astronomical orientations of ‘Tombe dei giganti’ in Barbagia (Sardinia)”, in Colloquio Internazionale Archeologia e Astronomia, ed. by Romano G. and Traversari G. (Rome, 1991). 52–59. In Table 5 the authors give simplified data for the five tombs near Madau discussed in the previous paper and in our Table 1 we have followed this version of their results.

Proverbio Edoardo , “New evidence concerning possible astronomical orientations of ‘Tombe di giganti’”. in Archaeoastronomy in the 1990s, ed. by Ruggles Clive (Loughborough, 1993), 324–31: idem, “New observations of possible astronomical orientations of burial monuments in Sardinia”, in Conference on Archaeoastronomy: Current problems and future of archaeoastronomy (Proceedings of conference held in Székesfehérvár, 1991; in press).

The late L. Pericot García, who was a leading authority on the Balearic Islands, remarks in The Balearic Islands (London, 1972), 79: “The ‘giants’ tombs' of Sardinia have always been mentioned as possible prototypes for navetas, for the building techniques employed are similar.” As we shall see, this last remark is questionable. There is a preliminary discussion of this problem in Hoskin and Núñez Morales , op. cit. (ref. 1), S35–39.

Woodcock N. H. Dr , Cambridge University, private communication.

This is, for example, the view of Manconi D. and Pianu G. , Sardegna, 2nd edn (Rome, 1990), 152, and of Contu Ercole , “Edificio megalitico rettangolare di Domu de Orgia in località Cuccureddi”, Studi Sardi, viii (1948), 313–17.

Barreca Ferruccio , La civiltà fenicio-punica in Sardegna (Sassari, 1986), 26.

Lilliu Giovanni , La civilità nuragica (Sassari, 1982), 12, 106–11; cf. the discussion in his La civiltà dei Sardi, 2nd edn (Turin, 1975), 328. Lilliu now suggests the ‘megaron’ temples may be fourteenth or thirteenth century. From the Tempietto di Malchittu there is a radiocarbon date from the hearth that shows it was in use early in the first millennium b.c. (see ref. 18 below).

On the temple at Esterzili, see Contu , op. cit. (ref. 9).

One must consider the possibility that the orientation in the minds of the builders was in the opposite direction, from the outside looking in. Only in the larger temple at Serra Orrios does the wall opposite the entrance survive to a considerable height (see Figure 13); it happens that this wall, exceptionally, is curved on the outside (as the figure shows) and straight on the inside, and so for the most part is very thick, and a substantial opening in it is hard to imagine. We might also note that in the case of the temple near Alà dei Sardi (on which see below), an orientation from the entrance towards the closed end would be directed immediately into a very steep upward slope, and this seems implausible. As already mentioned, the orientation of the tdgs is unquestionably from the inside looking out through the entrance, for these tombs are frequently located on the very edge of a high plateau in such a way that the entrance looks out over the valley below.

On the temples at Serra Orrios, see Levi Doro , “Scavi e scoperte archeologiche della R. Soprintendenza alle Opere di Antichita e d'Arte della Sardegna 1935–7”, Bolletino d'arte, xxxi (1937), 193–210; Lilliu Giovanni , “Dorgali (Nuoro): Villaggio nuragico di Serra Orrios — Impressioni ed osservazioni”, Studi Sardi, vii (1947), 241–3.

This is the suggestion of Manconi and Pianu , op. cit., 152.

On the temple near Alà dei Sardi, see Baltolu Antonello , “Santuario di ‘Sos Nuratòlos’ in località Senalonga e pozzo sacro di Su Posidu”, in “Alcuni monumenti inediti dell' altopiano di Buddoso e Alà dei Sardi (Sassari)”, Studi Sardi, xxii (1971–72), 76–98.

On the Tempietto di Malchittu, see Ceruti Ferrarese Maria-Luisa , “Un singolare monumento della Gallura”, Archivio storico Sardo, xxix (1962), 3–25.

Radiocarbon, xi (1969), 490, R-344α.

Comas Juan , Aportaciones al estudio de la prehistoria de Menorca (Madrid, 1936), 21–22.

Ibid., 23.

Whitehouse , op. cit. (ref. 2), 117.