SARDINIA - HISTORY
Bianca:
G E O G R A P H Y
Sardinia is separated from Corsica by the Strait of Bonifacio.
Sardinia is divided in four provinces:
G E O G R A P H Y
Sardinia is separated from Corsica by the Strait of Bonifacio.
Sardinia is divided in four provinces:
Cagliari
Nuoro
Oristano
Sassari
The following four provinces have been created by the Sardinian regional government, but still have to be recognized by the Italian government:
Carbonia-Iglesias
Medio Campidano
Ogliastra
Olbia-Tempio
FLAG OF SARDINIA
Cagliari
Nuoro
Oristano
Sassari
The following four provinces have been created by the Sardinian regional government, but still have to be recognized by the Italian government:
Carbonia-Iglesias
Medio Campidano
Ogliastra
Olbia-Tempio
http://www.costarey.net/english_sardegna.html
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PREHISTORY: NEOLITHIC
The beginning of Sardinia's prehistory can be dated to the arrival of cardial impressed ware early in the sixth millennium BCE, probably brought by colonizers from Corsica or from the continent via Corsica. From the earliest period, Sardinia was in contact with extra-insular communities in Corsica, Liguria, Lombardy and Provence as is attested by the presence of obsidian from Sardinia in those regions. The earliest Neolithic, although best attested at coastal sites, is also found in the interior of the island. This culture evolved into an epicardial horizon, called Filiestru, which further evolved into the Middle-Neolithic culture known as Bonu Ighinu (ca. 4500 - 4000 BCE). Continued exportation of Sardinian obsidian to the continent finds a reflex in Sardinia in ceramic parallels with a wider range of cultures in the 5500-4000 BCE horizon in N. Italy and Provence. Throughout the Cardial and Filiestru periods, the size of the known sites suggests that society was based on small bands, perhaps no more than individual extended families, whose economy was based largely on herding and foraging supplemented by small-scale cultivation of grain and legumes. Settlement in the Bonu Ighinu period is both more widespread and more developed. Although caves continued to be utilized as habitation sites, open air villages were now more numerous, and some of these would develop into fairly large villages in the succeeding Late Neolithic. These villages and other Bonu Ighinu settlements are well sited for exploitation of the fertile river valleys and do not seem to show a preference for defended hill spurs. Exportation of obsidian continued and expanded; it seems likely that by now local groups exercised control over the obsidian sources and that trade might have been mediated through the coastal villages. The growth of the trade in obsidian suggests the development of social and economic hierarchies, which find their material manifestations in jewelry and fine pottery in mortuary contexts. During this period occur the first indications of cultural interactions, either direct or indirect, with the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean.
By the around the end of the fifth millennium BCE, Bonu Ighinu had evolved into the Late Neolithic S. Michele or Ozieri culture, which endured for about half a millennium or a bit more (ca. 4000-3200 BCE). This was a period of profound, often rapid, changes and marked increases in prosperity that began in the eastern Mediterranean (notably in Gerzean Egypt) and southeastern Europe (notably associated with Gumelnitsa metallurgy) and rippled westward. About forty percent of the known Ozieri sites are on low ridges overlooking the Campidano of Cagliari and the lagoon of Cabras; only 8 of 127 known Ozieri sites had a Bonu Ighinu antecedent, so that most of these late Neolithic settlements are the result of population expansion and internal colonization, although some immigration is not to be excluded. Except for a small number of habitations in caves, Ozieri was a culture of unwalled open air villages with marked social and economic hierarchies. The most visible traces of the Ozieri period are the approximately 2000 rock-cut tombs usually known locally as domus de janas ("witches' houses").
S. Andrea Priu Domus de Janas
These probably derive from Bonu Ighinu period artificial caverns used for burials, which are not quite true rock-cut tombs but prototypes and which date to earlier than the Middle Neolithic examples at Serra d'Alto and Arnesano on the continent. During the latter phases of this horizon, large stone architecture makes its first appearance at the sacred site of Monte d'Accoddi-Sassari, an artificial "high place" with a ramp and village. A modest number of Ozieri period sites, mostly excavated quite recently, has produced small amounts of metallic objects, both silver and copper, dating before the end of the fourth millennium BCE. Although any or all of the individual objects could have been imports, three huts in the village of Su Coddu-Selargius have provided evidence for metallurgy, demonstrating the existence of an active extractive and processing industry in the late Neolithic, so we may now consider the Late Neolithic as transitional to the Chalcolithic or Copper Age. A late Neolithic cist grave at Li Muri-Arzachena with close parallels at Pranu Muteddu-Goni included a steatite cup with spool handles, the best referent of which is the Diana culture (ca. 3700 BCE), which knew copper metallurgy.
COPPER AGE
In Sardinia, the Copper Age is almost coterminous with the third millennium BCE. It is characterized by a proliferation of "cultures" that are essentially regional variations of sub- and post-Ozieri, transitional to the Bronze Age nuragic culture. One of these pre-nuragic cultures, Abealzu-Filigosa, is known from only a few sites, mainly in the northern and central portions of the island. Large stone architecture now develops into the first defensive structures, at S. Giuseppe and Juanne Buldu-Padria and Sa Corona-Villagreca; this architectural development suggests the further evolution of society and economy wrought by the still nascent metal industry and increasing population. Roughly contemporaneous with Abealzu-Filigosa is Monte Claro, which is the predominant culture of the south; about 80% of the known Monte Claro sites are located from the Gulf of Oristano southward. At some sites, both cultures are attested in the same stratigraphical layers, and a vessel found in Murroccu Cave-Urzulei combines the two, resembling in form Abealzu-Filigosa vessels, while its workmanship and decorative scoring are Monte Claro. In several different places, we have Monte Claro burials of individuals in crouched position virtually identical to a Bonu Ighinu example from Cuccuru S'Arriu-Cabras. Particularly instructive is the transformation of a cist grave into a giants' tomb (i.e., the classic nuragic period burial type) with classic Monte Claro pottery in the gallery at Su Cuaddu de Nixias-Lunamatrona, in effect blending two pre-existing Neolithic traditions of cists and galleries. The photograph here shows the Giants' Tomb at Li Lolghi-Arzachena (courtesy of M. Balmuth).
Monte Claro megalithic architecture parallels Abealzu-Filigosa developments. The most notable site is Monte Baranta-Olmedo, a fortified enclosure strategically located on a plateau above water sources and a fertile valley; here, a circle of menhirs demonstrates continuity with the Ozieri period, while a horseshoe-shaped enclosure, which probably had small wooden structures on the enclosing wall, is evidently a prototype of the earliest nuraghi. Another village fortified with a megalithic wall on the plateau of Monte Ossoni-Castelsardo has associated Monte Claro pottery. The village of Biriai-Oliena is composed largely of rectangular, absidal huts several of which anticipate the later "megaron" type temples at nearby Serra Orrios-Dorgali and S'Arcu e Is Forros-Villagrande. The excavated huts are in close proximity to a high-place sanctuary and may be associated with the cult, either as dwellings and work areas for sacerdotal specialists or as temporary dwellings for worshipers, anticipating nuragic sacred areas and modern cumbessias.
As to external contacts, both Monte Claro pottery and architecture have parallels with the Fontbouise culture of South France, while the pottery shares characteristic features of Piano Conte of South Italy and Sicily, both datable to the late fourth millennium (ca. 3500-3000) BCE. Bell Beaker material covering a long time span demonstrates continuing relationships with the western Mediterranean; it appears likely that Sardinia was the intermediary that brought Beaker materials to Tuscany and Sicily. Comb-impressed Beaker ware at one site and Beaker material in Ozieri or sub-Ozieri contexts at two sites give a terminus post quem of about 3000 BCE. In some sites, Monte Claro material has been found in association with Bell Beaker materials; elsewhere, Beaker material has been found stratigraphically above Monte Claro and/or in association with material of the final Chalcolithic phase, known as Bonnanaro, for which the two existing C-14 dates calibrate to ca. 2250 BCE.
NURAGIC (BRONZE AND IRON) AGE
During these phases (or differing horizons of a single phase) of the Chalcolithic, megalithic architecture evolved into fortifications known collectively as protonuraghi (also pseudonuraghi, corridor or gallery nuraghi), essentially rectangular, ovoid or circular raised platforms on top of which one or more huts were constructed. The platforms were furnished with a gallery, one or more chambers (which probably evolved toward greater complexity over time), and (usually, but not always) a stairway to the upper level. Eventually, some of the interior chambers became corbelled, undoubtedly foreshadowing the eventual transformation of protonuraghi into corbelled tholoi or true nuraghi, the characteristic feature of the Bronze Age and of the actual countryside. Most nuraghi were simple, single-towered structures, but some were made more elaborate by the addition of a walled courtyard and even by the addition of a second tower to the walled courtyard. A few, apparently in a series of additions, became even more developed, while by about 1200 BCE a small number were transformed into veritable fortresses with multiple-towered, interconnected external bastions. Although in many instances the plans of these structures may be similar, they vary enormously in size and complexity--and in wealth and power. In most cases, they may be considered the centers of tribal or sub-tribal units that have traditionally been labeled cantons.
Most, if not all, nuraghi had associated villages and there are many nuragic villages without nuragic towers: in the territory of Dorgali, 67 of 78 known villages have no nuraghe at all; 7 have a single towered nuraghe and only 4 have complex nuraghi. With few exceptions, the huts in these villages are circular stone constructions that would have supported thatched roofs; their interior diameters range from about 5 to about 8 meters. In some cases, several huts are interconnected, appearing to form part of a single domicile; an apparently later development is the appearance of groups of interconnected huts around a courtyard, each group remaining isolated from its counterparts, perhaps the dwellings of the villages' elites. Evidence for the social and economic activities of nuragic villages is exiguous. We have large numbers of grinding implements and storage vessels and some remains of grain, barley, grapes and almonds. Faunal remains attest to the continued importance of hunting alongside stockraising, and almost every village has yielded evidence for the production of wool and cheese. Copper and bronze were worked in some villages, but it is excessive to suggest that these were widespread cottage industries. An extensive obsidian industry continued.
Sacred Well of S. Vittoria-Serri
Probably the most important and certainly the most visible of nuragic cults is that of water. As far as we know at present, the earliest attested water cult site is that at Abini-Teti, where votive offerings dateable to the early Bonnanaro period have been found; votive offerings at the spring of Sos Malavidos-Orani date to later Bonnanaro. In their most fully developed form the water cult focuses on "sacred wells," most of which are associated with nuragic villages. Many of these sacred sites have yielded remarkable amounts of bronze objects (as below), jewelry and imports. Some of these sites were surely the religious centers of tribes or confederations whose names are known from later texts and inscriptions, but any attempt to make direct correlations seems an exercise in futility. It was at such centers that the Romans found attacking the natives most efficient (Strabo 5.2.7).
There is virtually no evidence in Sardinia of external contacts in the late third and early second millennia apart from late Beakers and the remarkably close parallels, perhaps fortuitous, between Bonnannaro pottery and that of the North Italian Polada culture. By the fifteenth century, international trade was again in full swing and by about 1400 if not earlier, Sardinia was an integral part of a commercial network that extended from the Near East to Northwestern Europe. The principal eastern component of this network was Cyprus, and it seems that the peak period of the Sardinia-Cyprus nexus was the twelfth century; it is evident that the connection continued to the end of the second millennium or even beyond when it can be considered part of the Phoenician trade. During the high-water period of Cypriot trade, Sardinia was also in direct and/or indirect contact with the Mycenaean world. It seems at least arguable that indigenous Sardinians, known in the east as Sherden, were carriers of some of the eastern material found on the island.
Nuragic Bronze Figurine.
http://www.usd.edu/erp/Sardinia/prehist.htm
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Brief signs on ancient Sardinia
Archaeology
The Historical and Geographic regions of Sardinia
Chronology of the ancient Sardinia
The more ancient traces of man's presence in Sardinia go back to the Lower Palaeolithic (around 500.000 years ago): they are tools in flint, recovered in Perfugas and Laerru (SS) territories.
After an apparent void of millennia, it actually reaches the Upper Palaeolithic (around 12.000 B. C.); to this period go back the deers' remains bones recovered in the Cave Corbeddu of Oliena (NU), that introduce indirect traces (combustion, manufacturing) of the contemporary presence of man.
By the same Cave Corbeddu, from a stratum dated with Radiocarbon method at 7.444 + 380 B.C., come from the most ancient human remains found in the isle. In the Ancient Neolithic (6.000-4.000 B.C.) there are in Sardinia the first cultural demonstrations of relief; the ceramic appears, sometimes decorated with instrumental impression or using the edge of cardium edule ("cardiale ceramic"). In comparison with the Palaeolithic, several lithic tools are realized in small dimensions and with a more accurate manufacturing (stung of arrow, chisels, knives etc.).
The discovery of agriculture and breeding is of this period, attested to the recovery of pestles and mills in stone, of cereal seeds and bones of pets.
It is moreover certified the ossidiana of Arci Mountain exploitation and commerce, which will be exported to Corsica, Tuscany, Emilia, Liguria, to southern France and, perhaps, also in the Catalogna. In the medium Neolithic (around 4.000 - 3.500 B.C.) it develops the culture of Bonuighinu, establishment in cave or in the open; the first funeral artificial small caves are also dug in this period (Cuccuru Arrius - Cabras). The ceramic is often characterized by a refined decoration. The statuettes of "Mother Goddess", represented as a woman in obese form, belong to this period. The Late Neolithic (around 3.500 - 2.500 B.C.) is represented by the Culture of Ozieri, diffused in the whole Island. The establishment increase and the built-up areas often assume notable dimensions. This is the phase in which will develop the funeral hypogeal architecture with thousand graves - the "domus de janas" - in that are sometimes represented symbols of spirituality (taurine protomi, spirals, false doors, etc.) or also the houses architectural elements of alive people (pillars, beams of the roof, seats, hearths etc.). The ceramic introduces a rich repertoire of vascular forms and decorative motives realized with different techniques. At the end of the Last Neolithic, the megalithic phenomenon (dolmen and menhir) spreads in the island: the tomb circles of the Gallura and the burials of Pranu Mutteddu (Gani (CA)) funeral complex are of this period
During the Copper Age (around 2.500- 1.800 B.C.) there is a at first the gradual passage from the Ozieri Culture to those of Filigosa and Abelazu, characterized the first one from vases with angular profile and the second from typical flask vases. There is a notable impoverishment by the cultural side in comparison with the previous phase of Ozieri: this is due to the gradual hostility among the people which contemporaneously pervades whole the Mediterranean basin. The burial, in the Neolithic domus de janas, goes on in this period and they dig of new; near the dolmenic graves it appears the "armies" menhir statues of Sarcidano.
The presence of the "Bell Form Vase" culture places in the island between the Copper Age and the Bronze one. It is a cultural current that will be observed also in other European areas and which seems to consolidate in Sardinia, almost peacefully, with the native populations.
The Bonnanaro Culture develops in its more ancient phase (1800 - 1500 B. C.) in the Bronze Age, which is characterized by a ceramic in greater part unadorned and with very particular handles. In this period the megalithic burials evolve into a kind of grave with a lengthened room, preamble to the typical nuraghic burial: the "giants' grave."
The real beginning of the Nuraghic Civilization goes back to the final phase of the Bonnanaro's Culture, which will developing uninterruptedly up to the VI century B.C., enduring in some areas, till the Roman conquest.
In addition to the nuraghic, the "corridors" (or protonuraghis) and "tholos" (simple or complex nature), the nuraghic civilization produced a remarkable architectural development: civil (villages), religious (sacred wells, sacred sources, small temples "in antis") and funereal (giants' graves).
The productions of the "bronze statuettes" dates to the Iron Age, they are "ex-voto" and represent animals, nacelles and other objects of the various nuraghic world. The mines' exploitation was of course the principal resource of this period: close to the figured bronzes, there is a production of weapons, utensils and various objects in bronze, having few equals in the rest of the Mediterranean.The metal of the Island was also the incentive pushing Cretan, Mycenean, Cypriot merchants and, subsequently, Phoenician to attend Sardinia, establishing at the beginning seasonal and later stable ports. Through the Phoenician commercial ports had origin cities as Karalis, Sulci, Nora and Bithia from which (under the control of Carthage) will start the punic conquest of the island, in the VI century B.C.. In the 238 B.C., after the I punic war, Sardinia will pass under the Roman dominion, but the conquest of the island, after various native revolts, can be considered only concluded in the I century B. C.. Sardinia became Roman province in the Imperial Epoch and saw a notable development of urban centers and road system.
http://www.mondosardegna.net/eng/storia/storiaantica.htm
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T H E N U R A G H I
The Nuraghe /nu'rage/ is the main archaeological monument of Sardinia.
The plural is "nuraghi".
It is typically a truncated cone tower, in the shape of a beehive, built with huge square blocks of stone, and usually located in a panoramic position. The monument has no foundations, and stands only due to the of the weight of stones, which may weigh as much as several tons. Some Nuraghi are more than 20 metres in height. Today, there are more than 8,000 Nuraghi in Sardinia, though it has been estimated that once the number was more than 30,000. The nuraghi are concentrated most in the north-west and south-central parts of the island.
Su Nurraxi. Inside the central tower. The man here is 1.80 m.Another kind of Nuraghe has a corridor or a system of corridors. Some authors are reluctant to place these in the same category as tholos Nuraghe, as there are too many relevant differences, and prefer talking about "Nuraghic village".
Nuraghi appeared on the island in an undetermined epoch (not earlier than 6th millennium BC). Some elements have been dated 3500 BC, but it is supposed that most of them were built from the middle of the Bronze Age (18th-15th centuries BC) to the Late Bronze Age, though many were in continuous use until Rome entered Sardinia (2nd century BC).
The uncertain date of the Nuraghi is a constant feature of Sardinian chronologies. Even though, according to Massimo Pallottino, a scholar of Sardinian prehistory and Etruscologist, the Nuraghic civilization produced the most advanced and monumental architecture of the period in the western Mediterranean, including the region of Magna Graecia, of the existing 8000 only a few have as yet been scientifically excavated. Interest in Sardinian archaeology has been minimal, except for the black market trade in bronze statues. The use or meaning of the nuraghe has not been clearly identified: whether a religious temple, or a dwelling, a military stronghold, the house of the chief of the village, the place for the meeting of the wise men or the governors. It could have been as well a combination of all or some of these items. Some of the nuraghi are, however, in strategic locations from which important passages could be easily controlled.
Undoubtedly nuraghi had a meaningful symbolic content, at least recalling wealth or power, or maybe the establishment of a village (eventually in the dignity of a State-village). Recent theories are oriented to consider that Sardinian villages might have been federated (very likely they were self-governed) and that the building of these monuments could depend on a prior planned distribution of the territory. Nuraghic dwellers had developed particular skills in metallurgy, trading for bronze in many areas of the Mediterranean and being consequently a well known people.
SOME FAMOUS NURAGHI
UNESCO World Heritage Site
The most important complex is the Nuraghe in Barumini ( 39°42′21″N, 8°59′26″E), centered around a three-story tower built around 1500s BC. This site was recently made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At this site Dr. Giovanni Lilliu discovered a fortified village that in times had been covered by ground and had became a hill. Other nuraghes are in Serra Orrios, Alghero, Torralba, Macomer, Abbasanta (see Losa and illustration), Orroli, Villanovaforru, Sarroch, Olbia.
"Nuraghic people" had developed arts, mainly in the form of little statues in bronze called "bronzetto", typically representing the chief of the village ("Sardus pater") or hunting or fighting men, animals, more rarely women.
Other monuments of the Nuragicis' are the so-called "Giants tombs", megaron temples, sacred dwellings, "sacred wells", sanctuaries, enclosures.
Nuragic art includes stone carvings or statues representing female divinities (Thanit, main religious entity, is a goddess); these works however have often been considered as partly a fruct of relationships with Phoenicians.
It has been recalled that round buildings, or circular plan buildings, are typical of nomad peoples, and indeed ancient Sardinians should effectively have been used to constantly move within their territory for better places or to avoid invasions or outside for new markets for their bronze.
The Nuraghe is today the symbol of Sardinia and of its unique ethnicity.
Bianca:
The Tomba del Labirinto
Luzzanas, Sardinia
by Jeff & Kimberly Saward
Reprinted from Caerdroia 35 (2005), pp.5-11.
T H E L A B Y R I N T H I N S C R I B E D I N S I D E T O M B A D E L L A B I R I N T O
LUZZANAS, SARDINIA.
Photo: Jeff Saward, February 2005
The labyrinth incised on the wall of a rock-cut tomb, popularly known as the "Tomba del Labirinto," at Luzzanas on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, off the west coast of Italy, has been the subject of some discussion ever since it was first 'discovered' and published by the archaeologist Ercole Contu in 1965.(1) Most notably this debate concerns the age of the inscription and the unusual additional lines extending from the entrance of the labyrinth. Whilst visiting Sardinia during February 2005, we resolved to find this little-visited labyrinth location, to study and photograph the inscription, and attempt to clear up at least some of the confusion.
Finding this site is a challenge. It is not marked on even the most detailed of Sardinian maps, nor mentioned in any of the archaeological guides generally available on the island. To the best of our knowledge, the first written description of its location was given by David Singmaster in Caerdroia 30, subsequent to his successful visit in 1997, and without his notes and a detailed map of the area we would have struggled to find it.(2) Luzzanas itself is a vaguely defined area of agricultural land to the south and east of the confluence of the rivers Mannu and Tirso, to the north of the minor road that leads between the villages of Bultei and Benetutti, approximately 20 km northwest of Nuoro. The nearest signposted landmark is the spa building at Terme Aurora, from where any attempt to find the site should begin. The tomb is situated about 1.2 km to the north of the spa, in open fields, on the southeast bank of the River Tirso.
To find the Tomba del Labirinto, we parked at the gates of a construction site, apparently another uncompleted spa building, at the end of the small road that leads off north, into the fields, opposite the Terme Aurora spa. We walked out through the field behind the construction site down to the riverbank and then headed upstream, to the northeast. Following the upper edge of the riverbank for around 600 metres, climbing over or round two field walls along the way, a few scrubby trees and bushes growing around the rock outcrop containing the tomb provides a clue to the exact whereabouts, about 150 metres before the river makes a sharp turn to the northwest. A small hole, around one metre deep, on the north side of the rock outcrop, leads down into the tomb. Fortunately there were no livestock in these fields when we visited, but as sheep flocks in Sardinia are usually guarded by 'wild' dogs, which bark and bite, we would advise considerable caution to anybody else attempting to visit this site. The tomb also contains a number of roosting bats by day, and efforts should be made not to disturb these, or the wasp nests on the ceiling!
The entrance to the Tomba del Labirinto, lookng northwest.
Photo: Jeff Saward, February 2005
The tomb itself is of a remarkable form, popularly known as a Domus de Janas (Fairy House), consisting of a series of chambers excavated with stone tools and picks directly into solid rock, usually the limestone that outcrops widely across the island, either underground or directly into a cliff face. Well over a thousand of these tombs are known in Sardinia, and they belong to the Ozieri (or San Michele) culture, an advanced society of hunters, herders and farmers who worked copper as well as flint, obsidian and ceramics, and flourished during the Neolithic period, between c.3400 to c.2500 BCE. Their tombs continued to be used for secondary interments through to the time of the Roman occupation of Sardinia, indeed a few were even re-used during the Early Christian period.
The example at Luzzanas is of the underground type, carved into the limestone that outcrops in the field adjacent to the riverbank. The tomb consists of four or more interconnected chambers, which as they have never been excavated, are still partly filled with soil and debris. The northernmost chamber was flooded with water on the occasion of our visit in February 2005, although the central and western chambers were essentially dry, if a little damp and muddy. There is a small hole in the eastern side of the central chamber, which admits a little daylight, but it is difficult to determine if this was the original entrance. Currently, the central chamber, about 2.5 x 1.5 metres wide, is entered through a narrow carved doorway on the south side, from the base of the hole in the rock, which may once have been the original entrance, or a separate ante-chamber, the roof of which has collapsed. Another chamber, completely filled with debris, leads off from the opposite side of this small chamber, back into the rock outcrop.
The interior of theTomba del Labirinto.
Photo: Jeff Saward, February 2005
Inside the tomb, the walls of the chambers are essentially plain, apart from the pick and hammer marks remaining from the original construction of the chambers. However, on the wall on the northwest side of the central chamber, to the right of the narrow doorway that leads into the western chamber, are a number of items of graffiti. By far the most prominent, is a labyrinth of 'classical' design, 30 cm wide and 33.5 cm high, the uppermost circuit of which almost reaches the ceiling of the chamber (fig. 1a). The lines that form the labyrinth have clearly been carved by a confident hand with a sharp implement, probably a metal blade, as the groove is fairly consistent in width and is deeply incised (3 to 5 mm deep in places), although the line is shallower in places where the undulating rock surface has caused the carving tool to skip. As is common with incised labyrinth graffiti of this free-hand nature, the procedure for constructing the labyrinth design can still be discerned. The central cross has clearly been constructed first; the lines are somewhat bolder and more deeply incised. Then the arcs that mark the ends of the path loops have been inserted in the angles of the cross, and finally, four short strokes have been added to mark the ends of the 'walls' of the labyrinth - the familiar 'seed pattern' encountered worldwide, wherever the classical labyrinth symbol is found. In particular, the central 'seed pattern' of the Luzzanas labyrinth is remarkably similar to the much smaller example inscribed on the Tragliatella vase, although the Luzzanas labyrinth has the opening to the left rather than the right.
The wall with the labyrinth and other graffiti, and a hibernating bat!
Photo: Jeff Saward, February 2005
In addition to the labyrinth, there are a number of other marks on the rock surface, including a number of linear gouges and deep scratches that may have been made by either human or animal activity in the tomb over the years, especially lower down on the wall. To the left and partly overlapping the labyrinth are a number of modern characters and numbers, evidently drawn sometime in the early or mid 20th century, with a thick blue wax crayon, now thankfully beginning to flake off from the rock surface in places. It is known that the tomb was used, prior to its discovery by archaeologists, by local farmers as a shelter in bad weather.(3) Also to the left, and below the labyrinth, are a number of shallow scratch marks, vertical, horizontal and diagonal, that fail to form any obvious coherent pattern, but appear, possibly, to have been scratched in one single episode. Several of these shallow scratches impinge against the outermost circuit of the labyrinth, and two in particular meet at the line leading out from the entrance of the labyrinth. It is quite clear from their appearance and their shallow grooves, scratched with a sharp point, not deeply carved as is the case with the lines of the labyrinth, that these were surely added at a later time and clearly do not form part of the original labyrinth inscription.
This point is significant, as several authors have commented on these additional lines projecting from the lower edge of the design, assuming they are part of the labyrinth.(4) Hermann Kern comments that the "guiding line� points left towards the door" to emphasize his point that the location of the labyrinth beside the entrance doorway into the adjacent chamber is "evoking a door or a threshold through which the deceased had to pass."
This confusion is understandable, as the only photograph of the Luzzanas inscription commonly published is the one supplied by Rainer Pauli in the late 1970's to Kern, that was subsequently reproduced in his monumental Labyrinthe in 1982,(5) and has been widely copied from this source ever since. However, this photograph has clearly been 'doctored,' the lines of the labyrinth have been inked-in to emphasize the design, including the incidental lines that touch the line below the entrance.
The 'enhanced' photo taken by Rainer Pauli in the late 1970's,
published by Kern, 1982 - compare with the recent photo
at the start of this article.
With this matter resolved, attention must now turn to the question of the age of the Luzzanas labyrinth. In his original description of the inscription, Contu simply regarded it as prehistoric, though he admits that it could be much more recent, even modern. Pauli ascribed it to the Early Nuraghic period of Sardinian history, when many of these Neolithic Domus de Janas tombs were re-used, dating the labyrinth to c.1500-1000 BCE, although he provides no evidence of Nuraghic activity at this location to support his dating.(6) Kern on the other hand was clearly convinced that the tomb and the labyrinth on its wall were contemporary, and he gives an implied dating of 2500-2000 BCE, which like his illustration, has been widely and uncritically repeated ever since.
Staffan Lund�n was probably the first to express serious concerns about these differing and rather arbitrary dates, and basing his reasoning on the apparent use of an iron knife blade to carve the labyrinth, suggested a date-range from around 850 BCE, when iron tools first appear in Sardinia, to as late as the 5th century CE.(7) This later date is based on the virtual disappearance of the simple 'classical' labyrinth in the Mediterranean area after the Roman period. This would certainly seem to be a valid terminal dating, indeed a Roman origin for the Luzzanas labyrinth would seem quite likely, as other Roman labyrinth inscriptions and graffiti are known from around the Mediterranean(8) and both the labyrinth legend and symbol were clearly widely known at this time. There was a considerable Roman presence in Sardinia(9) and examples of apparent Roman or Punic graffiti are known in other prehistoric tombs on the island. It is, of course, possible that the labyrinth is relatively recent, but the damp conditions inside the tomb have already smoothed the edges of the carving, and the overlying later additions to the graffiti on the wall are certainly suggestive of a considerable age for the labyrinth itself.
While Lund�n concedes that the labyrinth could have been carved with a sharp stone tool, rather than an iron blade, the notion that the labyrinth is contemporary with the tomb can be almost completely ruled out. While the majority of the Domus de Janas tombs are entirely plain, apart from the carved doorways between the interconnecting chambers, a small number have extensive carved decoration inside, including bull's heads and stylised bull's horns. A few are even carved to imitate the interior of contemporary wooden buildings, complete with doorways, windows and roof beams,(10) but the key feature of these Neolithic decorations is that they are all carved in relief and in a very distinctive style; incised designs like the Luzzanas labyrinth are unknown in this context.
Bull's horns decoration inside Domus del'Elefante, Sardinia
Carved blocks with geometric designs, Nuraghe Nurdole, Sardina.
Incised geometric designs are found, however, on ashlar blocks formerly decorating the walls of the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age Nuraghe towers and temples that form such a distinctive feature of the Sardinian landscape.(11) Although many concentric circular designs, coupled with rectangular and diagonal design elements, often very angular and precisely inscribed, are known on both stone and ceramic objects, to date no labyrinths have been reported amongst this Nuragic material, so the Luzzanas inscription would be quite unique if it were from this cultural context and timespan. There are also occasional incised carvings and graffiti found in association with the late Bronze Age Tomba dei Giganti (Giant's Tombs), including two inscriptions found at Rio di Palmis, near Sulcis, with depictions of people, animals and wheeled carts, which have been compared with the carvings of Val Camonica in Northern Italy(12) - a location famous of course for its labyrinths, the age of which is a matter of some debate, but they may be from around c.700-450 BCE.
We have already noted the apparent similarity between the construction technique of the labyrinth at Luzzanas and the labyrinth incised on the Etruscan Tragliatella vase, found on the west coast of Italy, and dating from c.650-600 BCE. Another two labyrinths drawn alongside each other in a very similar fashion, albeit inverted, found at Gordion in Turkey, date to around 750 BCE.(13) While it can be argued that the universal nature of the labyrinth construction technique might render these similarities no more than a coincidence, it is perhaps interesting that four examples, at three locations in the Mediterranean area, two of which are securely dated within a century or so of each other, should be so similar. Perhaps the Luzzanas labyrinth also fits within this timeframe, and this precise way of drawing a freehand labyrinth was the widespread technique in circulation at this time?
Either way, judging on the scant evidence for the dating of the Luzzanas labyrinth, it seems fair to say that it could be from almost anywhere between the early Iron Age, c.900-850 BCE in Sardinia, to the end of the Roman occupation of the island in the early 5th century CE. Unless future excavation of the Tomba del Labirinto provides some obvious evidence of the visitors that have entered the tomb over the years that can be linked to the labyrinth itself, we will probably never know more precisely than that.
Of course, the question of what the labyrinth on the wall at Luzzanas means is another matter. Contu, admitting the problems of interpreting the symbol, saw it as a symbol of initiation, life, death and rebirth, quite at home in the tomb. Kern saw it as a funerary symbol within the "womb of Mother Earth." Lund�n conjectures that if there were evidence for Roman activity in the tomb, then it might be seen as serving an apotropaic, or protective purpose. If the labyrinth was carved by a casual visitor to the tomb, long after its original construction, as seems likely, then maybe this descent through a hole in the ground into an 'underworld' of gloomy interconnecting chambers reminded them of the Theseus and the Minotaur story, prompting the carving of the labyrinth on the wall. If this were the case, then an origin in the second half of the 1st millennium BCE or the Roman period, when these stories were well known in the Mediterranean world, would be all the more likely.
Jeff Saward & Kimberly Lowelle Saward;
Thundersley, England, March 2005
(Revised, May 2006)
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