Vendettas, nuraghi and the marches: Su Nuraxi

Ahhh! We have moved westward and northward into Sardinia, which means we have chosen to skip Sicily this year. It is much too hot to go further south now. We will do it another year. And a change of face, it is! The roads are almost level instead of vertical, the scenery is almost agricultural, instead of rock face, the roads are straight instead of winding, and the Nuraghi, while not so prevalent on the ground, have moved into the UNESCO Heritage Lists. And are utterly superb!

Today we visited Burimina's Su Nuraxi, which simply means, The Nuraghe, the sole UNESCO Site in Sardinia. We love UNESCO sites, and when we travel we try to hunt them down. Here, as ever, UNESCO has inscribed one of the most representative and interesting sites in all of Sardinia.

The other fascinating detail about this complex is that no one knew it was here for such a long time. Until 1949 it looked just like one of the surrounding conical shaped hills mounded in earthen topsoil and grass. Then, a local archaeologist, Giovanni Lilliu, who is still alive in Barumini, probed, poked, then uncovered it.

Su Nuraxi is a complex nuraghic site, but it didn't start out like that. About 1500 BC simpler nuraghe began to be extended. The main tower was raised with solid basalt and a top tier of lighter sandstone until it eventually stood as a three level nuraghe some twenty feet high. The solid stone tower looks much like a protective castle keep. Around it, four similar strong towers were added over time covering the north, south, east and west as further protection. Eventually a curtain wall between all the towers was raised in 1000BC. A secure village was starting to form.

The stone for these structures came from over 8kms away. They are huge heavy pieces. In the east we have seen whole mountain sides being carved clear away, massive slabs of stone sliced vertically from the cliff face just like marble, and trucks, crippled to a halt, carrying them, some burned out, right there on the road, in the middle of the process, so heavy was their load.

It is believed that the Nuraghic Sardinians used bullocks and drays to draw the stones down from much higher up in the hills. Such an amazing feat, such a monumental task, such a great effort. As more and more people moved closer to this show of strength, more buildings grew that tumbled down the hill: small circular interconnected igloo-type beehive bases were topped with a pitched wooden roof made of trunks and branches.

Throughout the island these huts were sometimes plastered with a stucco of clay, and cork from the local forests was sometimes used as insulation. There were hearths, grindstones, niches in the wall for food storage and large vases of water, buried in the floor, often with just the lip of the vase showing, covered with stone when not in use.

Su Nuraxi was a real community. It had a large public meeting hut, with stone seats around its circular perimeter, and a purifying basin set in a wall niche, used before meetings. Here all the important decisions would have been made about the functions and operations of the village and its people: here all the rules, laws, judgements and pronouncements would have originated.

Earlier at the Barumini archeological and ethnographic museum we had seen the finds that came from this site: stunning pottery, with such style and gracious lines, such care and quality, that you could imagine the dedicated village folk making it.

There is a feeling of awe that creeps into your soul when you are able to move in the spaces and walk over the same worn stones that Bronze Age folk in 1500 BC walked on. It makes for a kind of bonding. A wonderful site. We just loved it!

oooOOOooo