Domus de Janas from Corona Moltana

Cultures in Sardinia

The Domus de Janas of Corona Moltana in Sa Seas near Bonnanaro in the province of Sassari in Sardinia were discovered and excavated in 1889 by Antonio Taramelli (1868–1939). He found six (five still preserved) Domus de Janas ( German  "Houses of the Fairies" ), also known as Necropoli ipogeica , rock tombs, which were carved into the limestone , some of which still contained intact burials.

These Domus de Janas are at the beginning of elementary planimetric development. Four of them consist of a single chamber, accessible from above or through a short horizontal passage ( dromos ). Domus 1, the most important and best preserved complex, consists of two chambers. The rectangular anteroom, 3.9 × 2.7 m and 1.5 m high, has a sloping roof. A passage in the back wall with decorative ornaments leads to the main chamber, which in this unusual case is smaller than the antechamber (3.1 × 1.8 × 0.50 m). It has an irregular floor plan and eight hemispherical bowls at the base of the walls. An intact double burial and a set consisting of 18 vases and a bronze ring were found in the chamber.

The peculiarity of the necropolis was the previously unknown ceramic, the type of which founded the Bonnanaro culture , which differed from other Sardinian prehistoric cultures and in chronological order to the beginning of the 2nd millennium (1800–1500 BC), i.e. briefly before the nuragic culture covering the whole island . A special custom of this culture, which it was only possible to discover thanks to the discovery of these sealed tombs, was trepanation , a custom that it adopted from the previous bell-cup culture .

The Domus de Janas are currently in poor condition due to the natural flaking of the limestone.

See also

• List of prehistoric and protohistoric archaeological sites in Sardinia

literature

• Alberto Moravetti, Carlo Tozzi et al. (Eds.): Guide archeologiche. Preistoria e Protostoria in Italia . 2: Sardegna . ABACO, Forlí 1995, ISBN 88-86712-01-4 .
• Manlio Brigaglia (Ed.): Sardegna archeologica. (Guida turistica). Istituto Geografico De Agostini, Novara 1989, ISBN 88-402-0404-0 .
• Rainer Pauli: Sardinia. History, culture, landscape. Voyages of discovery on one of the most beautiful islands in the Mediterranean. 7th edition. DuMont, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7701-1368-3 .

Web links

• Description in Italian ( Memento from September 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 40 ° 31 ′ 9.2 ″  N , 8 ° 47 ′ 20.9 ″  E