Nuraghe Su Nuraxi

Su Nuraxi de Barùmini Nuraghe di Barumini
East side of the central bastion
Location in Sardinia
Coordinates	39 ° 42 '21 .5 "  N , 8 ° 59' 26.5"  E Coordinates: 39 ° 42  '21.5 " N , 8 ° 59' 26.5"  E
place	Barumini , Sardinia , Italy
Emergence	1330-600 BC Chr.
height	230  m

Su Nuraxi de Barùmini ( Italian Nuraghe di Barumini , 'the Nuraghe of Barumini ') is the Sardinian name of the best preserved large nuraghe on the Italian island of Sardinia . It is enthroned on a hill about a kilometer outside the small town of Barumini in the province of Sud Sardegna . Nuraghi are prehistoric and early historical towers of the Bonnanaro culture (2200–1600 BC) and the subsequent nuraghi culture (around 1600–400 BC) in Sardinia, which is inextricably linked with it . The archaeological site of Su Nuraxi (Sardinian term for Italian Il Nuraghe ) has since 1997 a World Heritage Site of UNESCO .

location

Su Nuraxi is located about one kilometer west of the center of Barumini on the road that leads from Barumini to Tuili. The height above sea level is about 230 meters. Nearby are the Is Paras and Su Mulinu nuraghi , the late Gothic- Catalan parish church of Gesturi and the Parco Archeologico with the Protonuraghe Brunku Madagui , one of the oldest nuraghi. Barumini is located on the northern edge of a hilly landscape that bears the name Marmilla ("breast") because of the conical mountains that characterize it. The Flumini Mannu ("Great River") flows about 1.6 kilometers south-east of the town center and flows into the Mediterranean Sea about 50 kilometers south of Barumini near Cagliari . About 2.5 kilometers north of the archaeological site of Su Nuraxi rises the Giara di Gesturi plateau with an average height of 560 meters. The distance from Su Nuraxi to the west coast of Sardinia is 40 kilometers.

History and description

Su Nuraxi has already been mentioned in the records of Vittorio Angius , Giovanni Spano and Antonio Taramelli . The facility was completely covered with soil deposits until the middle of the 20th century. In the 1940s, the Barumini-born archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu concluded from large pieces of rock and ceramic finds that there could be a larger archaeological site here. The excavations of the complex took place from 1951 to 1956. After that, Su Nuraxi was opened to the public.

The central nuraghe is enthroned on a small hill of the Marmilla, whose eponymous cone mountain is located opposite in the form of a female breast. The complex consists of an initially erected central nuraghe, which is surrounded by a wall with four outer towers. In the second outer wall ring are the remains of other, originally nine tower structures. The entire outer area is surrounded by around 150 remains of the foundations, mostly round huts, the “village”, which lies outside the walls of the five-tower core structure, i.e. was unprotected.

The central tower, still 14.1 meters high today, the so-called mastio (" keep "), dates from the late Bronze Age (1330 to 1250 BC). A beam made of wild olive wood found during the excavations in the lower chamber of the tower was identified by means of C14 analysis on 1470 BC. BC (± 200 years). The mastio has a diameter of 10 meters below and tapers to 5 meters up to the third, only rudimentary floor. Originally the main tower was over 20 meters high. According to current studies, it was designed together with the four outer towers of the bastion , all of which are accessible from the courtyard bordering the mast to the south, in which there is a 20 meter deep drinking water well. The outer towers, which are aligned in the four cardinal directions and are still around 8 meters high today, should originally have had a height of 17 to 18 meters.

Su Nuraxi

Also from the first construction phase of Su Nuraxi come the three surviving of the seven towers of the Vorwerk , which were connected by a defensive wall and served for the external defense of the four-tower bastion. Like the inner towers, with the exception of the central mastio, the outer loopholes were built in basalt ashlar masonry stacked one on top of the other without mortar. The towers of the Vorwerk were originally 10 meters high, with Tower H in the north-east being the best preserved one, still 4.5 meters high. In the period from 1250 to 1000 BC Renovation work took place. The inner bastion was reinforced with a three-meter-thick curtain wall and the outer structure was modified. Five towers were rebuilt, including two of the older outer towers in the polygonal defensive ring. The erection of a new tower right next to the older one in the southeast led to the border of the latter in the inner ring.

The oldest parts of the "village" date from before 1250 BC. BC, the hardly preserved traces were found on and northeast of the Vorwerk. After the destruction of the terraces of the nuraghi towards the end of the Late Bronze Age around 1000 BC. In the north and east of the bastion, mostly circular buildings of a hut village were built. The main building, hut 80, appears to have served as a meeting place. It had a bench and niches in the walls. A batyl was found in one of the niches , a limestone model of a nuraghe tower that was used for the stone cult . The approximately 70 circular huts had only one room and were built without mortar from medium-sized basalt blocks with stone wedges. The roofs were made of logs covered with branches.

• Excavation site
• 

  View from the main tower to the "village"
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  Tower H of the Vorwerk
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  Hut 80 to the northeast
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  Chambers of the new settlement on the south-east towers of the Vorwerk

From the second half of the 8th century BC. The settlement of Su Nuraxi underwent profound changes. They are shaped by the 'orientalization' of Sardinia from 730 to 600 BC. After the destruction of the main building (hut 80), probably as a result of warlike events, a new residential complex was built. This covered the entire area of ​​the former Vorwerk around the bastion and only partially extended to the east. 109 chambers are recognizable, which probably formed 14 subdivided residential units of eight to twelve chambers each. Narrow streets led through the "village", leading to a main street running from north to south. In addition to the rectangular rooms built against the old walls of the Vorwerk, there were curved chambers with central courtyards, in which water was often collected in shafts.

Su Nuraxi was established after 600 BC. Destroyed by the Puners . Some of the buildings were used in the late Punic and Roman times as well as in the Middle Ages. Today the square is open to tourists and can be visited in guided groups. In 1997, Su Nuraxi was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

• Excavation site
• 

  Northeast of the "village"

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  Hut 20, rotunda

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  Inner courtyard with central tower

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  Fountain in the courtyard

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 .
• Giovanni Lilliu , Raimondo Zucca: Su Nuraxi di Barumini (=  Sardegna archeologica. Guide e itinerar . No. 9 ). Carlo Delfino, Sassari 2005, ISBN 88-7138-384-2 (Italian, digitized [PDF; 3.2 MB ; accessed on October 24, 2017]).
• Emanulela Atzeni: The Nuragic Village of Su Nuraxi, Barumini . In: Geographical area Medio Campidano . Sardegna Virtual Archeology, 2013, p. 10-21 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Su Nuraxi. CharmingSardinia, 2017, accessed October 24, 2017 . 
2. ^ Domenico Ruiu, E. Trainito: Giara di Gesturi. Comune di Gesturi, 2018, accessed April 24, 2018 (Italian). 
3. ↑ Caterina Lilliu, Tiziana Serra: Su Nuraxi di Barumini . Fondazione Barumini, Sistema Cultura, Barumini, S. 3 .
4. ↑ ^{a b} Caterina Lilliu, Tiziana Serra: Su Nuraxi di Barumini . Fondazione Barumini, Sistema Cultura, Barumini, S. 13-14 .
5. ↑ Caterina Lilliu, Tiziana Serra: Su Nuraxi di Barumini . Fondazione Barumini, Sistema Cultura, Barumini, S. 15 .
6. ↑ Caterina Lilliu, Tiziana Serra: Su Nuraxi di Barumini . Fondazione Barumini, Sistema Cultura, Barumini, S. 17-18 .
7. ↑ Caterina Lilliu, Tiziana Serra: Su Nuraxi di Barumini . Fondazione Barumini, Sistema Cultura, Barumini, S. 8 and 17 .
8. ↑ Caterina Lilliu, Tiziana Serra: Su Nuraxi di Barumini . Fondazione Barumini, Sistema Cultura, Barumini, S. 18-20 .
9. ↑ Caterina Lilliu, Tiziana Serra: Su Nuraxi di Barumini . Fondazione Barumini, Sistema Cultura, Barumini, S. 20-22 .
10. ^ Su Nuraxi di Barumini. UNESCO, accessed October 24, 2017 . 

Web links

Commons : Su Nuraxi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
• Area Archeologica “Su Nuraxi”. Fondazione Barumini, Sistema Cultura, accessed on October 23, 2017 (Italian). 
• Nuraghe Su Nuraxi. Dream destination Sardinia, accessed October 24, 2017 .