Megalithic monuments in Sardinia (Italy)

Riccardo Cicilloni

2019-01-01

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Abstract

On the island of Sardinia, in the western Mediterranean, the megalithic phenomenon is documented at least since the Middle Neolithic Age (5th millennium BC), reaching its peak during the Late Neolithic and the Copper Age (first centuries of the 4th-end of the 3rd millennium BC) and further developing until the Bronze Age. Indeed, Sardinia excels in terms of displaying quite a lot of megalithic monuments: at present, we know 226 dolmenic burials, about 750 menhirs, 100 statue-menhirs and at least twenty megalithic circles. The dolmenic tombs are particularly interesting: in terms of typology, they belong to five main categories, namely simple type, › corridor ‹ type, › side entrance ‹ type, › mixed ‹ type and › allées couvertes ‹ type. Even though the size of the Sardinian dolmens is generally not so great, they are highly visible in the landscape: many of them are closely related to nature trails, sometimes coinciding with canyons or valleys. These monuments should not only have a funerary or ritual function, but also › political ‹. In fact, these monuments could be interpreted as »signs of territorial demarcation of segmentary societies «, according to the hypothesis already carried out by Colin Renfrew, with functions of control and organisation of the territory by small groups of farmers and shepherds. Recent research has highlighted close structural relationships between the megalithic monuments of Sardinia and some extra- insular regions, such as the Iberian Peninsula, France and chiefly Corsica. We can infer that during the Prehistoric Age Sardinia was not a cut-off region with only scarce relations with other areas, but rather it made part of the whole western region of the Mediterranean basin, including from a cultural perspective. This contribution intends to offer the most outstanding testimonies of the megalithic phenomenon in Sardinia, linking it to the chronological and areal corrispondences of the western Mediterranean region.