Nuraghe

The nuraghe (IPA [nu'rage]) (plural Italian nuraghi, Sardinian nuraghes) is the main type of megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, dating back before 1000 BC. Today it has come to be the symbol of Sardinia and its distinctive culture. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the etymology is "uncertain and disputed": "The word is perhaps related to the Sardinian place names Nurra, Nurri, Nurru, and to Sardinian nurra heap of stones, cavity in earth (although these senses are difficult to reconcile). A connection with the Semitic base of Arabic nūr light, fire ... is now generally rejected."Oxford English Dictionary (online ed.), s.v. nuraghe.

The typical nuraghe is situated in a panoramic spot and has the shape of a truncated conical tower resembling a beehive. The structure has no foundations and stands only by virtue of the weight of its stones, which may weigh as much as several tons. Some nuraghes are more than 20 metres in height.

Today, there are more than 8,000 nuraghes still extant in Sardinia, although it has been estimated that they once numbered more than 30,000. Nuraghes are most prevalent in the northwest and south-central parts of the island.Encyclopedia Britannica, "Italy."

There is a similar type of structure which has a corridor or a system of corridors. Some authors consider it inappropriate to call this type of structure a nuraghe and prefer the term "nuragic village".

The nuraghes were built in an undetermined epoch (not earlier than the 6th millennium BC). Although some of them have been dated to 3500 BC, most are thought to have been built between the middle of the Bronze Age (18th-15th centuries BC) and the Late Bronze Age. Many were in continuous use from their erection until Rome entered Sardinia in the ( 2nd century BC). The uncertainty in dating the nuraghes is noticeable when comparing Sardinian chronologies.

According to Massimo Pallottino, a scholar of Sardinian prehistory and an Etruscologist, the architecture produced by the nuragic civilization was the most advanced of any civilization in the western Mediterranean during this epoch, including those in the regions of Magna Graecia.Massimo Pallottino, La Sardegna Nuragica (Edizioni del Gremio, 1950). Of the 8,000 extant nuraghes, only a few have been scientifically excavated. Interest in Sardinian archaeology has been minimal, except for the black market trade in bronze statues.

thumb|right|200px|Nuraghe Losa Some hold that round buildings, or circular plan buildings, are typical of nomadic peoples. Based on this premise, some propose that ancient Sardinians frequently relocated their settlements. This hypothesis, is however highly unlikely, as no nomadic population has ever been able to build structures of the size and complexity of even the smaller nuraghes.

The use of the nuraghes has not been determined: they could have been religious temples, ordinary dwellings, ruler's residences, military strongholds, meeting halls, or a combination. Some of the nuraghes are, however, in strategic locations from which important passages could be easily controlled.

Undoubtedly nuraghes had a meaningful symbolic content, and could have been the "national" symbol of the Nuragic peoples. Small-scale models of nuraghe have often been excavated at religious sites (e.g. in the "maze" temple at the Su Romanzesu site near Bitti in central Sardinia). Nuraghes may have just connoted wealth or power, or they may have been an indication that a site was a town. Recent theories tend to suggest that Sardinian towns were independent polities (in a sense city-states, although in a geographical sense they were not cities) that formed federations and that the building of these monuments might have depended on agreed-on distributions of territory among federated unities.

The nuragic civilization developed relatively advanced metallurgy whose bronze is found in many areas of the Mediterranean.

Notable nuraghes

The most important complex is Su Nuraxi di Barumini, which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

Other nuraghes are in Serra Orrios, Alghero, Torralba, Tiscali Macomer, Abbasanta (see Losa and illustration), Orroli, Villanovaforru, Sarroch, Olbia.

Nuragic art

A distinctive art form of the nuragic people is the bronze statuette called a bronzetto. Typical subjects include village chiefs (sardus pater [singular]), hunting or fighting men, animals, or more rarely, women.

Other edifices of the nuragicis are " Giants tombs", megaron temples, sacred dwellings, "sacred wells", sanctuaries, and enclosures.

Nuragic art includes stone carvings or statues representing female divinities ( Thanit, the main religious entity, is a goddess); these, however, have often been considered as partly a fruit of relationships with Phoenicians.

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Notes

See also

• Talaiot
• Giants' grave
• Shardana

External links

• Aerial photograph of Su Nurraxi
• Enyclopedia entry with photos
• ArcheologiaSarda.com
• NeroArgento.com
• Virtual Reconstructions

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an:Nuraga ca:Nurag da:Nuragh de:Nuraghe es:Nuraga eo:Nurage fr:Nuraghe it:Nuraghe he:נוראגה nl:Nuraghe ja:ヌラーゲ oc:Nuraghe pt:Nurago ro:Cultura Nuraghi ru:Нураги sc:Nuraghe fi:Nuraghe sv:Nurager

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