PREHISTORIC SOCIETY STUDY TOUR 2009: SARDINIA – THE CLASSIC SITES Nuraghe Madrone Which part of Europe has the richest and highest-profiled Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age archaeology? Which region has the greatest number and variety of visible sites, the best-preserved and most spectacular sites, and the most sophisticated prehistoric architecture? I posed a question similar to this when presiding over a business meeting of the Bronze Age Studies Group, somewhere in Europe, towards the end of the 1990s. We had to decide where to hold our annual meeting in 2000, and I had suggested that our millennial meeting should be somewhere special, in a region with these characteristics. There was a lot of head-scratching, and the responses to my query ranged far and wide, from Wessex to the Aegean. No one guessed what is without doubt the correct answer, which is the island of SARDINIA. This anecdote shows how few, comparatively, even among professional, international archaeologists, are aware of the extraordinary archaeology of Sardinia. Lest I be challenged for my assertions, let me point straight away to the several thousand Bronze Age towers (nuraghi) which sprout like teeth all over the island, many still standing 15-20 metres high, and to the uncounted thousands of Neolithic/Copper Age rock-cut tombs (domus de janas, or fairy houses), which seem to bore into every slope and cliff, many of them spectacularly decorated. Where else can one find a Bronze Age ‘plunge pool with spectator terracing’, the most widespread and sophisticated ashlar architecture in prehistoric Europe, with arches thrown in for good measure, and what may be a Bronze Age hot and cold running water system? Where else is there such a variety of prehistoric temples and cult buildings, and pilgrimage sites of the Bronze Age and the present day sitting directly on top of each other, suggesting a continuity of tradition spanning 3500 years? No other land has such an array of bronze figurines, such a rich source of information on the clothing and equipment of the time. Dolmens, gallery graves, stone rings, rows and settings, statue menhirs, rock art, megalithic enclosures, giants’ tombs, water temples, rotonde, bench-and-basin buildings (saunas or mens’ clubs?), rectangular temples (“megaron temples”), ritual caves… the list goes on and on. I have not even mentioned the Sardinian Iron Age. This was shaped by an influence not to be found over most of Europe north of the Alps, and that is a rich Phoenician/Punic heritage. Sos Furrighesos: Chalcolithic rock-cut tomb with monumental entrance facade D.H. Lawrence, in his few days on the island (Sea and Sardinia), realised that Sardinia, beyond the obvious pasta, pizza and Italian language, is not at all like the rest of Italy. The alternative Sard language is widely spoken, even its wine is completely different, and there is nothing like its “musical bread” anywhere. To be sure it is neglected and empty, after millennia of suffering under one conqueror after another. In prehistory it was an eldorado, sought out for its obsidian and later its metals, and by the Second Millennium BC we can distinguish a tide of visitors, including Mycenaeans, Minoans, Cypriots and Levantines, Shardan (who may or may not have given their name to the island), even Philistines, and traders from Spain. In the early First Millennium visitors began to have more serious intent, and one can start talking of conquests and colonies with the arrival of Phoenician traders and explorers. By the 10th century BC Sardinia’s metal riches were probably worked out, and it may be that Phoenician interests had already turned to other resources, especially agriculture, wine and slaves. Carthaginians and Romans in turn overran Sardinia and had constant trouble in the process, and for a Roman governor it was a posting to be avoided, with incessant guerrilla warfare, and no chances of making a fat fortune. Perhaps it was just politics that brought a succession of alien rulers in ensuing centuries: Byzantines, Arabs, Genoese and Pisans, Aragon (which is why Catalan is spoken in the area of Alghero to this day, why Ryanair runs regular flights from Girona to Alghero, and why there are so many echoes of Don Quixote in Sardinia festivals); Savoy and Narbonne, a United Spain, Austria, Savoy again, Piedmont, and so to Garibaldi and Italy. Sardinia has been fought over, smashed and ravaged time and again, which is perhaps why its villages and small towns are amongst the most undistinguished in Europe. The surprise is that its people are so friendly and generous, after all that has happened to them. The island is still largely unspoilt, its beaches, seas and scenery are among the most spectacular in Europe, and if Sardinia is not Italy, neither is it the Costa Smeralda, which occupies only a tiny, isolated enclave in the far north-east of the island. One might have guessed otherwise from the slant given by travel writers and TV programmes. I began by calling this tour “the Best of Sardinia”, but that will not do, because every time I travel in the island I come across sites I have to add to my “Best” list. Often these have been shown to me by local guides, and in some cases I could never find them again. In any case to trek to them would take up too much time on this tour, and that is why we shall not be seeing some wonderful decorated rock-cut tombs, for example, which I was taken to in September 2008. My aim is to show representatives of as many types of sites as possible, and to choose easily accessed and well-preserved examples. The aim is to minimise time spent in the bus, and to this end we shall fit our hotels to the sites, and certainly not the sites to the hotels. So we may not stay in the most celebrated of the island’s hotels, which are sometimes far from the sites. This does not mean poor hotels, but, to paraphrase a French sentiment, those which offer the best rapport between quality and proximity to the sites we must see. I can also promise at least one hotel of character! Nuraghe Orolo One could visit Sardinia ten times and never have to see the same site twice, such are its archaeological riches. Clearly staying only eight nights we cannot see everything, and will have to miss out whole chunks of the island and whole periods of its archaeology. For the Neolithic and Copper Age I could not find an opportunity to squeeze in one of the great megalithic enclosures, try as I might, nor any Phoenician/Punic sites, mainly because they are mostly in the south of the island, which we shall not visit. But I hope at least I can whet your appetite, so that you will feel impelled to visit Sardinia again. Colin Burgess Provisional itinerary Sept. 11th Fly from Gatwick to Olbia, arr. 14.30 Visit to sites in Arzachena area: giant’s tomb of Coddu Vecchiu excavated nuraghe of La Prisciona corridor nuraghe of Albucciu Westwards across the island, via Perfugas, for Predio Canopoli, one of the big three of Sardinia’s triumvirate of great ashlar well temples Perfugas Museum And so to Sassari for the first of three nights Coddu Vecchiu early nuragic giant's tomb: the entrance portal Sept. 12th Florinas: Punta Unossi, nuragic complex with a rare example of an ashlar-built “rotonda” Campu Lontanu, Chalcolithic tomb carved from a large boulder Nuraghe Corvos (depending on time) South down autostrada to Ittireddu – Sa Covacedda, largest and finest dolmen on the island Torralba, Nuraghe Santu Antine - tallest surviving, c.18m, with two intact chambers, one above the other, and traces of a third above that Bonorva, S.Andrea Priu, RCT necropolis, finest of the “house interior” carved tombs, and another tomb converted to a Byzantine chapel with wall paintings Sept. 13th Visit to the Sanna National Museum in Sassari Nuraghe Palmavera Rock-cut tomb (RCT) necropolis, Anghelu Ruju (Alghero airport), with horn- decorated tombs Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic “ziggurat”, Monte d’Accodi RCT necropolis Mesu e Montes, with important decorated tombs Sept. 14th Leave Sassari, south down the autostrada Abbasanta, Nuraghe Losa, one of the mightiest of the nuraghi, set within a megalithic enclosure. Paulilatino, Santa Cristina, one of the three finest nuragic well temples on the island, ashlar-built and of a very high architectural order. Part of a nuragic “pilgrimage or festival complex”, and adjacent to a festival village or cumbessia of recent times, still in use. Sedilo, Nuragic complex of Iloi: nuraghe, surrounding “village”, and unique ashlar-built giants’ tombs Oniferi, RCT necropolis of Sas Concas, with a tomb decorated in international style To Nuoro, for the first of two nights. Nuraghe Losa: the main tower behind its towered curtain wall Santa Cristina: nuragic well temple in ashlar Sept. 15th North of Nuoro for: Orune, Su Tempiesu, well temple on a steep slope with extraordinary ashlar architecture, buried by a landslip in c.1100 BC, and only revealed by another in 1953 Bitti, Su Romanzesu, extensive nuragic ceremonial complex with unique water cult site with “spectator terracing”, and a variety of rectangular and circular temples and cult buildings Nuoro Museum, with finds and displays from some of the most extraordinary sites on the island Sa Sedda e Sos Carros, a nuragic village in spectacular limestone mountain country, which is a must for its best-preserved of all nuragic “bench-and-basin” cult buildings (“nuragic saunas”) Sept. 16th Leave Nuoro, down the Lanusei road, past Mamoiada to Madau, a group of four giants’ tombs showing evidence for remodelling and replacement Just to the south is Gremanu, another important, excavated nuragic sanctuary and festival site, with round and rectangular temples, an “accommodation” enclosure, and an unusual complex of well temples and water features Westwards, over the mountains to Laconi, for the Museum of Menhirs To Gergei, for the first of three nights in the Hotel Dedoni Sept.