L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 10 L'Italo-Americano I magine waking up a farmer and going to bed an archaeologist: wouldn't that be curious? Truth is, it happens, in the often quirky, often mysterious world of histo- rical discoveries. I have a univer- sity friend who works as an archaeologist in the Middle East and in North Africa, who often asks me to decode and translate stone fragments' incisions; the funniest part of it all is the amount of times they are found by farmers or gardening enthusia- sts pottering around their land. Do you want a more popular example? Rise your hand if you know the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon silver and gold metal work ever discovered. Guess who came across it, ten years ago exactly… a 57 year old local man, with a passion for metal detector sear- ches, named Terry Herbert. But you know what, you don't need to travel to the green, magi- cal fields of Great Britain, nor to the fragrant, sun-drenched lands of the Middle East to meet avera- ge Joes unearthing history. Here in Italy, we just need to take a short traghetto trip to Sardinia. March was mild and pleasant in 1974 (poetical license here, I am afraid: I admit I didn't check historical forecast reports!) and sharecropper Battista Meli was up early: there was a large field to plow, that day. It was going to be a heavy, hard going job, but alas, you got that sense of beauty and communion with nature while doing it, with the fresh scent of damp earth being dug up turning your thoughts to happy childhood memories. It was going to be a heavy, hard going job indeed, but Battista didn't mind: he liked doing it. And so his day began, and everything was going well until his thoughts and meditations were brusquely interrupted by something getting caught in the plow's blades. "Ma che…!" must have thought Battista, "danna- zione a queste pietre!" And sto- nes it was, what Battista found, but they weren't your normal rocks, no. They were gods. The Giants of Mont'e Prama After Battista's discovery, around thirty large sandstone statues of warriors — archers, to be precise — were unearthed in Mont'e Prama, in the Sinis di Cabras area. Several archaeolo- gical campaigns took place between 1975 and 1979, and through them a staggering 5.178 carved fragments were found. For a long time, they were kept in storage at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Cagliari then, 30 years later, they were finally restored at the Centro di Restauro e Conservazione Li Punti, in Sassari. Thanks to the operation, which was financed by the Region of Sardinia and the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali (the cultural patrimony and activity ministry) 28 statues were composed. Even though none of them is complete, they represent a power- ful image of colossal strength, composed by 16 boxers, 6 archers and 6 soldiers. The details are amazing: boxers's hands are gloved and hold a small knife, while their head is protected by a shield. The soldiers have one, too, which is very finely and intricately decorated. They also hold a spear and wear a helmet on their head. Archers, of course, have arch and quiver, and their arms are covered by a protective sleeve. But what really strikes the most, when looking at these enig- matic giants — they all measure between 2 and 2,5 meters in hei- ght (roughly 6ft5in to 8ft) — is their faces, all characterized by strong regular features and enor- mous eyes, defined by two con- centric circles, mesmerizing, hypnotic mirror to the mystery they represent. What do we know about them? The first excavation, known as Scavo Bedini, took place in 1975 and brought to light ten tombs, clearly connected in style and aesthetics to those other famous buildings of Sardinia, Nuraghi. 16 types of Nuraghi were, in fact, also recognized at the site. The kolossoi — the name of archeologist Giovanni Lilliu, the first to work on the site, gave to the statues— could date anywhere between the 11th and 9th century BC, which would mean they are more ancient than Greece's own kouroi. 30 more gravesites were disco- vered between 1977 and 1979, thanks to the work of Carlo Tronchetti's team. A curiosity: the dead were buried standing or kneeling down rather than hori- zontally. The more research was carried out on the giants, the more the connection with Nuraghi and their civilization, which we call Nuragic, became clear. Beside the architectural similarities between the tombs style and the Nuraghi, there are also the many points in common between the giants and smaller Nuragic bronze statuettes found inside sacred wells around the country: the Giganti di Mont'e Prama reprodu- ced in detail the features and cha- racteristics of these smaller war- riors, which appear to have been an inspiration. New discoveries The adventure of the Mont'e Prama giants is far from over. After an extended pause that lasted 40 years, excavation in the area of the discovery started again 5 years ago, in 2014. The decision was taken after the Department of Applied Geo-Physics at Cagliari University, which conducted an underground assessment of the area and discovered the presence of many geo-physical anomalies, a signal of the potential presence of further artifacts. Thanks to the work of the Archaeology Department at Sassari University, a wealth of 3.500 items were found, including two full statues and two menhirs (called betili in Sardinian). Excavations have been conti- nuing on and off throughout the past 6 years, but are momentarily halted while the team awaits authorization to expand research outside the archaeological site where, very likely, the necropolis of Mont'e Prama continues. The Giants of Mont'e Prama are yet another amazing tassel to add to the mysterious history of Sardinia's own Nuragic Civilization. While we still don't know why the statues were placed beside graves, and many a que- stion about Nuraghi and their peo- ple remain unanswered, Mont'e Prama and its necropolis confirm some important facts. Sardinia was home to a developed, inde- pendent civilization, pre-dating the fasts of Ancient Greece and Rome, and running parallel in time to the era of the great Egyptian pharaohs; they were a people of warriors, who had a developed system of beliefs, as marked by the importance of cults such as those of water and earth; last but not least, they cared about their dead, as the necropolis and the Giants of Mont'e Prama show us. Mysterious, they were, the Nuragic people. But we are, little by little, learning to know them better. Sardinia and its giants: the Giganti di Mont'e Prama CHIARA D'ALESSIO The Giants of Mont'e Prama have characteristically large, round eyes (Copyright: Dreamstime) LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE

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