Giants of Monte Prama
39.9657777777788.4482777777778Koordinaten: 39 ° 58 ' N, 8 ° 27 ' E
The giants from Monte Prama (Italian Giganti di monte Prama, . Sard Zigàntes de Mònt'e Prama ) are formerly freestanding sandstone sculptures of Sardinian Nuraghen. It was found on the Sinis Peninsula in the province of Oristano about 30 intact nuragical stool graves, all of which were covered by a 15 cm thick and a square foot sandstone slab. In a curved line strung the latter creates a flagstone of about 40 m in length, which was side-seamed partially by orthostat. Among the plates adding anything loose dead lay in 70-80 cm deep pits, usually facing east, head occasionally covered with a small stone slab.
Description
1974 plowing the farmer Sisinnio Poddi at Monte Prama on the Sinis Peninsula in the province of Oristano in Sardinia, the head of a statue. The authorities in Cabras informed the archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu and Enrico Atzeni, who conducted four field seasons between 1975 and 1979. Here, about 5000 fragments of statues came to light, was the size of between 2 and 2.5 m. Among them were 15 heads and 22 busts. After the end of the excavations, the finds have been spent in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Cagliari. It was only after the competent Ministry of Culture had assured funding, could be started in 2007 with the restoration work. The coordination was at the Centro di Conservazione Archaeological Roma in collaboration with local institutions. For the first time in 2009, 25 restored warriors, archers and boxers, plus 13 Nuraghenmodelle issued in November 2011, is a permanent exhibition. To Monte Prama most Nuraghenmodelle were found. Probably the remains belonged to more than 44 statues. The objects that the excavations between 2007 and 2012 were evident promoted very numerous. The 5,178 objects also had a total weight of more than ten tons.
On a nearby rubbish heap 2000 pieces were part of 30 archaic sandstone statues found that once were 2.0 to 2.6 m high. In addition to the deliberately vandalized statues destroyed Baityloi, bronzes and Nuraghenmodelle as well as a wide range of ceramics were discovered, ranging from the Nuraghic to the Roman era.
Among the statues are mostly representations of archers and warriors, the great similarity with the bronze figures of Nuraghen ( Abini, Serri, Teti ) from the 8th to 6th centuries BC have. One has the habit of a Lusitanian warrior statue. Many show celtic -looking hairstyles and oriental clothing ( wide belt and a short kilt ). The helmets of the figures have horns, their shields are elaborated. You have deep-set eyes of exactly concentric circles, big noses, but her mouth is only a dash. What makes it unique for the time and the island is their life size.
Since its excavation lay almost unnoticed in a basement of the Museum of Cagliari. Only in the year 2003, they were outsourced to public pressure for restoration.
Time position
Your age could not be determined exactly. The assumptions fluctuated initially 800-700 BC To support a late date, provided you comparisons with the bronzes of Abini Group ago. Some researchers date these bronzes but recently two or three centuries earlier, ie before the geometric era. The oldest Sardinian bronze art was then probably in front of the Mediterranean upheaval that shook around 1200 BC, the Mediterranean, interrupting existing contacts of the island to the eastern Mediterranean ( Cyprus). That would mean that in Sardinia the oldest free-standing monumental sculpture created Europe before in Greece began a corresponding development. The fact that the idea of an independent Eastern Mediterranean influences from nuragical plastic is not completely wrong, shows a find that was made in the 1980s at the sacred well at Sassari. It confirms the plastic bull's head made of limestone, which has already been discovered in the 1920s at the sacred well of Santa Vittoria, was not, however, assign due to the unclear circumstances Fund.