Giants' tomb (tomba di giganti)
Barrancu Mannu
DatedEst. 1900–730 BCE
Photo Cristiano Cani · CC BY 2.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The giants' tomb of Barrancu Mannu, also called Sa Tuaredda, is an archaeological site of the Nuragic period in the comune of Santadi, in the province of Sud Sardegna, Italy. It is built of yellow-pink granite and is datable to the Middle Bronze Age, about 1300 BCE.
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Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Barrancu Mannu
In the exedra there is a small opening, surmounted by a lintel, that serves as the entrance to the tomb.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
The tomb consists of an apsidal burial chamber, a covered corridor and an arched exedra. In the exedra there is a small opening, surmounted by a lintel, that serves as the entrance to the tomb.
ContextSources for this section
Sources for this section
Giants' grave, tomba dei giganti in Italian, is the name given by local people and archaeologists to a type of Sardinian megalithic gallery grave built in the Bronze Age by the Nuragic civilization. They were collective tombs, and about 800 have been found throughout Sardinia. A stone cairn lies over the burial chambers, and some examples have a cup-shaped entrance forecourt.
There are two general types. In the slab type, uncut slabs are set on end in the ground and arranged side by side, usually with a central stele, the largest slab and up to 4 metres high, with a doorway cut through it. A second type has a stele and walls built of shaped blocks.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Sardinian giants' graves (tombe di giganti)
"Giants' grave", tomba dei giganti in Italian, is the name given by local people and archaeologists to a type of Sardinian megalithic gallery grave built in the Bronze Age by the Nuragic civilization. They were collective tombs, and about 800 have been found throughout Sardinia. A stone cairn lies over the burial chambers, and some examples have a cup-shaped entrance forecourt like that of the court cairns of Ireland.
There are two general types. In the "slab type", uncut slabs are set on end in the ground and arranged side by side; there is usually a central stele, the largest slab and up to 4 metres high, with a doorway cut through it. A second type has a stele and walls built of shaped blocks.
Coddu Vecchiu, near Arzachena in northern Sardinia, is one of the larger giants' graves, with a stele, megaliths and a gallery grave, and the Nuraghe La Prisgiona nearby. It was excavated in 1966 by Editta Castaldi, who recovered pans, bowls and plates with comb decoration, and vases with bent necks, of the early Nuragic Bonnanaro culture. This suggests that it was built early in the Nuragic period, about 1800 to 1600 BCE. It appears to have begun as a cist that was expanded in the Middle Bronze Age and covered by a gallery grave with the ornate stele portal stone.
The name "giants' grave" was given by local people, and archaeologists have kept it; it is a popular label, not evidence of who was buried.
Dating is by the pottery found inside, which can show that a tomb was used over a long time.
When visiting, look for the curved forecourt, the tall central stele with its doorway, and the long mound behind it.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Giants' grave, Wikipedia: Coddu Vecchiu, Wikipedia: Nuragic civilization · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1300 BCE
La tomba, in granito giallo-rosa, è databile al bronzo medio (1300 a.C. circa) ed è composta da un corpo tombale absidato, un corridoio coperto e da una esedra arcuata dove è presente un piccolo pertugio, sormontato da un architrave, con la funzione di ingresso alla tomba.
Source
Photographs
3 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 1900–730 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for giants' tombs in Italy; this site has not been dated itself. The Sardinian giant's graves are collective funerary structures of the whole Nuragic era and were replaced by pit graves in the Iron Age.Source for this date
Where it stands
Italy
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 39°05′59″ N, 8°46′07″ EFor a GPS or map app: 39.09972, 8.76861
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q808819wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Tomba dei Giganti Barrancu Mannu.jpgCristiano CaniCC BY 2.0
- CAMERA FUNERARIA.jpgFrancescomanconiquesadaCC BY-SA 4.0
- COPERTURA DELLA TOMBA.jpgFrancescomanconiquesadaCC BY-SA 4.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Tomba dei giganti di Barrancu Mannu" (Italian), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors