Monte Gherra
DatedEst. 1900–730 BCE
Photo fadda domenico ange… · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Monte Gherra is a hill in the province of Sassari, in the region of Sardinia, Italy, at 436 metres above sea level. The catalogue classifies the site as a nuraghe and gives a typological date range of 1900 to 730 BCE, the span of the Nuragic Age.
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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
Monte Gherra
The mean annual temperature is 15 °C, with July the warmest month at 28 °C and January the coldest at 5 °C.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (ceb): Monte GherraCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (ceb): Monte GherraCC BY-SA 4.0
The land around Monte Gherra is somewhat hilly. The highest point in the surrounding area rises to 626 metres, 1.0 km to the north-east. The area has about 26 inhabitants per square kilometre, a fairly low population density, and the nearest larger town is Ittiri, 6.1 km to the north-west. The surroundings are mostly farmland.
The climate is Mediterranean. The mean annual temperature is 15 °C, with July the warmest month at 28 °C and January the coldest at 5 °C. Mean annual precipitation is 892 millimetres. November is the wettest month, with 169 millimetres, and July the driest, with 14 millimetres.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (ceb): Monte GherraCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (ceb): Monte GherraCC BY-SA 4.0
The nuraghe is the main type of ancient megalithic building in Sardinia and has become the symbol of the island and of its Nuragic civilization. Nuraghi were built during the Nuragic Age, between 1900 and 730 BCE. More than 7,000 have been found, and archaeologists believe that originally there were more than 10,000. A nuraghe has the outer shape of a truncated conical tower, rather like a medieval tower, with a tholos-like vault inside.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Sardinian nuraghi
The nuraghe is the main type of ancient megalithic building in Sardinia, and it has become the symbol of the island and of its Nuragic civilization. They were built during the Nuragic Age, between 1900 and 730 BCE. More than 7,000 have been found, and archaeologists believe that originally there were more than 10,000. A nuraghe has the outer shape of a truncated conical tower, rather like a medieval tower, with a tholos-like vault inside.
The finest is Su Nuraxi at Barumini, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. Its oldest part is a central tower with three superposed chambers, 18.6 metres high, built of basalt blocks between the seventeenth and thirteenth centuries BCE. In the Late Bronze Age four corner towers joined by a curtain wall were added, and a village grew around it, inhabited from the thirteenth to the sixth century BCE. Scholars consider it the most impressive expression of the Nuragic civilization.
There is no consensus on what the nuraghi were for: rulers' residences, military strongholds, meeting halls, temples and ordinary dwellings have all been proposed. The Nuragic civilization lasted from the eighteenth century BCE until the Iron Age or the beginning of Roman colonisation in 238 BCE, and building of nuraghi had stopped by the twelfth or eleventh century BCE. Its origins are disputed: the traditional theory of Giovanni Lilliu, from 1966, saw migrants related to the Beaker culture, while others argue for local development. Even the word nuraghe has an uncertain and disputed etymology.
Many nuraghi have never been excavated, and their dates are inferred from their form.
When visiting, look for the stone courses, the entrance corridor, and the village of huts that often surrounds the tower.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Nuraghe, Wikipedia: Nuragic civilization, Wikipedia: Su Nuraxi · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
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 nuraghes in Italy; this site has not been dated itself. The nuraghe is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice of Sardinia developed during the Nuragic Age between 1900 and 730 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Italy
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 40°33′15″ N, 8°36′49″ EFor a GPS or map app: 40.55412, 8.61351
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.
- NuragheNuraghe Corona Ruja1900–730 BCE
- NuragheNuraghe Baddecca1900–730 BCE
- NuragheNuraghe Abbarghente1900–730 BCE
Nuraghe e domus de janas di Monte Cheja1900–730 BCE- NuragheNuraghe Runara1900–730 BCE
- NuragheNuraghe Runatolos1900–730 BCE
Dolmen von Runara4000–3000 BCE- NuragheNuraghe Sa Coa 'e Sa Femina1900–730 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q31621474wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Nuraghe monte Torru - panoramio.jpgfadda domenico ange…CC BY-SA 3.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Monte Gherra" (ceb), 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
- Wikipedia (ceb): Monte GherraCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q31621474CC0