Pranu Muttedu
Also known asGoni
DatedEst. 5000 BCE–600 CE
Photo Photograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net ). · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The necropolis of Pranu Muttedu is one of the most important funerary areas of pre-Nuragic Sardinia. It lies near Goni, a small village in the Metropolitan City of Cagliari, Italy.
The complex has the second highest known concentration of menhirs in Sardinia, about sixty, and was used from the Late Neolithic period (Ozieri culture) to the Copper 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
Pranu Muttedu
Only the site of Biru 'e Concas in Sorgono, where roughly 200 menhirs have been recorded, has a higher concentration.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Necropolis of Pranu MutteduCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Necropolis of Pranu MutteduCC BY-SA 4.0
The park covers an area of about 200,000 square meters. The menhirs are arranged in pairs, alignments or groups. Only the site of Biru 'e Concas in Sorgono, where roughly 200 menhirs have been recorded, has a higher concentration.
Other monuments include funerary chambers of various types, originally covered by a tumulus and enclosed within megalithic circles built with stone blocks arranged in concentric rings. The area also contains several domus de janas.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Necropolis of Pranu MutteduCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Necropolis of Pranu MutteduCC BY-SA 4.0
The complex has been excavated by Enrico Atzeni on several occasions since 1980.
InterpretationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Necropolis of Pranu MutteduCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Necropolis of Pranu MutteduCC BY-SA 4.0
One of the most widely circulated guidebooks on Sardinia has described the site as the Sardinian Stonehenge.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Necropolis of Pranu MutteduCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Necropolis of Pranu MutteduCC BY-SA 4.0
Menhirs are especially common in Sardinia, where at least 332 standing stones can be seen. They include elaborate statue-menhirs with a human face at the top and gendered symbols on the flat front, called perdas fittas or perdas lungas in Sardinian.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Megaliths of Italy
Italy's megaliths are scattered and varied. Menhirs are especially common in Sardinia, where at least 332 standing stones can be seen. They include elaborate statue-menhirs with a human face at the top and gendered symbols on the flat front, over a hundred of them found around the village of Laconi, and called perdas fittas or perdas lungas in Sardinian. In Apulia, near Bisceglie, the Bronze Age dolmens include the Dolmen della Chianca, with a passage 10 metres long leading to a burial cell of 2 by 1.6 metres. Small dolmens also exist in Sicily, at Mura Pregne near Palermo, Sciacca, Monte Bubbonia and Butera.
In the north, statue stelae of the Copper Age and Iron Age stand in the Alps and in Lunigiana. The Arco stelae in Trentino, discovered in 1989, are six Copper Age statue menhirs, and Arco I is a limestone stele 2.15 metres high showing an armed figure with seven daggers, three axes and three halberds. The Iron Age statue stelae of Liguria and Lunigiana are among the best-known Italian megalithic monuments.
Sardinia's tombs and towers, the nuraghi, giants' graves and domus de janas, have their own articles. Dolmens occur in Apulia, Sardinia and Sicily, and statue menhirs, which are carved standing stones of the later Neolithic, are most commonly found in southern and western France, Corsica, Sardinia, Italy and the Alps. In Lunigiana the statue stelae are believed to have served as funerary or commemorative monuments for local elites, though their exact function remains debated.
When visiting, pair a megalith with a local museum, since several statue stelae are kept indoors.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Dolmen, Wikipedia: List of menhirs, Wikipedia: Statue menhir, Wikipedia: Bisceglie, Wikipedia: List of dolmens, Wikipedia: Arco stelae, Wikipedia: Lunigiana · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1980
The complex has been excavated by Enrico Atzeni, on several occasions since 1980. The site was used from the Late Neolithic period (Ozieri culture) to the Copper Age.
Source
Photographs
4 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. 5000 BCE–600 CEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypological estimate, not a date for this site: a megalithic complex in Italy is normally dated between 5000 BCE and 600 CE (Atlas typological table).Source for this date
Measured facts
- Site type
- Pre-Nuragic necropolis and megalithic complexSource: Site type
- Location
- Near Goni, Metropolitan City of Cagliari, SardiniaSource: Location
- Menhirs
- About sixtySource: Menhirs
- Arrangements
- Pairs, groups, or arraysSource: Arrangements
- Heritage designation
- Italian national heritageSource: Heritage designation
Where it stands
Italy
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 39°34′04″ N, 9°16′05″ EFor a GPS or map app: 39.56764, 9.26800
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.
- Menhir (standing stone)Tomba IV di Pranu Muttedu ''La Triade''2800–1800 BCE
- NuragheNuraghe Is Truiscus1900–730 BCE
- NuragheNuraghe Bauorroli1900–730 BCE
- NuragheNuraghe Domus Suas1900–730 BCE
- NuragheNuraghe Tanca Manna1900–730 BCE
- NuragheNuraghe Perda Cucca1900–730 BCE
- NuragheNuraghe Padenti Scurosu1900–730 BCE
- NuragheNuraghe Goni1900–730 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Q2107814wikidata.org
- 02Necropolis_of_Pranu_Mutteduen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Area archeologica di Pranu Muttedu 2025 001.jpgPhotograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net ).CC BY-SA 4.0
- Sardinien Goni Pranu Muttedu 01.jpgHans Peter SchaeferCC BY-SA 3.0
- Area archeologica di Pranu Muttedu 2025 009.jpgPhotograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net ).CC BY-SA 4.0
- Area archeologica di Pranu Muttedu 2025 010.jpgPhotograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net ).CC 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 "Necropolis of Pranu Muttedu" (English), 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 (English): Necropolis of Pranu MutteduCC BY-SA 4.0
- Q2107814CC0