NuragheFringe site
Santu Antine
DatedEst. 1800 BCE–100 CE
Photo · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Santu Antine (Saint Constantine), also known as Sa domo de su re (the house of the king, in the Sardinian language), is a nuraghe at Torralba, in Sardinia, Italy, built by the Nuragic civilization. It is one of the largest nuraghes in Sardinia and stands in the centre of the Cabu Abbas plain.
The main structure was built around the 19-18th century BC, and the other parts date to the 17th–15th century BC.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
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
Santu Antine
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Nuraghe Santu AntineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Nuraghe Santu AntineCC BY-SA 4.0
Santu Antine is constructed of huge basalt blocks. The main tower originally reached a height of 23–24 metres (75–80 ft) and contains three tholoi chambers placed one above another. The central tower has a diameter of 15 metres (50 ft) and is 17 metres (55 ft) high. It has three floors, the top one now gone. Multiple corridors 27 metres (90 ft) long, built with the corbel arch technique, can be seen inside the nuraghe, superimposed on two floors. In addition to the towers, the nuraghe featured three wells. The remains of a Nuragic village lie nearby.
The nuraghe has been studied several times from an archaeoastronomical point of view, and these studies have shown that its structure is oriented following the solstices.
Astronomical alignmentSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Nuraghe Santu AntineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Nuraghe Santu AntineCC BY-SA 4.0
The nuraghe has been studied several times from an archaeoastronomical point of view, and these studies have shown that its structure is oriented following the solstices. The claims were supported, among others, by the archaeologist Ercole Contu and the archaeoastronomers Mauro Peppino Zedda, Juan Antonio Belmonte and Michael Hoskin. Hoskin, a historian of science and emeritus professor at Churchill College, Cambridge, called Santu Antine 'the most sophisticated dry stone monument on earth's surface'.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Nuraghe Santu AntineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Nuraghe Santu AntineCC 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. Nuraghes were built during the Nuragic Age, between 1900 and 730 BCE. 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
6 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. 1800 BCE–100 CEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypological estimate, not a date for this site: a nuraghe in Italy is normally dated between 1800 BCE and 100 CE (Atlas typological table).Source for this date
Measured facts
- Type
- NuragheSource: Type
- Location
- Torralba, Sardinia, ItalySource: Location
- Cultural association
- Nuragic civilizationSource: Cultural association
- Heritage status
- Italian national heritageSource: Heritage status
- Solstice alignment
- Structure oriented according to the solsticesSource: Solstice alignment
- Culture
- Nuragic civilizationSource: Culture
- Heritage designation
- Italian national heritageSource: Heritage designation
Where it stands
Italy
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 40°29′12″ N, 8°46′12″ EFor a GPS or map app: 40.48654, 8.76987
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.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q56258655wikidata.org
- 02Fringe claim sourceen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Torralba San Antine 10.JPGCC BY-SA 3.0
- 21 m. war die Nuraghe Santu Antine ursprünglich hoch. 01.jpgHolger Uwe SchmittCC BY-SA 4.0
- 21 m. war die Nuraghe Santu Antine ursprünglich hoch. 02.jpgHolger Uwe SchmittCC BY-SA 4.0
- 21 m. war die Nuraghe Santu Antine ursprünglich hoch. 04.jpgHolger Uwe SchmittCC BY-SA 4.0
- Torralba, Nuraghe Santu Antine - östlicher Vorplatz.jpgN8eule78CC BY-SA 3.0
- Santa antine (33).JPGMichael KochPublic domain
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Nuraghe Santu Antine" (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): Nuraghe Santu AntineCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q56258655CC0