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Giants' tomb (tomba di giganti)
Tomba dei giganti di Lassia
DatedEst. 1900–730 BCE
Photo Gianni Careddu · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The tomba dei giganti di Lassia (giants' tomb of Lassia), also known as Noazza III, is an archaeological monument in the territory of Birori, province of Nuoro, Sardinia, Italy, less than a kilometre from the village. It stands on the edge of the Abbasanta plateau, in a wide area of central Sardinia rich in archaeological remains.
The tomb is attributed to the Middle to Late Bronze Age (1700-1400 BC). It is built of trachyte blocks and preserves the perimeter slabs and part of the roofing of the burial chamber.
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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
Tomba dei giganti di Lassia
They were presumably used as spaces for funerary offerings, though it is not excluded that they served as separate spaces for secondary depositions.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Italian): Tomba dei giganti di LassiaCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Italian): Tomba dei giganti di LassiaCC BY-SA 4.0
The burial chamber has a rectangular plan with an apse at the end. It measures 13.24 metres in length and 1.05/1.25 metres in width, and its height varies between 2.05 and 2.30 metres. Of the exedra the left part remains, while there is no trace of a stele.
A rarity is the presence of two pairs of square niches (about 0.75 × 0.95 × 1.10 m deep) set opposite one another near the entrance to the funerary chamber and slightly raised above the floor level. They were presumably used as spaces for funerary offerings, though it is not excluded that they served as separate spaces for secondary depositions. The same feature, but with only two niches, is found in the nearby giants' tomb of Palatu.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Italian): Tomba dei giganti di LassiaCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Italian): Tomba dei giganti di LassiaCC BY-SA 4.0
No objects of interest are recorded as having been found at the site.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Italian): Tomba dei giganti di LassiaCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Italian): Tomba dei giganti di LassiaCC BY-SA 4.0
The tomba dei giganti ('giants' grave') is 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.
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
- 1400 BCE
La tomba, ascrivibile al Bronzo medio-Bronzo recente (1700-1400 a.C.), è realizzata con blocchi di trachite e conserva i lastroni perimetrali e parte della copertura della camera funeraria.
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. 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
- 40°15′15″ N, 8°49′02″ EFor a GPS or map app: 40.25428, 8.81728
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 Q15111629wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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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 Lassia" (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