Nuragic Culture Was Weirder Than You Think

Some 7,000 ancient stone towers stand across Sardinia, scattered among its fields, forests, and mountains. Built more than 3,000 years ago without mortar, some stood as tall as a nine-story building. These structures are called nuraghi. They gave their name to the civilization that built them, but their builders left no written records. We do not know what they called themselves, what language they spoke, or why they built these imposing towers. Of the thousands of nuraghi still standing, only a little over a hundred have been excavated. Here's an entire island dotted with ancient monuments and a history we are only beginning to understand. Who were the people who built all of this? Welcome to our video on ancient Sardinia. Sardinia lies in the western Mediterranean between Europe and North Africa. The ancient Greeks called it Ichnusa from their word for footprint because its shape reminded them of a human footprint. The historian Pausanias, who recorded this explanation, admitted that he did not know what the islanders themselves called their land. The Greeks explained the origins of Sardinia's inhabitants through legends. In one account, a hero named Sardus, the son of Heracles, arrived from Libya with a group of settlers. The island supposedly took its name from him. Pausanias also wrote that the Sardinians sent a bronze statue of Sardus to Delphi. Archaeology takes us much further back than these legends. Long before the first nuraghi appeared, Sardinia's inhabitants carved burial chambers into the rock. Thousands of these tombs survive today. They're known as the domus de janas, or houses of the fairies. Although they were actually built for the dead, most date to between 3400 and 2700 BC, more than a thousand years before the first nuraghi. But who built the towers? Studies of ancient DNA have revealed genetic continuity between the island's Neolithic farmers and the people who lived there during the Nuragic period. This suggests that Nuragic culture developed largely among the island's indigenous population. Still, Sardinia was not completely isolated. Among the individuals studied, researchers also identified people from mainland Italy, the Aegean, Spain, and even North Africa. The first nuraghi appeared on the island in the 18th century BC. These early structures were squat, with narrow passageways inside. In time, tall stone towers began to rise across Sardinia. Within a few centuries, nuraghi had spread across Sardinia. They were especially common in the west-central part of the island, where some areas had more than one tower per square kilometer. Most were built at relatively low elevations, though some stood in the mountains. Nuraghe Santu Antine, for example, stands about 1200 meters above sea level. The simplest nuraghi were single towers that tapered toward the top. Others grew over time, as towers, walls, and courtyards were added, eventually forming large complexes. Settlements developed around them, with round stone houses, wells, and outbuildings. One of the most impressive complexes is Nuraghe Arubiu. Its name means red after the lichen that gives its basalt walls a reddish hue. Including the outer fortifications, the complex had 21 towers. Reconstruction suggests that the central tower may have reached 30 meters in height. Today it stands about 15 meters tall, still tall enough to give a sense of its original scale. All of this was built without mortar. These structures remained stable thanks to the weight of the stones and the care with which they were chosen and fitted together. The chambers inside were roofed with corbelled domes. Each layer of stone extended slightly inward beyond the one below, gradually narrowing the opening until it could be closed at the top. A tower could have two or three floors connected by stairways built into the thickness of its walls. From the outside, these structures looked enormous, but much of that bulk was solid masonry. In most single-tower nuraghi, the interior floor space amounted to no more than 30 square meters. The lower chamber of Nuraghe Birri measured only about two and a half by three meters. Today we mostly see bare stone inside, but that was not always the case. In the main chamber of Nuraghe Sant'Antine, researchers found traces of plaster containing red ochre pigment and animal glue. At least some rooms were plastered and painted. Building these towers took more than skilled stonemasons. It also required well-organized labor. Stone had to be quarried, transported, lifted, and carefully set in place. Some complexes were expanded over several generations. Others, researchers suggest, may have been built to a single plan from the outset. At Su Nuraxi, lead clamps were used to hold stones together, an unusual use of a metal that was valuable at the time. Construction also involved rituals. At one nuraghe, archaeologists found 19 bronze votive axes with almost no signs of use, buried when the foundations were laid. At Arubiu, copper ingots had been set into the masonry of the central tower. These objects were probably left as offerings during construction. The builder sometimes reused much older monuments. Stone menhirs erected in the Neolithic period were used as lintels above entrances. This may have been a way of linking a new tower to a sacred site or to the ancestors. There may have also been a simpler reason. A large, suitably shaped stone was close at hand. But neither the tower's size nor the complexity of their construction tells us by itself why they were built. Their massive walls and narrow entrances certainly make them look like fortresses. For a long time, Nuraghi were thought to be castles of local chieftains, yet the finds inside them tell a far more complex and varied story. The idea that Nuraghi were fortresses shaped even the names given to their features. Early archaeologists describe narrow slits, guardrooms, and keeps as though they were studying medieval castles. Giovanni Lilliu, the foremost scholar of Nuragic culture, pictured a society of warlike herders whose chieftains lived in stone towers and controlled the surrounding countryside. But some details do not fit that picture. The narrow openings in the walls, first identified as arrow slits, most likely served to let in light. And the stone balls found at Santo Antine, once thought to be sling ammunition, turned out to be ordinary pestles used to grind food in mortars. In the 1970s, linguist Massimo Pitau challenged the military interpretation. He argued that a cramped tower with a narrow entrance could become a trap for its own defenders during a siege. To him, many features of these buildings made more sense if they served a religious purpose. Lilliu disagreed. There were simply too many towers on the island for all of them to have been temples. The finds inside Nuraghi reveal a wide variety of activities. In one tower at the Duos Nuraghes complex, a room measuring about 15 square meters served as a metalworking workshop, archaeologists found a hearth, a furnace, and waste from copperworking. At Arubiu, they uncovered grinding stones, hearths, and evidence of bread making. People gathered for large communal meals in the courtyard beside the central tower. At Nuraghe su Mulino, a sanctuary was established in a later period, with a stone altar shaped like a nuraghe. Most researchers now believe that the towers had no single purpose. They could serve as storerooms, workshops, places of worship, homes, or defensive strongholds. The same nuraghe could serve different purposes at different times. But that raises another question, who controlled the towers? Who organized their construction? Building such enormous structures took the coordinated effort of many people. It's easy to imagine powerful rulers directing the work, but communities could have organized these projects themselves, and we have no convincing evidence of royal authority. Researchers who favor a hierarchical model see the large complexes as seats of power for local chieftains. In this interpretation, the largest towers were rulers' palaces, with smaller towers and nearby settlements under their control. Others argue that society was organized mainly around kinship and cooperation between communities. Burial practices provide important evidence in this debate. For most of the Nuragic period, the dead were buried in communal tombs. We cannot identify wealthy burials of rulers that clearly stand out from the rest. Nor do we have direct evidence of constant warfare. Clashes and raids may well have occurred, but archaeology does not support the image of an island where every chieftain was forever fighting his neighbors. Behind the massive walls, people went about their daily lives, working, cooking, performing religious rituals, and caring for their families. The people of Nuragic Sardinia grew crops and raised livestock. They cultivated wheat and barley and kept sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs. They also hunted, gathered wild plants, and fished. At Rubiu, archaeologists found deer bones, seashells, and the remains of acorns, olives, grapes, and sloes. Analysis of tartar on teeth from burials of this period Revealed that the islanders even ate snails. Ancient plant remains were especially well-preserved at the settlement of Saosa. Water at the bottom of ancient wells kept thousands of grape seeds from decaying. Among them, researchers identified seeds from cultivated grapes that resembled modern Sardinian varieties in shape. This tells us that people were growing grapes on the island more than 3,000 years ago. The same wells also yielded melon seeds, the oldest found in the western Mediterranean. In their settlements, people worked metal, made pottery, spun thread, and wove cloth. They left behind tools and waste from their workshops. Bronze figurines give us a glimpse of how the islanders saw themselves. More than 500 of these statuettes are known. They show warriors with shields, archers, people wearing long cloaks, women with children, and figures holding out their arms in a gesture of offering. We can make out details of their clothing, hairstyles, weapons, and jewelry. Many of the figurines were left in sanctuaries, so they probably depict people taking part in rituals. Local craftspeople also made bronze animals and model boats. More than 150 boat models survive, complete with masts, hulls, and prows decorated with animal heads. These may have been used as ritual lamps. Structures known today as giants' tombs offer a glimpse into how the islanders treated their dead. They owe their name to their sheer size. Some were 30 meters long. But the people buried inside were, of course, no giants. A single tomb could hold the remains of more than a hundred people. Around 800 of these tombs are known. A long burial chamber lay just beyond the entrance, and outside, stone walls swept outward in two curved wings to form a forecourt. From above, the structure's outline resembles a bull's head with horns. At Codovecchio, a four-meter-high stone stelae made of two slabs rises above the entrance. At its base, a small opening leads into the burial chamber. It looks tiny against the enormous facade. These tombs stood near settlements and were used for generations, with religious rituals held in the forecourts. But the islanders' world extended far beyond their settlements. Objects from distant lands reached Sardinia, while the work of local craftspeople has been found hundreds, even thousands of kilometers from its shores. During the Bronze Age, the Mediterranean linked Sardinia to other centers of the ancient world. People in its settlements used pottery from mainland Greece and Crete, At Nuraghe Antigori, in southern Sardinia, archaeologists have found particularly large quantities of imported pottery, dating from the 14th to 12th centuries BC. At Rubiu, fragments of a small Mycenaean vessel for oil and perfume were found near the entrance to the central tower. This valuable, imported vessel was probably smashed deliberately as part of a ritual marking the tower's construction. Copper was one of the island's main imports. It arrived in large, flat ingots with a projection at each corner. Shaped like stretched ox hides, they are known to archaeologists as ox hide ingots. Analysis has shown that many were made from Cypriot copper, yet Sardinia had rich copper deposits of its own, and many objects made from local metal have been found on the island. Sardinian craftspeople worked copper and produced bronze, using these metals to make tools, weapons, and jewelry. Trade went both ways. Pottery made near Caligari has turned up in Sicily, Crete, and Cyprus. Researchers traced it back to Sardinia by analyzing the clay. At the Cretan port of Komos, Sardinian pottery was found alongside goods from Egypt, Anatolia, Cyprus, and the Levant. The islanders were part of a trading network spanning the western and eastern Mediterranean. Toward the end of the Bronze Age, goods also arrived from the west. Swords, daggers, and axes of types common on the Iberian Peninsula. Local craftspeople soon began making their own versions. These far-reaching connections bring us to one of the great mysteries of Sardinian history. Egyptian sources mention a people known as the Shardana, or Sherden. They were among the so-called Sea Peoples, whose activities in the Eastern Mediterranean contributed to the Late Bronze Age collapse. The similarity between the names Shardana and Sardinia has long caught researchers' attention. The people mentioned in Egyptian records may indeed have come from the island. There are also similarities between the warriors depicted on Egyptian reliefs and Sardinian bronze figurines, particularly in their weapons and horned helmets. But the dates pose a problem. The Sardinian figurines usually cited in these comparisons are much later than the Egyptian depictions. The visual resemblance alone does not prove that they represent the same people. Even the nature of the possible connection remains disputed. Some researchers believe that Sardinia was the Shardana's homeland. Others suggest that they settled on the island after campaigns in the east. So far, no direct evidence allows us to choose confidently between these explanations. Meanwhile, major changes were taking place on Sardinia itself. People continued to live near the ancient towers, but they had all but stopped building new ones. Around the 12th and 11th centuries BC, the construction of Nuraghi declined sharply, and eventually all but stopped. Some towers were abandoned, while others remained in use. Some people moved into larger settlements, and the familiar world of small communities with their own towers gradually became a thing of the past. The reasons for these changes are still not fully understood. One explanation points to population growth. Throughout the Bronze Age, settlements multiplied, and forests were cleared to make rooms for fields and pastures. But the island's resources were limited. Some researchers suggest that the land could eventually no longer produce enough food for the growing population. As resources grew scarce, competition between communities intensified. Other possible causes include warfare, earthquakes, internal conflict, and the declining authority of those who had organized construction. So far, no single explanation has won agreement among all researchers. But the Sardinians didn't disappear when they stopped building towers. Their settlements endured, craftspeople continued working metal, and maritime trade carried on. The Nuraghi II retained their significance. As the construction of full-size towers came to an end, people began making miniature versions. Models in stone, bronze, and clay were placed in sanctuaries and meeting halls. At Palmavera, a stone model of a Nuraghe stood on a pedestal in the center of a round building with benches along the walls. For later generations, the Nuraghi became a symbol that connected them to their ancestors. Alongside the ancient towers, a new world of sanctuaries and shared religious festivals was taking shape. Water held a special place in ancient Sardinian religion. People built sacred wells over springs and left offerings beside them. These structures first appeared while Nuraghi were still being built, but large sanctuaries eventually grew around them. One of the best known is the Sacred Well of Santa Cristina, built in the 12th century BC. A staircase of carefully cut stone blocks leads down to the water. Above the spring rises a vault more than six meters high, built using the same corbelled dome technique as the nuraghi. The stones fit together so precisely that it's hard to believe the structure is 3,000 years old. Offerings found in the sanctuaries include bronze figurines, jewelry, and long slender swords unsuitable for combat. These swords were fixed into stone, left beside sacred structures and sometimes deliberately broken. At Nuraghe Nardole, a water channel and a stone basin were built near a natural spring. Archaeologists found hundreds of bronze objects nearby. Some offerings had been placed directly in the gaps between the stones. At the Sanctuary of Abini, archaeologists discovered one of Sardinia's most unusual statuettes. A figure with four eyes, four arms, and two shields. Researchers call it the Demon Hero. We don't know what the Sardinians called it, or what role it played in their beliefs. Sanctuaries also brought together people from different settlements. The complex at Santa Vittoria di Serres covered about three hectares, Finds there include local bronze figurines and objects from Etruria, Venetia, and Cyprus. People gathered for rituals and assemblies, where they also traded and made agreements on matters of shared concern. As wealth accumulated in the sanctuaries, the people who controlled it became more influential. Researchers believe a new elite emerged around these centers. Its power rested on religious authority and control over how wealth was distributed Another unusual custom has been linked to ancestor worship. Aristotle described people in Sardinia who fell asleep beside the heroes, and supposedly woke unaware of how much time had passed. Later writers said that the sick came there seeking healing and slept for several days. These rituals may have taken place near the giant's tombs. Later, stone statues of warriors, archers, and boxers, all taller than a person, appeared beside burial sites. Today, they're known as the Giants of Monte Prama. In March of 1974, two farmers were plowing a field near Monte Prama in western Sardinia when their plow struck a large stone head. Its enormous eyes were carved as concentric circles. It soon became clear that thousands of fragments of ancient statues lay beneath the field. Excavations uncovered more than 5,000 pieces, heads, torsos, arms, legs, and fragments of shields and weapons. Alongside them were stone models of Nuragic and sacred stones. Restoring the sculptures took decades. The fragments belonged to 44 statues, 30 of which were successfully reconstructed. Standing up to two and a half meters tall, they became known as the Giants of Monte Prama. At first, researchers thought the statues were Carthaginian. But further excavation showed that the site was a Nuragic burial ground and that local craftspeople had carved the figures. The statues depict warriors, archers, and so-called boxers who make up the largest group. The boxers are bare-chested, holding shields above their heads. The archers have bows and protective gear, while the warriors carry shields and weapons. The same figures appear among the small bronze statuettes we discussed earlier. Their faces are especially striking. Straight noses, small mouths, and enormous round eyes. Giovanni Lilliu believed these figures emphasized the warrior's connection to the world beyond. The statues stood beside graves arranged along a road. The dead were buried in a crouched position in individual graves covered with stone slabs. Models of towers and sacred stones stood nearby. The giants may have represented revered ancestors, or heroes watching over the dead, their exact meaning remains unknown. The statues date to the 11th century BC, making them the oldest monumental sculptures in the western Mediterranean. At some point, they were deliberately smashed. Heads, arms, and torsos were broken into countless pieces. We do not know who destroyed them or why, but researchers have linked their destruction both to an attack from outside the island and to conflict among the Sardinians themselves. Excavations continue to uncover new finds. In 2014, archaeologists discovered two nearly complete boxers of a different type. One researcher suggested that the grooves on their faces depicted masks like those still worn during traditional Sardinian festivals. And in 2022, archaeologists found the torsos of two more boxers, with shields curving around the abdomen, arm, and shoulder. They also uncovered another stretch of the road through the burial ground. The giants were created at a time when foreign traders were visiting Sardinia more and more often. Gradually, permanent Phoenician settlements began to appear along the coasts. In the 9th and 8th centuries BC, Phoenician, Greek, and Etruscan trading ships called at Sant'Imbenia on Sardinia's northwestern coast. They were drawn by nearby deposits of silver, iron, and copper. Sardinian craftspeople began making amphorae, based on Phoenician designs. These vessels were used to ship wine to the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. Many have been found at Carthage. The islanders developed especially close ties with the Etruscans. Sardinian pottery, weapons, jewelry, and bronze figurines have all been found in Etruscan tombs. One tomb at Vulci, held an urn containing the ashes of a woman and a young girl. Among the grave goods was a Nuragic statuette. A richly furnished burial at Vitellonia contained a Sardinian bronze model boat decorated with animal figures. In the 8th century BC, the Phoenicians founded Sulci on Sardinia. Local people traded with the newcomers, learned their craft techniques, and intermarried with them. Burial urns found at Sulci combined Sardinian shapes with Phoenician decoration. Researchers believe that these urns belonged to such mixed families. In the 6th century BC, Carthage tried to conquer the island. The Sardinians fought back. According to the Roman historian Justin, the Carthaginian commander Malchus suffered a crushing defeat there. His campaign is usually dated to the 540s BC. The struggle continued under later Carthaginian commanders. Justin also tells us that Hasdrubal, the son of Mago, died from wounds sustained on the island. Meanwhile, Carthage was competing with the Greeks for influence in the western Mediterranean. Around 540 BC, the Carthaginians and Etruscans joined forces against a Greek fleet at Alalia off Corsica. After the battle, the Etruscans strengthened their hold on Corsica, while Carthage turned its attention to Sardinia. Greek merchants continued to visit the island, but did not establish colonies of their own. By the second half of the 6th century BC, Carthage had secured control over key parts of Sardinia. Coastal cities, fertile farmland, and trade routes became under its rule. The mountainous interior, however, remained independent. Local customs gradually blended with Carthaginian traditions. But a few centuries later, Carthage's struggle with Rome would bring new conquerors to the island. In 238 BC, a mercenary revolt was raging in Carthage. It had broken out after Carthage's defeat in the First Punic War. Rome took advantage of its rival's weakness and demanded that it hand over Sardinia. Exhausted and unable to afford another war, Carthage grudgingly agreed. Sardinia and Corsica became a Roman province. But the islanders continued to resist. In 215 BC, during Rome's war with Hannibal, a local landowner named Hampsicora led a revolt. He had the support of Carthage and the peoples of Sardinia's interior. The Romans defeated both the rebels and the Carthaginian army sent to help them. In 177-176 BC, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, father of the famous Gracchus brothers, campaigned against the Illyenses and Bellari tribes. According to the Roman historian Livy, around 80,000 Sardinians were killed or taken prisoner. The defeated communities had their taxes doubled, and many captives were sold into slavery. Ancient writers linked this influx of Sardinian slaves to the expression sardivinalis, which became a byword for cheap merchandise. Like the Carthaginians before them, the Romans controlled the coast, but the mountainous interior long remained independent. Rome repeatedly fought its inhabitants, calling their region Barbaria, the land of the barbarians. The name lives on today as Barbagia. In the 6th century AD, the Byzantines made peace with Hospitan, the leader of the local mountain communities. The Nuragi remained in use as rulers came and went. People used them for work and storage, held religious rituals inside of them, and buried their dead there. The Romans set up winemaking facilities among the ruins of Arubiu. The area around Su-Noraxi remained inhabited until the 7th century AD. Some towers eventually disappeared beneath later buildings. In Barumini, restoration work on the 16th century Casa Zapata Palace revealed an entire Nuragic complex beneath its floors. Archaeologists have uncovered thousands of objects, restored the stone giants, and traced ancient Sardinia's trading connections across the Mediterranean. Yet we still do not know what the islanders called themselves, what language they spoke, or why they began building their towers. Most nuraghe remain unexcavated. New discoveries May he yet tell us much more about the people who built them over 3,000 years ago. If you made it to the end of this video, we really appreciate it if you liked and subscribed. Follow along on our journey through ancient civilizations and history. If you'd like to support the channel, join our Patreon or become a YouTube channel member. You get early access to new episodes, behind-the-scenes looks, and more. You can also leave a super thanks below to give us a little extra boost. If you want to listen to history on the go, check out our all-new podcast Parabellum History. You can find it on all major podcast platforms. 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