PREHISTORIC ROCK-CUT TOMBS IN THEIR LANDSCAPE SETTING: RECENT FIELDWORK IN SARDINIA (ITALY)
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-02-15

The island of Sardinia presents one of the largest concentrations of prehistoric rock-cut tombs in the Central Mediterranean, with more than 3,500 monuments that were built and used between the Middle Neolithic to the Copper Age, some of them reused during the Middle Bronze Age. Locally known as ‘domus de janas’ (houses of the fairies), these tombs are known for their complex architecture combining multiple chambers, and their sculpted and painted decoration that referred to the interior of domestic structures (roof beams, doorways, pillars, bucrania, hearths). Since the 1950s important research has been devoted to rock-cut tombs in Sardinia, focussing on survey, typo-chronological classifications, and the excavation of their content. However, the landscape context of the tombs, and in particular their spatial relationship with contemporary settlements, has been overlooked. This paper will present recent fieldwork research focussing on a group of rock-cut tomb cemeteries in Ossi (NW Sardinia), combining systematic fieldwalking with multi-scale 3D recording. Evidence of prehistoric settlements has been recovered and mapped out in order to explore their topographical relationships with the cemeteries, and how these relate to broader social questions of the status of the dead and their interactions with the living.


Author(s): Robin, Guillaume (University of Edinburgh)