page_title: Giants of Mont'e Prama
section_title: Possible manufacturing techniques
hierarchical_section_title: Giants of Mont'e Prama / Possible manufacturing techniques
caption_attribution_description: English: Head of warrior with horned helmet, from Bulzi (Sardinia) . Sanna Museum, Sassari.
context_page_description: The Giants of Mont'e Prama are ancient stone sculptures created by the Nuragic civilization of Sardinia, Italy. Fragmented into numerous pieces, they were found by accident in March 1974, in farmland near Mont'e Prama, in the comune of Cabras, province of Oristano, in central-western Sardinia. The statues are carved in local sandstone and their height varies between 2 and 2.5 meters.
  After four excavation campaigns carried out between 1975 and 1979, the roughly five thousand pieces recovered – including fifteen heads and twenty two torsos – were stored for thirty years in the repositories of the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari, while a few of the most important pieces were exhibited in the museum itself. Along with the statues, other sculptures recovered at the site include large models of nuraghe buildings and several baetylus sacred stones of the "oragiana" type, used by Nuragic Sardinians in the making of "giants' graves".
context_section_description: According to art historian Peter Rockwell, several metal tools have been used, probably made of bronze. In particular these tools can be noted:
  a stone-cutter's chisel, that is a chisel with blades of diverse sizes;
  an implement similar to a hand scraper, employed like or together with abrasives;
  a dry-point to carve sharp lines in detail;
  an instrument to produce holes, similar to a drill, whose usage by Nuragic people has been proven by archaeological finds;
  a tool similar to compass to engrave circular lines, such as those of the round eyes. About that tool Peter Rockwell wrote that: 
  ...each eye is made of two concentric circles that seem to be perfect circles. One could imagine that this was done with a compass, but there is no sign of the compass in the center of the eye. We are faced with statues that although it seems a bit primitive in the project, have been carved with a skill that is equal to that of much more advanced periods.
  — Peter Rockwell, Il mistero dei Giganti.
   It is sure that Nuragic civilisation knew the compass because one iron compass was found at "Nuraghe Funtana", near Ittireddu.
  a tooth chisel, that is a stone-cutter's chisel having a toothed and sharp edge, particularly suitable for marble sculpture, leaving the most interesting traces on the Giants. This tool was hit keeping it slanted on the surface, in order to create a first polishing with grooves of different tightness. According to scholars, this technique was introduced in Greece not before the 6th century BC.
caption: Head of warrior with horned helmet, from Bulzi. Sanna Museum, Sassari.
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