page_title: Giants of Mont'e Prama
section_title: Ideological aspects of the monumental complex
hierarchical_section_title: Giants of Mont'e Prama / Ideological aspects of the monumental complex
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Scultura, Gigante Monte Prama,modello nuraghe Sardegna, Italia civiltà nuragica, preistoria, archeologia, età del bronzo English: Sculpture, Giants of Monte Prama, nuraghe models Sardinia, Italy, Nuragic civilization,archaeology, bronze age, sea peoples,prehistory
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: In general, scholars see in the Mont'e Prama complex a self-celebration site for a Nuragic aristocratic elite and its idealized, heroic warriors. Its strategic location within the Gulf of Oristano would thus aim to transmit to foreign visitors, especially the Phoenicians settled in Sardinia, a message of dominion and power over the island.
  Nuraghe models found together with the statues can be seen both as sacred symbols and as a claim for Nuragic identity:
  as symbols of identity, the various nuraghe models sculpted around the 10th century BC, would be a downright totem of the Nuragic world, besides being a symbol of power like the statues. Nuraghe models are in fact present in big meeting or "reunion huts" of several nuraghes, among which su Nuraxi at Barumini;
  as sacred symbols, nuraghe models could have been seen as guardians for the dead of a necropolis and/or as ritual devices, given their presence as altars in all the great Nuragic sanctuaries. This sacred/political ambivalence, the depiction of nuraghes in everyday objects such as buttons, smoothing tools and others, attest through the so-called models, a real cult of the Nuraghe monument.
  Despite a general consensus about values and ideologies underlying the monumental complex of Mont'e Prama, political implications and artistic influences are still hotly debated. As for political significance, some scholars tend to see in the small number of warriors, with respect to archers, a sign of military and political decay of the Nuragic society, caused by the establishment of Phoenician centers in Sardinia. This would be mirrored by the import and adoption of Levantine ideological models and by assignment of the statues to the orientalizing period spreading throughout the Mediterranean area during the 8th century BC.
  Recent researches (2010) have nevertheless demonstrated that the old idea of a Nuragic civilization collapsing upon the arrival of Phoenicians and their colonization of Sardinia, is completely outdated. Phoenicians started to arrive in Sardinia around the 9th century BC, in small number, and remained scattered along the coastline. This period was the heyday of Nuragic society and Phoenicians started to cooperate with the Nuragics that, in turn, continued to administer harbours and economic resources.
  According to archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu, the statues were not erected during a period of political decay, but during a great cultural revolution affecting aristocracy, economy and politics. The sculptures would thus reflect an independent and sovereign condition of Nuragic people.
  Furthermore, the geometric "Abini-Teti style", rules out a possible placement of the statues within the orientalizing culture and period, only appearing in bronze artifacts of the 7th century BC. It is thus correct to speak of a Proto-Sardinian, oriental artistic trend. According to Giovanni Lilliu the statues belong to an indigenous artistic and political climax, with an almost urban character.
  All these discrepancies among scholars are largely related to the chronological problem.
caption: Sandstone Nuraghe model from Mont'e Prama
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