Gonnosfanadiga, Tomb of the Giants of San Cosimo

The tomb is located in a wonderful natural amphitheater, in the valley crossed by the Terra Maiustus river, on the S side of the mountain of the same name that culminates with Punta Su Rettori at an altitude of 952 m and in front of the summit of the Iglesiente, the Massif of Mount Linas that rises to 1237 m above sea level. The tomb of Saint Cosimo, also called “Sa Grutta de Santu Giuanni”, presents the classic planimetric scheme of
the tombs of giants. The tomb (22.10 m), arranged along the NS axis with an S entrance, is delimited on the outside by rows of granite blocks of different sizes. The façade is still partially buried and encumbered with stone. The sides, the apse and the wings of the exedra are rewrapped by a crepidine forming a low step that, in addition to providing greater stability to the building, prevents rainwater from penetrating inside the room. The wings of the exedra are built with horizontal rows of blocks (rope m 17.7 — externally m 24.10 — and arrow m 5.60). The entrance is located in the center of the exedra. In the entrance, on the entrance, there are two doors separated by the diaphragm formed by a granite lintel inserted on the side jambs 0.45 m from the floor; the door above, with a trunk-ogival section, had originally been closed, in turn, by a roof lintel. The two hatches and the middle and upper lintels - whose presence has been hypothesized - imitate respectively the hollow areas and the bands detected on the hunched stele of the tombs of giants. These elements lead us to believe that the cented stele was obtained here through the superposition of different elements crowned by a barrel-worked or lunated ashlar equipped, perhaps, with three cavities for the insertion of betyls. Immediately after the entrance, there is a small corridor cordoned inside (the width goes from m 0.62 at the entrance to m 0.85 towards the room) along m 1.70. The burial chamber, rectangular in plan (16.50 x 1.58/0.85 x 1.90 m high), has a trunk-ovial section. The floor plan, consisting of a natural granite rock counter, had been covered with a layer of medium and small stones leveled in the connections by river pebbles.
The excavations have returned materials dating back to the Middle Bronze Age, in particular to a time between the end of the 15th and 14th centuries BC, characterized by the production of inner brim vases decorated with ribs.

History of excavations
The first excavations were carried out in 1981 by Giovanni Ugas.

Bibliography
G. Ugas, “The first megalithic tomb of San Cosimo-Gonnosfanadiga (Cagliari): a medium bronze monument (with the oldest Mycenaean attestation in Sardinia)”, in Sardinian Archaeology, 1, 1981, pp. 7-20;
G. Ugas, “Gonnosfanadiga (Cagliari) San Cosimo”, in The Sardis: Sardinia from the Paleolithic to the Roman Age, edited by E. Anati, Milan, Jaca Book, 1984, pp. 99-101.

How to get there
From Gonnosfanadiga you proceed to Guspini on SP 126. Take the first fork on the left, then turn right towards Arbus, continue for 2.5 km and take a dirt road to the sand quarries. After 300 m at the junction, turn to D. then continue for more than 200 m.