Subjects
Subjects
The temple is located in Strumpu Bagoi, near Terreseu, in Sulcis, on an ancient communication route between the Narcao valley and that of the Cixerri river.
The sanctuary was part of a modest settlement built in the Nuragic age and survived until Roman times, whose remains are visible on the road in the direction of Terreseu.
The excavation returned a modest temple complex, consisting of two sectors.
The first sector, in S shape, consists of a spring water well and a newsstand of about 1 square meters, with an entrance to S/E and a N/O niche.
The second sector, in N, consists of six altars aligned along the N/E-S/O axis in front of the main chapel and a rectangular base of dubious interpretation, perhaps a small stage for sacred performances.
The main gate (m 6 x 3), oriented along the E/O axis, is built on a base of 0.80 m. It opens to S/E and has a small vestibule inside in front of a low platform; here remains the imprint of a square base where the simulacrum of the deity or a sacred stone was probably placed.
Adjacent to the O corner of the chapel and oriented in the same way, it is an independent square compartment with external S/E entrance (m 2 x 3). It contained a small, crude altar for bloody sacrifices, found covered and surrounded by ashes with numerous pig teeth.
The altar concealed a sacred deposit consisting of a box of stone plates with two bleached jars inside, a four-beaked Roman lamp, three “kernophoroi”; everything was placed in front of a fictile statuette of Demeter standing with open arms.
This complex of objects (on display at the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari), thanks to the associated discovery of an Augustean coin, can be dated to a few years after 15 BC. The offer occurred on the occasion of a reconsecration of the temple of Demeter, while another statuette of the same deity, found in the layers below, suggests dating the first consecration of the sanctuary to the third century BC. This late Punic and Roman republican phase (III century BC) belong the building structures currently visible.
On the other hand, in addition to the altar and the sacred deposit in the room adjacent to the main chapel, were probably also the roofs witnessed by the embryans found scattered in the area.
The discovery of coins by Faustina Minore (125-175 AD) documents the survival of the sanctuary even in the second century AD. Many fictile votive statues date back to the Roman imperial period: statues of Demetra, “kernophoroi”, doves, floral corollas, lamps. The presence of the dove, typical of the cults of Ashtart and Tanit, attests to the syncretism between the Eleusinian cult and the Semitic religious world.
Whether or not the temple had a previous nuragic phase linked to the cult of a female spring water deity is still under discussion. In favor of this theory is the consecration of the area in the Punic and Roman ages to the goddess Demetra, a divinity similar in cultural characteristics to the mother goddess of Proto-Sardinian origin, and extensively documented in the Punic environment of Sardinia between the third and second centuries BC.
History of excavations
It was discovered by chance in 1971, during agricultural work, and completely unearthed in three excavation campaigns by 1973.
Bibliography
F. Barreca, “Narcao-Terresu, Strumpu Bagoi village”, in I Sardi. Sardinia from the Paleolithic to the Roman Age, edited by E. Anati, Milan, Jaca Book, 1984, pp. 112-113; S. Moscati - M.L. Uberti, “Terrecotte da Narcao”, in S. Moscati, Techne. Studies on Phoenician craftsmanship, “Studia Punica” series, 6, Rome, 1990.
How to get
from Cagliari, take the SS 130 to the Siliqua junction, then the SS 293 to the Acquacadda junction and finally the road that from this fork, turning to the right, leads to Narcao. From the village, take the road in the direction of Terreseu. At km 6.1, you cross a country road that, after a hundred meters, leads in front of the fence of the monumental area.
Content type:
Archaeological monument
Archaeology
Usability: unmanaged site
Province: Sud Sardegna
Common: Narcao
Macro Territorial Area: South Sardinia
POSTAL CODE: 09010
Address: SP 85 - località Terraseo
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Author : Concas, Remo
Author : Concas, Remo
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