Nughedu Santa Vittoria, Necropolis of Sas Arzolas de Goi

The necropolis is dug into the slope of a trachytic hill, on the outskirts of Nughedu Santa Vittoria, in Barigadu, a region of central Sardinia.
The complex today consists of 5 hypogeums, 4 clustered on the slope of the hill, the fifth located about m 20 in S/SE, on the front of a block of rock spared from quarrying. Among the tombs, Tomb I and Tomb II stand out.
Tomb I shows sculpted in the entrance wall - above the door that leads to the hypogeum - and on the central pillar of the main cell, two protomes complete with their attributes: horns (in curvilinear style), ears, head; the protomes are rendered in the first case in convex relief and in the second in flat relief. The horns are expanded, in the first representation, in width (alt. m 0.26; width m 0.54; h/la 0.4) and, in the second, in height (alt. m 0.26; width m 0.48; h/la 0.5). It is not excluded that these differences are the expression of different animal breeds. The portal surmounted by horns has a magical-ritual value: it was supposed to mark a purifying, initiatory and propitiatory passage.
The interest of Tomb II consists mainly of its decorations, executed with traditional red painting (presumably ochre), a symbol of blood and regeneration, and reproducing in the rock the structural parts of the “house of the living”.
The hypogeum, oriented to S/SE, has a longitudinal development. It consists of a main cell 'a' and a cell 'b', on whose wall O the compartment 'c' opens.
Cell “a”, subrectangular (m 1.53 x 1.14, h m 0.98/0.92), perhaps originally preceded by an anticell, has no entrance wall. Walls and ceiling are flat. The floor has a round cavity in the center (diam. m 0.23, depth m 0.25), perhaps the representation of a fireplace. On the back wall, slightly raised from the floor, the access door to cell “b” opens. The rectangular door (m 0.50 x 0.68, thickness m 0.12), is decorated with a recessed frame lowered compared to the wall by m 0.08. Traces of plaster painted red are preserved around it.
The quadrangular compartment “b” (m 1.09 x 0.89), has straight walls. The ceiling, sloping towards the outside, goes from m 0.74 at the bottom to m 0.66 at the entrance. The walls are decorated with architectural motifs painted in red: on the north wall there are three semipillars (h m 0.32/0.33, width m 0.11; m 0.31, 0.11; m 0.31; 0.03) that define as many colorless niches (average width m 0.21, average h m 0.35; m 0.32, 0.34; m 0.29, 0.09). On wall E there are only two semipillars (m 0.43/0.34 x 0.18; m 0.32/0.25 x 0.12) and two niches (m 0.46 x 0.34; m 0.18 x 0.27). On the entrance wall there is a “polissoir” motif engraved in recent times.
On the wall s., raised above the floor, the access door to the “c” compartment opens; the door is rectangular with the threshold engraved by a groove. The quadrangular “c” compartment (m 1.09 x 0.72; h m 0.52/0.58), has rounded corners: the ceiling is flat.
The necropolis can be dated between the final Neolithic (culture of Ozieri, 3200-2800 BC) and the Eneolithic.

History of the excavations
The necropolis was studied in particular by Giuseppa Tanda.

Bibliography
G. Tanda, The art of the domus de janas in the images of Ingeborg Mangold, Sassari, Chiarella, 1985, p. 26, 37, 114, fig. 4;
G. Tanda, “Tomb No. 2 of Sas Arzolas de Goi at Nughedu S. Vittoria (Oristano)”, in Sardinia Antiqua. Studies in honor of Piero Meloni on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, Cagliari, Edizioni della Torre, 1992, pp. 75-82, figg. 1-5;
Giuseppa Tanda, “Characteristics of the wall paintings present in the necropolis of Sos Furrighesos (Anela-Sassari)”, in Studies in Honor of Ercole Contu, Sassari, 2003, p. 61.

How to get there
Once you arrive at the town of Nughedu Santa Vittoria, head to the parish church of San Giacomo and continue along Via Regina Elena; after crossing a watering hole, you will notice, on the slope to the right of the road, the rock outcrops that house the Domus de Janas.