Scano of Montiferro, Tomb of Giants Pedras Doladas

The burial is located on the top of a hill, a few hundred meters from the Porcos and Altoriu nuraghi, in Montiferru, a region of central-eastern Sardinia.
The tomb is built in isodomed work facing rows. The stocky and symmetrical grave body, apsidated, tapers slightly to a large semicircular exedra bordered by seats, exposed to SSE. Of the monument, in local basalt, the base row of the central body and the burial compartment, part of the base slabs of the façade and the seat counter and most of the extradossal roof with monolithic arches, are preserved. Numerous ashlars have been reused as a building material for the bottom fence walls.
The central body, which includes the burial compartment, is 8.40 m long; the width goes from 5.60 m at the junction with the wings of the exedra to 4.20 m in the terminal part. The wall thickness, with a double wall, is 1.92 m in the side walls and 2.90 m in the center of the apse. The outer profile, clearly identifiable in the central body, consists - along the sides - of well-welded sheets. The wings of the exedra are interrupted, on the right side, by the modern fence wall. Of the left arm, there are three plates for a total of m 3 and two in the opposite wing for m 2.70. At the base there are traces of a seat counter with two residual stones matching the left wing (m 0.80 x 0.40 x 0.38 in height; m 0.84 x 0.36 x 0.40 in height) and a right (m 0.80 x 0.36 x 0.35 in height). The entrance door, in line with the room, with a quadrangular light, trumped inwards (0.46/0.40 x 66.5 in the façade), consists of two aligned pairs of stones, one on each side, which show in the upper part a line delimited earlier by an edge on which the lintel rested. In recent times, a trapezoidal-shaped plate belonging to the outer wall of the monument has been placed on the door.
The burial compartment, with a slightly trapezoidal plan with a larger base towards the entrance (m 0.80/0.85 x 5.40), is laterally delimited by six orthostats on each side (m 0.75) and by a remaining slab in the back wall (m 0.55). Even in these finely worked ashlars, there is - on the upper face - a support saw for the upper slabs.
Of the extradossal roof of the monument, there are five hollow internal ashlars, from 0.74 to 1.62 m long, with a round arch slightly raised in the outer profile and with a lowered arch in the intradossus. The monument was marked by rather stocky conical betyls, two of which were inserted into the modern fence wall. A third small conical betyl with a flat elliptical base and a flat convex section lies between the ashlars scattered in the apsidal area.
The burial dates back to Middle Bronze-Recent Bronze.

History of studies
The tomb has been known since the mid-fifties of the last century.

Bibliography
G. Lilliu, “New Well Temples of Nuragic Sardinia”, in Studi Sardi, XIV-XV, I, 1958;
G. Lilliu, The Sardinian Civilization from the Paleolithic to the Nuraghi Age, Turin, Nuova ERI, 1988;
C. Bittichesu, “Tomb of Giants by Pedras Doladas (Scano di Montiferro, Oristano)”, in Studies in honor of Ercole Contu, edited by P. Melis, Sassari, EDES, 2003.

How to get there
You can reach it by taking the SP 78 for km 2, which connects Scano Montiferro with Monte Sant'Antonio di Macomer to a grit quarry. From here, turning to E, you walk a dirt road for 800 meters to an open space. We then proceed on foot along the path that, after crossing the Riu Semus, leads to the hill of Pedras Doladas where there is the chapel of “All Saints”, built in 1966, 7 meters to the S of the tomb.