A story in fragments

Dense stone by Suelli. Photo by Valentino Cominotti, 2017, from Catalogo BBCC RAS

A history of early medieval art in Sardinia is possible only as a story of fragments, both pictorial and above all sculptural.
We refer both to muted elements and to intact elements, but now out of context and therefore interpretable only within the framework of a global reconstruction of the historical moment, to be specified between the end of the fourth and the first decades of the eleventh century.
These are mainly marble sculptures, belonging to the structure and architectural furniture of churches.
The fragments derive first of all from sarcophagi; they include capitals, bases, frames and other elements that constitute an integral part of the architecture; and they come, finally, from the breaking of lintels, pillars and pluteums of presbyterial enclosure, to be considered the necessary sculptural complement to the architectural structure.
Mostly datable on the basis of figuration or simply ornate motifs, they are sometimes associated with inscriptions, in particular the Greco-Byzantine ones, which keep mention of the first judges, among those from Cagliari whose historical memory has remained.
With a view to interdisciplinary research, aimed at filling with archaeology the well-known lack of sources on early medieval Sardinia, the pictorial and sculptural fragments participate in the general condition of “guide fossils”, attributable to other relics of the Greco-Byzantine cultural superstratum: “elements - as Giandomenico Serra wrote - traced in the language, in the names of place and of the person of Byzantine civilization and history in Sardinia: personal names of the members of the noble families of medieval Sardinia, personal Sardinian names, however, marked in sounds by Byzantine examples, Byzantine titles of ancient churches before the year 1000, names of Byzantine military stations, traces of the territorial distribution of Byzantine Sardinia, names of Byzantine places of origin, traces in the Sardinian language of Byzantine customs, beliefs and traditions”.

Update

27/5/2026 - 15:11