The property is in the town of Cuccureddà, located in an elevated and suggestive position, on the SE side of Mount Santa Vittoria, in the Barbagia di Seulo, region of central-southern Sardinia.
Domu de Orgia di Esterzili is the largest nuragic 'megaron' temple known so far.
The building is enclosed in an elliptical enclosure (48.50 x 28 m; wall thickness of 1.50 m) reduced to only the base row, with an entrance on the W.
The temple is built with sketched shale blocks arranged in regular horizontal rows.
It has an elongated rectangular shape (m 22.50 x 7.79; wall thickness m 1.32; residual height m 2.40 on 9 rows) and is oriented N-NO/S-SE, with entrance to S-SE.
The monument is preceded by an “in antis” vestibule (m 5.15 x 5), consisting of the extension of the long side walls of the main body and equipped with seat counters along both walls.
From the vestibule, through two impressive entrances equipped with lintels, you can access two rectangular rooms arranged on the same axis.
The first room, rectangular in plan (m 8 x 4.5), is equipped with a large bench-seat made of shale slabs. Along its development, there is an orthostatic plate that delimited a sort of small closet.
On the back wall, the entrance to the second cell (m 3.5 x 4.5), also equipped with a seat counter, opens.
Both rooms preserve traces of the pavement, with the fingerprints of the roofing slabs.
The sanctuary was built in recent Bronze, at the end of the 13th century BC and overlapped a pre-existing Nuragic village that occupied the vast saddle of Mount Cuccureddà. Some huts from the oldest town were incorporated into the wall structures of the enclosure. The excavation of these environments has returned pestles, millstones, smoothing pits, sickle teeth, obsidian shards, bowls and pots chronologically attributable to recent and final Bronze.
The archaeological investigation of the surface layers of the entrance area of the enclosure has allowed the recovery of a treasure of coins from the Roman age, which attests to the continuity of the use of the site up to historical times.
The recent excavation of the vestibule has led to the discovery, on the d. side of the seat counter, of an extraordinary composition of votive bronzes, with a character dressed in a stole who supports a deer to offer to the divinity and who, at the same time, makes the gesture of offering - with his right hand - a plate on which hunting tools are placed (slingballs, a rope, a stalk): a dog, equipped with a collar, still holds its prey.
The same hunter still offers a mouflon, a bull, a dove placed in the center of large horns and a bird that was originally stuck in a sword through a slit through a slit through it. The scene also consists of two cloaked priestesses, represented in the act of prayer, who hold a sort of torch with flames, and of two male figurines with a stole on their shoulders, armed with daggers, who hold a pot to a collar supported by a rope. Again, an archer with a studded military robe, which refers to the Eastern tradition, but with a headdress surmounted by 4 horns converging upwards, from the Nuragic tradition. The archer is similar to those found in the sanctuary of Santa Anastasia di Sardara.
Inside the first room of Domu de Orgia, another bronze was placed representing a bidding hunter who carries a mouflon on his back. In the same room, at the seat counter, fragments of pots with plastic decorations, bowls, vases for the water needed during ritual ablutions and small miniature containers were found.
The ceramic material returned from the excavation is attributable to the final Bronze.
History of excavations
The monument is being excavated, curated by Maria Ausilia Fadda.
Bibliography by
E. Contu, “The rectangular megalithic building of Domu de Orgìa in Cuccureddà, Esterzili (NU)”, in Studi Sardi, VIII, 1948, pp. 313-317; M.A. Fadda, “The Megaron Temples of Sardinia.
A special example in the territory of Esterzili”, in The Legacy of Sarcidano and Barbagia di Seulo: a wealth of knowledge and life, edited by M. Sanges, B & P, Cagliari, 2001, pp. 156-158;
M.A. Fadda, “New Acquisitions of Megalitism in the Territory of the Province of Nuoro. The temple at Megaron Domu de Orgia”, in Aspects of Prehistoric Megalitism, collective operator Sa Corona Arrubia in collaboration with Gal Comarca de Guadix, curated by G. Serrali-D. Vacca, Dolianova, Graphics of the Parteolla, 2001, pp. 56-58.
How to get there
You pass the town of Esterzili and continue for about 1 km, then turn south on a road that goes up to Monte Santa Vittoria. At the top, turn right and follow the signs for the summit, after reaching which the branch for the archaeological complex of Monte Santa Vittoria will be found on the right. Continuing on the main road for another 2 km, you arrive at the temple, on the south side of the road.
Content type:
Archaeological monument
Archaeology
Usability: unmanaged site
Province: South Sardinia
Common: Esterzili
Macro Territorial Area: South Sardinia
POSTAL CODE: 08030
Address: località Cuccureddì
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Where is it
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Author : Zucca, Raimondo
Author : Zucca, Raimondo
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