The oldest buildings

The term “building” generically refers to masonry constructions built to perform various functions: housing, temple, funeral. Limiting our discussion here only to buildings intended for housing and Templar purposes, it is evident that it is not possible to classify as “buildings” spaces or structures such as caves, rock shelters and wooden huts and branches, which in the oldest phases of the pre-Nuragic period must have been usual.

It is from the 'domus de janas', the tombs carved into the rock that can be framed chronologically in the recent Neolithic period and, more specifically, relating to the culture of 'Ozieri' or 'Saint Michael' that we receive the first indirect archaeological evidence of the construction of buildings in the proper sense.

The most complex tomb structures, as in the cases attested to Sant'Andrea Priu (Bonorva) and Santu Pedru (Alghero), very faithfully reproduce the shape of the settlement buildings, which had to have a masonry base and a rise made of wood and branches.

The possibility of detecting direct traces of the construction of real “buildings” is significantly intensified in archaeological sites chronologically framed in the Copper Age (or Eneolithic or Chalcolithic).

In this phase, different structural types are built: structurally more complex masonry huts, such as in Sa Corona di Villagreca, impressive megalithic walls, such as those of Monte Ossoni near Castelsardo and Monte Baranta near Olmedo, and the even grander altar of Monte d'Accoddi (Sassari).

Update

9/9/2023 - 23:51