Lunamatrona, Nuraghe Trobas

The monument stands on a modest relief in the hilly area of Marmilla, a region of central-southern Sardinia.
The nuraghe, a single-tower with an external diameter of about 13 meters, has a maximum height of 2.00 m. The external wall, consisting of marl blocks of different sizes, has - on the sides facing north-west and east - a beam of 1.20 m thick. It is accessed through a south-facing entrance.
The rear corridor, folded inwards (the width goes from 1.40 m at the entrance to 2.25 m at the bottom), is 4.00 m long. In the left wall of the corridor, 2.00 m from the entrance, the door to the stairwell opens (1.20-1.10 m wide).
The room, with a circular plan (6.10 x 5.80 m in diameter), which is preserved for a height of 1.50-2.00 m, was originally supposed to reach 10.77 meters. This is the measure obtained by comparing the size of the room of our monument to that of the Nuraghe Is Paras in Isili. In fact, the height-diameter index in the two nuraghi is the same.
On the sides of the room there are two niche compartments with an ellipse segment plan. The left niche measures 1.35/1.75 x 2.50 m deep, while the right one measures 1.80 x 1.65 m deep.
In the late middle bronze, the nuraghe - despite a previous restarting operation - collapsed: perhaps due to the type of rock used, the calcareous marl, easily disintegrable. The monument - freed from collapses both outside and inside - since the archaeological excavation of the room did not reveal any filling of stones that fell from the internal wall -, was renovated and reused as a hut.
A violent fire, documented by stratigraphic excavation, caused the monument to be permanently abandoned. The excavation has in fact returned a compact ash sediment and numerous clumps of clay with the imprint of the reeds and branches that made up the straminean roof.
In addition, about a thousand fragments of obsidian (blades, sickle “croissant” teeth, shards), twenty-eight millstones and basalt grinders, more than a hundred ceramic finds, a bronze dagger with rivets (0.11 m long) and a trapezoidal sheet of bronze or copper were also found.
The ceramic context points to the sub-Bonnanaro facies of medium bronze (globular pots with a collar and an enlarged hem, truncated conical bowls, pans and large pans). There are numerous biconic shapes with a flat inner brim, decorated with dotted triangles and checkerboard patterns composed of rectangles, similar to those found in the nearby giant tomb of Su Cuaddu 'e Nixias (Lunamatrona), in the protonuraghe Brunku Madugui (Gesturi) and in the funerary cave of Tanì (Carbonia).

History of excavations
The nuraghe was excavated in the years 1982-1983 by Cornelio Puxeddu.

Bibliography
G. Lilliu, The civilization of the Sardinians from the Paleolithic to the Age of the Nuraghi, Turin, Nuova ERI, 1988, pp. 277-278, 318-321, fig. 105.
G. Lilliu, La Civiltà Nuragica, Sassari, Carlo Delfino, 1982, p. 24;
Sa Corona Arrubia, Guide to the 20 Municipalities, 2004, pp.92-93.

How to get there ì
From the center of Lunamatrona, follow the signs for the Tomb of Giants Su Cuaddu 'e Nixias and for the Naturalistic Museum. After less than a kilometer, before arriving at the Museum, you arrive at an intersection, turn left for Villanovaforru and follow the carriageway, leaving on the left side of the road, the Tomb of Giants and, about 270 m SW from it, the Trobas Nuraghe.