Olbia, Tomb of Giants On Monte de S'Ape

The tomb is located on a plateau, at the foot of the hill where Pedresa Castle (or Pedres) is located, a few kilometers from the Gulf of Olbia, in Gallura, a region of northeastern Sardinia.
The burial, built of granite, is the product of the renovation of an older gallery burial (or 'allée couverte'), according to a custom documented in other similar monuments in Gallura.
It consists of an apsidated tomb, which contains a burial chamber, preceded by the hemicycle of the exedra.
The grave body, facing SE, is one of the longest discovered on the island to date (length 28.30 m; width 6.00 m; height 1.10 m). It has an external profile made of freshly drawn boulders arranged in regular rows.
Two parallel wall structures develop between the wall and the walls of the corridor.
The burial chamber (length 13.30 m; width 0.80 m; height 1.50 m), accessible through a short corridor, has walls built with orthostatic slabs - what remains of the oldest burial - on which are placed medium-sized blocks arranged in regular rows.
The floor was originally paved; ten slabs of the flat roof are preserved today.
The exedra (cord m 21.50) is delimited by orthostats at the base of which there is a bench-seat preserved mainly in the upper wing of the hemicycle.
In the center stood the curved stone of which unfortunately only a part of the base remains, with the remains of the hatch, no longer in place.
The tomb has different construction and chronological phases: in ancient Bronze (1800-1600 BC) the gallery burial was built; in the Middle Bronze (1600-1300 BC) the burial was incorporated into a new structure, the real tomb of giants, which was also used in the late Bronze Age (1300-900 BC).

History of excavations
The tomb was excavated in 1968 by Editta Castaldi.

Bibliography
A. Taramelli, “Sheets 181-182: Tempio Pausania, Terranova Pausania” in Archaeological Edition of the Map of Italy 100,000, 17, Florence, Military Geographic Institute, 1939, p. 55;
D. Panedda, The countryside of Olbia in the prehistoric, Punic and Roman periods, series “Series of Historical Studies”, Rome, L'erma, 1954, pp. 107-109, fig. 18;
E. Castaldi, “New Observations on the Tombs of Giants”, in Bullettino di Palethnology Italiana XIX, Italy, 77, 1968, pp. 7-25, 40-61, 65-77, 79-89, figs. 1-10, 21-29;
A. Sanciu, “Tomb of the Giants of Su Monte de S'Ape”, in Olbia and its territory. History and Archaeology, Ozieri, Il Torchietto, 1991, pp. 131-132, fig. 38; M.A. Amicano-R.
D'Oriano-A. Sanciu, From Olbia to Terra Nova: historical, archaeological and monumental itineraries, Olbia, Coop. Iolao, 2004, pp. 35-36.

How to get there
From Olbia, take the provincial road SP 24 to Loiri, when you reach km 3.3 after the bridge over the Rio Padrongianus, turn right. After about two kilometers (the last 900 m of dirt road), you reach the parking square below the Castle of Pedres, from where you follow the short pedestrian path that leads to the archaeological site. ASPO urban public transport bus (www.aspo.it) line 12 to the Castello di Pedres stop and continue on foot for about 1.8 km.