Oniferi, Necropolis of Sas Concas

The site is located on the walls of an outcrop of red trachyte, near some quarry fronts.
The hypogeic complex consists of 20 burials, some of which have been destroyed by quarry work.
It is perhaps the largest necropolis in Barbagia, a region where underground burials - especially single-celled or simply planted - generally appear isolated or grouped into small complexes.
The tombs of Sas Concas are differentiated by their planimetric layout, generally articulated, and by the presence of architectural and symbolic elements.
Two burials are of particular interest: the Tomb of the Hemicycle and the New West Tomb, which reproduce numerous petroglyphs and cups engraved on the walls.
The Tomb of the Hemicycle is formed by an antecell that introduces, through a square door, into a large semicircular chamber (m 3.25 x 3.40 x 2.25/1.30) with a ceiling sloping to the outside. From this you can access five other secondary cells.
The room reproduces various architectural details: a flat relief band - made on all the walls, just below the ceiling line - a pilaster depicted at the bottom corner of the second floor and a false lintel in flat relief made on the door dug in the center of the back wall.
The symbolic depictions are distributed in two groups: on the sec. sector of the back wall, just below the ceiling line, eleven inverted anthropomorphic petroglyphs of the anchoriform or “candlestick” type are engraved. The figures continue on the side wall s., without a definite order or pattern.
On the opposite wall - the one with the entrance door to the room - in d., there is a single inverted human figure, in a rigidly geometric pattern, which bears the representation of a head, arms and legs.
Numerous cups are made on the walls but also on the ceiling.
Similar depictions are documented in Tomb X and in the New West Tomb.
This last burial has a planimetric scheme consisting of a long corridor that leads into the antecell with two niches facing the side walls. A third room is arranged on the same axis as the previous ones and has entrances to as many rooms on the side walls, according to a “T” planimetric module.
The petroglyphs affect the wall overlooking the entrance to the chamber.
A similar plan pattern is documented in Tomb XVIII, which has, again in the antechamber, three niches and several cups.

History of excavations
In the sixties of the last century, the necropolis was the subject of a first archaeological investigation; in 1972, an excavation campaign led by Vincenzo Santoni followed.

Bibliography
E. Contu, “New schematic petroglyphs of Sardinia”, in Bulletin of Italian Palethnology, XVI, 74, 1965, pp. 69-122;
V. Santoni, “Preliminary note on the type of artificial funerary caves in Sardinia”, in Sardinian Historical Archive, XXX, 1976, pp. 3-49;
Archaeology and Territory, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1990, pp. 135-136; V. Santoni, “The Hypogeic Necropolis of Sas Concas (Oniferi, Nuoro)”, in the 13th International Congress of Sciences prehistoric and
protostoriche, Forlì, A.B.A.C.O., 1996, pp. 114-121;
V. Santoni, “The Necropolis of Sas Concas, Oniferi (Nuoro)”, in Hypogeism in the Mediterranean: Origins, Development, Cultural Frameworks. Proceedings of the international congress, Muros, Stampacolor, 2000, pp. 939-95

How to get there
Take the junction for Oniferi (SS 128) on the SS 131 from Abbasanta to Siniscola, and continue in the direction of the town. The Sas Concas necropolis is located just after the junction, on the right, a few tens of meters from the road.