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Excavation

  • Biru 'e Concas
  • Coa sa Mandara
  •  
  • Italy
  • Sardinia
  • Province of Nuoro
  • Sorgono

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Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • One of the most important Sardinian Neo-enolithic sites stands on the small hill of Biru ‘e Concas, in the locality of Coa sa Mandara, at Sorgono (Nu). This extraordinary concentration of aniconic menhirs, proto-anthropomorphic and statue-menhirs constitutes part of a vast settlement on which excavations took place in 1994. It is not possible to calculate the exact number of menhirs as some are buried and others piled up where they have been removed from the terrain by local farmers, however there are over 120 examples. The site has been compromised by agricultural activity and this has created problems in the understanding of the function of the megalithic complex. In 2011, a wall was found on a slight slope on the eastern side, which it is suggested delimited a sacred area or settlement.

    The first excavations on the site were undertaken in 1994 as part of a vast programme of exploration in the entire area, financed by the Comunità Montana 12 Barbagia Mandrolisai. In 2004, the local GAL funded a project for further excavations and the enhancement of the site. Both operations were coordinated by the Archaeological Superintendency of Sassari and Nuoro and directed by Dr. M.A. Fadda.

    The investigations undertaken during this campaign aimed to make a first census of the menhirs and dig a series of trenches in various parts of the middle-low zone of the hill and the valley floor. The pottery finds, characterised by incised parallel lines, notches or “small leaves”, date to the Copper Age, in particular the period of the Monte Claro culture (Late Eneolithic), the settlement’s most representative phase.

  • Maria Ausilia Fadda - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici per le province di Sassari e Nuoro 
  • Lidia Puddu 

Director

Team

  • Fernando Posi
  • Susana Massetti

Research Body

Funding Body

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