The island of Sardinia lies due north of Tunisia not far off the coast. It is the second largest island in the Mediterranean and is an autonomous region of Italy.
Basically, it is another idyllic island in the Mediterranean that happens to be full of ancient, enigmatic artifacts.
Sounds like the perfect vacation spot to me.
As a result of my investigations on the Azores and Canary Islands, then Morocco, Portugal, mainland Spain and one of the Baelaric Islands, I know what to look for here on Sardinia.
Over the years I have identified the unique signature of the de survivors:
1. Megalithic construction, dolmen, standing stones
2. Artificial caves. hypogea
3. Sophisticated petroglyphs
4. Pyramids
5. Masterful cave paintings
6. Entrances in the shape of a trapezoid
We have a checklist at this point in our quest. What will we be able to check off here on this lovely slice of Mediterranean paradise?
In fact Sardinia is covered with ancient tower-like, stone structures called Naurghe. We find a solitary example below on the left and a fort complex on the right. They are about 3-3500 years old and built by a culture that is not well understood. They seem more like forts than dwellings.
We find a tower-fort complex that has a slightl medeval European look but it is more than 4K years old.
There are an estimated 7,000 Nuraghe dotting the landscape. The buildings were well-designed, well-built, stone structures that radiate power. Just because they are constructed of stone does not mean they are primitive, really there’s nothing at all primitive about them.
There are, in fact, an abundance of prehistoric megalithic sites on Sardinia. Rather than a dearth, we find an embarrassment of riches:
Giant tombs and statues of giants that are 5000 years old. Megaliths, stone circles, dolmen, ancient wells that were constructed with precise astronomical alignments, the list goes on….
There are very many dolmens at a number of sites all across the island. They have the identical structure of dolmen found all over Europe and the world, in fact.
Historians can go implying to the public that they have the megalithic cultures all worked out, fine. Focus on the purpose, yes they are tombs. So what? Now, for the technical data, how were they built?
No one has it all worked out. Historians have never explained in which culture they originated, nor how the architectural form became a global phenomenon. It is all well and good to say they were built to be tombs as if that explains everything, it doesn’t. Had to squeeze that dig in, it be the one that motivates them.
Below are example of a Dolmen structure on the island; the Dolmen sa Coveccada:
But, if I may ask, why would anyone put a portal in a tomb? Also the standing stones we keep running into were not tombs, what was their purpose? Never mind, because I guess if you cannot explain how they were built, well…
The only logical explanation that makes any sense is that this simple form emanated from one culture and spread across Europe. It did so at a specific point in time in history, then stopped megalithic construction stopped for unknown reasons.
Must bring up a point here about the way ancient, prehistoric cultures are defined and classified. I think the logical way to approach the megalithic cultures is to define them by these constructions first and foremost.
I personally see no reason to use variations in pottery styles or other rather secondary and tertiary items. The use of megaliths, regardless of variations in the structures built is what defines these cultures.
That and the artifacts we have on our list. Historians and archaeologists seem to overlook some of the identifiers we are noting. Then then they disconnect and segment the megalithic cultures by using what appear to be rather trivia, pedanticl distinctions.
What is more important that various cultures use megaliths or that some of their small artifacts differ in tiny ways?
My logical thought processes reason that if culture y built dolmen, carved caves, and used a specific geometric symbol and so did cultures x, and z they were closely related. The fact they may have made different styles of pottery or other items is trivial by comparison.
The megalithic era is distinguished by constructions made of large stones. They should be the benchmark. We have found other key artifacts associated with them. These ought to be what defines and distinguish the era. Well, they shall be for us at any rate.
If they built with megaliths, made dolmen, standing stones and stone circles and excavated hypogea with trapezoidal entrances, they were related. It does not matter if they made the pyramidal type structures on Menorca or the Nuraghe here on Sardina .
Those are simple variations on a theme.
Wherever the survivors went they built dolmen, standing stones and stone circles. You will find them in the identical format in North Africa, Ireland, Russia, Israel, and Japan even on the Pacific islands.
Those issues aside for the time being, Sardinia happens to have some ancient structures that show a very high degree of sophisticated knowledge. Beyond that generality, serious, deep knowledge of astronomy, architecture, engineering and more
We cannot get inside the minds of the ancients. Nor did they leave written records explaining how and why they built what they did. We also cannot know what their cosmology or spiritual views were.
However, we can examine the artifacts they left behind, which in fact records a huge amount of factual data about them. The ‘sacred’ wells on Sardinia are a fabulous example of what I am trying to explain, rather clumsily, I admit.
In 1857, Giovanni Spano, the recognized leader of Sardinian Archaeology, took a particular interest in the Well Temple of Santa Cristina, the following is his description:
“The work is cyclopean; it has been built with big volcanic black stones, from a local cave, and without cement in the same manner as Nuragic constructions. The access is through an underground passage, with a perpendicular vaulted roof made with overlapping stones that create overlaying layer…”
I think by this point we are realizing that the trapezoid is actually a very key component of the Builder signature. There are doorways that have trapezoid shapes and other instances of the motif’s importance found on Sardinia. Now to get to the profound details of the sacred well.
It was built with such mathematical, astronomical and engineering knowledge and precision, the following happens twice each year: during the equinoxes the sun’s rays descend the staircase at the entrance to the well and illuminate the sheet of water below.
I would like an astronomer, mathematician and engineer to give the details on how this phenomenon was produced. Let’s start to take these ancient people, our ancestors, a bit more seriously.
However, we are not yet done with the ‘Well Temple of Santa Maria’. There is an even more exquisite phenomenon that occurs only once every 18.6 years. That is how often the moon reaches its maximum declination, and is entirely reflected in the water.
These are not inconsequential things, Stone Age tribes very recently counting, using their fingers, could not do such work.
Pyramid of Monte d’ Accoddi
Our next stop is to a remote site located between the coastal town of Porte Torres and the city of Sassari. Monte d’Accoddi is a lonely largely deserted ancient site that holds a special appeal to us.
Here we find the only pyramid, above insert, known on Sardinia.
It very much resembles those on the Azores and the Canaries. A dolmen and the remains of stone huts, menhir, and other relics are also present on the site. There are many, many more prehistoric artifacts found on Sardinia. It is a megalithic bucket list site, to be sure.
In fact, the islands of the Mediterranean should be called the Isles of Ancient Mysteries for the enigmas of Malta, Sicily, and Crete lie beyond.
However, we have checked off everything on our list…
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