Spatial Nuraghes

The Bronze Age is a period of protohistory that spans more than 2,000 years from the fourth millennium B.C, and it is during its full development (about 1,800 BC) that you can trace the birth in Sardinia of the nuragic civilization, intertwined with doubts and legends, daughter of a culture already impressive as the pre-Nuragic-megalithic; the nuragic civilization was the builder of monumental stone buildings with a truncated cone shape, consisting of the so-called "shards". They are mounted dry, that still blossom proud of the wild landscape and strongly characterize its glance ( to date there are more than 7.000 nuraghes, between those to corridor and those to tower, scattered on the whole island).

Historians, not entirely in agreement, have speculated that their construction was made for domestic, religious and, almost certainly, military uses, parallel to the Sardinian resistance against Carthaginian penetrations first and then Roman.

Giovanni Lillìu in his work "I nuraghi, torri preistoriche di Sardegna", referring to the etymology, reports: "This term, especially in the nineteenth century, was related to the Phoenician root of nur >, which means fire, and was explained as fire in the sense of dwelling or temple of fire, with reference to solar cults that would be practiced on the terrace of the nuragic towers".

Precisely on this point we would like to focus the essence of our article: if behind the nuragic civilization hides a shadow of mysticism and legend is also due to the intrinsic connection between nuraghes and astronomy.

1. photo of the collection of Giovanni Utzeri

As well as many other monuments scattered on the globe even those built by the nuragic civilization are oriented towards certain points of the sky (not only the nuraghi, but also the tombs of the giants have this peculiarity).This aspect has been corroborated by the researches of the scholars Mauro Zedda and Michael Hoskin, the latter professor of history of science at the University of Cambridge (from these researches a work has been produced in collaboration with the cultural association Firmamentum).

All the complex nuraghes have around them a wall facing that connects the secondary towers that surround the central keep; these walls have the characteristic of being concave.

Mauro Zedda’s researches reveal that all the complex nuraghes have the line tangent to the wall that, if prolonged, indicates the point of the sky in which the Sun rises or sets in one of the two solstices (that is, the days when the Sun reaches its point of maximum declination, about June 21, and its point of minimum declination, about December 21). An extraordinary example is that of the nuraghe Losa in Abbasanta (Oristano) in which the observer, in these periods of the year, will be able to catch the phases of rising and setting of the Sun if it is positioned behind one of the 3 secondary towers and observes in the direction in which the tangent is extended towards the wall facing of the other towers.

2. photo webgram.life

These fabulous buildings not only promote the observation of the solar motion, but also of the lunar one, especially in the days of the so-called lunistices; this is the case of The Nuraxi by Barumini, since 1997 classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site: extending at the same time south the tangent at the base of the towers east and south and the tangent at the base of the towers west and north we will get an intersection in the slice of horizon in which the Moon sets in the period of the greater southern lunistice, that is when it describes its lowest trajectory ever in our skies (this happens every 18.6 years to the completion of the rotation of the lunar orbital field, which oscillates by gravitational effects caused by the Earth).

If instead of considering the single building we widen the analysis to nuragic systems we would find that there are some, such as the one in the Brabaciera valley, near Isili (60km north of Cagliari), which allows breathtaking observations: Among the 33 nuraghes in the valley there are four, namely Is Paras, Longu, Maurus and Nueddas, which once again play with the rising and setting of the Sun and the Moon in the solstices and lunistices. Every year during the summer solstice it is possible to observe the Sun rising behind the Longus and setting behind Is Paras;From the Maurus it is possible to observe the Moon rising behind the Longu and setting behind Is Paras during the northern lower lunistice.

Also the stars: again from the studies of Mauro Zedda it can be seen that all the domed nuraghes have entrances oriented towards the points of the horizon where, in that period, the Sun rose during the winter solstice and the Moon during the major southern lunistice and, moreover, the constellations of the Southern Cross and the Centaur were raised, constellations very important from the religious point of view for many cultures of the Mediterranean basin (today no longer visible from the northern hemisphere due to the precession motion of the terrestrial axis).

3. photo of SpecialSardinia

These and many other studies are, no doubt, of strong impact and demonstrate the complexity and genius that lived within the minds of this people, no longer rude and primitive but, of course, developed and incredibly advanced also from the scientific point of view.In our opinion, why is not sufficient attention given to such a sophisticated historical and cultural context, which had nothing to envy to the most flourishing Mediterranean, Mesopotamian and Mesoamerican civilizations. What plays against the nuragic civilization is the almost total absence of written texts found by archaeologists;but is it conceivable that a people of such social, technological and architectural level underestimated or even ignored the importance of writing?Impossible;these people have suffered lacerations from numerous invaders over the centuries and it is understandable that many of the tangible testimonies have been deteriorated or destroyed.But in recent decades, analyses have been carried out on new finds that could give a new face to this civilization, analysis still ongoing and we will see if they will wipe away the dust that clouds the greatness of a legendary people that certainly deserves to be mentioned in history books.