Il santuario nuragico di Monte S. Antonio Di Siligo (SS)

Nuragic sanctuaries represent the most consistent expression of ritual behaviour in Western Mediterranean during the whole European Protohistory. The research follows a general scheme which proceeds from punctual archaeological analyses and gradually reaches wider degrees of comparative considerations. The study starts with an exhaustive chronological revision of the whole evidence related to Nuragic ritual practices, thus including proper sanctuaries, hoards and isolated offerings. All the collected evidence is then employed in a functional analysis, which aims to the recognition of the individual ritual behaviour as it is determined by commonly shared norms, ensuing from the social environment. In the latter chapters the impact of nuragic sanctuaries in the socio-political reltionships among Nuragic communities is finally explored. The rise of vast monumental stone-built sanctuaries bears evidence of the effective capacity of nuragic communities - which are scattered among thousands of limited size settlements in a relatively small territory - of gathering and employing large amounts of manpower and skilled labour. Nuragic sanctuaries are the fulcrum of religious and socio-political relationships inside and between Sardinian communities during the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, leading to the formation of broad sub-regional political entities which are capable to interact, on a fair basis, with the protourban Villanovian communities and the early Phoenician colonies. The study is partly based upon the consistent, and fully unpublished, evidence from Monte S. Antonio di Siligo (SS), one of the largest Sardinian sanctuaries.