Fifty Years Since the Discovery
A long time has passed since official archaeology recognized the exceptional nature of the discovery. It was March 31st, 1974. The discoverer is a farmer, or perhaps a group of farmers, who, as a result of using a mechanical plough, unearthed the remains of a large late Nuragic necropolis from the 11th century BCE and a sanctuary of the Sardinians, possibly dedicated to a sacred priest and warrior, between the late 9th and the first half of the 8th century BCE.
From this moment on, systematic archaeological excavations have decoded the history of this place and continue to do so to this day, seeing the work of the largest school of protohistoric archaeology on the island.
Mont’e Prama is a small hill just 48 meters above sea level, which stands out on the fertile plain stretching towards the Cabras pond. The toponym Mont’e Prama (“the mountain of palm trees”) takes after the colonies of dwarf palms that characterize the vegetation of the site. Something unique and extraordinary has happened here, which has rewritten the history of Mediterranean archaeology. Here, the Sardinians wanted to leave an indelible mark.
A necropolis with hundreds of burials, a sanctuary, a sacred way, and a sequence of dozens and dozens of statues carved from the soft rock, quarried and transported for over 18 kilometers to be erected here, in a cultural context that worships the glorious and heroic past of Nuragic Sardinia. Alongside the statues of boxers, archers, warriors, and military priests, numerous models of nuraghe have been found, reproduced in the most complex and spectacular forms. They narrate an ideological and spiritual concept expressed through over 8,000 individual towers and bastions that mark and define the archaeological landscape of the island.
Just three days before the discovery at Mont’e Prama, on March 29, 1974, the pickaxe of a farmer named Yang Zhifa, on the other side of the world, during excavation work to build a well in Xi’an, China, discovered the Terracotta Army, representing the soldiers of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who reigned between 260 and 210 BCE.
A fortunate coincidence that unites two of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.
The Mont’e Prama Sculptures
We are now facing the protagonists of this exhibition: the sculptures.
They were found in thousands of fragments, and many are still missing, perhaps destroyed or lost. Fragments of faces, arms, busts. Fractured, dismembered, disassembled bodies: this is how they appeared during their discovery.
An act of love brings the statues back to life: restoration has allowed the fragments to reunite and become individuals once again, thus regaining their symbolic power.
The statues have managed to regain an upright posture and their physiognomy, albeit partially mutilated. No statue appears to be fully reconstructable.
Various human figures have reappeared: archers, warriors, boxers. After helping them stand again, we must now help them communicate.
It won’t be an easy task. We lack, even just to name and describe them, the linguistic universe that resonated around them.
Nevertheless, we will attempt to speak for them by translating them, with the intention of not betraying them.
Archaeology and Memory
Mont’e Prama and the other nuragic burials between the end of the bronze age and the iron age.
The Mont’e Prama sculptures were discovered within a layer of soil covering a particularly interesting funerary area.
The necropolis consists of individual tombs, with pit burials covered by a slab. The deceased were placed inside the pit, crouched in a sitting position. Almost all the tombs lacked burial goods.
The tombs were arranged in a linear succession within a space delimited by two vertical slabs.
Individual pit burials seem to have become prominent between the end of the bronze age and the iron age.
This marks a significant variation in ritual compared to the funerary practice of collective burials inside the so-called “giants’ tombs”, typical of the bronze-age Nuragic world.
And it is this Nuragic world that the magnetic eyes of the statues seem to gaze upon: the world of contemporary iron-age Sardinia, already archaeological and marked by elements of the past, in an attempt to translate that vision into a memory of which the statues themselves were, and still are, a sign.
What do the sculptures represent?
We must stay emotionally close to the sculptures. Their voice reaches us clearly, telling us who and what they intend to represent.
The anthropomorphic statues depict adult males. They are armed and dressed with extreme care, leaving no doubt about their status. They are individuals of uncommon lineage. We have called them archers, warriors, and boxers.
However, the term warriors can be used in a broader sense. Indeed, in all ancient societies, warriors hold a position of absolute importance in the hierarchical scale and are both guardians and holders of political power.
Their bodies adopt a solemn posture, a telling sign that the individuals represented are preparing for a sacred encounter. This attitude is comparable to other contemporary representations, including the striking Nuragic bronze statuettes.
The Bronze Figures and the Mont’e Prama Sculptures
The so-called bronzetti represent the most well-known form of art produced by the Nuragic civilization.
These are small bronze statuettes, generally around 15 cm tall, in very rare cases up to 35-40 cm. They were crafted using the ‘lost-wax’ technique, involving a clay matrix created and destroyed each time, through an extremely complex process believed to be introduced by Cypriot or Near Eastern artisans.
These figurines, created as votive offerings, depict a wide range of characters: tribal leaders, archers, warriors, boxers, wrestlers, worshippers, female figures, as well as various animals, numerous objects related to daily life, nuraghe models, ships, and more. For us, they represent a precious iconographic source, capable of providing a very effective and evocative image of the people who created them and their world.
There is undoubtedly a close connection between the bronzetti and the Mont’e Prama sculptures, or, more precisely, between the worlds depicted by these two genres of sculptural representations.
A direct comparison between sculptures and bronze figures confirms without a doubt that the characters represented by the two categories of artifacts are the same, and the iconography describing them is identical. This confirms that sculptures and bronzetti belong to the same period.
Differences in style are noticeable between sculptures and bronzetti. Nevertheless, the statues also seem to express themselves through a code with significant references to the eastern world. In fact, this presupposes a technical expertise already developed in the nearby East. Interestingly, what appears to us as authentic photographs of the Nuragic people might have been created by foreign craftsmen hosted by local leaders for their skills.
According to a compelling hypothesis based on precise comparisons, these artisans might have been offered as gifts to seal relationships between high-ranking figures from geographically distant but conversing worlds.
The Nuraghe Models
The nuraghe models are equally noteworthy. They showcase the monument in its dual architectural form: simple and with multiple towers. These representations hold high symbolic value.
These maquettes artistically translate a phenomenon that unfolds in the island’s landscape between the end of the bronze age and the early iron age. In fact, during this period, nuraghe gradually lose their original function. They do acquire new ones, but their primary significance becomes a heritage of the past.
It is evident that this cultural metamorphosis could not have been entirely painless for those who experienced it. The stakes were, indeed, very high: collective identity.
For such a process to take place without causing violent traumas, symbols of collective identity needed careful and continuous attention. Among all, the nuraghe emerges as the most powerful symbol of identity cohesion.
The Iron Age in Sardinia: A Time of Change
The historical and cultural context in which the Mont’e Prama sculptures find their most fitting placement is the iron age (950-730 BCE).
In Sardinia and throughout the Mediterranean world, this was a period marked by profound changes, which had already begun in the last centuries of the bronze age.
The arrangement of some nuraghe changes, undergoing significant alterations, including the partial dismantling of towers and ramparts. Certainly, no new ones are built.
The layout of villages changes, transitioning from isolated circular huts to complex houses enclosed by a single wall with various rooms and a shared central courtyard.
Ceramic productions undergo changes, returning to richly decorated styles known as ‘geometric’ and ‘orientalizing.’ Moreover, the production of bronze weapons and tools increases, and it is during this phase that the majority, if not all, of the votive Nuragic bronzetti can be attributed. Alongside bronze, iron metallurgy begins to make its way.
Especially in the iron age, the Nuragic civilization’s metamorphosis shows signs of a process that is largely incomplete. The women and men who made up the Nuragic society were immersed in a Mediterranean reality marked by various and intense trade and contacts, leading to a continuous and increasingly radical transformation.
The Mont’e Prama sculptures are an expression of this world. While the bronzetti are widespread throughout Sardinia, the large stone sculptures seem to be a phenomenon limited to the Sinis region. Therefore, they can be considered as a reaction by local late-Nuragic communities to specific conditions, such as internal rivalries or changing relationships with the Eastern merchant groups who began to land on their coasts.
Mont’e Prama 1974-2024
I am nothing.
I will never be anything.
I cannot want to be anything.
Apart from that, I have in me all the dreams of the world.
(Fernando Pessoa, Tabacaria, 15.1.1928)
What are we talking about when we talk about the Mont’e Prama sculptures?
The exhibition offers one of many possible answers to this question, providing an opportunity to discover the “other”.
In the case of the statues, we talk about the discovery of the other world they come from and belong to, the discovery of those who created that world and were generated by it.
In the exhibition, you will not encounter what we believe we know about the sculptures, but rather what has been scientifically possible to learn and understand about them, engaging in a dialogue with them and the world to which they belong.
The encounter can take place if we approach it with authenticity.
In this case, the statues will prove not only capable but also willing to reveal themselves.
They will tell us about themselves as long as we are willing to listen.
Let us, therefore, prepare ourselves to listen, creating an auditory landscape capable of letting the faint but by no means evanescent voice of the statues resonate around us and within each of us.
