DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATIONS - Mont'e Prama

Slide Mysterious places emerge from the past
to tell us their stories. keyboard_arrow_down

Slide Stories of warriors, archers, boxers. Stories of nuraghi and sacred stones.

One The farmers' ploughs uncovered by chance the treasures buried under the land. These farmers have revealed to us a glorious past that we are still trying to understand. Discovered by chance in March 1974, the archaeological site of Mont’e Prama underwent several excavation campaigns between 1975 and 1979 and, in more recent times, between 2014 and 2017.

The excavation campaigns carried out since in the 1970s at the archaeological site of Mont’e Prama have brought to light about 10,000 fragments of stone, belonging to what has become known as the sculpture complex of Mont’e Prama. It is a huge, undefined mass of material: new fragments keep coming to light at the sites, which must be recorded and restored before attempting to match them with different sculptures.
The sculptures of Mont’e Prama were worked in limestone, a relatively soft, light-coloured stone, presumably quarried in the area of Santa Caterina di Pittinuri, distant from the site some 16 km as the crow flies. Most of the betyls and the base of a large model of a nuraghe are in sandstone, from the western coast of the Sinis, some 5 km away. Each of the sculptures was worked from a single block of stone and sculpted all round, to be seen from all sides, also from the back, as shown by carved details on the rear.
The restored material and the latest findings awaiting restoration are on public display at the National archaeological museum of Cagliari and the Giovanni Marongiu civic museum in Cabras.

Currently, fieldwork focuses on extending the excavation area to clarify the original layout of the site and the sequence of events over the long period from original set up of the necropolis to the formation of the sculpture complex, right up to its destruction.

Slide DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATIONS The first excavation campaign Mont’e Prama is a hill of vaguely elliptical shape, defined in geological terms as a limestone relief READ Slide DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATIONS The 2014 excavation campaign The excavation campaign was resumed on 5 May 2014 by a team of experts from the Cagliari Superintendency READ Slide DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATIONS The 2015-2016 excavation campaign A new excavation campaign under the direction of Alessandro Usai was carried out from May 2015 to December 2016.
READ Slide FIND OUT MORE The 2014 excavations On 5 May 2014, the archaeological investigations at Mont'e Prama resumed after more than 30 years. READ Slide FIND OUT MORE The 2015-2016 excavations In the period between May 2015 and December 2016 a new excavation campaign was started READ Slide MEDIA Now and then, interview with Carlo Tronchetti Archaeologist Carlo Tronchetti describes how his feelings on returning to Mont'e Prama 40 years after his 1979 excavation campaign. VIEW TOPICS
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