Latest Fieldnotes

Not much to add in the way of fieldnotes, except to say that Merrick’s bluestone is probably the spotted dolerite type. Above the tomb is ankle-breaking rock and heather, the view is of course magnificent. I walked up from the lane, along the path past a small derelict schoolhouse. Glyn Daniel who gave the name ‘earthfast’ to this localised crop of tombs, goes on to say that they come from the sub-megalithic group which existed in western France, Wales and Ireland; he plays around with terms such as primary, demi-dolmen, or half-dolmen. They do seem original ‘cave’ tombs, giving them a somewhat primitive feel. But like Carn Llidi tombs they hide themselves from view in a jumble of rocks and are often difficult to find.
Not far from here are are the Garn Wen tombs, there are three in a row (SM 948 390) sadly you won’t be able to find them for they are covered safely in a thick vegetation of nettles and brambles.
Safely, because they back on to council housing, and the area in front of the cromlechs is used for a motorcycle track and tipping.
At Garn Wynda I had jammed the car key in the door lock but deciding not to panic had managed to work out how to unjam and vowed there and then NEVER to lock the car. Arriving at the council estate I asked the road sweeper, how to get onto the coast path, giving me instructions he warned me not to leave anything in the car and to lock securely (did not). But coming back to the car three children who had been watching me intently, yelled back to their mother, ‘Mum she’s back in her car‘
So if you really want to find these three take a sickle. ;)

It’s well hidden in the greenery at the top of the outcrop overlooking the village and tomba. So well hidden, you can barely make it out. But peering through the bushes, you can see bits of its walls, and right on the top of the peak, climbing through the undergrowth, we found a way into the short-due-to-landslides corridor of the nuraghe.

The path from the tomba leads you into a wooded area – and then all of a sudden, there’s the village.

A collection of recently excavated huts, with some impressive sizeable chunks of stone being used in their construction, are on the lower part of the slope, and climbing further up, we found a tower – now know to be the southerly one of two.

If anyone is up at Black Howes in the coming months, please note that heather burning has rendered the main mound truly black (and howe), along with half of the second mound. The structures are, as a result, much clearer than I’ve seen them before, and more kerbstones are evident. Interesting stones are also newly in view on the small burnt-off area south and west of the Howes.

The tomba reminded me, mainly due to its state of preservation, of Moru, the first one we’d visited. There’s no stele, and no capstones; the tallest stone, at the entrance to the funeral corridor, is probably no more than 60cm high. But it does give a really good idea of the foundations and structure of a tomba.

There’s a post and rail fence around it, but gates are provided.

This site is signposted off the SP90 from Santa Teresa to Capo Testa, with a left turn taking you away from the cape into the Santa Reparata area. Down the winding road, and then at the cross roads you are directed to the left – then a T head with no signpost. We went right initially, and rather than wander aimlessly, I pulled up and used one of my stock phrases I know I need to learn any language.

“Scusi, io non parlo Italiano. Dove è la tomba di gigante, per favore?”

Hand gestures and the phrase “non-asphalto” informed us that we need to turn round as we should have gone left, and up the hill, and then taken the track to the site.

We did this, and 180 metres or so from the main road, we looked at the left fork we should take, and decided to park and walk – of course seeing a few cars stopped further down the bumpy and sandy track. Just over 400 metres later, we spotted the concrete roof of some strange building on the left, and took a track to the right towards the tomba.

Free and open access to the area – no facilities.

On the SS133 about 2km north of Tempio.

There’s a large car park on the main road by the signpost, though it is possible to drive up the track and park at the site itself.

There’s a cafe and toilets (50 cent coin required, with proper disabled facilites), and slides and a roundabout for kids. The walk from the ticket hut (tickets 2½ euros each including an information leaflet and loan of a big torch!) has been thoughtfully laid out as a nature trail with the plants labelled, and wide steps or a gentle slope to reach the nuraghe itself.

It’s set on a granite outcrop, and shows both styles of nuraghe building – the corridor and tholos.

Through the ESE orientated entrance into the corridor, there are tholos rooms on either side. Both are dark, but we’d been loaned a powerful torch, and there was another one left just inside the entrance (which has an impressive lintel); the room to the left has a niche, and we found a colony of bats resting there.

Along the corridor and up some stairs takes you to a semi circular room open to the sky, with further stairs to the left leading up to the terrace level, where there’s the remains of another room, with storage silo, and fantastic views where you can spot if you know where to look many other nuraghe in the locality.

On the SS127 about 5km east of Tempio, and directly opposite a sign “Nuchis 1”, is the signposted turn to Pascaredda. Follow the track over the unmaned railway crossing and keep to the left fork as signposted. About 800m from the main road, there’s a large parking area, but we took the sharp right turn before it, and parked 250m or so further on, just before the riverlet mentioned in TME (OK for small cars, and there’s space to turn round just past the stream).

Free and open access.

We strolled up the path, with buzzing of thousands of insects filling our ears and butterflies and dragonflies flitting around, over the bridge and to the rear of the tomb.

A stunning spot! The trees are cork oaks and had had their bark stripped for the autumn harvest. Of the stele, only the bottom half is left; the 10 slabs on either side mark out the esedra, and a missing capstone lets you climb into the funeral corridor itself, and the sides of the corridor are buried with the earth bank rather than being exposed stone as we’d seen at other sites.

Again the granite had a pink tinge as we’d seen at Coddu Vecchiu and at the back of the funeral corridor, there’s a shelf, as we’d seen at Li Lolghi.

We visited and photographed this site on the 21st of September 2007 and couldn’t have had a better start of Autumn.
The stone, probably not in situ, lies along the most eastern bend in the Highburn, just opposite Highburn House camp site, west of Wooler.
Humbleton Hill makes a nice décor for this stray find.

I was half way between Carnedd Rhys Goch and Tomen y Gwyddel when a farmer turned up in his Land Rover (Groooan). He started off with the obligatory “hey what you doin the path is over there” but when I told him what I was doing he soon warmed up and even gave me a lift on the back of the 4wd cowboy style (which was fun) over to the cairn . Apparently someone from some such place came just a week ago ? He laughed when I told him I was into stones and ancient places, and proceeded to lament the modern farmers lot (Diddums)
The cairn was like he said” not much to look at” half a metre tall partly grass covered and over shadowed by a small plantation.
The funny thing about the place were the half dozen or so standing stones built into or next to the fences .
Most perplexing.

There is only one way to get here as the road ends at the bottom of the valley. Through the small village of Pandy and look out for a carpark on the right. Walk up the small lane that bends to the left and keep going till it turns into a footpath. the cairn can be seen from a distance due to the pillar of stones on it. There are at least four big stones on it’s circumfrence . 75 yards to the N.W is a small standing stone, both stone and cairn are said to be associated with the poet Rhys Goch.

L’Elefante is exactly what it says it is, an elephant or at least an elephant shaped rock. If you approach it from the north it is an upright elephant and from the south it is an elephant sitting down either way it is unmistakably an elephant. I had passed this rock a few days before and dismissed it as a tourist curiosity, one of hundreds of bizarrely-shaped rocks that litter the island.

Two things changed my mind about this, one was the road sign which said Domus de Janus and the second was a brief reference in Margaret Guido’s excellent ‘Sardinia’ book.
L’Elephante couldn’t be easier to visit as it is on the kerbside next to a major road; there is also a handy lay-by opposite the rock. The rock is perched on the margins of the road on a hillside overlooking the coastal plain from Castelsardo to the north, the views are beautiful and include a nice view of the Nuraghe su Tesoru.

To tell you the truth I wasn’t expecting too much from this site but what a shock I got. The rock itself reminded me of a large red cinder, there’s that colour again!, but it wasn’t until I got up close to it that I realised that there were a number of chambers carved into it, I was even more surprised when I climbed through one of the carved portals into the chambers and was confronted by two great crescents carved into the walls of the chambers.

One thing I should warn you about is that you have to run the gauntlet of a group of old men selling tourist trinkets at the side of the road, there is even a man with a donkey, donkey rides on a main road?..hmmm No grazie. Two things struck me about the hawkers, one, they seemed to be mainly selling knives, two, none of them would have looked out of place in the Godfather part 2, wrong island I know but that’s how they looked, all that was missing were the shotguns.

If you are travelling around the north of the island I would definitely recommend that you call in on L’Elefante. The nearby medieval seaside town of Castelsardo is very picturesque and a good place to stop and have a drink and something to eat.

The name means ‘Red Angel’. This ‘red’ thing is starting to nag at me.
The site was discovered in 1903 by a workers quarrying the local sandstone. 37 tombs have so far been discovered’ almost all of the literature uses the words ‘so far’. The site is well signposted and situated next to main road. There is a car park and an entry fee is required.

All there is to see when you enter the site is a low grassy hill surrounded by rich farmland and close to a large river, the Riu Filberta. This area is known as Fertilia. The remains of the quarry are visible along with a few loose rocks and one small standing stone. The locations of the tomb entrances are given away by little information boards above each tomb. The board tells you the tomb number, gives a plan of the tomb and provides you with a little information about the tomb. The tombs have been dated by the finds discovered within them to the Oziere culture of approximately 3300-2800BC. The tombs were later reused by different cultures including the Beaker culture.

I’m not sure if you are allowed to climb down into the tombs. I couldn’t see a sign prohibiting it so I crawled through a number of them. Crawling through the chambers was a little scary, some of the chambers had props supporting the ceilings so I tended to avoid these, I also tried not to think about the dead snake my son had found the previous day. I was unable to stand up in any of the chambers; which to me would indicate that they were not used for ritual activity on a regular basis. The chambers did not seem to follow a uniform layout.
“In plan the tombs naturally vary, but not infrequently a large burial chamber with smaller chambers radiating from it is reached by a long passage sloping down from the entrance steps: the passage too may have chambers leading off it. Others are much simpler. The chamber themselves may be oval or rectangular in plan, and have round or flat ceilings”. Sardinia. M.Guido

One common feature of the tombs and chambers was the rectangular door with the carved recess; which was also a feature of L’Elefante and reminded me at the time of carved entrances I’d seen in Maltese temples. Many of the doors also had a carved lintel. In one of the tombs there were carved stone pillars which I presume were there as architectural feature rather than structural supports. In another tomb, whose roof had collapsed, was a carved bed. The lintels, pillars and carved bed lead you to think that design of the tombs may have reflected features found in the houses of the Ozerei people who created the tombs.

There are two sets of carvings that make this site really special. One is a set of carvings depicting 5 Bulls heads ,or protomi turine, situated above the entrance to a tomb with a 6th on an adjacent wall. The second set of carvings is within tomb XXVII. This carving consists of a pair of crescents over a set of concentric circles enclosed within a rectangular box; there are two of these carvings facing each other on opposing walls. There is much speculation as to the meaning of these carvings, the depiction of bulls heads outside of one of the tombs strengthens the arguments that these carvings are stylised versions of the bulls head and are linked to a bull cult others suggest that they may represent high–prowed ships. Unfortunately my camera packed up as I was photographing this carving so the images I have are a little rough.

When the tombs were excavated they yielded many grave goods including metal axes, beads, marble idols and many other objects, the most interesting of which to me, was a flat axe and an awl that were found to have come from the British Isles, probably Ireland.
Anghelu Ruju is a beautiful site and well worth a visit.

This site was on the top of my list of Sardinian sites to visit. Who could resist a site that has been described as ‘one of the most puzzling and interesting monuments in Sardinia’, ‘the only Ziggurat in the Mediterranean’ and ‘an important monument to megalithic architecture unique to the western world’? A Ziggurat is defined as a “temple tower, either stepped in tiers or spiral, symbolizing the mountain peak where the gods dwelt and where the skies met with the earth.” Ziggurats are thought to represent a cosmic axis, a bridge between heaven and earth.

To reach the site I once again had to drive across the top of the island. I managed to get through Porto Torres without losing my wing mirrors or enraging the locals and found myself heading towards Sassari. You know how it is when you’re driving along the road and all of a sudden you pass the place you need to be? Well this is what happened to me. The site entrance is situated on the busy 131 dual carriageway, I had managed to find the site but I then spent 20 frustrating minutes trying to back-track on myself. I don’t know how many Sardinian traffic laws I broke but after a period of frenzied driving, which took me into the outskirts of Sassari, I managed to get to finally get to the site.

There is a car park and a site reception/ticket office. Once you’ve purchased your ticket you walk along a long path to the site. I had driven for two and a half hours to reach Monte Accoddi; my level of anticipation was so high that I almost ran down the path to the site, definitely a case of ‘mad dogs and Englishmen’. After passing through a set of gates you enter the site from the south and walk along the eastern side of the monument. The man in the ticket office told me to report to the guide, so I headed down to the porta cabins at the bottom of the site.

When I arrived at the cabins the guide was showing an Italian couple around a small exhibition so I waited patiently and used the time to look at the surrounding landscape to see if I could spot any distinctive landmarks. The day I visited was extremely hot and the heat haze had reduced visibility. All I can really say about the surrounding landscape is that the monument is situated on a flat fertile plain with mountains in the far distance. The guide finished with her Italian couple so I asked her if I could look around the site. Her English was quite poor but 100% better than my Italian. She managed to explain to me that I was welcome to walk around the site as I pleased but I couldn’t walk up to the platform of the monument as there was work taking place. Nay problems!

The monument itself is stunning, although the site itself could do with a good tidying-up. Basically you have a rectangular platform of 36 x 30m aligned north-south and faced with a dry stone wall construction using large, un-worked, limestone rocks, this is then surmounted by a smaller, three stepped, platform faced with smaller, more closely packed stones also in a dry stone construction. There is a 30m long, trapeze-shaped, ramp that leads from the south to the first stage and then a set of 14 steps leads you to the top platform. The top platform is 9-10m higher than the surrounding land. The site faces north and I am told that on a good day you can see the coast and the Golfo Dell Ainara from the top.

My first impression of the monument when looking up from the base of the ramp was “bloody ‘ell, it looks like a ziggurat”, not that I’d ever seen one in the flesh. My second impression was of the asymmetry of the structure, with the ramp leading up the right hand side. On closer examination I realised that the right hand side of the top platform had been destroyed.

When I first saw a picture of Monte Accoddi, I was stunned by the sight of a large, cup marked boulder. Having stood at the foot of the monument and taken in it’s size I made a beeline for the boulder. There are two boulders, one large, one small and both cup marked. The larger boulder is cracked, two ideas immediately came to mind, an omphalos and the cosmic egg. I sort of discarded the omphalos idea due to the stones position in relation to the monument and the fact that there were two stones, I guess you can’t really have two omphalos (what’s the pleural of omphalos?) in the same place. The egg idea lingered. There are a number of creation myths around the world that feature the cosmic egg, the seed from which the world was born. Another idea that came to mind was that there were two stones here, one substantially larger than the other. The larger stone is a reddish colour the smaller one whitish grey. Could they represent the sun and the moon? I love days like this.

I eventually managed to tear myself away from the boulders to have a mooch around the rest of the site. A little further along the eastern side of the monument is an amazing large flat stone known as the sacrificial table. The stone has a number of perforations around it’s margins which could only have been man- made. It is these perforations that have led people to suppose that they were used to tether the living sacrifices to the stone. I don’t know whether any evidence of sacrifice has been found but the stone could certainly accommodate a fairly hefty victim, man or beast.
From the stone I carried on around the margins of the monument where there is ample evidence of other buildings in the form of low walls.

The rear of the monument is a good place to have a look at how the monument was constructed with most of the stonework still intact, there is also a small ramp. However this is also the area that lets the site down badly. It is being used as a dump for construction materials and debris.

Whilst I was looking at the small exhibition in the site cabins I noticed a picture and illustration of a carved stone that had been interpreted to be a crude carving of a female figure, possibly a goddess. I had presumed that this stone had been carted off to Sassari Museum for safe keeping. I was deeply shocked and saddened to find this stone lurking amongst a pile of large drainage pipes and site rubbish. The stone was cracked and chipped in two places and the cracks looked recent. I later mentioned this to the site guide but she just shrugged.

The western side also has evidence of structures surrounding the main monument and to balance the sacrificial stone, on the eastern side of the ramp, is a large standing stone. Whilst looking at the stone I was struck by the strange asymmetry of the monument and wondered if the standing stone, sacrificial table and ‘egg’ had some form of alignment or were just placed there with little or no thought of their symmetrical relationship to the ramp and the main monument. Perhaps this trio of stones predated the monument. The standing stone itself is beautiful, it is made of limestone and has a number of large holes caused by weathering, these holes have been occupied by snails who have secreted a sort of natural concrete which partially fills many of the smaller holes.

I conclude my circumnavigation of the site back at the base of the ramp. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to walk up the ramp to the platform but to be honest with you I didn’t mind. I didn’t need to climb to the top of the platform to understand that this site was extremely special and unique. There are elements of the site that suggest that the early Sardinians may have been influenced by the cultures of the near and Middle East.

If you are lucky enough to visit Sardinia I would recommend that place this site on the top of your list. The discovery sort of the broken carved stone put a bit of a damper on my visit to Monte Accoddi.

Monte Accoddi is a world class archaeological site, and from what I saw, it deserves to be treated with a lot more respect that it is currently receiving. Happily this is not the case with the other Sardinian sites I had visited. They had all been well cared for and many were manned by enthusiastic and helpful guides.

There’s a car park off the main road, and a gate on the left leads you to a sandy path, past a fab outcrop of weathered rock ahead, and then to the left to the tomba.

Free and open access – no facilities except parking.

The tomb was restored in the 1970s and is now well preserved. The stele is 3.65 metres tall, and weighs 7 tonnes! The rear of the tomba is surrounded by bushes, but it’s possible (if naughty!) to climb behind the stele to view the funeral corridor – about 11 metres long – and capstones, and indeed climb into the corridor.

A beautiful site – quite a few people wandered past while we were there, but it was never busy. Loads of insect life, particularly praying mantes (mantids, mantises, whichever plural you prefer!) in glorious late afternoon sunshine. There are numerous other bits of rock strewn over the area – Beardy found what appeared to be a cist when we were having a mooch about, aware of two other tombas somewhere nearby but further reading says the area was used from Nuraghic to Roman times and right through to the middle ages.

This nuraghe is just south of Serra Orrios and clearly visible from the road.

Even though it’s signposted, it’s behind a high wire fence and the gate is locked – it looks fairly ruinous so maybe is unsafe rather than just closed to visitors.

Taking the main road, SS125, north out of Dorgali, you come to a left turn (SP38) signposted to Serra Orrios but keep going on. You need to go another 750 metres along the road – the first bend is sharp, and it’s most of the way round the second bend when there’s a track to the right to the dolmen, with a farm track almost directly opposite it. There’s room to park a couple of cars under a tree opposite the track to the dolmen.

There is a signpost, but it had been knocked or pulled over and was just inside the field – I pulled it over the wire fence and propped it up against the wall, so those travelling south at least would be able to see it.

The track continues for 140 metres, then there’s a fork and a sign directs you to keep left, up a much narrower and quite overgrown path, for another 120 or so metres until the way ahead becomes almost impassable and instead you go through a gate to the left. A series of arrows painted on rocks guide you the last 140 metres to the dolmen itself.

What a stunning spot! A young German-speaking couple were picnicking there, but kindly moved for our cameras.

The dolmen, dated to c 3000BCE, has an almost circular capstone, resting on 7 slabs, and a kerb of stones around it.

The village huts – excavated in 1937 and again in 1947 – number more than 70; most are to the east of temple B, but there’s a distinct cluster to the north too.

The huts – mainly circular single roomed structures, but a few showing two rooms – were built around a series of plazas, two of which have wells. The walls are thick, and storage niches can be seen, along with seats and hearths inside the huts. The pathways between the huts are paved, and each hut has a stone step at its entrance.

The last port of call on the tour is the meeting temple, set apart from the village huts. The finds from excavation in the 1930s were not recorded, but its structure, with a vestibule and interior seating, leads archaeologists to theorise that it was a sacred rather than living space.

Temple B has a wall surrounding it, with 3 entrances, the middle one of which leads into an ante chamber rather than directly into the temple courtyard.

The temple itself has small vestibule and doorway with a lintel, and both the vestibule and the temple itself have low seating around the interior walls.

From the gate at the top of the path from the car park, the first area you find is a huge sacred enclosure with the first of the megaron temples – not well preserved.

A doorway in the wall has a foyer area on the outside and takes you on to the rest of the site.

Li Muri is about a ten minute drive from Li Longhi. Drive past the site and park in the car park on the hill. Walk back up the hill and buy a ticket at the small hut. Once again I was able to use the guide who also spoke excellent English and had a deep love of this site.
This Neolithic necropolis should have a ring of familiarity about it to anyone who has read about or visited British prehistoric burial sites. The site is not large but it is full to the brim with archaeology. The site is neatly ‘tucked in’ amongst numerous rocky outcrops with views over the surrounding valleys.
Basically what you have here are five cist burials, four of the burials date to about 4500BP, the fifth cist dates to a later pre-Nuraghic culture. There are also a number of standing stones or Betyls, and small cist-like boxes that ‘were used for offerings’.
The four Neolithic cists are surrounded by a number of small concentric circles and were originally covered by an earth mound or cairn with only the outer kerb showing. The cists were orientated north–south and when excavated yielded a rich crop of distinctive grave goods including obsidian arrowheads, polished axes, mace heads, flint knives, pottery, soapstone necklaces and a steatite bowl which may be of Cretan origin.
The fifth, and later, cist is aligned roughly east-west and was also covered by a cairn.
My guide was extremely enthusiastic about the site and went to great lengths to explain many aspects of Sardinian prehistory including the trade in Obsidian throughout the Mediterranean. Sardinian obsidian was the best in Europe and Galluran obsidian was the best in Sardinia. She was also very keen on Irish archaeology having just spent seven months living in Galway.
One thing that struck me about the site was a large outcrop of weathered granite on the margins of the site. For me the rock almost seemed part of the site and on closer inspection I noticed a number of weathered depressions and natural bowls within its structure. I tried to discuss this with the guide and how the people who built the monument could have easily chosen a rock-free site in the adjacent field. But she only smiled and said that we can only discuss the facts of the site. I did however detect a knowing look in her smile or maybe I was kidding myself, perhaps she just pitied me for my wide eyed ramblings. She did inform me that the local rocks, some of which are weathered into the most bizarre shapes, contained rock shelters. Some of these shelters had been excavated and yielded early pottery.
The necropolis of Li Muri reminded me of home. There are definite parallels with sites on the North York Moors such as Obtrusch and round barrows and cairns in many other parts of our islands.

Once again this is a sign posted site with a car park and a small booth from where you can buy tickets for the monument. On my visit, I had the good fortune to find a guide here who spoke very good English and had recently spent 3 months in Newbury.
If the service is available, pay the extra Euro for the guide, they are usually very knowledgeable and generally keen to speak English, they also carry folders containing illustrations, details of finds and general information about the sites.
Li Longhi is a fascinating site situated on a prominent hill. Like Pasceradda, the tumulus remains intact and the monument has undergone some restoration. The path to the monument is only short and you approach it from the front. The first thing you notice is the stelae, it’s huge and it’s broken. The repair job on the stelae reminds me of my own attempts to repair things at home. They’ve just taken the huge lump that fell off and clagged it back on, it’s pretty unsympathetic but it works and restores the stelae to it’s original height. The stone to the right of the stelae is also a replacement.
The passage is a little confusing until you realise that this monument developed in 3 stages. The first stage of the monument was the construction of a dolmen, the remains of which form the rear of the passage. The dolmen was constructed, during the period of the Bonannaro Culture using rough stone slabs placed on the original ground surface. The second stage of the monument was the construction of an allee couverte or passage; this was dug into the bedrock. The walls of the passage were constructed using a mixture of large slabs and dry stone walling, a mound/tumulus/cairn of stones was also constructed at this point. The final phase of the monument was the addition of the horned façade.
Within the passage, the dolmen was separated from the rest of the monument by a 
blocking slab and a bench, as at Pascaredda.
There is only one capstone in situ on the passage, my guide informed me that the archaeologists have speculated as to whether the passage was actually capped with removable wooden planking to allow access. What intrigued me was what happened to the capstone of the dolmen. I wonder if it was reused in the construction of the passage or perhaps in the horned façade of the monument.
My guide also informed me that Roman and Greek writers had witnessed and recorded how the Tombi were still being used when they had visited Sardinia. There are written accounts describing people sitting on a bench-like structure attached to the horned façade of the monument whilst rituals took place within the area defined by the facade.
Li Longhi is well worth a visit, when combined with a visit to Cuddu Vecchiu and the Necropili di li Muri. It provides insight into the development of the wonderful Tombi dei Giganti in this part of the island.

Coddu Vecchiu is signposted on the Tempio to Arzachena road. As with Pascaredda, if you approach this site from the west you will be travelling through a beautiful and bizarre landscape passing peaks with boulder strewn ridges and valleys with huge monoliths that appear to have been thrust upwards through the earth by the hand of some unseen orogenic deity. I wrote in my note book “these rocks must have names”. Even the modern quarries chop away the hillsides to create the appearance of stepped pyramids.

Coddu Vecchiu is served by a car park. There is a small visitor’s centre in the car park where you can purchase a ticket for the monument, buy an ice cream, a cold drink or use the toilet.
Tip No.1– Sardinians are obsessed with change, in the monetry sense, so keep plenty in your pocket. That said, I managed to score a free ice cream at Coddu Vecchiu because the very nice lady behind the counter did not want to lose her change, despite having lots in her till.

The site is just a short walk from the car park and approaches the site looking towards the forecourt. If you can manage to take your eyes off this beautiful site you should check out the lovely large, squat, weather-worn rock outcrops to the left of the path to the monument.

The Monument is stunning and sits in a low valley on an elevated hillside surrounded on one side by scrub land and the other by strictly regimented lines of grape vines running like contour corduroy across the hillside. It would be nice to think that this arrangement stretched back to the origins of the monument. As we know, many megalithic monuments were deliberately sited within liminal areas on the edge of farmland, one foot in the wild and one in the cultivated fields perhaps symbolising the continuity between past and the present. In his book ‘The Bronze Age in Barbarian Europe’ Jacques Briard describes the Sardinian central stelae as; “the sacred stone in front of the kingdom of the dead was visible from afar and reminded the living, at work in the nearby fields, of the frailty of human life”.

It is the central stone or stelae which draws the eye here. This design of stelae is known as a bilithon, a two piece stone. Once again there is a pink tinge to the rock which is enhanced by a vein of pink crystal running downwards at approximately 45 degrees from the top left hand corner of the bottom stone. Later I was to visit the Neolithic cemetery of Il Muri where large amounts of ochre were found in the cists. This set me to wondering if this use of reddish/pink stone and the use of ochre were linked over the millennia between the erection of the monuments. Perhaps red was a colour associated with death. Marija Gimbutas has this to say about the use of ocre “Red was the colour of life, of blood, which was neccessary to secure regeneration”.

My first impression of the monument was that this Tombi definitely had a different architect to Pascaredda. It’s well worth having a detailed look at the stones of the façade. The central stelae have been beautifully carved. The carving borders the lower stone and extends around the outside edge of the upper stone. Care has also been taken to carve around the small portal at the base of the stone. The carving had also been applied to the back of the stelae, presumably after the two stones were united and erected.

The stone to the right of the stelae has a natural channel carved into it that runs from ground level to the side of the stelae, the final stone of the left hand horn of the façade has a natural cup in its face. I’m sure these features would have not gone unnoticed by such accomplished masons as the Tombi builders and once again we see the use of weather worn stone in the construction of a monument.

The monument we see today is a stripped-down version of the original. Many years ago when the monument was excavated the archaeologists didn’t believe that the stone cairn that covered it was actually part of the structure so they removed it.

The passage of the monument is aligned east-west and unlike Pascaredda is constructed of large stone slabs on the interior (visible) passage and thick, dry stone walling on the exterior (unseen) walls. The passage also differs from Pascaredda in its layout. There is no ‘bench on the back wall and the side slabs butt straight onto the central stelae. There is also a large slab on the floor of the chamber marking a small step down in the passage just before the stelae, creating a small anti chamber behind the small portal at the base of the stelae. Perhaps this was the place for offerings.
In summary, Coddu Vecchiu is a beautiful Tombi dei Giganti sitting in a lovely landscape. It is well signposted and judging from the day we went, and its close proximity to a main road, can be quite busy.

This was my first Sardinian site. It’s location on the Tempio to Calganius road is pretty much where Julian Cope describes it in the Megalithic European, unfortunately, due to Ryanairs meagre baggage allowance, I didn’t have the book with me and the site wasn’t on my map so I came across it by accident. Fortunately for me the Sardinians are pretty good at signposting their ancient monuments.
To reach the site you have to walk down a country lane and along a path on the edge of a field, you then cross over a fairly dodgy looking wooden bridge and the site is just in front of you in a cork wood. That sounds fairly straight forward, as it is, but the walk is absolutely beautiful and a great introduction to the sounds and smells of the Sardinian countryside, it also grounds you in a landscape ringed by sharp, craggy mountains with the Monte Limbara peaks rising to over 1300 metres.
Pascaredda is beautiful, you approach the site from the rear so the first thing I noticed was how neatly the stone capped mound fitted into the surrounding valley. As I moved around the mound the horned façade and forecourt came into view. The rocks of the façade had a definite pink tinge to them which would be something I would also encounter at Li Longhi. The carved portal stone is large but not huge, the proportions and symmetry of the monument are perfect and the carving is beautifully executed. After sitting and taking in the fact that I was actually here, I began to mooch around the mound and passageway. The mound appears to be constructed of small cobbles and earth. One of the cap stones had been removed from the passage, so I was able to slip down into the passage with relative ease. The passage was orientated east-west and was constructed in a dry stone style. It was interesting to note that the passage was independent of the façade, by this I mean that the large carved portal stone had been placed over an existing portal and the passage may have originally been a self-contained unit. This could imply that the façade was added at a later date. The rear (west) end of the chamber had a bench-like structure constructed by placing a large slab horizontally across the back of the chamber. Another feature, which was to become a occurring theme in the monuments I visited in Sardinia, was the use of water/wind eroded stones in the monuments.
Pascaredda was my first Tomba dei Giganti and I think it will always remain my favourite. It just all fits in so well, the walk to the site, the intact mound, the tomb, the lovely façade, the nearby stream, the mountains, Perfect!