Nuraghe

A type of tower built of cyclopean masonry and peculiar to Sardinia from c 1500 BC until the Roman conquest of the island c 800 BC. They are circular stone defensive towers with corbel-vaulted internal chambers of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. The walls of the tower slope inwards towards the top, and there are commonly two or more stories. Each floor consists of a single round room roofed by corbelling and sometimes provided with lateral cells. The turrets were as high as 30-60 feet, and some nuraghi contain stones of 100 cubic feet each in their structure. The more complex examples consist of several towers, courtyards, and curtain walls, and many nuraghi (e.g. Barumini) are surrounded by substantial outer fortifications with further stone towers. Nuraghi continued to be built during the Phoenician and Carthaginian occupation of the island, right down to the Roman conquest. There are thousands of nuraghi in Sardinia and they remain a prominent feature of the island's landscape today. The Nuraghic culture is associated with a flourishing bronze industry which in its later stages produced a series of attractive figurines and votive models. The megalithic tombs known as 'tombe di giganti' belong to the monuments including sacred wells. The Corsican torre (torri) and Balearic Island talayots share many architectural features with the nuraghi of Sardinia.

Type of stone tower built of Cyclopean masonry which has given its name to the main Bronze Age culture of Sardinia. The earliest nuraghi, built early in the 2nd millennium bc (later third millennium bc) are simple stone towers with internal chambers, but later examples can be very complex, consisting of multiple towers, with elaborate internal rooms and passages, and often form part of larger fortified structures, sometimes defended settlements. Nuraghi continued to be built during the Phoenician and Carthaginian occupation of the island, right down to the Roman conquest. There are thousands of nuraghi in Sardinia and they remain a prominent feature of the island’s landscape today. The Nuraghic culture is associated with a flourishing bronze industry (based on local ores) which in its later stages produced a series of attractive figurines that cast light on a number of both everyday and ritual activities of the Nuraghic population. The megalithic tombs known as tombe di giganti (see Giant’s Grave) belong to the Nuraghic culture, as do a number of other monuments including sacred wells. The nuraghi show some similarities to the torri of Corsica and the talayots of the Balearic Islands. See also Barumini.