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Immersed in the enchanting hilly landscape of the Marmilla, close to the jar of Siddi, there is an ancient burial place called Su Cuaddu 'e Nixias.
We are located in Nixias, in the territory of Lunamatrona, from which the tomb takes its name. The prehistoric burial shows particularities that make it fascinating and, at the same time, mysterious.
It is a tomb of giants, a name given to it by popular tradition for its extraordinary size that was imagined due to the fact that a giant was buried there.
The tomb, of the dolmen type, is famous not only for its antiquity but also for the imposing arched stele in the center of the exedra, a central element of the tombs of giants in the north-central island but rather rare in southern Sardinia, where the façade is generally made up of rows of rocky ashlars. The stele, almost three meters high, is smooth and on the surface, where the small entrance to the room opens, you can still see traces of panels and frames carved in negative.
At the center of the stele there is a curious circular hole, from which the name of the monument derives. According to a popular legend, horses were tied to the forum, in Sardinian is cuaddus. In reality, the real use of the hole, most likely created in more recent times, is not known.
The monument, built with local marl, is the result of two construction phases. During the Copper Age, around 2500-2100 BC, a lithic cist tomb was built, bordered by slabs on the sides and a flat arch cover, now corresponding to the final part of the burial chamber. Subsequently, during the Middle Bronze Age (1500-1300 BC), a dolmen corridor just over ten meters long was added, made with blocks arranged in a knife and with a monumental exedra on the facade. The exedra slabs are driven into the ground at a decreasing height starting from the sides of the stele, forming an arch of 14 meters.
It is likely that the Nuragic people reused the cist and decided to expand it by building the great tomb of giants. Everything suggests a continuity of use of this site for over a thousand years, from the Eneolithic to the Middle Bronze Age.
The atmosphere in the center of the exedra is fascinating and evocative. Its arched wings, in fact, embrace the sacred area, where relatives and friends gathered to remember the dead and where the community left their offerings, celebrated rituals and commemorations.
For a long time the burial methods were mysterious. It has been hypothesized that the bodies of the deceased underwent a process of stripping of the soft parts of the body, before being placed inside the tomb. From the research carried out in recent decades, it is possible to deduce that the burial ritual, practiced in the tombs of giants, was that of the primary deposition: that is, the bodies were placed in the tomb in their entirety. The secondary deposition was limited to the terminal part of the monument, resulting, in reality, from the accumulation of the bone remains of the previous ones buried to make room for the new ones.
In some cases, it was also ascertained that the burial took place by lowering the deceased from above, wrapped in the shroud, after removing one of the cover plates of the funeral corridor. The small hatch at the base probably had a symbolic value in connecting the world of the living with that of the dead.
Immersed in the enchanting hilly landscape of the Marmilla, close to the jar of Siddi, there is an ancient burial place called Su Cuaddu 'e Nixias.
We are located in Nixias, in the territory of Lunamatrona, from which the tomb takes its name. The prehistoric burial shows particularities that make it fascinating and, at the same time, mysterious.
It is a tomb of giants, a name given to it by popular tradition for its extraordinary size that was imagined due to the fact that a giant was buried there.
The tomb, of the dolmen type, is famous not only for its antiquity but also for the imposing arched stele in the center of the exedra, a central element of the tombs of giants in the north-central island but rather rare in southern Sardinia, where the façade is generally made up of rows of rocky ashlars. The stele, almost three meters high, is smooth and on the surface, where the small entrance to the room opens, you can still see traces of panels and frames carved in negative.
At the center of the stele there is a curious circular hole, from which the name of the monument derives. According to a popular legend, horses were tied to the forum, in Sardinian is cuaddus. In reality, the real use of the hole, most likely created in more recent times, is not known.
The monument, built with local marl, is the result of two construction phases. During the Copper Age, around 2500-2100 BC, a lithic cist tomb was built, bordered by slabs on the sides and a flat arch cover, now corresponding to the final part of the burial chamber. Subsequently, during the Middle Bronze Age (1500-1300 BC), a dolmen corridor just over ten meters long was added, made with blocks arranged in a knife and with a monumental exedra on the facade. The exedra slabs are driven into the ground at a decreasing height starting from the sides of the stele, forming an arch of 14 meters.
It is likely that the Nuragic people reused the cist and decided to expand it by building the great tomb of giants. Everything suggests a continuity of use of this site for over a thousand years, from the Eneolithic to the Middle Bronze Age.
The atmosphere in the center of the exedra is fascinating and evocative. Its arched wings, in fact, embrace the sacred area, where relatives and friends gathered to remember the dead and where the community left their offerings, celebrated rituals and commemorations.
For a long time the burial methods were mysterious. It has been hypothesized that the bodies of the deceased underwent a process of stripping of the soft parts of the body, before being placed inside the tomb. From the research carried out in recent decades, it is possible to deduce that the burial ritual, practiced in the tombs of giants, was that of the primary deposition: that is, the bodies were placed in the tomb in their entirety. The secondary deposition was limited to the terminal part of the monument, resulting, in reality, from the accumulation of the bone remains of the previous ones buried to make room for the new ones.
In some cases, it was also ascertained that the burial took place by lowering the deceased from above, wrapped in the shroud, after removing one of the cover plates of the funeral corridor. The small hatch at the base probably had a symbolic value in connecting the world of the living with that of the dead.
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