Exceptional discovery in Mont'e Prama, found two new giants of 3 thousand years ago

Exceptional discovery in the nuragic necropolis of Mont'e Prama, in Cabras .

A few days after the resumption of the last excavation campaign, the remains of two new monumental statues with over 3 thousand years of life were found.

These are the torsos of two boxers , the large flexible shield that covers the belly and wraps around the arm. And again: a head, legs and other parts of the bodies, as well as fragments of a model of nuraghe.

COMMENTS - Enthusiastic Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini : “An exceptional discovery which will be followed by others”. Superintendent Monica Stochino speaks of a truly "important" result, which gives hope for "further surprises" already in the coming weeks.

Two giants who join the stone army of warriors, archers and boxers of three thousand years ago that made the Sardinian archaeological site, still partly shrouded in mystery, famous throughout the world.

THE SURVEY AND THE EXCAVATIONS - Launched on April 4, the field investigation confirmed the continuation of the necropolis and the imposing funeral road that runs alongside the graves towards the south. “For us the proof that we are on the right path”, underlines the archaeologist Alessandro Usai , scientific director of the excavation since 2014. “We went to dig without fail in a stretch that had not yet been touched”.

The two new giants are different from those found in the seventies , they are of the "Wolf" type like the last two unearthed in 2014, not far from the current excavation and which were characterized by the particular curved shield.

L'immagine di uno scavo che ha riportato alla luce frammenti di due Giganti (Ansa)

Meanwhile , plans are already being made to expand the excavation area from 10 to 20 square meters , funded by the archeology, fine arts and landscape superintendency for the metropolitan city of Cagliari and the provinces of Oristano and South Sardinia with 85,000 euros gross.

The new intervention, Stochino points out, anticipates another more substantial one, for 600 thousand euros, which also involves the Regional Secretariat of the ministry and which will be added to the great project for 2.8 million with which the aim is to restore everything that was found between 2014 and 2016, so as to exhibit the new statues together with the others in the Cabras Museum.

A CEMETERY OF MEN ONLY - A team effort involving universities, superintendence and foundation, anthropologists, restorers, architects, in addition to archaeologists. All together to find answers to the historical problems posed by this special cemetery of three thousand years ago, built along a funeral route and reserved almost exclusively for young men, says passionately Usai, explaining that in the more than 170 graves investigated "there is a complete lack of elderly people and children". while there are very few women .

THE MYSTERIES - The mystery remains on the site. Who were these two-and-a-half-meter behemoths really ? Why did they fall , reduced to rubble on the tombs they were supposed to watch? Their end was the consequence of an internal struggle between local communities, was it the fault of the Carthaginians?

Usai explains that he leans towards a further hypothesis, that of a natural destruction : "My opinion is that the Giants fell gradually by themselves - he says - especially since the way they were made they were unbalanced forward". The passage of time, the upheaval of the earth, the many cultivations that took place on this stretch of land would have done the rest, reducing statues, nuraghi and betyls into many fragments which were then mixed up.