An infinite “Damnatio memoriae” , an endless condemnation of memory. The devastation of history that reduced them to a thousand pieces was not enough, now is the time of modern "condemnation", the one that flows silently from the offices of Rome to the courtrooms. There is no peace for the Giants of Mont'e Prama. In this "promised" land torn up by plows and tractors, by state bulldozers and bureaucracy, the dream of the ancient glories of the past is increasingly a chimera. Rivers of ink have been written about the history of this hill, despite the fact that the "stone ancestors" had chosen to entrust to supreme symbols and imposing vestiges the testimony of a past that still today frightens foreign primate lovers in the ancient land of Sardinia.

Perennial war

Internal struggles, yesterday as today, between civilizations first and between offices after, violence and negligence on that promontory of history and cumbersome past. Today's history, the most recent one, is marked by protocols and letters, proclamations of nothingness, announcements of imminent excavations, and so much, infinite desolation for an abandoned site like never before. Hills slapped by the wind and negligence, the one that has been hitting the Sinis for fifteen years. It is almost a new story, written this time on official documents, traced on indelible and ignored geophysical reliefs. A dispute between the new frontiers of "intelligent" archaeology, made up of enlightened men and ground penetrating radar, and the perennial harassment for that area stirred like an earthly blender.

Giants & ground penetrating radar

Stop still, without shame, at that modest plot of land marked by the far-sighted intuitions and discoveries of Antonio Taramelli, in 1929, of Giovanni Lilliu and Enrico Atzeni, 1974-1977, of Alessandro Bedini in 1975 and Carlo Tronchetti in 1977. Not even one hectare of excavations, a continuous open and close, as if every time there was an influencer on duty ready to take credit for what had already been discovered in the past, by others obviously. We continually stir without opening the horizon even for a moment on that immense archaeological deposit put in black and white, between abscissae and ordinate, by an instrument as opposed as it is innovative, the ground penetrating radar. An enlightened geophysicist, Professor Gaetano Ranieri, and one of the "fathers" of that site, Professor Raimondo Zucca, took him for a "walk" on those disenchanted hills.

Earth ear

They explored it far and wide to understand what could be underneath those lands, which until then had been fertilized by grain and fodder. A modern "ear of the earth" through geophysical refractions had revealed every underground anomaly. The mystery was revealed: Mont'e Prama is a true "mausoleum" of the ancient Sardinian civilization. The treasure hunt maps are locked in the safe, after having explained and illustrated them to the State Superintendencies, with an explicit letter: all these areas must be immediately restricted to protect the extreme archaeological interest contained underground. Some diligent state officials not only did not take that scientific and proven "archaeological emergency" seriously, but took the opportunity to publicly mock such innovative and timely research. The war was without appeal, until the Universities of Cagliari and Sassari were expelled from that site. The diktat was solemn: the State is in charge here. In spite of the majestic lesson of the Sardus Pater, Giovanni Lilliu, who, at the dawn of Sardinian archaeology, pronounced an "edict" without hesitation: the archaeological heritage of Sardinia must be governed by the Sardinians, by the Region, by the Sardinian Universities. It is in that passing that one of the most demeaning misdeeds in the history of that hill takes place. With a prescient intuition, a gentleman with an innate winemaking vocation buys for a penny all the areas around those modest ten thousand square meters destined for the same excavations for fifty years. The purchase is not reckless, but it could turn out, with the announced archaeological discovery, to be a real bargain, between possible capital gains and archaeological prizes. To make those gentle hills towards "Mari Ermi" even more enjoyable, the brave "winemaker" is a candidate to surround that archaeological site with impressive and flourishing DOC vines. It doesn't take an advertiser to give it the brand of historical origin: the wine of the Giants. The man who just bought the hill is shrewd. To avoid archaeological problems, or to increase the value of those lands, on May 11, 2016, he wrote to the Superintendency: clarifications are needed regarding the completion of the agricultural works already started in the Mont'e Prama area. The formulation of the question is, for the Superintendence, a double-edged sword: if they state that there are other Giants down there, enclosed in their city of the past, they risk supporting the theories of the georadar, on the other hand they would recognize the new winemaker as a copious right to the archaeological prize. And, in fact, they choose to deny the evidence. The answer is lapidary: «With note prot. n.10991 of 06.08.2016, the Superintendency of Archeology of Sardinia declared the non-existence of problems regarding the superficial working of the land and the completion of the planting, while it recalled the need to follow the landscape authorization procedure for the construction of the fence" . Therefore, for the State archaeological offices, we can proceed at full speed with the planting of the mega-vineyard in the presence of the Giants. Contrary to all the indications of the georadar, the state officials write: «The occasional surface reconnaissance has not highlighted clear archaeological emergencies in the private lands located to the north, west and south of the land of the Confraternita del Rosario. The same poor and uncertain picture emerges from the results of the more systematic surface reconnaissance and geophysical investigations carried out in 2014".

Researchers ignored

It's a shame that researchers from the Universities of Cagliari and Sassari went to great lengths to ask for the entire "investigated" area to be expropriated. The lush and productive vineyards, in the meantime, have revealed further discoveries, confirming what was reported by the ground penetrating radar. It was 5 July 2017 when the Regional Commission for the cultural heritage of Sardinia decided to place "direct archaeological protection" on the entire area indicated by geophysics as a "treasure chest" of history.

Land from “champagne”

In 2018 the Region, "ad abundantiam", allocated 500 thousand euros for the acquisition of those areas, which from uncultivated areas, in the meantime, have become land registry vineyards, with the productive and archaeological surplus value. In short, a real deal worth uncultivated land with champagne barrels, with the Giants underground. It doesn't take an expert in valuation to understand that those lands that were previously worth nothing are now, thanks to those sensational errors of undervaluation, "theoretically" worth a fortune. They take it the offices that must proceed with the expropriation at their convenience. To start the procedure, we must wait until 21 September 2023 with the affixing of the pre-arranged constraint on the expropriation. Ten years have passed since the discoveries of the ground penetrating radar and almost seven since the « direct bond".

At the TAR for expropriation

The “damnatio memoriae”, however, is not over. Between 2023 and 2024 the "modern" ordeal of the Giants arrives at none other than the Tar Sardinia. The owner of the vineyards challenged the expropriation measures. The claims of the "winemaker of the Giants" are ignored, but on January 18th the judges rejected the request for precautionary suspension of the expropriation measure. The game is open. The Judges write: «the needs for precautionary protection put forward by the appellant (the owner of the vineyards) can be satisfied by a prompt definition of the merits of the case». The hearing on the merits is already scheduled for July 17th. A condemnation of memory, timeless.

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