|
The Giants of Mont'e Prama are ancient stone sculptures created by the Nuragic civilization of Sardinia, Italy. Fragmented into numerous pieces, they were found by accident in March 1974, in farmland near Mont'e Prama, in the comune of Cabras, province of Oristano, in central-western Sardinia. The statues are carved in local sandstone and their height varies between 2 and 2.5 meters.〔 After four excavation campaigns carried out between 1975 and 1979, the roughly five thousand pieces recovered – including fifteen heads and twenty two torsos – were stored for thirty years in the repositories of the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari, while a few of the most important pieces were exhibited in the museum itself.〔 Along with the statues, other sculptures recovered at the site include large models of nuraghe buildings and several baetylus sacred stones of the "oragiana" type, used by Nuragic Sardinians in the making of "giants' graves".〔 After the funds allocation of 2005 by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and the Sardinia Region, restoration is being carried out since 2007 until present () at the ''Centro di restauro e conservazione dei beni culturali'' of "Li Punti" (Sassari), coordinated by the Soprintendenza of cultural heritage for Sassari and Nuoro, together with the Soprintendenza of Cagliari and Oristano. At this location, twenty five statues, consisting of warriors, archers, boxers and nuraghe models, have been exhibited to the public at special events since 2009.〔 The exhibition has become permanently accessible to the public since November 2011. According to the most recent estimates, the fragments came from a total of forty four statues. Those already restored and assembled are twenty five, in addition to thirteen nuraghe models, while another three statues and three nuraghe models have been identified from fragments that cannot currently be re-assembled. Once the restoration has been completed, the majority of the finds should be returned to Cabras to be on display in a museum.〔〔 Depending on the different hypotheses, the dating of the ''Kolossoi'' – the name that archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu gave to the statues〔Quoted by .〕 – varies between the 11th and the 8th century BC.〔 If this is further confirmed by archaeologists, they would be the most ancient anthropomorphic sculptures of the Mediterranean area, after the Egyptian statues, preceding the kouroi of ancient Greece.〔 The scholar David Ridgway on this unexpected archaeological discovery wrote: while the archaeologist Miriam Scharf Balmuth said: ==History of Prenuragic statuary== The first attestations of sculpture in Sardinia are much more ancient than the statues of Mont'e Prama. The most remote example is the so-called Venus of Macomer, in non finito technique, dated to 3750-3300 BC by the archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu, whereas for the archaeologist Enrico Atzeni the statuette should date back to Early Neolithic (6000-4000 BC).〔Quoted by .〕 More recent studies have stressed the similarities to the Venus figurines, already noticed by Giovanni Lilliu, and hypothesized a retro-dating to Upper Palaeolithic or Mesolithic Age.〔 Statuettes later than this one – but still pertaining to the Mother Goddess iconography – are many volumetric figurines produced by the Ozieri culture, among which is the idol of Perfugas, representing a goddess suckling her child. The same symbolism was later used by the Nuragic civilization with the so-called ("Nuragic pietà" ).〔Quoted by .〕〔Quoted by .〕 After the three-dimensional figurines of the Goddess – but still belonging to the Neolithic Age – are the idols in flat geometric style, that could represent the Goddess in her chthonic aspect, in that all examples of this type of idol have been found inside graves.〔Quoted by .〕 Investigations carried out after the fortuitous discovery of a prehistoric altar at Monte d'Accoddi (Sassari), have revealed that – alongside the production of geometric figurines – the great statuary was already present at that time in Sardinia, given that at the "temple of Accoddi" several stelae and menhirs were recovered. Beside the ramp leading to the top of the main building, excavations revealed the presence of a great menhir, with several others positioned around it. A sculpted face, engraved with spiraliform patterns and probably belonging to a statue-stele, has been assigned to the earliest phase of the site – called the "red-temple". A large granite stele with a female figure in relief, has been attributed to the second phase – called the "great-temple".〔 Still in the time-frame of the Prenuragic age, but in this case during the Eneolithic period, there is a remarkable production of "Laconi-type" statue-menhirs or statue-stelae, assigned to the Abealzu-Filigosa culture and characterized by a uniform tripartite scheme encompassing, from top to bottom: a stylized T-shaped human face; the depiction of the enigmatic "capovolto" (the capsized) in the kind of ''trident capovolto''; and a double-headed dagger in relief.〔〔Quoted by .〕 After the spreading of Bonnanaro culture in the Island, the tradition of the statue-stelae seems to die out, while it continues until 1200 BC with the Nuragic-related Torrean civilization facies of Corsica, featuring warriors represented in the Filitosa sculptures. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Giants of Mont'e Prama」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|
