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Inventory of the archaeological sites of
Prenuragic, Nuragic and Roman cultures, recorded through Mario Unali’s
identification in the territory of Chiaramonti, Sassari. Sardegna ITALIA. (
traduzione a cura della Prof.ssa Lina Unali)
Description
I shall here give a short and synthetic description of the territory of Chiaramonti which
lies within the province of Sassari (Sardinia), both from an environmental and an
archaeological point of view.
The sites which have been localized take their names from the toponyms of the grounds
where they were found. They are sometimes known through one or more names, a
circumstance that may cause confusion and alter their numerical consistency.
The nuraghes and the other monuments, about which I shall
later report, are for the most part reduced to a state of ruins and in few of them only it
is possible to get inside. The majority of them are subject to almost every day
tamperings on the part of improvised treasure seekers who are unaware of the irreversible
destruction deriving from their irresponsible activity.
The impoverishment of our sites should stop immediately;
it is necessary to carry out strategies of preservation if we do not wish to further waste
these fundamental tassels in our understanding of the various historical eras that may
make us acquainted with the life of our ancestors which were the origin not only of our
genetics, but also of our historical and cultural anthropology.
The
method followed :
As far as possible, I tried to
plan the survey in the most rational and systematic way, travelling far and wide through
the territory. I visited several villages spread in the whole territory, inhabited by
people with whom I was personally acquainted and with whom I was on friendly terms; I
observed their activities, first of all sheep-farming and agriculture, handled with
advanced technologies, but through their various connotations still connected to the
farming tradition inherited from their nineteenth and twentieth-century grandfathers and
great grandfathers. These people took me along paths and gorges; they retold me “sos
contos de foghile” (fireplace stories) with which they were familiar: episodes and
anecdotes that have been useful for the retrieval of the ancient toponyms.
The
territory: plants and animals:
The 
Its orography is various and
heterogeneous: not very high and round-shaped hills in the north west; harsh and steep
peaks in the north east; thick forests of oaks and holm oaks in the south:
“tanche” (pieces of land surrounded by low non cemented stone walls), unused as
pasture lands, covered with asphodels and flowers of red rockroses and light blue mastics. 
There are meadows which abound
with a great variety of plants and medicinal herbs as far as one can see, shapelessly
rising either gently or roughly among rocky cracks shaped by the working of time, in the
colours of moss grey and red lichens, changing according to
the time of day, sometimes gloomy and sad, resembling those fairies and gnomes that,
according to the legends, are believed to populate the thick forest, among the steep
passages overflowing with streams full of foaming and fresh waters that the mountains send
to the valleys in order to make them fertile and rich in nourishment for the herds.
Here and there,
not far from one another, ancient ruins of nuraghes can be seen – nuraghes that still
bravely stand after thousands of years the harshness of the weather and the destructive
action of man. They are witnesses of those ancient ancestors who dared raise the cyclopean
constructions with their mighty features. They are preceded by the domus de janas, the
graves of proto-Sardinian inhabitants, of five or six thousand years ago, where the dead,
surrounded with their funeral apparels and painted in the colour of ochre, the symbol of
blood, go back to Mother Earth’s womb with the hope of resurrection; there are
megaliths that exhibit respect and feelings of sacredness to those who observe them, and
who were at the same time modest in
their constructions rising towards the sky in harmonious shapes.
Today, to the
common people, they are known as the fairies’s, inhabited by mysterious and not always
good witches, even wicked ones at times, which the popular belief gives life within the
context of legends, orally handed down by the fireside from generation to generation.
Then
there are the giants’ tombs, some made with cut stones, others with isodome stones
with a cover of gigantic slabs, some with an exedra, others without one. It is not a rare
occurrence to stop in front of a dolmen, of a bethel, of a menhir, of a prenuragic
stronghold, of a ceremonial circle of large or small dimensions, or even in front of a
little temple of the kind of a Greek megaron.
One can walk for hours on undulated and fertile grounds, on inaccessible and briskly
descending slopes, moving from the "Runda and Suerzones",
Up to a few years ago, the village territory
was wider than 111 square Kilometres, then, with the creation of the new municipality
(borough) of Erula almost 13 were given up, so that the town district presently comprises
98 square Kilometres.
At the bottom of deep canals, dug through the
centuries by the waters running among trachytic rocks and the dark brown basalts, some
microclimates were formed which favoured the survival of rare essences, local species of
insects and of other animals. We cannot but be glad about the large quantity of
flowers and mushrooms, which grow in the underwood amid ferns and musks, and dew wet
lichens, which make the soil salts melt down to breathe out humours and perfumes. It
is by moving from the farthest territory to another that one can easily bump into one of
the hundred and more nuraghes that are not located in an homogenous way, that is according
to rational rules, but at random, either in the form of giants’ tombs or of one of
the many domus de janas or of a bethel or in a ceremonial circle of pietre fitte (standing
stones). Therefore, these constructions appear to be built
in places not systematically selected, apparently without any particular reason or sign of
mutual connection, or conformity to a common goal. 
The
nuraghes, are sometimes placed like sentries on top of the hills, sometimes upon small
elevations within fertile valleys or on mild descending slopes, they appear as dumb witnesses of a great Mediterranean
civilization.
If we go on listing the
nuraghes that were visited during our recognition and of which some specifications will be
given in the Appendix, we can obtain the following catalogue.
1. Abba de sa Pedra (s’).
2. Agantinu (su)
3. Aijanu
(su) 
4. Aijanu de Giannichedda (su)
5. Arzola de Cogarzos
6. Aspru (s’)
7. Aspru Santu Pedru (s’)
8. Badde o sa Chiterra
9. Baddes
o sas Coas (sas)
10. Bados de Lovč 1
11. Bados de Lovč 2
12. Badde de Cheija o Badu Olta
13. Badde de Purcheddu o
s’Enalonga
14. Bantinepira
15. Bellimpiattu o Badu de
Muzeres
16. Cacchile
17. Caddalzu o Uttigia (su)
18. Cannalzu (su)
19. Carralzu (su) o Aldu Pinzone
20. Casteddu
21. Chirralza
22. Coa Pertusa (sa)
23. Cobesciu
24. Conca de Giuighe 
25. Concas
26. Corrales o Giuntorzu o Giunturas
27.
Crasta o s’Ena o
Certias
28. Crastu Covaccadu (su) o
Mazzone
29. Cucciucciu
30. Cudinas (sas)
31. Culu de Muru
32. Donna Ciccia
33. Elighia 1
34. Elighia 2
35. Elighia 3 o Tinnaru
36. Figu Niedda (sa)
37. Frades Contones
38. Frades Saba
39. Furros 
40. Giaganu Dominigu 1
41. Giaganu Dominigu 2
42. Giaganu Dominigu 3
43. Giolvas (sas)
44. Iscala Lampadas o
s’Elighe Entosu
45. Iscala de Malta
46. Iscobeltu
47.
Ispiene (today
territory of Erula)
48. Laccheddu 1
49. Laccheddu 2
50. Lavrone
51. Lepris
52. Leriga (sa) 
53. Longu
54. Lizu
55. Massidda
56. Mesu de Montes
57. Midda de Giuseppe Ruiju
58. Midda Manna
59. Monte Aldu
60. Monte Attarzu
61. Monte Cuccuma o Cuccullai
62. Monte Culumba
63. Monte Pertusa
64. Monte de s’Ozu 
65. Monte Zennaru
66. Moronzanos o Baldedu
67. Muntiju de Chelvos 1
68. Muntiju de Chelvos 2
69. Muntiju de su Aldu
70. Murrone
71. Nigolittu
72. Ostija o Urtigia
73.
Ortos (sos)
74. Padru Giosso 
75. Pala de Nicola
76. Pattada (sa)
77. Pules
78. Paulusedda o Palusedda
79. Pedru Canu o Funtana Pudida o s’Elighe Entosu.
80. Pedra Ilvena o Ulvine
81.
Piddiu 1 
82. Piddiu 2
83. Pisciu Accas
84.
Puddu (su) o sa Tanca
Brujada
85. Ripidu
86. Rosa o derosa
87. Ruinas
88
Ruju
89. Santa Caderina o Biancu
90.
Sanu 
91. Serra de Coloras
92. Serra Pantaleo
93. Tanca Etza (sa)
94. Tanca de su Re (sa)
95. Terrelas
96. Sinnadolzu
97. Sue Zunis o de sas Paghes
98. Tetti
99. Tiriales
100. Truddariga
101. Turturina
102. Tuvuleddu
103. Ui (Reggia Nuragica)
NOTE: Other toponyms or nuraghes’s names which could not be found but which are present in the memory of some old people: Su Bomberi, Istampa e' Abbas, s'Argentu, su Tragliu, Aidu Ebbas, Barrasone, Cambinu, Canudu, Sa Toa, Fustelarzos, Lazu segadu, Majore,Marena, Mannu, Spinudria, Tres Signoras, Laccana, Giolzi Crilpu, Istampa de abbas.
1. Bellimpiattu o Badu de Muzeres
2. Cudinatos
3.
Culu
de saccu 
4. Mesana (sa)
5. Furrighesos (sos)
6. Monte Pertusu (necropolis)
7. Moronzanos 1
8.
Moronzanos 2 
9. Murrone (necropolis)
10. Peruchi o Badu Olta
11. Pianos (sos)
12. Sambinzos
They differ one from the other and are scattered in great
numbers here and there. I shall indicate a few of them in the following territories:
Cacchile, Sa Tanca de su RE, Badde de Matta, s’Istria, Serra de Coloras, Massidda,
Meddaris and others.
About ten sarcophagi are present, wrought in a single
megalith.
An isolated one is to be found in sa Tanca de su Re and in
sos Terrelas.
1. Tombe Badde
2. Cacchile
3. Caddalzu
1 
4. Caddalzu 2
5. Caddalzu 3
6. Corrales
7. Crastu Covaccadu
8. Elighe Entosu (s’)
9. Elighia
10. Ena (s)
11. Figu Niedda (sa)
12. Midda Manna (sa)
13. Monte s’Ozu 1
14. Monte s’Ozu 2
15. Monte s’Ozu 3 
16. Pisciu Accas
17.
Puddu (su)
18.
Serra de Coloras o Culu de Muru
19. Truddariga
Author’s
note: As I previously said, what I wrote is a kind of a work in progress assessment; the
research is still going on, although I believe that a certain percentage of it,
approximately 90%, has already been done. In 
IGM reports 45 nuraghes less than half of those that I listed, no Domus de Janas, Tombs of Giants and all the rest, that I instead presented to you and about which I hope you took pleasure in reading, if for nothing else out of mere curiosity. If you wish to know more, especially concerning recent discoveries, you may contact me, criticizing the information that I have given and adding elements which have not been previously considered in this study. All your contributions will be gratefully accepted and will help complete this research aiming at the reconstruction of the cultural heritage of all of us, the people of Chiaramonti. Mario Unali.
I thank
my dear friend Prof. Angelino Tedde for his kind collaboration. [Translated by L.U.]