The Li Muri Necropolis is the oldest site in the Arzachena area. It dates from around 6,000 years ago, i.e. from the Neolithic period.

The burial circles are among the oldest evidence of Western European megalithism and bear close comparisons with southern Corsica. Burials of this type are also found in the French and Spanish Pyrenees, while in Sardinia it seems to be widespread only in the Gallura region, particularly in the Arzachena region.

The necropolis consists of four burial circles touching each other with variable widths between about 5 and 8.5 meters in diameter.

They are delimited by small slabs fastened with a knife and arranged in concentric circles, which served to house a mound of stones and earth that encircled the tombs, giving them the appearance of four artificial mounds.

Within each circle was a small rectangular stone chest containing one or at most two deceased in a crouched posture.

Each burial was accompanied by a set of valuable objects: flint blades, necklaces of unspecified stone, spheroid buttons (perhaps set in sticks for use as weapons or scepters), axes of polished hardstone, and in one case a sophisticated soapstone chalice indicate this that the deceased were prominent figures in the community.

Traces of red ocher, a substance symbolizing regeneration and used to clean or symbolically cover human remains, have been found in the tombs.

Two large granite menhirs, stone monuments set vertically into the ground with the function of tombstones or symbolic representations of deities or the soul of the deceased, were placed between one circle and another.

Outside the circles there are also small square stone boxes, presumably intended to collect grave goods.

A fifth circle differs from the others both in its secluded location and in the features of the tomb at its center.

The finds found prove a first use in the Neolithic, which is evidenced by fragments of flint blades and beads of a necklace made of steatite; In the Bronze Age (around 1600 BC), this circular grave would then have been converted into an allée couverte, i.e. a communal grave.

gesecoarzachena.it/?page_id=1558

Translated by Google •

Dave Rave

April 9, 2024

The cost of visiting each excavation site is €4 (as of April 2024) and it is open from 10 a.m.

Translated by Google •

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Location: Alzachèna/Arzachena, Tàtari/Sassari, Sardinia, Italy

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