Nuragic sanctuary of Santa Vittoria

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The Nuragic sanctuary of Santa Vittoria is an archaeological site located in the municipality of Serri, Sardinia, in Italy. The name refers to the Romanesque style church built over a place of Roman worship which rises at the westernmost tip of the site. The Santa Vittoria site was frequented starting from the first phase of the Nuragic civilization corresponding to Middle Bronze Age (1600-1300 BC). Subsequently, from the late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age (1100-900 / 800 BC), the place became one of the most important expressions of the Nuragic civilization and today it constitutes the most important Nuragic complex so far excavated. The presence of a significant layer of ash, found in the excavations, has led to the conclusion that in Roman times the site suffered a serious fire that devastated it completely. The various excavation campaigns, started in 1909 by Antonio Taramelli, extracted objects such as stylized nuraghes, bronze and stone bull protomes, votive weapons, fragments of lamps and numerous ex-voto mostly in bronze consisting of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines and models of everyday objects as well as other important findings that testify the relationships...

The giara (plateau) of Serri has an altitude of over 600 metres (2,000 ft) above sea level, and is a basalt plateau, resting on the limestones of the surrounding plain, naturally defended by deep cliffs. The nuragic sanctuary of Santa Vittoria is located at the south west end of the giara itself, the more erect and less accessible part, while the opposite end has a less steep course. A megalithic support and defense wall was also built around the sanctuary.

The excavated area of the site has an extension of about 30,000 square metres (7.4 acres) but, as a whole, its original extension was 200,000 square metres (49 acres). There are four groups of buildings built at different times:

- the corridor protonuraghe dating back to the Middle Bronze Age (1600-1300 BC);

- the tholos nuraghe, which incorporated the pre-existing protonuraghe, dating back to the Recent Bronze Age (1300-1100 BC);

- the well temple, the nearby "hypetral" (open air – without roof) temple, the sacred way; the two in antis temples, the first known as priest's hut and the other, located further north, known as chief's hut. All of them were built in the period between the final Bronze Age and the first Iron Age (1100 - 900/800 BC);

- the enclosure of the feasts (also enclosure of the meetings), coeval of the well temple, along whose inner perimeter are placed, facing the large internal area: a long porch, huts with benches and seats, the founders' hut, the market, three huts including that of the double-headed ax, the kitchen;

- a group of buildings consisting of houses, including that of the double baetylus - from the name of the sacred artefact found there - belonging to the period between the final Bronze Age and the early Iron Age (1100 - 900/800 BC);

- a fourth group of buildings, on the east side of the site, where the enclosure of tortures and the curia are located. They were built in the period between the final Bronze Age and the early Iron Age (1100 - 900/800 BC) The buildings were imaginatively named by archaeologists and can take on different names depending on the publication, which can be misleading. For example, the enclosure of the feasts is also called the enclosure of the meetings and the curia is named hut of the meetings. Therefore, to uniquely indicate the buildings, the number that was attributed to them by Taramelli in his general representation of the site is used. However, when his plan was published in 1931, due to the graphic format of the volume, a large empty portion of land between the enclosure of the feasts and the group of houses and the curia was eliminated. All plans published subsequently, and also the one exposed to visitors of the archaeological, site maintain the same error. Only the aerial photographs give its real size.

Near the western edge of the site, close the church of Santa Vittoria, the remains of a nuragic tower are found. It was built with rows of basalt blocks and has an external diameter of about 7.5 metres (25 ft) with slits splayed inwards and dates to the recent Bronze Age (1300-1220 BC). From the tower starts a corridor about 8 metres (26 ft) long and 1 metre (3.3 ft) high supported by two wings of jutting out basalt blocks that originally formed a covering. The corridor reaches the wall at the edge of the plateau. The megalithic structures between the corridor and the wall have been attributed to a protonuraghe dated to the Middle Bronze Age (1500 - 1330 BC). On the ruins of this complex, a staircase of white limestone slabs was erected in Roman times which led to a small building, rectangular on the outside and almost circular inside, built in masonry with cocciopesto ( Opus signinum ) floor and tiled roof. Taramelli identified this building as the "aedes victoriae" or shrine of victory in memory of the Roman victory over the Sardinians and the destruction of the nuragic sanctuary. According to Taramelli this title gave the name to the church and then to the entire site.

The well temple is the most important place in the whole sanctuary, such as to be recognized first and immediately subject to excavation. The well temple was erected with isodomic masonry, with regular rows of well-squared blocks of basalt and limestone that give a two-tone effect. It impressed Taramelli for its construction without mortar. It has a residual height of about 3 metres (9.8 ft) below ground level and about 1.2 metres (3.9 ft) above it and consists of a circular well of about 2 metres (6.6 ft) in diameter. The sacred water collects in a basin with a rounded bottom at the base of the well through special holes in the wall that allow rainwater to filter through. The wall is very regular and is made of twenty rows of black basalt stones, very well worked in the visible part and wedge-shaped in the part in contact with the rock well.

The staircase that descends to the basin is composed of 13 steps and has a slightly trapezoidal passage that narrows at 50 centimetres (20 in) at the base. The staircase ceiling is stepped. The shape of the ruins suggests that the well had, like other sacred wells, an elevated tholos vault and that the two wings of the access hall, equipped with seats, could be covered with a double-pitched stone roof and a triangular tympanum similar to the Su Tempiesu at Orune, whose façade remains leaning against the rock. The vestibule of the temple is almost square in shape and is contained in the two lateral wings of the temple. The flooring is made of white limestone slabs coming from Isili (about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away) perfectly interconnected without the use of binder.

Near the staircase there was a rectangular altar with a concavity equipped with a drain hole, which in turn gave onto a transverse channel which allowed the outflow of the liquids produced by the sacrifices without mixing them with the sacred waters of the well.

The temple is surrounded by a temenos, sacred enclosure, elliptical in shape, which had the function, as in other temples, to separate the temple from the rest of the site. The fence is built in megalithic work, that is with rough-hewn and not perfectly squared stones like those of the well.

The practice of ordeal and the treatment of infirmities ( sanatio ) in the Sardinian water sources, confirmed by the presence of many ex-votos, is mentioned by Gaius Julius Solinus who, in the 3rd century AD, reports that «springs, hot and wholesome, well up in many places. They offer a cure for broken bones, and for the dispelling of poison inserted by solifugae, and also for the curing of eye diseases. But what cures eyes is also powerful for discovering thieves. For whosoever denies a theft with an oath, and washes his eyes with these waters sees more clearly if he has not perjured himself. If a man falsely denies perfidy, his crime is revealed by blindness; captured by his eyes, he is driven to confess.»

It is a building of rectangular shape 5.80 by 4.80 metres (19.0 by 15.7 ft) oriented N-S with a structure of basalt blocks of squared isodome masonry and probable access from the south. The thickness of the walls is between 1.60 to 2 metres (5.2 to 6.6 ft). It was excavated in 1919-20. It could have been a basin for ritual dives into the water that overflowed from the nearby well temple and flowed into it through a channel that was mistakenly eliminated during excavations. The work is very damaged because its stones were largely used for the construction and restoration of the nearby church of Santa Vittoria during the Middle Ages and subsequently. The fact that this building was a temple would be reflected in the presence of two altars, the first one being the larger (3.40 by 1.50 metres (11.2 by 4.9 ft)) which could be used for sacrifices of large animals, while the second one, smaller, would have been dedicated to the sacrifices of smaller animals. Next to the smaller altar there is a rectangular compartment perhaps used for the conservation of the ex-votos. Numerous bronze and silver artefacts were found inside the temple, including Nuragic bronze statuettes of animals and fragments of a two-wheeled chariot from the 9th-8th century BC. Among the bronze statuettes, the "village chief" (today preserved in the Museo archeologico nazionale di Cagliari - National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari) deserves attention. It represents a male figure with his left hand raised in greeting and a long stick with a knob in the right hand. The face has an elongated nose and thick eyebrows. He wears a rounded cap and a cloak that wraps around his shoulders. The figure wears a V-neck tunic in front of which hangs a hilted dagger.

Here were also found the probable remains of an Etruscan necklace consisting of elements of amber with a rectangular outline and an oval section, decorated with transverse ribs ascribed to the Final Bronze, around the beginning of the ninth century BC. Also of Etruscan origin were a double-foil silver disc adorned with studs, attributed to the period 700-675 BC and possibly a ciborium cover or a reproduction of a miniature shield, and several bronze sheet vases, reduced to fragments by the fire that devastated the site in Roman times.

With a length of about 50 metres (160 ft) the sacred way joins the well temple with the hypetral temple. In order to obtain a flat path, it is made in part by leveling the basaltic bottom of the plateau and in part paved with blocks placed on an embankment. It is between 3 and 4 metres (9.8 and 13.1 ft) wide.

Located immediately south of the hypetral temple it is a circular construction with an external diameter of about 8 metres (26 ft) and a wall made of basalt blocks. Originally it had a conical roof, covered with straw and supported by wooden beams. The building has an entrance from the south which is preceded by a rectangular atrium (hence the name in antis : in the front) equipped with a seat on the west wing only. The excavations have brought to light a particular bronze statue representing a maimed figure who offers his hanger and which has been interpreted as an ex-voto.

Group of the in antis temple chief's hut