Two monoliths in Barbagia reopen the mystery of Sardinia before the nuraghi
Discovered by chance in Ovodda, the two blocks with circles and spirals are now in the Sassari laboratories; in Paestum, on October 30, an international award will choose among five archaeological discoveries.
In the countryside of Ovodda, in Barbagia, two monoliths engraved with circles and spirals were found by chance and transferred to the Sassari laboratories. The artifacts could date back at least six thousand years, but the final word still rests with the restoration currently underway.
It is a discovery that, if the dating is confirmed, would place the two blocks in an era preceding the Nuragic civilization, adding a piece to a phase of Sardinian prehistory still poorly documented materially. The caution regarding the chronology is the point that must be kept firm: it is not yet an established fact, but a hypothesis that the laboratory will have to confirm or correct in the coming months, as analyses on the two blocks proceed.
While Sardinia awaits the results of the restoration, the international archaeology calendar brings another event to Paestum. On October 30, during the twenty-eighth edition of the Borsa Mediterranea del Turismo Archeologico, the International Archaeological Discovery Award will be given to one of five finalist discoveries for 2025. Among these are a Roman hypogeum-mausoleum in Albania and the submerged port of Taposiris Magna, in Egypt: two sites that testify to the geographic variety of this year’s candidates.
The coexistence of a discovery still to be dated in Sardinia and an award that compares sites from three continents tells of two different speeds within the same discipline: on one hand, the long time of restoration and scientific verification, on the other, the public recognition that comes when fieldwork has already been completed. On October 30 it will be known which of the five candidates will prevail, while for the Sardinian monoliths the outcome of the restoration still has no indicated date.
