‘The Dead are Watching Us’: A Landscape Study of Prehistoric Rock-cut Tomb Cemeteries in Ossi, Sardinia, Italy

Abstract

The island of Sardinia is well known for its Late Neolithic and Copper Age underground rock-cut tombs that were used over generations for collective burials. Many tombs were decorated to resemble house interiors and cemeteries are often referred to as villages of the dead. Research so far has focused on excavating stratigraphic contexts within some of these monuments, or on typological classifications of tomb plans and wall decorations, but the landscape context of the cemeteries and their relationship to settlements have been overlooked. The article presents the results of two seasons of survey in Ossi (north-west Sardinia), focusing on two major cemeteries (Mesu ‘e Montes and S’Adde ‘e Asile). Combining fieldwalking, mapping and 3D recording techniques, the survey provides a comprehensive documentation of the cemeteries (from the underground architecture of individual tombs to their landscape setting) and yields evidence of prehistoric settlements in their vicinity. The article discusses the topographic and visual relationships between the tombs and the residential areas and how they may reflect social interactions between the living and the dead in late prehistoric Sardinia.

Neolithic settlement and paleopedological changes during the Middle Holocene in northern Sardinia (Italy)

“…No conclusive evidence of residential structures was found during the archaeological excavations. Only recently, rectangular structures -ascribed to the Late Neolithic-Early/Mid Copper Age according to the lithic and ceramic assemblages -were identified not far from Contraguda (Robin et al, 2022), and are the only examples of Neolithic houses discovered in the region so far. Significantly, the dumping of domestic waste into pits nearby the residential areas appears to be a common practice among the Middle Neolithic-B communities, as it was documented at the site of Su Mulinu Mannu dated to the same time interval of Contraguda (Ucchesu et al, 2017), and among other Mediterranean settlements such as that of Neolithic Çatalhöyük (Portillo et al, 2019) or Catignano in Central Italy (Boschian and Colombo, 2009).…”

“…From 6000 to ca. 5500 BP, the island was characterized by the spread of the Late Neolithic Ozieri cultural aspect, which featured the rise of rock-cut tombs, whose rectangular modules resembled the open-air house structures (Robin et al, 2022). It eventually gave way to the Early Copper Age culture called Sub-Ozieri (Melis, 2013).…”