At MANN in Naples, the exhibition on Sardinia Megalithic Island, the only Italian stop

Following its success at three international institutions (the National Museum for Prehistory and Protohistory in Berlin, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and the National Archaeological Museum in Thessaloniki), from June 10 to Sept. 11, the exhibition Sardinia Megalithic Island arrives in Italy, at the MANN in Naples. From menhirs to nuraghi: stories of stone in the heart of the Mediterranean. The exhibition, curated by Federica Doria, Stefano Giuliani, Elisabetta Grassi, Manuela Puddu and Maria Letizia Pulcini, with the coordination of Bruno Billeci and Francesco Muscolino sees Manfred Nawroth, Yuri Piotrovsky, Angeliki Koukouvou and Paolo Giulierini on the scientific committee, and represents the only Italian stage of the project that has taken Sardinia’s finds around Europe. The event, promoted by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia as part of Heritage Tourism’s multi-year project dedicated to archaeology, reveals to the public evocative stories, material evidence, and fascinating civilizations, in many ways yet to be discovered, and showcases one of the famous stone sculptures of the Warriors of Mont’e Prama, on whose dating there is still much debate.

Five oak trees welcome visitors to the Atrium of the MANN: not surprisingly, they are plants, typical of Sardinia, to emphasize the common roots between different cultures. The parallelism of botany, also suggested by the display of typical island aromas (myrtle reigns supreme) in the flower beds of the gardens of the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, opens the way for cultural suggestions. The exhibition, which has come to Naples, is enriched on the initiative of the MANN by in-depth studies and collateral events, which open, as in the line of the Neapolitan museum, to the intersection of languages. First of all, as in the foreign stops of Sardinia Megalithic Island, also at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples the exhibition dialogues with the Institute’s permanent collections: in this case the symmetries are established, of course, with the Prehistory and Protohistory Section of the MANN.

In room CXXVII (127), in particular, the Nuragic objects in the grave goods from the so-called Osta 4 and Osta 36 Tombs from Cuma (first half of the 8th century BCE) are highlighted through ad hoc graphics. The finds may have come to Campania through Villanovan “intermediation”: between the Final Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, in fact, there was a consolidated circulation of things and people between the centers of coastal Etruria and Sardinia. The discovery of the Osta tombs (the name is derived from Ernesto Osta, who led the excavation of 36 early Iron Age pit tombs in the necropolis of Cumae) occurred during the brief period of time when Piedmontese academic Ettore Pais served as director of the National Museum of Naples (1901-1904). Pais, who made his mark on the history of Sardinian museography (he founded the Archaeological Museum of the University of Sassari and directed the Museum of Antiquities in Cagliari), tried to stem the phenomenon of clandestine excavations in the Cumaean necropolis by granting excavation licenses to private individuals, including Ernesto Osta himself, in order to bring their actions back under state control. The exhibition, therefore, features an in-depth study dedicated to the scholar who, in his intense research activity, delved into the history and culture of Sardinia before and after its conquest by the Romans.

Also on display, thanks to the collaboration with the Campania Regional Museums Directorate, is a section on the Nuragic materials found: these are four buttons, a triple spiral pendant and a miniature biconical basket, on loan from the National Archaeological Museum in Pontecagnano and found in Iron Age contexts.

From archaeology to the new languages of communication.

From June 10, accompanying the exhibition, visitors can also immerse themselves in "NURAGICA," an original multisensory format that has been very successful in Sardinia. In the rooms adjoining the Meridiana Hall, the experience proposed to the public has two declinations. First, the route with 1:1 scale reproductions of a series of monuments: the tomb of the giants; the nuraghi (in section); a sacred spring; the hut of meetings; and the sculptural complex of Mont’e Prama. On display, again, planned is the reconstruction of the tools of some metallurgical workshops and the presentation of the map with the main Mediterranean shipping routes to and from Sardinia. The second segment of NURAGICA is the virtual reality room: visitors, wearing special visors, are able to experience the feeling of walking through an ancient megalithic settlement.

he focus on Sardinia also makes it possible to enhance the link with the Barumini Foundation, which, from August 2021, will host itineraries made also with MANN artifacts: among them, the exhibition on the Etruscans inaugurated last May. On the occasion of Sardegna Isola Megalitica, the Barumini Foundation will present a model of the nuraghe ’SuNuraxi,’ recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, on display. Also, included in the display are some mannequins with traditional clothes and the masks of Ottana, Merdules, Boes and Filonzana (the masks are provided thanks to the collaboration with the social promotion association “Gruppo Boes e Merdules”).

Educational appointment for next July 14, with the day dedicated entirely to Barumini. For the occasion, the Foundation will present educational workshops open to children and families: during the day it will be possible to taste typical local products and listen to traditional Sardinian music in an evocative concert with launeddas. Finally, in collaboration with CoopCulture, throughout summer 2022, children’s campuses will have as their main theme the enhancement of Sardinian culture.

The itinerary of the exhibition Sardinia megalithic island.

Sardinia is increasingly being recognized by international scholars as playing a leading role in prehistoric and protohistoric times: a nerve center that, from the contacts established on the Mare Nostrum routes, stretched out toward continental Europe and eastern merchants. An island that has seen unique cultures and civilizations develop over the millennia, capable of giving rise to fine art and monumental evidence. Myth and legend have often crossed history in the interpretation of ancient Sardinian civilizations, societies without state and writing still the focus of studies and excavations. Sardegna Isola Megalitica gives an account of the most recent research directions: it is megalithism, that is, the aptitude for the construction of buildings with large-scale lithic elements, that is configured as the red thread chosen for the exhibition itinerary: this tendency distinguished the island for a long period of time, from the Neolithic Age up to the entire Bronze and Iron Ages, marking the Sardinian landscape through the legacies of the Nuragic civilization (about 7 thousand buildings called precisely “nuraghi”).

The exhibition route starts from the final period of the Neolithic, when some peculiar architectural and Sardinian structures became widespread: the "domus de janas," dug into the rock (in the Sardinian language the “fairy or witch houses”) and characterized by later monumentalized facades, and the dolmens. For the Copper Age, insights into the sanctuary of Monte d’Accoddi, a monumental altar unique in the Mediterranean landscape that bears similarities to the ziqquraths of the Near East, and the monumental wall of Monte Baranta.

The exhibition leads, of course, to the heart of the Nuragic civilization, a true symbol of Sardinia’s uniqueness. The nuraghi, built in huge numbers with basalt, trachyte and granite blocks from about 1800 to 1600 B.C., while having great typological and functional variety, were all united by their tholos (roofing system) towers. Nuraghi had multiple functions, intertwining different spheres of daily life, as outlined in the exhibition: food, agriculture and animal husbandry, territorial control, and craft productions. Around them, in many sites, more or less extensive villages developed, sometimes enclosed by equally imposing ante-murals, interspersed with towers. In the same context, megalithism also connoted funerary monuments and places of worship, framing the changes that characterized the forms of religiosity in the long Nuragic phase. The "tombs of giants," for example, are so called at the popular level with reference to the imposing size of the architectural structures, which in the imagination were linked to the gigantism of the deceased. In reality they were collective burials, housing as many as hundreds of individuals and perhaps celebrating ancestor worship. Complex rituals were performed in front of the giants’ tombs and offerings were distributed, often in the presence of representations of deities (betili). Similarly, places of worship and shrines were articulated in numerous building typologies, all marked by megalithism: pit temples, sacred fountains and megaron temples were widespread throughout Sardinia from the Recent Bronze Age onward, and frequently the different structural types coexisted within the same complex. The religiosity of the Nuragic peoples is represented in the exhibition by the conspicuous number of bronze figured votive offerings, the so-called “bronzetti”: these are interesting artifacts that reproduce not only men and women playing different roles in society, but also animals, objects and even buildings. It is precisely the production of figurative bronzes that offers a vivid insight into Nuragic society, with particular reference to clothing, weapons, food and daily habits. Conversely, amber necklaces and vagus, found in excavations over the past 30 years in so many shrines in Sardinia, testify to the island’s close connections not only with the Mediterranean world, but also with the commercial and cultural networks of the peninsula.

Even in the Iron Age (1st millennium B.C.), in a society in which social, economic and constructive dynamics have profoundly changed, nuraghi, although not built for several centuries, continue to be central in the collective imagination as a symbol of a mythical past in which the entire population of the island recognizes itself. As the time of the ingenious and daring builders of nuragic towers ended, miniatures of such buildings, made of stone, ceramics, bronze and even perishable materials and probably used as altars in collective rituals, became widespread. Artifacts that, found in the center at the center of megalithic buildings, were in fact interpreted as “meeting huts.”

The definition of the first social elites that assumed dominance in a territory dates back to this historical phase: at Mont’e Prama, in west-central Sardinia, one of these aristocracies self-represented and self-celebrated itself with a unique sculptural complex consisting of nearly 40 imposingstone statuesof Warriors, Archers and Boxers, as well as models of nuraghi and betili. For the new society, the distant time of heroes became an object of veneration and identity appeal. On display is a testimony to the masterpieces of Mont’e Prama, for the enhancement and management of which a special foundation was established a year ago, born of an agreement between the Mic, the Municipality of Cabras and the Region of Sardinia and chaired by Anthony Muroni: it is a "Boxer“ 190 cm tall with pedestal and weighing about 300 kilograms. Discovered in fragments since the excavations of 1975-1979 and reassembled thanks to exceptionally delicate restoration work, these imposing statues, in their schematic representations made in a conventional geometric style, are unparalleled in the varied artistic and monumental heritage of Sardinia; even today, as the discoveries continue, scholars are debating the different interpretations of the sculptures, One fact, however, is certain: the Nuragic civilization was now in its twilight years. In spite of this, its legacy continues to be legible through the centuries, despite the changing historical horizon: first with the arrival of the Phoenicians, attested along the Sardinian coast from the ninth century BC, again with the taking of the island by Carthage (last glimpse of the sixth century BC), finally with the arrival of the Romans. Even after the Roman conquest (238 B.C.), the Nuragic heritage appears evident, as evidenced by some of the artifacts on display and the epigraphic sources that give us pre-Latin onomastics. Even in the Middle Ages, nuraghi and even ”domus de janas" were subject to reuse, and many medieval villages thickened right around nuragic towers: an evolving world that does not forget its origins.

Sardegna Isola Megalitica is accompanied by a catalog, a Skira / Il Cigno GG Edizioni coedition, available in 5 different languages: Italian, English, German, Russian and Greek.

The exhibition, which received the Medal of the President of the Republic, is part of the Heritage Tourism project funded by the European Union with POR FESR SARDEGNA 2014/2020 funds (Action 6.8.3). The event is promoted by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia#Assessorato del Turismo, Artigianato e Commercio, with the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari, the Regional Directorate of Museums of Sardinia and, for the Neapolitan leg, the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, the event has obtained the Patronage of MAECI and MIC and is supported by the collaboration of the Fondazione di Sardegna and the general coordination of Villaggio Globale International.

The Naples leg of Sardinia Island Megalithic is organized in collaboration with the Campania Region and the City of Naples. Intesa Sanpaolo is a partner in the exhibition at the MANN. Coordination of the exhibition at the Museum is by Laura Forte (MANN Archaeological Officer); symmetries with the Prehistory and Protohistory Section are enhanced by Giovanni Vastano (MANN Archaeological Officer). The focus on Ettore Pais is by Andrea Milanese (MANN art historian official). The layout of the exhibition in the Salone della Meridiana is by Andrea Mandara with Claudia Pescatori and, for graphics, by Francesca Pavese. Architect Silvia Neri coordinated the layout of NURAGICA and the corner dedicated to Barumini.

The exhibition also includes photographs and films by Nicola Castangia and Maurizio Cossu (Archeofoto Sardegna Association) whose giant photographs tell the story of the beauty of the island’s archaeological sites.

The statements

“With the fourth stop, at the MANN in Naples,” says Christian Solinas, president of the Region of Sardinia, “the itinerary of the international exhibition ”Sardegna Isola Megalitica“ comes to an end. An initiative that is part of an intense path undertaken by the Region to enhance the Sardinian archaeological heritage, a considerable part of the national one. We are aiming to revitalize the Island, also thanks to investments for new development models: culture, and therefore cultural tourism, represents a possible scenario, in which we strongly believe. In fact, the enhancement of our history, identity and culture are fundamental tools for development and promotion. In the exhibition, hosted in four important European museums, the Nuragic civilization, too often underestimated and neglected, was the protagonist: Sardinia can count on about 7,000 nuraghi that offer an opportunity to relaunch our cultural offer also on the international market, not only as a reference point for scholars, but also for enthusiasts and tourists.”

While for Giovanni Chessa, Councillor for Tourism, Handicrafts and Commerce of the Region of Sardinia: “This great exhibition, which after international successes returns to Italy to the prestigious National Archaeological Museum in Naples, in addition to the consensus of the public (in the foreign stages a total of about 245 thousand visitors to the exhibition), has also received the ’Medal of the President of the Republic.’ This is a well-deserved recognition for the value of this extraordinary event, strongly desired by the Region, which has guaranteed, and will continue to guarantee until September, a concrete return of image and international visibility to Sardinia, its museums and its archaeological heritage, presenting it as a reference point of cultural value in the Mediterranean. Our extraordinary archaeological heritage deserves to be enhanced and promoted, being able to highlight the uniqueness of the history and cultural dimension of Sardinia, which has also become over the years a destination for an important cultural tourism.”

“A project,” point out Francesco Muscolino, director of the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari and acting director until February 2022 of the Regional Directorate of Museums Sardinia and Luana Toniolo as head of the Directorate from March 2022, “that is situated within the framework of an articulated and fruitful collaboration and commonality of purpose between the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, in particular the Department of Tourism, Crafts and Commerce, and the museum institutions of the Ministry of Culture in Sardinia. Indeed, decisive is the contribution of the Cagliari Museum, which became autonomous in 2020, and two museums in Sassari and Nuoro belonging to the Regional Directorate, which lend the entirety of the nearly 200 exhibits on display.”

“No region in Italy has perhaps maintained such a strong historical and landscape link with the past as Sardinia. In the course of time-consolidated studies, Sardinia’s barycentric position for all those who, since the Bronze Age, had to undertake trade routes or ports of call from East to West has been well clarified. The exhibition tells the general public how, over the millennia, the Sardinian people had continually reshaped themselves, absorbing newcomers and reworking, sometimes actively, sometimes coercively, cultural stimuli. Historical frames change to some extent and are reshaped by an infinite number of women and men who, knowing each other, crossing paths, sometimes fighting, form increasingly symmetrical identities. To go in search of the building blocks of this cultural DNA is, we believe, the most stimulating goal of an exhibition. In this journey archaeology and technology meet to reveal unpredictable horizons,” comments MANN Director Paolo Giulierini.

Sardinia holds the secrets of a grand history," explain curators Paolo Alberto Pinna and Maria Carmela Solinas of Sardinia Experience, the cooperative that conceived and produced the Nuragica format. “With Nuragica it is possible to have an overview for the first time and at the same time walk away excited and incentivized to visit the places on the island narrated along the way.”

“Our presence on this occasion is part of a broader path activated with the Mann thanks to the memorandum of understanding signed in January that is allowing us to develop more broadly our strategies to promote our archaeological and cultural beauties,” stresses Emanuele Lilliu, president of the Barumini Sistema Cultura Foundation.

At MANN in Naples, the exhibition on Sardinia Megalithic Island, the only Italian stop

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