Nuragic sanctuary of Santa Vittoria
Italy · Europe
About
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 Nuragics had with the Etruria, Phoenicia and Cyprus.
The discovery of objects and coins of various mints highlight the continuity in use of the site in the subsequent Punic, Roman, Byzantine and medieval periods.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.