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<< Books/Products >> Book Review: Gallura preistorica by Paola Mancini

Submitted by SolarMegalith on Friday, 23 February 2018  Page Views: 1676

ReviewsCountry: Italy Region: Sardinia (Sardegna)
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La Prisciona Nuraghe
La Prisciona Nuraghe submitted by SolarMegalith : The main tower and remains of the bastion with lateral towers - view from the NW (photo taken on September 2011). (Vote or comment on this photo)
Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean, and particularly rich in prehistoric monuments. Here, dolmens, allée-couvertes, and domus de janas (rock-cut tombs) date back to the Late Neolithic; the Chalcolithic is represented by statue-menhirs and megalithic enclosures of the Monte Claro culture; while the Bronze Age Nuragic culture cover the Sardinian landscape with over 7000 nuraghi, as well as tombe di giganti, sacred wells and springs.

However, the amount of research done on the prehistoric landscape of Sardinia varies significantly over different parts of the island. For this reason, regional-scale studies and publications are of particular importance. Among these are Paola Mancini’s works on archaeology of Gallura (the North-Eastern Sardinia), the one I’m reviewing being Gallura preistorica, which is a good introduction to prehistory of this region. It should be pointed out that this book is in Italian, but this should not put off dedicated readers as Italian is quite an easy language to pick up if you understand a related language.

Gallura is a rocky and mountainous region, with numerous mountain massifs such as Monte di Deu, Monte Muddetru and others. The North-East of Sardinia was not the main area of the pre-Nuragic or Nuragic occupation, nevertheless each of the periods of later prehistory is represented by important monuments. In the introductory chapter of her book Mancini presents a geographical background of Gallura, as well as the main types of prehistoric monuments (in chronological order) present in this part of the island. Some discussion of settlement patterns and its interpretations are offered, such as the prevalence of corridor nuraghi in Gallura (p. 25), probable strategies of the control of the coastline employed by the Nuragic people (p. 28), and distribution patterns of Late Bronze Age sacred wells (p. 34). The author shows a good knowledge and understanding of the Gallurese prehistory, as she did a lot of research in this region, resulting in her numerous other publications (both books and articles) on archaeology of the North-East Sardinia.

The later part of the book is divided into chapters about different municipalities (comuni) in Gallura and the most important sites in each of them, such as tomba di giganti Su Monte ‘e S’Abe (Olbia), the megalithic wall on Monti Pinu (Telti) and Nuraghe La Prisciona (Arzachena), to name just a few. The sites are documented with good quality colour photographs and plans, and at the end of the book are detailed maps with all of the sites described in municipality chapters accurately marked, as well as a table with coordinates for each of them.

The book is not an attempt of exhaustive documentation and analysis of the prehistoric settlement in Gallura. Rather, it is an introduction to the prehistoric archaeology of this region and a useful guide to visiting the major sites in each of the Gallurese municipalities. As such, Paola Mancini’s book is a good publication which can be recommended to those interested in Sardinian prehistory, especially with her local perspective which allows capture of the diversity of Nuragic settlement patterns across the island.

Among recommended follow-up reading is another book by Mancini: Gallura orientale. Preistoria e protostoria (2010), which offers a much more detailed look at the prehistoric sites in Eastern Gallura.

Review by Cezary Namirski (SolarMegalith)
Publisher: Editrice Taphros
Year: 2012
Pages: 96
ISBN: 9788874321117
Price €14,50
Available from Editrice Taphros
and Amazon.co.uk

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