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In
keeping with the grandiose architecture of the nuraghi were
the so-called “giants’tombs",
mausoleums for the burial of eminent families.
It was in this period
that the funerary monuments called the tombs of the giants on
account of their great size
and capable of holding up to two hundred bodies were set up. S'Ena
'e Tomes is one the best preserved.
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S'Ena
'e Thomes |
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They
are monumental
structures with a regular plan
and apse, preceded by large open spaces
in the shape of
a semicircle or circle
of the funeral ceremonies.
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Coddu
Vecchiu giant's grave |
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Its
entrance is in the form of an arched stele, an enormous slab of
carefully tooled and decorade rock, whose lower part may present
life on earth, whereas the upper part is thought to symbolise the
sky and the divinities.The
ground plan of the building is similar to that of an ox's head
with horns consisting of
a semicircular wall on either side
of the entrance. |
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It
suggests the image of the Bull God
that the nuragici continued
to venerate along with
the Mother Goddess.The divinities are also represented
by conical stones known
as baityloi set in the ground to war off evil. Stelae were later replaced
by rows of stones.
The
plan, however, remained much the
same and the tombs themselves continued
to be places of worship
and prayer.
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S'Ena
'e Thomes |
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Inside
there are long cells with projecting walls. In the space of
time between 1900/1800 and 1000 BC they acquired different
features. The most remote,
roughly made, are in
the form of a tall curved stele.
The most
recent (1300 to the end of the second millennium), in square-hewn
stone, have a chamber with an ogival section
covered with a boat-shaped superstructure
which symbolised the passing of the dead to the afterlife. |
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They
have a ritual astronomic position,
for they are all exposed to
the soud-east, some facing the points where the
moon risers others
facing other stars. |
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