The Giants of Mont’e Prama
We are archers, warriors, boxers but everyone call us the Giants.
We are the ancient statues of Mont’e Prama, we are the figures of skilled, fearless young men.
Some of us bear the arms of war: the finely-worked pectoral, shield and sword, or the bow with a quiver full of arrows. Others show, on a body wearing only a loincloth with a rear triangle, the arms of ritual boxing: the glove armed with a point and a light curved shield.
All around us, the sacred stones and models of the tall stone towers express the cultural identity of our people, built over the centuries on this great island.
At one time, we stood in serried ranks in the necropolis along the road at the foot of the hill, in western Sardinia, in the countryside of Cabras, in the Sinis district.
Ties of blood and culture join the generations.
We, the statues, represent descent, identity,
the values of a living community.
The type represented is that of the praying archer known from bronze statuettes. Indeed, comparison with the bronzes has been very useful for reconstruction of the missing parts of the stone statue. Unfortunately, since we have no well-preserved heads, we can only assume they were similar to those of the warriors.
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Mysterious places emerge from the past to tell us their stories.
Stories of warriors, archers, boxers. Stories of nuraghi and sacred stones.
The excavation campaigns carried out since the seventies in the archaeological site of Mont’e Prama have brought to light an immense and indefinite number of fragments which continuously increases with the continuation of the excavations.
A necropolis or monumental cemetery where a kind of funerary ritual was probably practised, dedicated to celebrating the lives of young men who lay in their individual tombs, architecturally arranged along a long straight path adorned with monumental statues of warriors, archers and boxers: this is Mont’e Prama.
Inaugurated in 1997, the Giovanni Marongiu civic museum holds important findings regarding the municipal territory of Cabras, from prehistory to roman times.
