(ORDO NEWS) — Their purpose is currently unknown, but two more disc-eyed giants from Montier Prama have been discovered in Sardinia.
The Iron Age funerary necropolis of Mont’e Prama on the Italian island of Sardinia has been a source of great archaeological mystery for the past 50 years.
The site was first discovered by local farmers in March 1974 on agricultural land near Mont’e Prama, in the commune of Cabras, in central-western Sardinia, Italy.
It was here that the so-called “Giants of Montier Prama” were discovered. This collection of ancient stone sculptures of giants with large disc-shaped eyes is also known as “boxer statues”.
Although it is clear that the giants of Mont’e Prama were created by the people of the Nuragic culture of ancient Sardinia, the purpose of these Gargantuan monuments is currently unknown.
However, on Saturday afternoon, the Italian Ministry of Culture announced that “two more giant naked torsos” had been discovered by researchers at Mont’e Prama.
In this case, the two giants were covered by a large shield, which allowed the researchers to accurately date them to between 950 and 730 BC.
Originating in the early Bronze Age, the Nuragic civilization took its name from the Sardinian “nuraghe” – stone fortresses with high towers.
Most of these structures were erected around 1800 BC, and today at least 7,000 nuraghe are scattered across the ancient Sardinian landscape. It was from these stone fortresses that the Nuraghe defended their dominance over Sardinia until the 2nd century AD.
Many of you have already noticed that the Sardinian Nuraghe resembles, and may have functioned similarly to, the Pictish brochas of the 2nd century in northern Scotland.
These stone towers were inhabited daily by the leaders of the communities and their families, they became shelters for people and animals, being attacked by warring tribes and foreign invaders.
Italian Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini said the two giant stone torsos are officially called “Cavalupo-type boxers,” meaning they are either warriors, or archers, or boxers with shields and armed with gloves.
Monica Stochino, superintendent of the culture ministry for southern Sardinia, said the statues are made of limestone, which is soft and brittle.
Therefore, archaeologists need more time to extract two huge torsos from the surrounding deposits, which have hardened like clay.
An article in Arkeonews says that since the discovery of the site in 1974, “thousands of fragments” of giant human figures have been found at Montier Prama.
Although their original purpose remains shrouded in mystery, archaeologists have collected about 40 statues to date, and while none of them are complete, they all stand over 2 meters (6.56 feet). In addition, they all depict warriors, archers or nuraghi boxers.
Archaeologists believe that the disk-shaped eyes of giants and oriental-style clothing probably depicted the mythological heroes of the Nuragic culture, who were buried to symbolically guard the burial site.
However, other archaeologists believe that the statues depict deities from the Nuragic pantheon. However, these two interpretations are relatively limited and do not take into account inspiration from the land of the living.
The Polynesian Easter Island, formerly known as Rapa Nui, is famous for its monumental giant moai statues, which were created in the 13th-16th centuries.
According to author Jo Anna Van Tilburg, these huge-headed carved human figures are believed to be “the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors (aringa ora ata tepuna)”.
Perhaps the giants from Montier Prama, Sardinia also reflect the bodies and faces of the ancestors who taught them to survive on an island locked in the ocean?
We will never know for sure what the big-eyed giants were, but as archaeologists continue to excavate at Monte Prama in Sardinia, it is only a matter of time before new statues appear to replenish the army of giants.
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