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Archaeology
- Prehistoric Monuments of Sardinia
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Nuragic Palace
Santu Antine
Torralba (Sassari)
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The
nuraghe is surrounded by a dozen or so huts, these too from the
nuragic age, and by a late Roman settlement. The monument is of
the trilobed type, with sinuous, vaguely triangular contours and
rounded corners. Like all similar buildings, it is basically divided
into two distinct, but closely related parts: the central tower
("mastio" - sacred site) and the triangular bastion,
including three corner towers and a courtyard.
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THE
MASTIO:
is 17.55 m high (originally it would have reached 21m). At the
top there was originally a terrace with corbels, which cannot
have been very different from more familiar medieval towers. The
diameter at the bottom, incorporated for the most part by the
bastion is 15.50 m high, reduced at the summit to 10.23m. The
entire construction is in basalt with irregular cyclopean layering
in the lower part, more regular and refined towards the top.
The inside is divided into three circular "thalos" cellae,
superimposed. From the first cella, situated on the floor of the
courtyard, a corkscrew stairway formed from the rock leads upwards
to what would have been the terrace.
Before the construction of the bastion, the internal areas received
light through seven small window slits .
THE BASTION:
Access to the bastion was via the courtyard. Measurements along
the NS and EW axes were 38.80 and 39.90m respectively; at the
highest point now, the bastion reaches 7.40m (perhaps originally
10m for the screens and 14m for the corner towers). It was constructed
with fairly regularly-shaped basalt blocks.
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THE
COURTYARD:
This is the biggest known for a nuraghe, with a well to the west.
From the courtyard one can access the covered "a thalos"
areas of the corner towers as well as the already mentioned central
mastio.
DATING:
The monument originated in the Middle Bronze Age and was used
until the Iron Age.
Text
by Dr. Giovanni Idili translated into English by Laurence
Gambella 
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