The Menhirs of Sorgono

In Sardinia it is possible to spot the presence of forms of art of prenuragic cult, whose settlement seems to be facilitated by the mild weather and by the cultural temperament of our ancestors. The megalithic core of Biru’e Concas represents an exemplar proof of this and it is situated in the territory of Sorgono, in Nuoro, in the historical region of the Mandrolisai.


The site is in the small town Coa ‘e sa Mandara, a hill of about six hundred meters above the sea level delimited by the Mannu River, that is characterized by the feature of being a fertile area, full of spring water. In the beginnings, a natural environment inclined to breeding and to agriculture, that has ever been representing a crux for the communication ways, because it is situated along the natural connections that link the Gennargentu to the Campidano and Sarcidano.

It is here, in the suggestive and small core of the most traditional Sardinia, that it was discovered one of the most significant lineups of the Menhirs of the Mediterranean Sea: the Archaeological Park of two hundred megalithic buildings dated back between the final Neolithic (3200-2800 Before Christ) and the Eneolithic (2800-1800 Before Christ).


The collection of the menhirs is incredibile, not only because of the various kinds that are present (anthropomorphic, protoanthropomorphic and not pictographic), but also for their original position kept during the time. They are arranged in a couple or isolated or in a triad, according to vast circular lineups that can include almost twenty menhirs.


So, they consist in a complex of megalithic lineups, that, according to a cultural current of academics, represented the astronomical papers (or astronomical observatories), defining time and space and able to indicate solstices and equinoxes, as well as the basic phases of the Celtic culture.

Moreover, their importance is given by the position of the plain, situated in the middle of Sardinia, for longitude and latitude, proved by the satellite observation.
In association to the dislocation of elevation it is observed the sacredness of the site, under the presence of the menhirs, whose origin derives from two Breton words, namely “men”(stone) and “hir” (deep, high) – indeed the word means “high stone”, with the side addressed from East to West.


It is considered possible by the experts that menhirs represented some contact points with the afterlife – so it would derive the idea of sacredness strongly linked to the monolithic columns anchored into the stone. The site of Biru’e Concas is deeply indicative of this cultural current, such that it was called the “Sardinian Stonehenge”.


About this discovery of remote origin, Sorgono offers the social opportunity, as well as educational, of visiting an archaeological site where it dominates the history of our ancestors.