Most impressive of all are the many archaeological sites scattered among sun-baked vineyards, Bronze Age forts with towers to climb and secret corridors to discover, and ceremonial stones with patterns carved by long-ago hands that can still be traced by modern-day fingers. “Just think how old this is,” I reflected, as we looked through the arched entrance of an ancient burial chamber in Arzachena called the Giants’ Tomb. “Is it older than you, Daddy?” wondered Matty. “Yes, it’s older than me! It’s been here for 3,000 years!” “Older than Grandma?” he asked. “No, of course not older than Grandma,” I assured him, for everyone knows that Grandma is as old as the sea itself.
Essentials
Planet Travel Holidays (planettravelonline.com, 01273 921001) is an award-winning ATOL-bonded specialist in luxury ocean-sports holidays, and offers tailor-made trips to Sardinia. A one-week package, including accommodation a short drive from the water sports centre in Porto Pollo and beginners’ instruction (including equipment hire) in paddleboarding, windsurfing, wing foiling, kiteboarding or scuba diving, is available from £1,400-2,000pp (excluding flights).
Bronze Age Sardinia
Bronze Age archaeology can be found all over Sardinia, and there are said to be as many as 7,000 sites in total. These constructions – dating from around 1500 BC – were the work of the Nuragic people, a civilisation that thrived for 1,000 years until conquered by the Carthaginians and subsequently the Romans. The island sat on various trade routes, and the Nuragic people seem to have thrived by selling valuable raw materials such as copper and lead.
The prosperity of these ancient islanders is reflected in the sophistication not only of some of the decorative and religious pieces they left behind (including bronze statuettes) but of the buildings they lived in and the places where they buried their dead. Most intriguing are the so-called nuraghes, which are unique to Sardinia. These round towers (looking like stocky stone beehives) were set at the heart of villages, and their function is not known for sure: they may have been the residences of the village leaders, fortified defences, temples or spaces used for meetings.
Nuraghe La Prisgiona in Arzachena – 15 miles south of Porto Pollo – offers a fabulously well-preserved example, its nuraghe reaching 6m high and containing steps and various chambers. It is flanked by a pair of smaller side towers, while beyond are the surviving walls of nearly 100 village buildings. These include huts grouped in little clusters linked by paved passages, which were probably used by different craftspeople for making goods that were sold beyond the village itself. There’s a well, too, at the bottom of which archaeologists found decorated jugs placed there as part of some sort of ritual ceremony.
Nuraghe La Prisgiona is one of seven sites – including the nearby Giants’ Tomb, a horseshoe-shaped, covered stone corridor where villagers were buried – that make up the Arzachena Archaeological Park (single site admission €7 [£6], combined ticket €25 [£21], children under 12 free).