Sinis & Bosa

History is trim on the United States: an overlay on the surrounding landscape that shows itself in a turn onto an unexpectedly cobble-stoned street, a stray Native American arrowhead found during an excavation, a stone wall happened across in the middle of a hike. Even where it can be seen, most of it is recent, only four hundred years, with the cliff dwellings of the Southwest and the mounds of the central U.S. the only striking signs of anything older. In Sardinia, history is the foundation upon which the island has been built. Four hundred years ago, the ruins of Tharros had already changed hands several times, been abandoned, and covered by a blanket of soil and brush.

This has been evident throughout my time here, but nowhere more so than this weekend. Our first stop out of Cagliari was at a nuraghe, a massive circular stone structure built using mortarless stone construction during the Bronze Age that has weathered the tests of time to remain as a monument to their capabilities. The fact that the stones have held each other up using only gravity - and without the need for a keystone like an arch - and no mortar for millennia is incredible. Some of the nuraghe were even constructed up to 90 feet in height, incorporating multiple stories of tapering domes, each one then surrounded and built upon.

View of the sky out of the partially collapsed dam of a nuraghe.

View out the entrance of an intact nuraghe chamber.
 

Bosa was less far removed in history, with a medieval castle still older than most permanent structures in the United States, presiding over a neat pastel skirts of rows of houses. The redeveloped tanneries along the river that runs through Bosa are even closer and more familiar, analogous to the brick mill buildings, now offices and apartments, that line riverfronts in many New England cities. It was still distinct in its steep and twisting roads of cobblestones, cemetery replete with stonework mausoleums, and ever-present older abandoned structures visible in the green hills surrounding the city.

The medieval castle in Bosa rising above colorful rows of houses.

Tharros the next day was the culmination of the historical journey, breathtaking viewed from on land and from at sea. The foundations of a Nuraghic village border the excavated remnants of a Phoenician-turned-Carthaginian-turned-Roman town, while a 15th century Spanish tower watches over it all, and a wall that likely predates them all lies submerged under the blue waves beside the ruins. The sheer age of the site is perhaps best put into perspective for an American by the fact that the first archaeological excavation on the site took place decades before the United States were a country. It was a unique experience that has given me even more respect for the sheer wealth of history that Sardinia holds.

One of, if not the, oldest church in Sardinia, with both Greek and Roman influence. Note where the stone changes from green to tan, signifying a renovation in the structure. Located near Tharros.
 
The Spanish tower rising above Punic and Roman ruins at Tharros.

Nuraghe foundations at Tharros.

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