Nécropole de Li Curuneddi (Sassari)

Among the hills northwest of Sassari, where once there were only underwood and Mediterranean scrub and today a tangle of roads or highways touches the industrial outskirts of the city, there are numerous traces of Nuragic and pre-Nuragic settlements, mainly "domus de janas "or" houses of the fairies ", so called because - given their small size - they were considered the dwellings of a sort of small female elves; in reality they are hypogea dug mainly in the rock, even 5000 years ago, in which the dead were periodically buried.
The domus de janas, which are miniature reproductions of the houses of their builders, are sometimes isolated, more often grouped to form large necropolis and generally consist of an access compartment and one or two main cells (but there are also examples divided into a large number of environments); moreover they are often enriched with geometric or symbolic decorations in relief: spirals, bull horns, lunar discs ...The archaeological site of Li Curuneddi is located a few kilometers north-west of Sassari, in the Landrigga locality; it can be reached by taking the former SS.291 up to the intersection with the municipal road Li Giosi Nobi.
The necropolis, located in a depression a few meters below the road level, surrounds a cultivated area and consists of a series of domus de janas, some of which, in addition to the usual architectural elements, have central pillars (which give the site its name: "curuneddi" in Sassari dialect means "columns"), numerous niches, a grid of smaller cells communicating with each other, decorations ... and finally also two circular tanks probably used for pressing grapes, which suggest a possible reuse of the premises for residential purposes in later times.The site (coord .: 40.728341, 8.497365) is in no way reported. Being on a private land, it is necessary to ask for access to the owners whose house overlooks the former SS.291.The photo shown here has been taken from Google and belongs to Mr. Javier Jimeno