Three new prehistoric Domus de Janas tombs have been discovered in the necropolis of Sant’Andrea Priu in northern Sardinia. These finds bring to total number of tombs found in the necropolis up to 20.
Domus de Janas (meaning “home of the fairies in Sardinian) are rock-cut chamber tombs carved out by several of Sardinia’s pre-Nuragic cultures in the period between 3400-2700 B.C. The chambers were carved to resemble homes, sometimes in extraordinary detail down the beams, wainscotting, hearths, jams and false doors. The walls were often decorated, painted with red ochre and carved or etched with symbols including large connected spirals, zig zags and bull horns. The deceased were painted with red ochre too, and were buried with grave goods from daily life.
The new find is a perfect way to celebrate the Domus de Janas being officially added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There are more than 3,500 Domus de Janas scattered throughout the island among 26 sites. Seventeen of the necropolises were granted World Heritage Site status as “the most extensive and rich manifestation of hypogean funerary architecture in the western Mediterranean.”
The necropolis of Sant’Andrea Priu is one of the more significant grouping of Domus de Janas. It was constructed by the Late Neolithic Ozieri culture (3500–2900 B.C.) with an extraordinary degree of complexity. Three tombs are particularly notable for their outstanding condition and the information they contain about the evolution of pre-Nuragic society, architecture and ritual. The Tomb of the Chief has 18 rooms arranged around two main chambers covering approximately 2700 square feet. Its dimensions makes it one of the largest underground tombs in the Mediterranean region. The Circular Hut Tomb is small comparatively, just a rectangular antechamber and a round main chamber, but its walls are studded with votive niches and the ceiling is decorated with grooves in a sunburst pattern replicating the roof joists of huts from the period. The Chamber Tomb is a reproduction of the architecture of a home, including two pillars and a ceiling carved in the shape of a double pitched roof.
The recent excavation focused on the area between two tombs that showed signs that there might be another tomb. Archaeologists found three instead, arranged in a fan shape radiating out from the Tomb of the Hearth (Tomb XIII).
Tomb XVIII, the first to emerge during the excavation, features a dromos (corridor). Finds include pickaxes, a greenstone axe, a spindle and obsidian fragments. The structure consists of a central quadrangular cell, with a hearth carved in relief, and from there there is access to a rectangular main cell, flanked on the left by an additional smaller chamber. The smaller Tomb XIX features a small pavilion on the outside, while the interior is divided into a rectangular cell and a second smaller, roundish cell. Among the recovered finds are ceramic fragments and a miniature jar. The most complex is Tomb XX, which has an entrance cell from which two side corridors branch off, making a total of seven cells. In one of these a painted decorative band is still visible. The rich grave goods, consisting of more than 30 ceramic artifacts from the Imperial Roman period, earned it the name “Tomb of the Roman Vases.”
The tombs were thousands of years old by the time the Romans used them, but they had been regularly reused over the millennia and were so widely accepted as sacred spaces that even Early Christians used them for burials and painted their own iconographic motifs on the walls.
Excavations will resume in the fall and continue through all of 2026.
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