Necropoli di Li Muri di Arzachena

The Neolithic necropolis of Li Muri is the most famous archaeological site in the wide area of Arzachena for its peculiar sepulchres. Discovered in 1939, it consists of small burial cells, originally covered, surrounded by small slabs set in concentric circles. These last were to hold a mound of earth and rubble that covered the sepulchre, to avoid the mound being washed away. So the necropolis was like a set of small round hillocks (from 5,30 to 8,50m diameter) tangent to each other. A menhir, an erect stone upon which a divinity may have been represented, raised in every circle. Near the funeral circles, the archaeologists found three stone cases (about 50x50cm), probably used to keep food offerings for the dead. Some objects from the funeral outfits are finely manufactured, as steatite goblets, flint blades and little triangular smooth stone hatchets. Sepulchres’ typology in this necropolis gives the name to a Neolithic culture (4th millennium BC): the culture of megalithic circles, also called Cultura di Arzachena or Cultura Gallurese.