The archaeological site of Sa Carcaredda can be found near the town of Villanova Strisaili. It overlooks a landscape of the most symbolic aspects of the mountainous Ogliastra area: in the distance, the heel of Perda Liana, and to the west, the Gennargentu massif. Not far off, we find the natural waterfalls of Bau Mela, which form fresh, evocative pools.
The Sa Carcaredda area bears witness to what remains of a vast Nuragic village; it consists of a small Nuragic temple and six Tombs of the Giants.
The small temple has two quadrangular chambers which slot into a circular room. It is a megaron type temple: the circular shape of the cell differentiates it from the more canonical examples of this kind which were generally rectangular. Blocks of limestone decorated with deep engravings were found inside which, when put together, reproduce a quatrefoil nuraghe.
In the thick forest, two hundred metres from the temple, you come to the first Tomb of the Giants, which has been well preserved and is monumental in size. The rituals linked to the worship of the dead, buried inside the passageway behind the large central stele were held in the vast semicircular space cordoned off by the exedra. The second tomb can be found further into the forest, it too very well preserved.
The incredible findings uncovered inside the small circular temple, like the numerous bronze statues, the copper bars and amber jewellery, highlight the cultural and commercial central position held by these mountain locations in the Bronze and Iron Age in Sardinia. The exceptional quality of the bronze votive material is proof of the presence of an elite people capable of guaranteeing the supply of raw material from the distant metal mines in Sardinia and of negotiating exchanges with the most important production locations in the Aegean world, especially Cyprus.
