The S’Urachi site is located on the plateau of the so called Campidano Maggiore, at a distance of about ten kilometres from the sea. This is a complex Nuraghe, still mostly underground but with a clearly defined layout: a central unit, with tower and courtyard with three or four side towers; the surrounding defence wall reinforced by at least seven, but most likely, ten towers.
The monument, which currently measures 60 m in diameter and reaches a height of 5-6 m, can be regarded as one of the key Nuraghe on the island. It was Giovanni Lilliu who started with the first digs in 1948, bringing to light part of the polyfoil Nuraghe. The excavation allowed for the continuity of the settlement between the Bronze age and the Republican era, to be ascertained.
From 2013, the site has been part of the S’Urachi project, a collaborative project between the Municipality of San Vero Milis and Brown University in close collaboration with the Archaeological Heritage Authorities for the Province of Cagliari and Oristano and the department of Prehistory and Archaeology at the University of Valencia. The project helps investigate the occupation stages from the Iron Age to the Roman period. Recent research has not only covered the Bronze era but has provided the identification of the different stages during the Punic and Roman eras.
Most likely, it comes from the Nuraghe, the so called “bronze torch holder”, better described as thymiaterion or incense burner.
