Byzantine Tomb

In the countryside between Nuraminis and Villagreca there are numerous signs of human presence from the third millennium B.C. to the present, passing through the Bronze Age in the midst of the Nuragic period and the Byzantine period. In this area we can find various archaeological finds including the Byzantine Tomb. It is also called the “tomb of St. Constantine” because it stands a short distance from the Villagreca cemetery known to scholars for the memory of an ancient church so named and now disappeared, the ruins of which were demolished in the 1900s precisely to enlarge the cemetery. The grave was discovered during the 1890s, when the owner of the field plunged with the farm vehicle into a sinkhole in the ground, near an outcropping structure that turned out to be a semi-hypogean burial and from its location it is assumes that it may be part of a larger necropolis related to the nearby church. It is characterized as a typical small chamber tomb, made of local stone blocks of medium and small size, consisting of an entrance with walls at the entrance on either side and an irregular barrel-vaulted chamber, the floor is also composed of regular but small stones. Its approximate date, yet to be confirmed, appears to be between the 7th and 9th centuries. Bones belonging to several individuals of different ages were found inside the burial, without any grave goods; this detail, together with the absence of some portions of the cover, led to speculation that the grave was likely subject to clandestine excavation. For some years now, the area and the associated tomb have been the subject of more in-depth archaeological study, as evidenced by excavations in 2021 that uncovered the entire burial.

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