The springs of Via Torino and Via Milano are two of the many karst springs in the Paleozoic hill where the modern town of S. Anna Arresi lies, hence the original toponym of Sant’Anna de Arrius (Lamarmora). Used as early as Neolithic times (4th mill. B.C.) they have favored first the presence of pre-Nuragic communities with a hut settlement of poles and branches, settled on the top of the hill at the height of the two monuments of Christian worship. In Middle Bronze times ( 14th cent. B.C.) the hill was affected by the presence of Nuragic megalithism, the Nuraghe Arresi, which arose to control the plain sloping down to the white beaches of P. Pino. It is at this time that the springs are expanded and protected with granite lintels recovered from the hills of Perdaiola, not far from the affected area.
Excavations and research conducted by the University of Cagliari with E. Atzeni and R. Forresu in the 1970s allowed the recovery of abundant fictile finds related to the rhythms of daily life: hemispherical bowls, neck vases, basket vases, tripods often adorned with extraordinary decorative motifs and painted with red ochre. A remarkable lithic industry in obsidian and flint reveals the skill with which man now works hard stones: spearheads, arrowheads, blades, knives denote hunting skills, skinning and scraping tools used in the processing of hides. The recovery of pestles and grindstones are significant of a now reached maturity in field cultivation.
