Fertility and the land

I find it hard to describe my ecstatic excitement at our discoveries today. We went to see one of the best-preserved nuraghi, known as Sta Barbara’s near the town of Macomer.   For a reasonably useful account of these strange structures, do please look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuraghe

What I had not appreciated was how complex these structures are, and how they conform to the great midwinter structures at Knowth, Howth and Newgrange near Drogheda in Ireland. As you perhaps know. we went to see these huge ancient Irish mounds last autumn. The nuraghi have the same essential function and it is hard to know why the learned world of academe so stringently overlooks the blindingly obvious when considering what it was all about.

The essential thing is that these stone towers (or mounds, in the case of Ireland) are perfectly aligned to the December solstice. A shaft of light penetrates the deep gloom of the inner chambers on 21 December, as Father Sun returns to penetrate and reassure Mother Earth. At Newgrange, there is a clear window space above the main portal, rather clitoral I think, and there is exactly the same arrangement at Sta Barbara’s Nuraghe.   The siting of these massive structures - overlooking a vast and compelling landscape in each case - indicates that it was ‘the land’ which was being protected or energised.  

At Macomer, we walked up a mile or so of farm track, guided by drystone walls on either side. Dozens of small lizards scittered away. Small bronze butterflies danced over the flowering fennel and other small wildflowers, and some large whites sniffed and flirted over the convolvulus.  We walked under a bountiful little fig tree and picked up the fallen fruit, and tasted dry little blackberries which scrambled over the lichen-covered walls. As we climbed up towards the tower, the land came into view… 

The tower is massive, much larger than you expect from further down. It has outreaches or bastions, and these are only partly ruined. It is very hard to appreciate the scale of the place.

As you step inside, there are chambers to either side, much more complex in arrangement than Newgrange, which is basically one long tunnel leading into the centre.  But here there are several large chambers, and these each have their own niches in the walls, presumably for votive offerings or rituals.  Inside the main, beautifully corbelled chamber which stretches up into the darkness (I think about 25' high?), we find small rooms leading off, bigger than at Newgrange… and, most excitingly, a beautiful stone staircase right inside the wall, leading up from the right hand side, curving round into terrifying magical darkness. I could not get the torchlight of my phone to work, so groped my way up into the total complete blackness, feeling my way… remembering with gratitude what I had read 3 days ago about Sardinia not being prone to earthquakes. One tiny tremor would probably mean instant immolation and death inside this huge pile of stones.

  

You find another window/door halfway up, slightly to the west of the alignment of the main entrance on the ground floor, but it too has a clitoral window above it.   At the top level, in the open air, very breezy and with fantastic views, it seems some stonework has disappeared… it’s hard to know how it was originally arranged.  We talked with a chatty German/Sardo who came up just after us, and who joked that he’d like to buy it as his house… he wouldn’t be quiet, and he wouldn’t go before we did.  Damn.  

The back of the tower is faced with a large slightly concave wall which is rather theatrical, facing onto a noticeably flat space with no rocks around…. Again it’s hard to know if that was the original arrangement, but it looks very communal. All the stones in the nuraghe are rounded, huge, red, whereas the visible rocks in the fields around are more jagged and split…. It looks as if the tower was built with special stones, maybe brought from the sea? The outlines of the walls are surprisingly straight and even, given the size of the individual rocks.  

Everyone who has ever been to Newgrange should see this nuraghe, and vice versa.  For me, there is a clear line of connection - from these ancient energy or holy centres, (which predate the Egyptian pyramids), through to the early and late Christian churches, with their great west doors, central naves, inviting transepts and cervical altars…. They map the female body, where life - and maybe death if it’s understood to be a return to darkness - starts so mysteriously.  How EXACTLY does life start? They wanted to know. We still do. This isn’t just about sex. It’s about creation, and fertility, and the land.  The wiki articles - speculating about so many theories, are just puzzling. You can see it all, just go and look. 

For the rest of the day we found lunch in Macomer (an undistinguished town), and then went by some backroads to the beaches south of Bosa. We swam in warm crystal clear water, and watched diving birds disappear and reappear in the gentle shining waters.  We drove along the banks of the Temo where small white boats are moored in peaceful parallels. One is rigged like the Anglo-Saxon boat Ottor which is owned by the Creek Trust, with a single central mast and a yard slung from the top. Now I find myself in a state of exhaustion - seeing that tower, climbing round inside it, was just fantastic. I feel I have had a glimpse into a very old way of looking at the world. The lizards and butterflies are its guardians now. There are about 7000 of these towers left in Sardinia, and (so they say) there were once 10,000. They are not martial (though the Romans and later people maybe adapted some of them for their purposes). They predate even the age of weapons.  They were huge spiritual laboratories, observatories, acts of creation and devotion. The stars are their companions.