In 1974 a farmer in Cabras, ploughing a field, hit something hard: it was the head of a stone statue. That field would yield thousands of fragments, reassembled over decades of work into the Giants of Mont'e Prama.
Why they matter
They are statues over two metres tall, carved between the 9th and 8th century BC: the oldest free-standing sculptures of the western Mediterranean. Before their discovery, no civilisation of that era in this area was thought capable of producing them.
What they look like
- Hypnotic eyes made of two concentric circles
- Boxers holding a shield above their head
- Archers and warriors with horned helmets
- Stone models of nuraghi, like small sacred architectures
Where to see them
Today the Giants are split between the Civic Museum of Cabras and the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari. Excavations at Mont'e Prama continue, and every campaign returns new fragments.
The open question: who do they represent? Heroes, deified ancestors, athletes? Here too, the Nuragic civilisation keeps its silence.