The Woman Role in Nuragic Civilization 0 Comments

The Woman Role in Nuragic Civilization

In many Domus De Janas of the fifth and fourth millennium BC. countless statuettes of goddesses have been found, made from multiple materials: clay, limestone and kaolinite, easier to sculpt, but also in alabaster, marble, bone or quartz sandstone. In a study on the religiosity of Nuragic Sardinia, out of 133 statues of idols found in various sites, 126 are women’s, while only 5 appear to be men.

This is how over the millennia the world of the Nuragic woman reaches us through the various conditions of the normal, the sacred and the religious. In the statuettes, begin to appear women with cloaks, head covers, clothes, in the postures of someone celebrating a ceremony. The jewels were not a simple embellishment but a social status sign. Archaeologists inform us that the jewels had no female or male connotation, but were indicating the social position of man or woman in the context of the society where they lived. The Great Mother was the origin of the Sardinian megaliths: Dolmen, Menhir & Cromlech

In the prehistoric sanctuary of Monte d'Accoddi, goddesses with fat and large breasts, with rounded hips and oversized thighs protect humans by means of tomb carvings and sculpted statuettes. 

Marylène Patou Mathis, an archaeologist, wrote an illuminating book, "Prehistoric Man is a Woman''. She let the prehistoric women “come out” from the caves, where history had relegated them. The book tells us of how women had an active value in prehistoric times, so much so that they hunted, painted the walls and waged war. Demolishing therefore the vision that relegated women to a non-existent role in a patriarchal society where were only mentioned "prehistoric men'', "museum of men", "evolution of men" instead of talking about "prehistoric human beings". The search criteria available today have allowed us to know, through the DNA analysis of the exhumed human bones, whether they belonged to a man or a woman. By studying about 1000 unearthed skeletons, it was possible to understand that primaeval women were as robust as our shot-put or javelin athletes. This means that women of the Neolithic period were engaged in hard physical jobs. According to Patou Mathis’ thesis, it is very likely that prehistoric men and women would have much to teach us today about equality. In Sardinia, the prehistoric woman not only had an active part in society but she was its lumen. Pre Nuragic forms of cult art, linked to the Mother Goddess, is the first true divine form that the pre nuragic man has ever revered, because the vital energy of the Great Mother, proper to the mother and nurse, absent in man, was a context worthy of worship.

 The Women of Our World are like the Mother Goddess. They don't just give life to the next generation but also to Hope. The Women of Our World are to be loved, respected and protected.” (Avijeet Das)

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Written by Daniela Toti

In the photo: a replica of a female statue at the entrance to the Municipal Museum Giovanni Marongiu of Cabras (photo credits Laura Mor)

  



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