Bronze Roots: The Land of the Sardinians 0 Comments

Andrea Loddo, archaeological experimenter and artist from Ogliastra, undertook this adventure with the aim of telling the golden age of Sardinia, a land rich in history and culture. He created a 50-minute docufilm, "Roots of Bronze", the land of the Sardinians, which transports us to 1274 BC, in a time in which Prince Dan, a battle-hardened warrior, returns to his land after a mission in East. 

As the director will say in the interview, the date is that of the battle of Qadeš fought on the banks of the Orontes River, in Syria, in 1274 BC, between the two greatest powers of the ancient Near East, the Egypt of Pharaoh Ramses II and the Hittite forces of Muwatalli II. 500 Shardana, Warriors Of Sardinia, were part of Ramses' army.

For the reconstruction they used the Nuragic Bronze Statuettes, the mirror of Sardinian society,. Among the statuettes, the Wrestlers of Uta, a representation of Sardinian wrestlers in the martial art called S'Intrumpa: the Gherradores Sardinian Wrestling. 

The Interview with the director and creator of Bronze Roots, Andrea Loddo:

Q. Where did the idea for this production come from?

A. The idea always comes from the basis of my research and my activities in public and is to create diffusion. Since Cinema is an excellent means of dissemination, I thought that a cultural product like a film, a story that accompanies the viewer inside a Nuragic village, where some of the artisanal and artistic activities of the Nuragic world will be described, would have been the best and more straight way. The documentary voice is that of Domenico Strati, one of the most important documentary voices in Italy, who has lent his voice to Geo, Fox, Superquark, and National Geographic.

Q. How would you define your archaeo-experimental nature?

A. My role as an archaeo-experimenter is a role of study on experimental archaeology, the reconstruction and reproduction of our past culture’s material, in this case the Bronze Age in Sardinia called the Nuragic era of the Sardinian civilization. My role is to bring people closer to archaeology not by means of conferences, more appropriate for experts, but by involving them with direct activities such as the modelling of bronzes, the parades with the garments and armour that I have reconstructed, the exhibitions where I show the characters with their equipment, clothes, characteristics compatible with historical aspects of the time also common to other Mediterranean populations.

Q. What sources did you use for the reconstruction?

A. For the reconstruction I used the only sources we have available, the Nuragic bronze statuettes. The study of bronze casting is the only way to know who built in Sardinia all this archaeological goodness which makes it the richest land in archaeology in the world due to the concentration of thousand-year-old sites. The bronze statuettes represent women, men and animals and so on and I gave life to the bronze art, bringing to life around fifty characters, almost living bronzes, from the offerers with goats, to the warriors included in the documentary film, to the Wrestlers of Uta. The story revolves around the chieftain of the village of Uta, his son Prince Dan and other characters taken not only from Uta but from all Sardinian bronze art, including the reconstruction of boats, all the animals of the Island and also of food, derived from archaeological studies of the period 1274 BC, the date in which the battle of Qadeš took place fought by the Hittites and Egyptians of which the Sardinians were part with 500 iron chariots, in the chosen garrison of the pharaoh, to whom they saved life.

“A Journey into the Heart of Our History: may this journey bring us even closer to our land and our roots.” (Andrea Loddo)

Written by Daniela Toti