Ozieri culture

The Ozieri culture (or San Michele culture) was a prehistoric pre-Nuragic culture that occupied Sardinia from c. 3200 to 2800 BCE.^[1] The Ozieri was the culmination of the island's Neolithic culture and takes its name from the locality where early findings connected with it have been found, the cave of San Michele near Ozieri, in northern Sardinia.^[2] The Ozieri existed contemporaneously with the Arzachena culture, sharing some similarities, and its influence also extended to nearby Corsica.^[3]

History

Archaeological excavations have identified some 200 Ozieri sites, located both in plain and mountain areas, but with a preference for low ridges, and largely organized around an economy of

The villages had no walls, and findings of weapons in the tombs are scarce, indicating the Ozieri civilization was perhaps a peaceful one, very different from the later

The Ozieri produced finely made ceramic pottery with complex patterns, incisions, and surface decoration.^[5] Archaeological excavations held in 1914 and 1949 found fine worked vases with geometrical motifs carved in the clay and colored with red ochre. The oldest ones were still rather crude, while the more recent examples were more refined and slender. Such ceramics were a novelty for prehistoric Sardinia, since up to that point they had been considered typical of the Cyclades and Crete. The development of the Ozieri culture, therefore, probably stemmed from contacts with other eastern Mediterranean civilizations, in particular from the area of Neolithic Greece.^[6] The Ozieri culture appears to have been much involved in the obsidian trade, due to rich deposits on the island, which may have led to increased trading contact.^[2]

Figurines recovered indicate the Ozieri may have worshiped a

The religious center of the Ozieri culture may have been the Monte d'Accoddi, a massive stone structure that was probably an altar, and has been called "the most singular cultic monument in the early Western Mediterranean".^[2]

Gallery

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  Ozieri pottery in its characteristic forms
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  Pottery
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  Female statuette found at Monte d'Accoddi
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  Female statuettes at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale G.A. Sanna
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  Potsherd

  with human figures
• 
  Potsherd

  with human figures
• 
  Stele with female figure
• 
  Domus de janas of the necropolis of Montessu, Villaperuccio
• 
  Domus de janas of Lotzorai
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  Domus de janas of the necropolis of Is Loccis-Santus, San Giovanni Suergiu
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  Bull horns sculpted in funerary niche inside a

  domus de janas

References