Osservazioni sul ruolo dell’acqua nei rituali della Sardegna preistorica

Researchers have always considered water as an important variable among the ones that contributed to the moulding of prehistoric societies. In fact, the basic functions of water in domestic life conditioned human Neolithic groups that preferred settling near rivers or damp areas. In Sardinia such settling models are recorded in the Ozieri and Sub-Ozieri phases. Subsequently, various factors - presumably climatic ones, soil impoverishment and drying up - brought to a change in the territory setting. A new environmental scenery increased the importance of water to such an extent that a real cult of spring waters arose during the Bronze late and fi nal phases and in the Iron age. A large number of cult buildings, sacred sources and wells represent the most evident aspects of Nuragic religious architecture. What is less evident, and less studied, too, is the religious value of water in the Prenuragic phases and its implications in settling and architectural choices, handicraft production and the funerary sphere. The present study aims to identify a connection between water and the religious sphere in the Prenuragic age through the analysis of elements derived from cult, funerary and domestic contexts. Data collected originate from monuments, materials and artistic evidence.