Cagliari Archaeological Museum and the Giants
The nuragic bronzes and the statues of Mont'e Prama
In the Cittadella dei Musei, at the northern end of the Castello district, the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari is the most important museum for the history of ancient Sardinia, from the Neolithic to the early Middle Ages. Its collections follow the island's many civilisations: the prehistoric cultures with their "mother goddesses" of stone, the Nuragic civilisation, the Phoenicians and Punic Carthaginians, the Romans and the Byzantines.
The museum's greatest treasure is its collection of nuragic bronzes, the "bronzetti": hundreds of small bronze figurines made between the ninth and sixth centuries BC, representing warriors with horned helmets, archers, tribal chiefs with cloaks and staffs, wrestlers, mothers holding a son, musicians, animals and boats, of extraordinary expressiveness, which tell us about the society and beliefs of the nuragic people. The museum also exhibits some of the famous Giants of Mont'e Prama, the great stone statues of warriors, archers and boxers found in the Sinis peninsula, near Cabras, considered the oldest anthropomorphic statues of the western Mediterranean; the others are in the museum of Cabras. Phoenician and Punic jewellery, masks and Roman statues complete the collection.
Tip: the Cittadella also houses the Pinacoteca Nazionale and the Museum of Siamese Art; a combined ticket is available.
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