From the booklet dedicated to the nuragic Sanctuary of “Santa Vittoria di Serri”, included in the series “Sardegna Archeologica” (Delfino editore 1988), we have extracted a passage in which the author, archaeologist Raimondo Zucca, recounts the history of the excavations initiated by Antonio Taramelli:
<< …“Whoever, departing from the Mandas station on the secondary railway to Sorgono, moves northward, across a region of vast undulations and gentle rises, very uniform and largely cultivated with grains, with narrow strips of vineyards and fields, sees before him a ridge of hills that rises from the green area of olive and vine trees of Escolca and Gergei, first with a gentle slope, then abruptly rising with sheer, barren, reddish rocks of trachytic lava, with sharp and clear outlines, even more vivid and prominent in contrast to the whitish slopes of the underlying Miocene limestones.
This is the coastline of the Giara di Serri, which rises between the two basins of Gergei and Isili.”
With these words, Antonio Taramelli, Superintendent of Antiquities of Sardinia, described the Giara di Serri in 1914, which five years earlier had revealed to him the most extraordinary village-sanctuary of nuragic Sardinia.
Giara is a common geographical term in Sardinia that indicates very flat plateaus with steep sides. Compared to the famous Giara di Gesturi, known primarily for its untamed horses, and the vast Giara di Siddi, the small plateau of Serri would have deserved only a brief mention in the studies of geology and physical geography of Sardinia, but fate had it that a local doctor from Gergei, Dr. Marogna, a friend of Taramelli, pointed out to him the significant interest of the prehistoric monuments of S. Vittoria di Serri.
The young Superintendent began his explorations in July 1907.
The excavation mission was initiated two years later in 1909-1910, under the direction of Taramelli himself and the now elderly Inspector Filippo Nissardi and Raffaele Pettazzoni from the Prehistoric Museum of Rome>>.
The photos of the cult sanctuary and the well temple of Santa Vittoria di Serri are by: Nicola Castangia, Pasquale Pintori, and Bibi Pinna.
