I presume that many have wondered whether the summit openings of various nuraghi were caused by sudden collapses, or if they were like that from the beginning.
Today, new technologies, especially the use of drones, allow us to observe the territory from above, and anyone can easily verify that a large number of nuraghi indeed present an apex hole, which in the case of the polylobate ones concerns one or several of the towers.
That the towers have “the hole” is therefore a factual observation, and the burden of proof to the contrary would fall on those who claim their original closure.
The dilemma is not trivial, because in the first case, one could see the precise will of our ancestors to connect the space of the tholos with the external natural elements, particularly the sun; thus reinforcing the hypothesis of a sacred value of the internal space of the tower and, by extension, of the nuraghe, probably understood as the place where the rites of life regeneration took place, intimately connected to sunlight.
As far as it may be worth, I personally support this thesis, but I have also tried to reflect on the opposite hypothesis, regarding which I would like to express some considerations.
If the towers were initially closed, subsequent collapses would have occurred either due to natural causes or mechanical interventions by humans.
In the first case, one should doubt the much-praised skill of our ancient builders, if it is true that at some point in history, either by chance or for some other reason, the summits of a large part of the tholoi suddenly came down, as much as the remaining structures have held up and fortunately remained standing, more or less intact, until today.
However, it can be noticed from aerial images that the collapse holes are generally quite regular and even present more or less orderly surrounding blocks.
The alternatives are at least two (but if there are others, feel free to propose them): either there was a sort of independent dome above the tower or some removable structure of which traces have been lost, or the summit had no static functions because, alternatively, its failure would likely have involved the entire structure or part of it.
One way or another, the profile of the hole would hardly appear as regular as seen in the images.
A structural engineer could certainly provide technically more reliable explanations regarding this, but it would still need clarification on why neatly arranged blocks are often present along the perimeter of the holes.
On the other hand, it is rationally believable that once the summit of the tower collapsed, someone took the trouble to reach a high-risk area to refine the edges of the opening that had formed?
The other theory is that the truncation occurred by human hands.
But frankly, this possibility seems absolutely senseless to me: I wonder who could be the fool willing to climb to the top of the nuraghe to chip away at its summit, with the nearly absolute certainty of falling down along with a mountain of boulders, each of which weighed tons.
Attached are the nuraghi: Piscu di Suelli (ph.Maurizio Cossu); Losa di Abbasanta (ph. Bibi Pinna); Piricu di Santu Lussurgiu (ph. Alex Sardegna); Bighinzone di Borore, S’Ortali ‘e su Monte di Tortolì, Medau Cuccu di Tratalias and Murstene di Sagama (ph. Andrea Mura-Nuragando Sardegna).
