North Sardinian Azari/Abealzu-Filigosa Culture Observatories (3200 -2400 BCE)

(February, 2024) The Azaru sub-culture of north Sardinia was the last Neolithic Farmer (Druid) culture before the Indo-Europeans started raiding their shores.  Their villages had no walls and weapons in the tombs are rare. This indicates that Ozieri civilization, like all Druid civilizations, was centered around ancestral lineages instead of warlike chiefs as found in  Indo-European civilizations. 

Their culture shows an increase in material goods compared to past. They also built this night sky observatory center to better determine planting times based upon star rising positions along the horizon. Both of these indicate that more producing and more intensive farming technologies from the newly mixing Druid and Indo-European cultures to the east were arriving on the island.

Archaeological excavations have identified some 200 Ozieri settlements, located both in plain and mountain areas, but with a preference for low ridges with farms in the valleys. Their economy was a mix of hunting and gathering along with animal husbandry and agriculture. Their settlements consisted of small stone huts, with a circular (rarely rectangular) walls supporting a stick framed roof probably using thatch.

This platform has a base of 27 m by 27 m and it probably reached a height of 5.5 m. It culminated in a platform of about 12.5 m by 7.2 m, accessible via a ramp. No chambers or entrances to the mound have been found, 

One settlement near Sestu, consisted of 60 huts. Another, near Mogoro included 267 huts with pavements composed of limestone slabs, basalt cobbles or clay. Su Coddu, the largest known settlement, consisted of more complex structures and multiple room dwellings. It is located near Selargius and it has been partially built over by modern development limiting the present understanding of its size. The finding of unique tools and objects in individual huts, and early evidence of metal-working, suggests the Ozieri culture was well organized and specialized.

 The tombs consisted of rock-cut hypogeous structures that later became known as domus de janas, which were built underground or in rock faces, with the largest example being the Necropolis of Anghelu Ruju. Some tombs, of more monumental appearance, belonged perhaps to chiefs, in the fashion of those in Crete. The Ozieri burial practices differ from what is found in the region of Gallura (as a feature of the contemporaneous Arzachena culture), where the dead were interred in Megalithic circles. 

The pottery was decorated in spiral similar to that found at Newgrange, Ireland. Their pottery techniques seem to have been imported from the Cyclades and Crete. The Ozieri culture appears to have been much involved in the obsidian trade due to rich deposits on the island.  

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