Civico Museo Archeologico Ittireddu

Nuraghe Funtana

The nuraghe Funtana was built with irregular blocks of trachyte, and consists of a central tower and two towers, (in the so-called addizione frontale lay-out).

The main tower has an entrance facing SE (south east) topped by a architrave with a weight-relieving aperture. The entrance leads into a corridor with slab roof that rise to about ½ of the path in correspondence with the entrances facing a deambulatory. The slabs rest, on the right, on numerous fragments of cork used to regulate the laying surface.

Through an architraved door, the corridor leads to the circular chamber, slightly strange, built with quite rough-hewn boulders  arranged in irregular rows using wedges and mud mortar. The room was converted into two floors. The cover of the ground floor room probably consisted of a wooden ceiling resting on a offset carved at a height of 5.10 m along the entire profile of the space. Access to the upper floor is still visible on the SE side, where traces of the jambs of an entrance remain. On the walls of the lower chamber there are the entrances to three niches arranged in a cross: the first was partially walled with square blocks perhaps to use it as a well. The niche, opened on the axis of the entrance – with an architrave and weight-relieving aperture – and is characterised by a curved "T-shaped" plan that follows the pattern of the external wall of the tower. Along the entire perimetre of the wall there is a counter/seat, characterised by 28 blocks having the shape of a truncated pyramid. On the floor, slightly off-centre, there is a fireplace characterised by seven ahslars.

The two additional towers surround a small quadrangular courtyard located opposite the entrance of the central tower. The latter is entirely bound by a massive curtain wall. Access to the fortified tower opens onto a side tower facing NE: the rectangular entrance leads into a short, splayed  corridor and from there into the space of the secondary tower which leads directly onto the courtyard. The secondary south tower, also connects with the courtyard through a short architraved corridor, and is preserved only in part. On the north wall of the courtyard the remains of a staircase with 12 steps is preserved: leading to the top of the tower, of which few traces are preserved. The stone boundary wall is joined to the walls of the two towers at a well-defined angle.

The bronze and ceramic materials found are dated between the late Bronze Age and the Iron Age II. It is worth mentioning, in particular, the remarkable discovery of a closet of copper ingots of the Aegean type stored inside a four-handled  vase, evidence of the metallurgical activity that took place on this site, and the fact that the territory of Ittireddu, particularly around Monte Zuighe had assumed an important role in trades and relations between the different settlements in which Sardinia was divided during the Nuragic age.