A site between nuraghi and the Middle Ages opens to the public in the Nuoro area

In Loculi, in the Nuoro area, an archaeological dig that began by chance opens today, Thursday 29 October, to the public on an extraordinary basis. The discovery dates back to 2019, when work to build a car park brought to light a multi-layered site of around 700 square metres, with evidence spanning from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages.

The public opening, scheduled from 9.30 am to 1 pm in via San Pietro, is promoted by the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Sassari e Nuoro together with the Comune di Loculi. The initiative gives visitors the chance to see up close a dig that is not normally accessible, bringing together in a single stratigraphic area historical phases thousands of years apart from one another.

Among the most significant finds to emerge from the excavation is a fragment of a votive sword from the Nuragic period, an object that testifies to the oldest phase of use of the site, predating the medieval layers identified in the same excavations. The coexistence of materials so distant in time, within a relatively limited space, is what makes the site of interest for reconstructing the settlement history of the area, showing how the same strip of land was frequented and reused for centuries, across different eras and with different functions, to the point of overlaying traces of the Bronze Age with those of a medieval settlement.

The course of the Loculi excavation, from the chance discovery in 2019 to today’s public opening, follows a pattern not uncommon in Italian archaeology: a construction site with different intentions — here a car park — that turns into a research opportunity when the works intercept ancient stratifications. It remains to be seen, at this stage, whether today’s opening will be the start of a permanent enhancement project for the site or will remain an isolated episode: the Soprintendenza has not announced any plans beyond this extraordinary day, limited to a few hours of guided visits.