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Art and Death in Late Neolithic Sardinia: The Role of Carvings and Paintings in Domus de Janas Rock-cut Tombs
Open accessAbstract
Sardinian Neolithic rock-cut tombs are not merely underground repositories, but complex and dynamic ritual architectures whose sequence of chambers was designed to host elaborate programmes of death ritual. The internal walls of about 250 of these tombs are decorated with carvings and paintings depicting architectural structures, cattle-head motifs and geometric designs. Research has often focused on classifying the motifs into typo-chronological categories, and little attention has been paid to their architectural setting and how art actually interacts with the spaces and structures of the tombs. How were art and architecture combined to create a setting appropriate for deathways? The present article results from a systematic review of this art and discusses patterns in the distribution and position of the motifs inside the tombs. Motifs were repeatedly placed at a few specific locations, suggesting that they played an active role in standardized ritual uses of the tombs. It is argued that art significantly contributed to structure spaces, sequence rituals, shape the ceremonial experience of the tombs, and was therefore a key agent in Late Neolithic deathways.
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Art (Pre)History: Ritual, Narrative and Visual Culture in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe
Robb, J. (2020) · Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · doi:10.1007/s10816-020-09471-w · Cited by 30
“Throughout Neolithic art, the only consistent spatial arrangements occur in Sardinian, Breton and Irish tomb art, where there are some weak but consistent patterns of how different motifs are distributed within tombs to define architectural spaces (Robin 2009, 2016, 2010).”
BackgroundInfluentialRobin, G. (2017) · European Journal of Archaeology · doi:10.1017/eaa.2017.12 · Cited by 10
“Neolithic Bucrania as Ritual Strategy In a recent work (Robin 2016), I have shown the strong relationship between bucrania and liminality within the elaborate architectural space of Sardinian rock-cut tombs: cattle heads”
InfluentialSelf-citationRivoira, M. D., Cousseau, F., & Steimer-Herbet, T. (2024) · Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · doi:10.1007/s10816-024-09654-9 · Cited by 6
“It is necessary to conceive this space in its plurality and evoke its multiple nature (Robin, 2016).”
BackgroundRobin, G., Soula, F., Tramoni, P., et al. (2021) · Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society · doi:10.1017/ppr.2021.2 · Cited by 3
“17), motifs that are frequently associated with doorways in Sardinian rock-cut tombs (Robin 2016).”
BackgroundInfluentialSelf-citationBricolage: A Novel Archaeological Perspective on Complex Materialities
Webster, G. S. (2019) · Préhistoires méditerranéennes/Préhistoires méditerranéennes/Préhistoire anthropologie méditerranéennes · doi:10.4000/pm.1980 · Cited by 1
ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ‘IN‐BETWEEN’ IN EARLY FOURTH MILLENNIUM SARDINIA
Webster, G. S. (2022) · Oxford Journal of Archaeology · doi:10.1111/ojoa.12243
Cabello, L., Ramírez, P. B., Lojo, M. J. A., Padilla, J. S., Herrero, J. L. C., de Balbín‐Behrmann, R., Bermejo, R. B., Martínez, A. V., Valsero, J. J. D., Durán-Laforet, S. R., et al. (2025) · Heritage · doi:10.3390/heritage8080291
Lai, L., Fonzo, O., Beckett, J. F., Tykot, R. H., Goddard, E. A., & Hollander, D. (2026) · Quaternary International · doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2026.110130
Metadata
- Authors
- Robin, G.
- Affiliations
- Travaux et Recherches Archéologiques sur les Cultures, les Espaces et les Sociétés (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Robin, Guillaume
- ORCID
- Robin, Guillaume
- Venue
- Cambridge Archaeological Journal
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2016-05-19
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 429-469
- ISSN
- 0959-7743 (ISSN-L)
- 1474-0540
- OpenAlex
- W2395139303
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 5.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Cambridge Archaeological Journal (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- University College London
- Fondation Fyssen
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Università degli Studi di Sassari
- McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology (arts and humanities) › Archaeological and Geological Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology (arts and humanities) › Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies
- Social Sciences › Archeology › Archaeology and Rock Art Studies
- Keywords
- domus de janas, rock-cut tombs, Neolithic rock art, funerary practices, cave paintings, petroglyphs, geometric design, ritual space
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