Tharros,Tarsos,Tirso,Tiro.

From the book of Danilo Scintu

The architecture of the arcane the atlantean megalithism: Abode of the Goddess mother

Since the prehistory tale is told of the European peoples who have lived in legends, and other peoples

who have passed down to us also becoming legendary. That was a European civilization imperishable,

forged in a past already well organized during the Paleolithic, who painted the caves throughout Europe

making it important shrines .Right here starting from 8000 years ago built a heritage building megalithic

quite exceptional starting right from near the caves to expand in all regions. To the people of the

mythical origins, were associated with unique characters, magical, fairy-tale, bearing to a world of fairies

and witches, dragons, elves and goddesses. It was a unique and thriving civilization European who

adopted the Megalithism, namely the use of gigantic stones for the construction of their buildings,

along with the cult of the Mother Goddess and a host of other recurring symbols including taurine

head, the snake and the eye of the Goddess owl. It was with the arrival of people from the eastern

worship androcentric that in the second millennium BC the religion of the goddess was absorbed and

manipulated eventually losing its most distinctive character. In the Atlantic Europe , with the

construction of Stonehenge ends the great period of megalithic art linked to the Goddess slowly

dissolves in the whole of Europe up to the foothills of northern extreme of the Iberian Peninsula. Only

in the islands of the Western Mediterranean, the archipelago consists of Sardinia, Corsica and the

Balearic continued experimentation and development of the art of the Goddess. This people are

mentioned in Greek texts of the 5th century BC for its amazing works. The special importance of

construction of Sardinia between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age is a case in point. In this island of

only 24,000 square kilometers, during the Neolithic period, were excavated more than 3,500

underground tombs called Domus de Janas, were built the great pyramids ,sky stone as Mont

d'Akkoddi, along with gigantic walls and hundreds of Dolmen. During the period of the Bronze Age,

when elsewhere in Europe will not be built anymore, were erected about 10 thousand large turreted

complex, the Nuraghe, which won the pitfalls of the time along with a thousand temples in the well, a

similar number of graves of giants and an equally huge capital comprising the civil buildings, villas and

spa buildings.

Top: Domus de Janas Montessu, truncated pyramid of Monte D'Akkoddi Nuraghe, S. Barbara Macomer, holy well of St.

Cristina Paulilatino.

In the same period as the Sinai Peninsula town of Tharros are also remains of stone houses and 118

Nuraghi, villages exterminated on basalt ridges of the hills, among the agricultural “spietramenti “ (the

act of cleaning the field from the stones) were found hundreds of models of ships and bronze small

statuea along with large stone statues called Giant of Monte Prama, depicting warriors in black -

archers, hoplites, infantry soldiers - with a helmet "horned".

To the left: The Giants of Monte 'e Prama , to the right bronze statue showing a mythical warrior with 4 eyes and 4 arms

Aerial view of the plain of Oristano, down the Sinai Peninsula to the island on the southern offshoot of Tharros.

The same term Sinis, the etymological nuragic and semantically meaning , the Goddess Sin, the

Goddess Lunar and could explain the sacredness and the expenditure of such a building between the

sea and salt ponds from ancient times. On the southern Sinis, is the city of Tharros, inhabited since

time immemorial to the Middle Ages, when the capital of the Judge of Arborea- Oristano was

abandoned to be built in a more defensible area by Saracen pirates. Although the city was inhabited

until 1076 AD the megalithic town of Tharros inexplicably emerged intact during archaeological

excavations on the hill on Muru Mannu, originally the city's acropolis. Here numerous circular rooms,

overlooking a central courtyard and a large temple also circular are enclosed by towering walls, all made

of stone with huge boulders. Of Nuragic era to persist over time to us is also the stronghold of

Tharros, the promontory where today stands the tower of St. John whose foundations are based on

measuring a circular structure in existing boulders resting on a triangular megalithic platform.

Following the historical path provided by the archaeological data, they lead to confirm the great

importance assumed by Tharros in those millennia, a powerful city of the Western Mediterranean, at the

mouth of the river Tirso, on the coast of the Sea of Sardinia, directly opposite the Balearic Islands. It was

from Tharros already departed from the Neolithic period to the time of the Spanish coast, French and

Italic products such as obsidian, the botarga or salted fish such as sardines that even borrow the name

of Sardinia. During the nuragica period ,the mineral wealth of Sardinia gave Tharros, bronze and silver

trading with the courts of Mycenae and middle East, decorating the royal tombs of Egypt.

Its hinterland consists of the fertile plain at the mouth dell'Arborea Tirso, produced in abundance every

product that can satisfy all the needs of the people. That was one of Tharros unparalleled wealth for the

world at that time, capable of mighty city walls, temples and buildings of great monumental megalithic

taste as the Nuraghe.

The megalithic walls of Tharros:

The city of Tharros stands on a rocky island in the sea now joined to the mainland by a strip of sand

wind that turns the island into a peninsula. Overlooking the narrow channel that separated from the

mainland, stands the monumental walls in gigantic boulders of basalt, trachyte and sandstone that still

surround the fortified city. The system of fortifications tharrense has a development of about 1,750

meters encloses an area of over 115 thousand square meters, centered on two focal points: the

Acropolis on Muru Mannu north and the fortress of St. John in the south.

On the top left : Plant of the walls of Tharros, to the right : the fortress of the acropolis.

The excavations carried out on the northern wall of Tharros of about Muru Mannu, emerged a massive

fortification system, according to a conception of multiple defense stagnated even in cities such as the

Punic Carthage. The depth of the fortification system in the north was about 230 meters, it is likely

that this three-pronged defense system was used only in the vicinity of Su Muru Mannu, the area

located on the bulwark of the road that led to Tharros and that connected with the rest of 'island. So, in

Tharros the first line of defense consisted of the canal that led from the open sea to the arsenal of

Mystras and the harbor area, flanked by a wall of large blocks of polyhedral basalt and trachyte

observable for about 50 meters in an east west. The second line in blocks of sandstone consists of two

parallel walls and a moat situated in the south to about ninety meters from the first and always extends

from east to west with a length of about 267 meters. The prevailing winds of the mistral have leaned on

the wall a chain of sand dunes, near the present road these dunes describe a large semicircular recess:

that place would correspond to an access door still covered by aeolian sand. The third line located 140

meters south from the center, is also in huge boulders versatile and is best seen today because of the

buildings affected by archeological excavations of the nuragical building and Phoenician Tophet, Su

Muru Mannu. The performance of this last line of defense, is also visible in the east-west direction for

88 meters, describes a large recess in the south-west and south-east in order to link up to the

fortifications that enclose the acropolis and the rest of the city. This third line surrounding the acropolis

by 2/3 where are the nuragic huts and a megalithic tower is articulated by a rampart, a moat and a wall

curtain always in large boulders. The embankment forms part of the Acropolis, has 10 meters thickness

and it is equipped with a wall of gigantic boulders in counterscarp polyhedral basalt and sandstone. The

moat six meters wide at the base is connected to the embankment by two secret doors (“postierle”) two

doors of a light meter that allowed access to the fortifications in the areas east and west of the

defensive line. The secret doors (postierle), made with large isodomic blocks of sandstone, are grafted

to the wall versatile in a wonderful way, they are highlighted on the cyclopean wall obtained with the

two-tone black with yellow basalt and sandstone isodomia. The same artistic finish we find on the

external face of the curtain parallel to the embankment. It still stands for more than 5 meters in height

and has a thickness of about 3 meters, its wall is made from polyhedral blocks of basalt and rows with

large blocks of sandstone, producing still hanging on the effects of the two colors of white and black,

so dear to the Sardana people.

To the left: Plan and section of the walls of Tharros with the sequence of the surrounding walls that enclose the Acropolis to the

north . to the right postern the west wall of the megalithic

The cyclopean wall of clear megalithic and nuragical matrix , was rather dated by the excavator at the

beginning of the fifth century BC in the Punic period, Phoenician and Carthaginian city though none

have ever used the technique and the two-color multi-faceted. The size of the boulders and the texture

of the wall with the two colors of the nuragic buildings lying on the embankment, show how such

works are to be referred only to The Nuragico, ten centuries before. As we know, to date with

certainty a stone wall is virtually impossible unless you are inside clay artifacts, only the architect with

the knowledge of the artistic styles of the time can make up for that purpose. The size of the boulders,

the polyhedral morphology and their installation, back to a much older chronological framework of the

Carthaginian period, or at the same time as the Nuraghe.

The two secret doors of Tharros(postierle) at the great wall of "on Muru mannu" and the great megalithic stones of the fortress of

Tharros.

The acropolis of Tharros.

The great emotional appeal of the acropolis of Tharros near Su Muru Mannu, is perhaps due to a

variety of Nuragic rooms circular and quadrangular, arranged around a large megalithic building. They

are the only remnants left of Tharros dating from the thirteenth century BC, the abandonment of the

city by what the legends handed down by the elders was destroyed by a tidal wave. It was this tragedy

that affected the entire island climate one of the reasons that led the Sardana to invade East and Egypt

in the coalition of the Sea Peoples. The Phoenicians, probably the same Sardinian return from the wars

of invasion of the East, built in the acropolis of Tharros their Tophet, according to the Bible's most

sacred place in the city. The area of Tophet Tharros includes about 1000 square meters, at the time of

the laying of the urns environments had already been abandoned by the nuragics. The Phoenicians of

the nuragic built over the acropolis built it the main sacred place of the city near to the existing new

buildings, but never overlapped with the archaic walls as if to respect the ancient sacred place, perhaps

the ancestral home of the king of Tharros .

Above: the Tophet urns found at Nuragic buildings, To right after excavation nuragic buildings remains.

The complex of Nuragical buildings in the acropolis, was centered on a tower on the north-east, inside

the flap of the ditch. The tower at the base is built with massive boulders of 15-20 tons each, laid on

stone foundations consist grounded stones . In the space behind the tower, circular living space have an

internal diameter of 4-8 meters, built with blocks commingled basalt and sandstone. The thickness of

the walls, it is clear that some buildings were vaulted dome, while others for their subtlety had a

wooden roof stramineo(made of cane and mud) . The presence near the ruins of isodomic ashlar

sandstone ,together with those of polyhedral basalt, also shows how these environments were erected

and decorated with two colors of the walls, a constructive act which at that time was synonymous with

sacredness and importance of the place. Decorate with duotone therefore meant going beyond the

simple and humble abode and - as demonstrated in Sardinia - this pattern is found at low stone houses

and religious buildings such as temples to the well. Inside the acropolis of Tharros, an imposing circular

Nuragic building is built with boulders of basalt and sandstone, it is at the center of the sacred area

right where the Phoenicians placed their ballot in tofet citizen. The building, in the plant consists of a

large circular space at the center, whose inner diameter is 33.20 meters (40 megalithic arms), the

environments arranged radially around it, are enclosed by powerful concentric walls, bringing the

outside diameter total of the large building at 44 meters, just 53 megalithic arms.

The large templar building on the acropolis of Tharros.

Tharros in the myth.

In mythology local elders (starting from my father that swore me he learned it from his, and so on

through the millennia), tell of a tragic destruction of the ancestral city of Tharros because of a strong

tsunami. The place where the event is lost in the mists of time, probably 200 years before ,when the

Phoenicians made the acropolis nuragic built the most sacred place, the tofet. A tragedy like that may

have occurred when strong winds had blown for days until lift a great wave capable of destroying the

city. You might also assume that such an event has been caused by earthquakes. Anyway Tharros with

its large and megalithic nuragic walls with the Acropolis and the temple are its archaeological evidence

of a prefenicia city really existed. The Phoenicians the great navigators of the first millennium B.C.

over time rebuilt the flourishing emporium that Tharros held for thousands of years being a safe haven

approdabile in all wind conditions. By archaeological findings we see a port always in contact with the

Orient and Egypt are proof statuettes in silver and bronze bearing the goddess Hathor with Osiris in

his lap, along with thousands of beetles statues and stelae. In that same period, straddling the end of

1300 and early 1200 BC, the destruction of a city and its island is documented several times in Egyptian

commemorative stele, when the Sardana in coalition with other people of the sea invaded Egypt and

part of the East. The hieroglyphs Medinet Habu for example, tell a catastrophe that would have

crippled some of the invaders belonging to the Sea Peoples "foreigners from the north saw their lands

shake, their country is destroyed, their souls in distress. The peoples of the north, plotted in their

islands, but at the same time the storm engulfing their country, their capital destroyed, annihilated".The

same catastrophic tones we read them in the Bible, when Isaiah and Ezekiel tell of God's punishment

on a Tiro of the islands located in the middle of the sea. According to Max L. Wagner (1967), linguist

and scholar of the Sardinian language, the etymology of Tharros is related to Tyre, both meaning

"rock", "rocky point" in Akkadian Suru or Tzuru, in Phoenician or Sr Tzur, in greek Turos in Latin

Tyrus or Sarra. So that we find not only a Tiro on the coast of Lebanon, but also in the West on the

west coast of Sardinia. By reading the writings on the myths and legends of the Phoenicians of Tyre

and his mother - daughter Tarsos, one is struck by the many interpretative doubts left.

Aerial view of the city of Tyre(left) and Tharros (light)two cities built on similar ub island not far from the mainland.

Of Tarsos or Tartessos much is said about in the Bible and especially in the texts of Greek and Roman

authors, but as far as these places are well described beyond the Pillars of Hercules, in reality, in the

Iberian territory have never been found archaeological evidence nor there are place names, or other

indications of its name, in short, anything that brings the biblical Tartesso.

In my opinion the only archaeological evidence for the existence of Tartessos are only in Sardinia, all

available evidence, with important archaeological remains including the city of Tharros and many place

names along with three ancient artifacts writings of great value. Sallust and Pausanias, two

commentators of antiquity, they told us as that the leader Iberian Norace founded the city of Nora

giving it its name. Later Solinus, complete the news stating Tarsos motherland of Norace. Interpret the

validity of this step is difficult because in the end there is Norace the oldest record of the name of the

building synonymous with Sardinia, the Nuraghe. According to Pausanias, "Tartessos is the location

that the West owes nothing to the action Hellenic civilization, is an island rich and happy that almost

makes the shadow to the Hellenic greatness so much that the mythical Greek king Argantonio of

Tarsos allowed himself the luxury of financing the restructuration of the walls of the city of Phocaea

and offer new ground for granting a new home in Focei to escape. "

Pausanias taking up the story of Herodotus on Focee explorations in the West, speaks of Argantonio

king of Tarsos, when the Phocians for friendship helped to rebuild the walls of their city in Greece, in

order to withstand the siege of the Persians. Subsequently, after their flight from Greece, he offered

them asylum in the lands of the kingdom he built the city of Alaia in Corsica. The cultural affinity of

both Sardinia and Corsica with nuragic presences, leads to confirm the existence of a single king in the

two islands ,were found to have identical monuments and a common living history. At this point, the

mythical king of Tarsos Argantonio, could be the same Tharros, not only for the TRSS same name, but

also because it is congenial to archeology by providing evidence. In Spain, the archeology has yet to

witness the bonds between the Phoenicians and the reign of King Argantonio, from ages sufficiently

remote as told by the ancient authors and the Bible itself. The oldest and most concrete proof of the

historical existence of Tartessos in Sardinia, is the stele of Nora. This is the famous inscription in

Phoenician characters, the subject of study by many experts who have provided different translations

also very discordant with each other, this index of major difficulties of interpretation. The first line for

most of the scholars should read: b - TRShSh = T (a), rsh (i) sh, or "in Tarsos". This inscription carved

in stone, is the first evidence that Sardinia has had its Tartesso, probably the only one ever existed.

Tharros antiquity.Tharros then with his physical existence , leading to revise the interpretation of

historians on the location of the ancient Tartessos , the capital of the great empire administered by the

king Argantonio and at the same time allows with its history , to put forward new hypotheses about the

location of Atlantis as described by Plato.

Danilo Scintu

The Stele of Nora . The first

line should read: b -

TRShSh = T (a), rsh (i) sh,

or "in Tarsos."

There are two other inscriptions in Sardinia where name appears

Tarsos: the ceramic fragment called Shard of Orani found in the

center-north of the island and the Altar of Zeddiani, where it can be

read also in b-TRShSh "in Tarshish." According to the descriptions,

the mythical Tarsos was opposite the mouth of the river that bore his

name. As part of the Gulf of Oristano, opposite the ancient Tharros,

there is the most important river of the island, whose name is just

Tirso, whose etymology back to Tharros-Tarsos. Tharros with its

massive Cyclopean walls of boulders the size of which is out of the

ordinary , together with the buildings consist of large circular spaces

arranged in a large urban area , archaeologically confirmed its existence

already from the second millennium BC , in full Nuragic time . Dating

back to the eighth and fifth century before Christ , are also numerous

archaeological finds tharrensi documenting the close relationship that

the city had with the East Mediterranean. There are numerous jewelry

and statuettes found in silver, bronze , gold, stone and terracotta,

bearing female deities , along with icons such as the Egyptian Isis and

Osiris, which show the constant business of