Time alters the material shape of things, but also changes their meaning. That is why the past reaches us in fragments. And that is also why interpreting the past is all but easy. It means reconstructing a complete image starting from just the few fragments which have come down to us.
But having reconstructed that image – or so we hope – what is even more difficult is to bring back to life its sense for the people who first created it. The Nuraghe Albucciu is precious from this point of view, because it contains elements not found in other nuraghi. We reach it easily since it lies close to the small town of Arzachena. It has a ‘mixed’ structure, combining the corridor nuraghe with the round-tower corbelled-ceiling nuraghe.
Originally it had two floors, now only the lower one remains.
Eight large stone brackets – and this is its peculiar feature – can still be seen jutting from the wall, the remaining portion of the complete ring of brackets which in ancient times supported, as in all nuraghi, a wooden banister. The site has yielded very interesting objects, including fragments of ‘ox-hide’ ingots, round ingots and votive swords. They allow us to date use of the nuraghe to the Late and Final Bronze Ages, that is 1300 – 900 BC, while its foundation probably dates to the Medium Bronze Age (1600 BC).