The 300-kilogram boxer who survived the destruction of the Carthaginians

The sculpture of the Boxer is more than 2,500 years old, but it remains imposing. It is made of limestone, measures more than two meters and weighs about 300 kilos. Between the 9th and 8th centuries BC, it stood guard, along with other stone giants representing archers and warriors, over the necropolis of Mont'e Prama (Sardinia), where 125 tombs have been found, mostly of young men with traces of having carried out intense physical activity. The Boxer, discovered in 1974, survived the destruction by the Carthaginians in the 5th century BC and can now be seen in the Archaeological Museum of Catalonia (MAC), within the exhibition Megalithic Island"We're still excavating, but we don't have answers to many questions. Do they represent the buried warriors? Do they evoke mythical ancestors? Do they commemorate an important event?" asks Anthony Muroni, director of the Mont'e Prama Foundation and a specialist in megalithism (the use of large stones) that were originally used to build the giants. The dolmens used to build the giants were originally located more than 18 kilometers from the necropolis. Megalithism (the use of large stones) is still part of the Sardinian landscape. Across the island, 240 funerary dolmens are preserved. At the MAC, you can see different representations of the mother goddess and bulls. The nurges are a key feature of the Sardinian landscape: an estimated 7,000 were built between 1800 and 1150 BC. Many legends have been built around them, and in some places they are called fairy houses. Settlements sprang up around them, as can be seen in a recreation at the museum.

This Nuragic civilization had no hierarchy when it came to burying their dead. Giants' tombs are collective graves built between 1800 and 1000 BC. More than 800 have been documented, and when viewed from above, they resemble a cow's head. "Aristotle wrote that incubation ceremonies were held at the entrance to these tombs; the sick had dreams in which the deities answered their questions," Boya states. The exhibition also visits sanctuaries dedicated to the worship of water, where community and tribal gatherings took place around sacred wells. You can see bronze votive offerings placed in the sanctuaries by the sargos, depicting a ship, a warrior with two shields, and a seated woman with a child. At that time, Sardinia must have been a prosperous island. "We know that as early as 4,000 BC, they were already exporting to other parts of the Mediterranean and that it was a prosperous island thanks to its obsidian deposits," says the director of the MAC.