Visit Domus de janas of Orto del Beneficio Parrocchiale, Castelsardo, Sardinia, Italy

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The domus de janas, built in two successive phases, are positioned on two different levels.The Domus de janas of Orto del Beneficio Parrocchiale are locatedin the town of Sennori, Sardinia, within the garden of the Church of San Basilio, situated in the square in front of the Town Hall.These funerary hypogea are carved into a limestone outcrop within the old parish garden. Tomb I: The upper tomb (or Tomb I), badly damaged by time, was the first to be excavated. It has three rooms and lacks the covered pavilion that preceded it, which probably collapsed along with the tomb's façade. The walls, flat and straight, have no sculptural motifs. Tomb II: The second hypogeum (or Tomb II), the lower one, on the contrary, is very well preserved. This is made up of a short dromos, an antechamber, two successive cells, arranged along the longitudinal axis and a last cell opening onto room. From the dromos, a short corridor, partly covered and, in the initial section, open to the sky, one enters through a narrow quadrangular door measuring 0.50 by 0.55. Of notable interest is the presence of a bovine protome, a decorative element common to various domus de janas, sculpted in relief on the wall of a small cell. Its particular curvilinear style, which denotes a rather advanced artistic phase, allows us to ascribe the construction of the tomb to the first half of the third millennium BC. This type of protome is stylistically similar to those present in the Major tomb of the necropolis of S'Adde 'e Asile di (Ossi ), in tomb V of the necropolis of Montalè (Sassari), in tombs IV and VI of the necropolis of Calancoi (Sassari) and in the domus of the Garden of the parish benefice of Sennori.

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