Architettura Funeraria Nel Mediterraneo Centrale

This paper deals with the problem of the connections between rock-cut tombs and megalithic architecture. A possible link is offered by the different kinds of ‘hybrid monuments’ found in the main islands of the western Mediterranean, in particular Sardinia, Sicily and Malta.

The connections may be summarized as follows:

– use of red and yellow ochre in collective burials;

– port-hole slabs high on floor level in rock-cut tombs, megalithic corridors and temples.;

– dolmens erected over rock-cut tombs;

– rock-cut tombs in erratic boulders, flanked by port-hole slabs and covered by tumulus;

– megalithic corridors in front of rock-cut tombs, in some instances with a port-hole entrance slab;

– rock-cut tombs with monumental front preceded by semicircular court, sometimes with benches for offerings, as in some Maltese temples;

– rock-cut tombs with rock-cut corridor, covered by megalithic slabs.

In conclusion, we may say that the analysis of all these kinds of monuments suggests that both types—rock-cut tombs and megalithic buildings—are always connected with collective burials, perhaps of members of the same family; both are intended to provide the dead with a long lasting home in intimate connection with rock: both perhaps suggest a religious belief in ancestors seen as patrons of the living, favouring fertility, but also to be propitiated with offerings.