Strutture in negativo di piccole dimensioni del Neolitico finale a Cuccuru is Arrius (Cabras, OR)

SMALL-SIZE DUG STRUCTURES FROM THE FINAL NEOLITHIC DWELLING SITE OF CUCCURU IS ARRIUS (CABRAS, OR) - Cuccuru is Arrius is the widest Neolithic open-air settlement that was systematically excavated in Sardinia. The excavations, extensively performed between 1976 and 1980 through a rescue campaign caused by the digging of a wide channel connecting the Cabras Pond with the Gulf of Oristano, brought to light a broad and long-lived prehistoric dwelling (Santoni et alii 1982). Settlement phases, spanning from the beginnings of the Middle Neolithic Bonu Ighinu culture to the Early Eneolithic Sub-Ozieri facies, led to analyze in detail a number of dug structures, many of them sharing small size and different shapes. In this paper, we aim at present a representative sample of excavated structures from the so-named “C” and “H” sectors of the site, the only ones actually bearing a comprehensive information (fig. 1). These sectors belong to the later phase of expansion in the dwelling, which took place northwestwards from the original Middle Neolithic settlement on the top of a gentle sand dune under fossilization. From both chronological and cultural perspective, the structures on examination belong exclusively to the Final Neolithic/Proto-Eneolithic San Michele di Ozieri Culture, and one may date them back from the first half to the third quarter of the IV millennium BCE. Nearly always, these pits are physically related to other structures and/or space arrangements linked to everyday life requirements. Among the small-size pits, the most frequent type shows a “bell” shape, according to well-documented examples from the “C” sector. They have a circular mouth around 1.2 m wide, a maximum depth of 1.4 meters, and the greatest width variously placed between the middle height and the third near the bottom. Many other small pits have a quasi-cylindrical shape, with sub-vertical walls and a slightly higher capacity: they measure 1.4 meters at their circular mouth and are 1.5 meters deep. On the other hand, we may not certainly assign some structures to one of the aforementioned types, since they have not been thoroughly excavated and recorded. A number of other dug structures, smaller in diameter and depth, as well as relatively uniform in shape, were distributed many in number exclusively inside the “H” sector. These small pits have either flat or concave bottom; their mouth is usually circular and 0.8 meters wide, when the depth ranges between 0.3 and 0.8 meters. As many as seven of these pits form a ring around the bell-shaped 310 pit and their backfilling is systematically garbage dump. Almost all the “bell-shaped” structures yielded in their bottom either lithic elements or big pottery shards; the overlapping backfilling was almost always composed of a sandy matrix, mixed mostly with bones and shells waste, together with both pottery and lithic discarded artefacts (fig. 2). The component of the filling suggest its formation was a consequence of the abandonment of the original function of these structures. Yet, it is not easy to evaluate the time elapsed between the suspension of use and the filling of the pits. Moreover, at the bottom of the 310 structure, exclusive lithic elements arranged according to a sloping position seem to be in agreement with a deliberate and planned filling. In the lack of specific absolute chronology and of consistent stratigraphic relationships between the small size pits and other structures being present in the site (fireplaces, waste pits, cobble pavements), it is commonly hard to verify the contemporaneity of these different dwelling structures. Nonetheless, both the pits number 128 and 133b (fig. 3) are tangent to sandstone-paved surfaces: this feature suggests that dug structures and cobbles may have been mutually dependent in functional terms. In the case of 133b, 133bis and 132 pits, also grouped together, the dug structures seem to be in relation with some hearths. Moreover, a heart overlay the mouth of the 133bis pit, thus canceling it and finishing its originally intended function.

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