We meet the team at a holy well on the Island of Sardinia. John Paul emerges from a stone staircase in the earth, carrying a bowl of water. He places the bowl in the middle of the medicine wheel and invites the team to pour water over their head and hands and touch it to their throats and hearts. The team includes an archaeologist in the East of the Medicine Wheel who will dissect the accepted theories of these ancient civilizations. An archeo-astronomer specialising in how ancient cultures worked with astronomy stands in the South to probe the physical evidence of celestial alignments. In the West a Sardinian storyteller holds the legends and stories of forgotten times. John Paul offers a prayer asking the spirits to permit them to explore the island and offer him and the team guidance and insight.

 

Our archaeologist introduces us to Santa Cristina Holy Well, a temple probably dedicated to the female Goddesses through the worship of water. She leads the team to examine the extraordinary stone staircase leading to the beautiful pool of water below. The temple was either built by the ancient Ozieri culture that occupied Sardinia from 3200 to 2800 BCE, or by the Nuragic people who lived in Sardinia from 1800 BCE to 200 CE. The Nuragic were skilled masons but left no written records. She explains how the large, fine, cyclopean masonry suggests construction by an earlier people.

 

The archeo-astronomer leads the team on an exploration of this site over the next day and two nights. At sunrise of the second day he describes how today, because it’s the equinox, the sun will perfectly illuminate the bottom of the well by shining down the stairwell to reflect on the water below. The team members observe this phenomenon and remark on the sophisticated construction. At night-time, the team observes the interplay of the moon as it passes over the site. Every 18 years and 6 months when the moon reaches its maximum height in the sky, the diameter of the moon equals the diameter of the hole, so the image of the moon fills the basin completely. This won’t occur until 2025 but the archeo-astronomer replicates the experience for the team. It is a beautiful piece of astronomical construction, showing that whoever built it had great connection to and understanding of the movement of the stars.  

 

Following the trail of pre-Nuragic people, the team heads out to Domus de Janas (House of the Fairies). Sardinia is home to thousands of pre-historic ‘chamber tombs’ carved into the rock. The team proceeds to explore the necropolis of Anghelu Ruju. The archaeologist says this site contains dozens of ‘funeral’ caves, some decorated with light coats of red paint and stylised bull’s heads. The colour red and the Bull’s Head are symbols of male fertility and represent the continuity of life. A debate ensues about whether these are tombs at all. The storyteller shares Sardinian stories of the Janas (faerie) people, who supposedly lived here. Could these carved structures be a home of the fairies before they were tombs? John Paul notes the similarities with mounds in Ireland.  

 

The archaeologist shows a map of the area - the caves are situated next to each other to form a necropolis that could host over a hundred bodies. Each corpse was deposited in a foetal position alongside the belongings believed necessary for their journey and in the afterlife.   During the next couple of days, the team members crawl in and out of many of these houses, mapping them and discussing the conflicting theories of whether they were tombs or homes. Perhaps both descriptions are accurate? John Paul has already contacted several ancient residents of these sites. Some were tending to graves and preparing bodies for burial and some were living seemingly normal domestic lives. John Paul realised that whilst both activities are ‘true’, they were happening at different times in history. Archaeologists presume that the ancient Sardinians believed in rebirth, as they painted dead bodies with red ochre – the colour red representing blood, which could bring one back to life. 

 

As preparation for the investigations in week two, the storyteller recounts legends about Sardinia being a land of giants. The archaeologist concedes that while many ruins are definitely in the Nuragic style, many other ruins would be large enough to cater for a race of giants. There is also the mystery of archived newspaper reports from the early 20th century with printed photos of skeletal remains of beings who would have stood between 8 and 20 feet tall. The team examines the newspaper reports. While the physical remains have vanished, there are consistent reports of locals finding impossibly big bones and there is one giant molar kept by a museum. The team members examine a cast of the tooth and remark on its massive size.

 

During the next two days the team heads out to where these discoveries were made in Coddu Vecchiu, a hillside peppered with vineyards. Our Archaeologist informs the team that Tomba dei Giganti (The Giant’s Tomb) was believed to have been constructed during the Bronze Age by the Nuragic civilization as a public tomb. The group examines the doorway of a central stele, an upright stone slab serving as a gravestone which the storyteller says is the barrier between this world and the afterlife. In the stone forecourt of the compound are eleven granite stones, arranged in a semicircle measuring 40 feet across.

 

At the equinoxes, the light of the rising sun directly enters the Giant’s Tomb corridor through a small opening on the stele. The archaeo-astronomer leads the team out one night to witness his discovery that these megaliths are oriented toward the constellation of Taurus and they point to the brightest star, Aldebaran. The archaeologist points out further carvings of bullhorns. With bullhorn carvings at Domus de Janas and here, it is obvious that Taurus was important to the ancient Sardinians.

 

John Paul had previously connected with a grave attendant who explained the shape of these Tomba dei Giganti. When viewed from above, these tombs are shaped like a woman’s open legs with the entrance leading to the womb. The spirit explains that the giants built these tombs for the local ‘smaller’ people. The rituals returned the corpse into the womb of creation.    

 

The team visits another Giant structure; Monte d’Acoddi, a Ziggurat-style megalithic pyramid. The archaeologist says it’s the oldest and only step-pyramid in Europe, probably built by the Ozieri around 4000 BCE, and it stopped being used c. 2000 BCE. There are remains of a village nearby, which she is keen to explore.

 

The archaeo-astronomer is interested in the sophisticated astronomical alignments, one of which means that the Southern Cross would have been visible here 5000 years ago. The storyteller says the sacred areas on top of the ziggurat were considered to be the meeting point between man and divinity. John Paul is drawn to re-examine a curious flat stone measuring 3 X 3 metres that he had been drawn to during an earlier visit. Spirits had told him it is an altar stone and shown him how animals were tethered to the stone handles carved along the edges before being sacrificed. John Paul taps this solid altar stone and it rings like a metal bell.  

 

The final site is a large collection of cone shaped towers called Nuraghe, which are dotted all over Sardinia. The archaeologist tells us that whilst there are 7,000 of these still standing, remains show that there were more than 30,000 during the Nuragic period. The current theory is that these colossal stone structures were fortifications, but the group wonders why. Given the vast numbers of these towers, there seem to be no corresponding stories of war and conquest. Our storyteller shares legends that tell of the towers being constructed by the giants as observational towers to help the local community monitor the seasons. There are also legends saying these were the homes of the giants and monstrous looking orcs.

 

The team members investigate the largest tower complex, Su Nuraxi. To reach the tallest tower, they pass through a labyrinth of circular walls of a hamlet constructed some time later than the original. The most striking feature of the tower is how the huge basalt blocks of the central tower fit together. The floor is of polished pebbles, and the structure is covered by a Mycenaean-style dome. It dates from around 1600 - 1200 BCE. Four turrets surround the main tower and they are connected by underground passages. A storage cavity keeps food at a constant temperature of 12C all year round. The team climbs to the top of the massive central tower on a spiral staircase, originally over 18.5 metres high. At the top, the archeo-astronomer notes how easy it is to view the constellations from here. John Paul notes that on a previous visit, he had experienced the spirit of a young man doing just that.

 

Before departing Sardinia, the team members examine the Nuraghe connected to the Sacred Well where the group’s explorations began. They gather with John Paul at the Medicine wheel where two weeks ago they began to investigate these sites and consider the possibility of giants. Each of the team summarises their thoughts, feelings and discoveries and conclude that whether this island has been home to fairies, giants or orcs these structures and the ancient people of Sardinia were closely aligned to the stars and Taurus in particular.