A large amount of this Sardinian material survives from the Bronze Age. It depicts various figures in society as well as animals, objects and monuments. These bronzetti date to a time following the construction of Sardinian nuraghi (the dry-stone towers that give the civilization its name), between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. The Nuragic culture flourished in Sardinia at the end of the Early Bronze age (the Ancient Bronze Age in Sardinia), and the towers are thought to have been erected during the middle of the Bronze Age (approximately 1700-1400 BC). Nuraghi reached heights of 22-25 metres, and some still reach a considerable height – Santu Antine in Torralba survives to 17.55 metres.
For a long time, the towers were considered, but archaeologists have recently questioned this interpretation. The have the form of a truncated cone with a single entrance on the ground floor. Inside, there are one or more superimposed, vaulted chambers. These are connected by a spiral stairway that ends in a small terrace held up by stone brackets. Several structures still preserve this feature, and surviving sculptures depict them and help us to imagine what they would have looked like. These structures, along with the monumental tombs known as (cyclopic collective monuments with a long burial chamber), were constructed from about 1700 BC. The thirteenth century BC is usually regarded as for their construction. Thereafter, were no longer built, but they were still represented in art and employed as shrines in the subsequent Late Bronze Age and Iron Age. The term ‘Nuragic’ therefore also refers to the final stages of this culture.
