Nuraghi with a view: Understanding visualscapes in Nuragic Marmilla (South-Central Sardinia, Italy)

Sardinia’s nuraghi represent the most characteristic building of the island since at least the Middle Bronze Age 2 (ca. 1600-1500), and have been subject to a number of excavations and landscape studies. However, their functional and symbolic role still appears to be poorly defined. In this paper, the subregion of Marmilla (South-Central Sardinia) has been considered for an extensive survey; GIS visibility analyses, such as cumulative viewshed, coupled with the adoption of Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests and random point simulations, have been employed to explore the visual structure of this nuragic landscape, while “visualscapes” have constituted a key theoretical tool to explore visibility. Analyses have demonstrated a remarkable interest for visibility and intervisibility in the site selection process; moreover, simple and complex nuraghi have shown a similar attitude towards visibility, thus suggesting similar concerns at least in visibility matters.