Corpo Pagina
Welcome back to the new appointment with the virtual tour in the exhibition of the Archaeological Museum of Cagliari!
Today we show you some of the statuettes found in Terreseo Narcao in the Strumpu Bagoi sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Demeter.
Demeter is the Greek goddess of crops and the fertility of the earth, whose cult was assimilated by the Carthaginians, who consistently with their policies of conquest and territorial exploitation, introduced it in all the territories that came under their hegemony: the Balearics, the part western Sicily and of course Sardinia, a colony devoted to agricultural exploitation, where it was widespread.
The Strumpu Bagoi temple is built with the typical construction technique of the Punic period, that is with walls with a base of stones cemented with mud mortar.
The foundation period is the end of the 4th century BC, but the sanctuary continues to be frequented even in Roman times, as evidenced by the foundation deposit, found under one of the altars and dating back to the Augustan period. The attendance continues until the third century AD.
The Templar building was tripartite with an external access penetration and several chapels, the main one facing north. There were several altars for sacrifices both inside and outside the chapel, with remains of ashes and bones and teeth of pigs. It is the piglet that often appears, together with the pomegranate, also in the terracotta statuettes that depicted the divinity found inside the “favissa”, that is the sacred deposit, obtained inside the altar of the penethral.
Most of the ex-votos consisted of kernophoroi (small perfume-burning busts) and statuettes depicting the goddess Demeter, with a pig and torch in her hands or with a cruciform pattern. There were also oil lamps, which like the kernophoroi were linked to the night ritual that took place in the sanctuary.
