The Nuraghi conquer Churchill's BBC

"Propaganda" rules

It is not known whether the strategic direction of the London network still applies the rules imposed in September 1940 on journalists destined for the Italian translation of the propaganda towards Italy to be released, certainly some cornerstones of those directives still appear suggestive in the BBC special. on the Nuraghi that is going around the world. Harold Stevens at the head of the Italian structure of the BBC had a dogma imprinted as an effigy on the "communicational" mission entrusted to him by the Churchill government: to start the Italians in rebellion against the regime.

Shake off apathy

And the first rule of the manual still kept in the BBC archives reads: "Shake the Italian people from their current state of apathy". To do this, the London network applies a tried and tested rule to the Bel Paese: "To induce trust that what we say is true". Another context, another story, it will be said, but the special signed by the documentary journalist Kiki Streitberger that occupies the BBC home page is much more than an exhortation aimed at apathy that clips the wings of the immense Nuragic Civilization of Sardinia. To do this, the BBC uses images destined to travel around the universe, starting from that mysterious as well as cyclopean pointed arch conceived and built 3,500 years ago in the ancient land of the Nuraghi, in the crossroads of the island, in the territory. of Abbasanta, in the magic of the Nuragic “Palace” of Losa. The title is suggestive: “Sardinia's mysterious beehive towers”, the mysterious towers of the Sardinian beehive. A "mystery", in fact. A definition that both on a communicational and strategic level constitutes the real leitmotif of the BBC's journey, all aimed at “inducing” the discovery of that fascinating secret enclosed in those gigantic nuragic towers of which the first real Mediterranean island is dotted.

The nuragic grandeur

And the magnificence told by the London correspondent starts from the grandeur of the Nuragic complex: "More than 7,000 skyscrapers from the Bronze Age once dotted this Island". With a fascinating perspective: "Now new discoveries shed light on the Nuragic civilization of Sardinia".

The image that emerges is that of the discovery of this “exclusive” millenary life through the eyes of the foreigner, of those who know nothing and imagine nothing. Kiki Streitberger, sent to the land of Sardinia, tells it with the candor of an unconscious gait in that stop at the fuel station in Abbasanta, on the crossroads of the 131 state road, crossing for the two routes of the ancient Roman Y, to the north and to the east : "Waiting to find nothing more than a pile of large stones, I followed the sign off the highway into a small parking lot and there it was, rising from a flat, verdant landscape covered in white flowers, with some donkeys scattered around : Nuraghe Losa. From a distance it looked like a great sand castle with the top crumbling, but as I approached I began to realize the colossal size of the monument in front of me. " He tells the world of the BBC: these Nuraghi «guard ancient trade routes, river crossings and sacred places. The immediately recognizable beehive-shaped buildings are not found anywhere else in the world, and therefore have become the symbol of Sardinia ». The mystery is the underlying theme of the narration: «It is not yet clear how and why the Sardinians of the Bronze Age of this Nuragic civilization built these imposing towers. Theories on their use range from fortifications and homes to grocery stores, places of worship or even astronomical observatories. It is probable that in the course of their history they have served many of these purposes, precisely because the towers have remained central to Nuragic life for centuries ». The imagination across the Channel does not dare and relies on Sardus Pater, the island's number one archaeologist, that Giovanni Lilliu, who was the first to attempt to decipher its significance and grandeur. He recalls the BBC: "In 1953 the most famous archaeologist of Sardinia, Giovanni Lilliu, wrote in the Italian magazine Le vie d'Italia:" The nuraghi, for Sardinia are a bit like the pyramids for Egypt and the Colosseum for Rome: evidence not only of a flourishing and historically active civilization but also of a spiritual concept that gave its external manifestations a monumental and lasting character ».

It is the suggestion of that entry into the Losa monument that carves rare emotions in the Westminster network correspondent, the one who told directly about the liberation of Europe: "Entering Losa through a narrow passage in the stone wall covered with lichens , I found dark passages, framed by huge rounded rocks, leading in different directions; and above me, a 3,300-year-old ceiling that resembled an inverted pine cone. To my surprise and amazement, a spiral staircase hidden in the interior walls led to the roof of the building. Although worn in places more than a rocky slope, the staircase is still so fully functional that I have walked up and down several times, imagining all the people who would have walked those steps before me. " The imagination becomes astonished when at the end of those very ingenious and exclusive stairs they project onto the horizon of the summit: "The summit offers a perfect observation point from which the nuragic people could observe the wooded and then wild landscape to scrutinize potential threats . From there they could spot other nuraghi in the distance, leading historians to believe that the structures were not only symbols of power and wealth, but also an island-wide communication chain - "a bit like the internet," said the organization's Manuela Laconi. Paleotur, which manages the site of the Nuraghe Losa ».

The BBC's journey goes further, reaches Su Nuraxi, in Barumini, the only nuraghe registered on the Unesco list, flies over Nuraghe Arrubiu, on the plateau of Orroli "a monumental five-lobed bastion whose central tower of 30 meters was one of the higher than Europe in the Bronze Age ».

The excursus on symbols is a whole that makes the Nuraghi "the most recognizable engineering feat of civilization". Then there are the Giants of Mont 'e Prama and "their small and intricate bronze sculptures (bronzetti)". The journalist confesses: "The British Museum in London has some in its collection, but the most complete exhibition can be admired in the National Archaeological Museum of the Sardinian capital, Cagliari".

The BBC "free" commercial is more than just a jolt to apathy. Sometimes, despite having them in front of their homes, many continue to ignore these extraordinary monuments of 3/4000 years ago, a unique example in the world of the great civilization of the Sardinian people. An avalanche of money continues to be spent on useless "vacation trips" by administrators around the world, forgetting that the "treasure" is here, in the land of Sardinia. BBC word.