Bonu Ighinu culture, is a 7100 to 6500 year old neolithic culture from the north west of Sardinia

A middle neolithic, pre-Nuragic culture takes the name from a locality in the municipality of Mara. In the province of Sassari. Sardinia.
The area, is near, the cave of Sa de Ucca of Tintirriolu (the mouth of the bat). At least 45 sites are known in the culture. All across the island, only avoiding the central upper valleys and the south eastern corner. When during neolithic times. Visitors may have arrived here first.

The subsistence agriculture involved growing wheat, barley, peas, and lentils. As well as, they kept cattle, pigs, sheep, and goat. Local wild animals, like the extinct Sardinian pika (which were more than 1lb, and went extinct during roman times), were also hunted there.

Pottery and stonework
Bonu Ighinu pottery is mostly known for its thin-walled stone work. Varying in colour from brown to dark grey. The vessels had a round base. The bowls especially exhibited characteristically like flared collars. Decorations were executed in micro point impressions or engraved lines. They depicted geometric symbols and festoons (wreaths or garlands hanging from two points, think Christmas lights).


The use of Monte Arci obsidian has been found from the culture. For tool making. As well, remains of a large 12×6 meter oval pit house.
It is believed the culture was the first in Sardinia to have used natural cavities as graves, which then formed small necropolises (cemeterys). The dead were buried in graves and in small artificial caves, oval and vaulted.

Bibliography: Webster, Gary (2019). The Sardinian Neolithic: An Archaeology of the 6th and 5th Millennia BCE. BAR int. ser. 2941. Oxford: BAR Publishing. ISBN9781407355115.

Lugliè, Carlo (2018). “Your path led trough [sic] the sea … The emergence of Neolithic in Sardinia and Corsica”. Quaternary International. 470: 285–300. Bibcode:2018QuInt.470..285L. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2017.12.032.

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