The Giants of Mont’e Prama are enormous sculptures between two and two and a half meters tall created by the Nuragic civilization that inhabited the island of Sardinia between the 18th and 2nd centuries BCE. The first were found in a necropolis in the municipality of Cabras in 1974, where more have continued to be discovered to this day, the most recent just a few years ago.

The necropolis contains numerous cylindrical tombs covered with stone slabs in which remains of young men were found, probably members of the Nuragic elite such as warriors, athletes, or rulers, possibly from the same family.

The sculptures depict archers, warriors, and boxers, and the fact that they were found alongside tombs from the same period leads archaeologists to believe they were arranged around them as guardians. But even this is not entirely clear. They could just as well have belonged to a nearby temple not yet found, or be the artistic testimony of an important event in local Nuragic history.

Mont'e Prama Giants
Distribution of the tombs and their dating in the Necropolis of Mont’e Prama. Credit: DedaloNur / Wikimedia Commons

There are many mysteries surrounding the giants and the necropolis where they were found. Was it destroyed during an internal war between Nuragic communities, by the Phoenicians, or demolished by the Carthaginians? We still don’t know. The most recent studies date the tombs and sculptures to between the late 9th and the first half of the 8th century BCE, that is, during the Iron Age.

Now, a study published in the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation offers a new hypothesis: the giants of Mont’e Prama could have been inspired by people with acromegaly, a medical condition that causes disproportionate growth of bones and tissues.

They are tall, with prominent frontal protrusions and cheekbones, mandibular prognathism, and pronounced noses. Their bodies are massive, with robust limbs and especially developed muscles. These morphological traits, although stylized, suggest that the statues may be inspired by individuals suffering from acromegaly and gigantism. However, they could also symbolically represent the strength, power, and prestige of the buried dead, emphasizing their authority within Nuragic society, the researchers say.

Mont'e Prama Giants
Nuragic giants at the Museum of Archaeology of Cagliari. Credit: Ludovica dal Molin / Wikimedia Commons

In fact, they acknowledge that this duality is recurrent in the history of art from antiquity to the Renaissance, with numerous examples, some very well known. In the history of art, many works show features attributable to acromegaly, a phenomenon that arises in different historical and cultural contexts. Already in ancient Greek and Hellenistic art there are numerous representations, including terracotta figurines, that document this condition. Some of them were part of grotesque art, others served as models for medical education or offered realistic portrayals of individuals drawn from everyday life, they state.

Nevertheless, the true nature of these Giants of Mont’e Prama remains uncertain. According to the researchers, new interdisciplinary studies involving archaeologists, anthropologists, and endocrinologists are needed, with special attention to morphological and genetic analyses of the human remains from the necropolis.

SOURCES

Marino Picciola, V., Ambrosio, M.R. & Zatelli, M.C. The mystery of Mont’e Prama: sculptures, acromegaly, and nuragic society. J Endocrinol Invest (2025). doi.org/10.1007/s40618-025-02605-5

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