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Photo by Sandra Davis Lakeman: The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Comune di Barumini, Cal Poly.

Bronze votive figurines once filled the triangular niches of this domestic ritual basin, in a village at Monte Tiscali. Water once flowed through the mouths of sculpted bulls projecting above the niches, filling the sandstone vat below. The Nuragic Sardinians, dependent on water from natural springs, also developed water cult rituals; their sacred springs were often enclosed by stone cupulas and entered via staircases descending from paved forecourts.