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CARNIVAL IN SAMUGHEO

The sacrifice of S’Urthu and the dance of Mamutzones.
Mamutzones wear goat’s skin, big horns on their tall cork hats, bells on their bodies and their faces are blackened with soot. They dance in a frenetic uncontrolled manner around s’Urtzu who is half goat and half man and su Omadore beats him until s’Urtzu is sacrificed.
Echoes and symbols of ancient pagan rites.

  • THE MASKS 
    Su Mamutzone, s’Urtzu, su ‘Omadore: all the masks from Samugheo
  • THE EVENT 
    It is not a simple procession, but a real performance: all the events of the Carnival in Samugheo.
  • ORIGINS AND MEANINGS 
    What do the dark Samugheo masks represent?
    behind the mask fertility rites and Dyonisiac cults.
  • POINTS OF INTEREST 

text by Salvatore Corrias
photos home page: Andrea Salvai
photos kindly granted by
Associazione Culturale Mamutzones de Samugheo
we kindly thank
Danilo Todde and Tonino Musu from Samugheo