The nuraghe Palmavera is classified as a complex nuraghe, that consists of several towers joined together. The nuraghe and the surrounding village were built in various phase during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
The main tower dates back to the first phase (15th-14th century BC) and retains the central chamber covered with the tholos and built with stones in limestone. The tower is archaic, with the entrance free of side passages and with the niches just sketched in the walls of the main chamber. There must have been also some huts outside the nuraghe.
In the second phase (first half of the ninth century BC) was added a second tower and restored the previous tower with blocks of sandstone. The two towers communicated through an interior courtyard and a corridor with niches.
It was also built the meeting hut, equipped with a stone seat that runs along the perimeter, interrupted by a tank made of stone slabs, of unknown function, and a round stone seat for the chief, standing next to a niche in the wall. At the center of the hut, on a circular altar, it is present a model of a nuragic tower in sandstone. In this period were also built other huts in the village of higher dimension.
In the third phase (9th-8th century BC), the nuraghe was restored again with blocks of limestone and around it was built an exterior wall with four towers-huts, forming two outer courts, divided by a wall with no openings. In one of these courts it was inserted the meeting hut, in the other has been identified a silo.
The village was destroyed by fire, probably at the end of the eighth century BC and was later sporadically attended in Punic and Roman times, as witnessed by some pottery found.
References:The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.
The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick.