A mosaic of ancient history described by D.H. Lawrence as "lying outside the
circuit of civilization," the 9,300-square-mile island of Sardinia was in
fact widely settled and in the mainstream of western Mediterranean cultural
developments during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The Greeks called the
island Ichnussa, or footprint, because of its shape, but Sardinia's central
location makes the term metaphorically appropriate as well. During the Late
Bronze and Iron ages, significant trade and contact existed with the eastern
Mediterranean; Phoenician colonies were established; and the island was
dominated by a succession of Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, and
others. Nevertheless, many elements of the indigenous Bronze Age Nuragic
culture that characterized Sardinia beginning about 1750 B.C. survived into
the medieval period. More than 7,000 stone monuments known as nuraghi (their
Sardinian name, meaning a stone structure or pile with a hollow interior)
still dot the modern landscape. Decades of intensive archaeological
investigation by local and foreign scholars have provided a solid foundation
for an understanding of the Nuragic culture and its relation to other
Mediterranean societies.
Robert H. Tykot is an associate professor of anthropology and director of the Laboratory for Archaeological Science at the University of South Florida.
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