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Chapter 34
Sardinia
Andrea Roppa
The island of Sardinia (map 34.1) has always played an important role in the history of Phoenician studies, as shown by the works of the doyen of Phoenician archaeology, Sabatino Moscati, devoted to Phoenician and Punic Sardinia, as early as the 1960s (e.g., Moscati 1968). Those studies were the result of the extended excavations carried out at the Phoenician sites of Monte Sirai, Nora, and Tharros in the same years, which provided a general understanding of the forms and chronology of Phoenician settlement on the island.
Map 34.1 Map of Sardinia, showing sites discussed in the chapter. (1) Sant’Imbenia; (2) S’Urachi; (3) Mont’e Prama; (4) Tharros; (5) Othoca; (6) San Giorgio di Portoscuso; (7) Monte Sirai. (8) Nuraghe Sirai; (9) Sant’Antioco (10) Pani Loriga; (11) Bithia; (12) Nora; (13) Cagliari; (14) Cuccureddus di Villasimius; (15) Olbia.
Source: A. Roppa.
Following that early season of investigations, research has subsequently focused on specific social, productive, and religious features of culture to reconstruct Phoenician society in Sardinia. Until recent years, interaction with the island’s native communities only marginally entered reconstructions on Phoenician Sardinia. These native communities were the heirs to the Nuragic civilization that flourished between the Middle Bronze and Early Iron Age, and then gradually declined beginning in the seventh century bce. From a colonialist perspective, some proposed that Nuragic elite were incorporated into the Phoenician colonial fabric. Others explained their decline by suggesting that local communities missed the new economic opportunities provided by the Phoenician trans-Mediterranean maritime network and kept focusing on traditional agro-pastoral resources (e.g., Blake 2014: 114–16).
Recent research has shown that Nuragic culture was thriving at the time of the Phoenicians’ arrival in the ninth century bce, and that Phoenician presence on the island was extremely diversified between the ninth and sixth centuries bce. In this chapter, I provide an archaeological overview and suggest that patterns and outcomes of the Phoenician diaspora in Sardinia resulted from diversified forms of contact and interaction with local Nuragic communities, varying significantly across the island throughout the Iron Age. I first focus on the basic features of Iron Age Nuragic society, and evaluate the spread of Phoenician material culture among the island’s local communities between the late ninth and eighth centuries bce. I then move to define the archaeological features of Phoenician sites, which were established between the mid-eighth and seventh centuries bce, and focus on the interaction and the appearance of mixed communities, particularly at indigenous sites. Finally, I set the archaeology of Phoenician Sardinia in the broader western Mediterranean contemporary scenario.
Late Ninth to Eighth Centuries bce: Nuragic Communities and Phoenician Newcomers
Nuragic Society in the Iron Age
The archaeological landmarks of Nuragic culture are the monumental nuraghi towers, of which are known more than 7,000 in number across Sardinia. Ranging from single towers to large multi-towered complexes surrounded by defensive walls with towers, nuraghi were typically built between the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. Their appearance suggests that they may have fulfilled primarily defensive functions, and that power in Bronze Age Nuragic society was highly fragmented (Webster 2015). During the Iron Age, important transformations occurred, as a significant number of nuraghi were abandoned and large villages, often adjacent to the nuraghi, grew in importance. Settlement pattern developments are paralleled in the religious sphere by the appearance of large sanctuaries across the island beginning in the tenth century bce (Usai 2006). In the Iron Age, these sanctuaries displayed elaborate buildings, such as meeting huts and the megaron temples. Excavations at various of these large cultic sites have yielded precious metal and imported objects, which point to their role in wealth accumulation and redistribution processes within Iron Age Nuragic society (Ialongo 2013).
The funerary sphere offers more insights into changes Nuragic society underwent at the beginning of the first millennium bce. Collective burial ritual which took place in the “Giants’ Tombs”—elongated structures made of stone blocks fronted by a monumental exedra—was no longer used beginning in roughly the ninth century bce, and individual burials in single pits appeared. This change in funerary ritual is poorly documented, as few funerary contexts have been identified, and even fewer have been investigated (Bernardini 2011). Among them, crucial is the evidence provided by the site at Mont’e Prama, in west-central Sardinia. At this burial site, excavations have brought to light three groups of single burials, dating between the ninth and seventh centuries bce. Particularly important is the group of thirty-three pit burials dating to the eighth century bce, as it was sealed by a fill containing the fragments of at least twenty-five larger-than-life stone statues, which originally stood on the tombs. These statues d
epicted warriors, boxers, and archers, and were probably destroyed when the tombs were sealed, not before the fourth century bce (Bedini et al. 2012). While the iconography of statues finds a close match in the traditional Nuragic repertoire of the bronzetti (bronze figurines), their size is unusually larger than bronzetti, usually not taller than 20 cm.
While the iconography of the Mont’e Prama statues is firmly rooted in the local Nuragic cultural tradition (Lilliu 2002: 249–54), features such as their size (traditional in Levantine and Aegean statuary) and context are clear evidence of interaction with the Phoenicians that at that time had already landed on the near shores of the Gulf of Oristano and begun, at least temporarily, to settle in the area. The context at Mont’e Prama exemplifies the complicated social milieu within Iron Age Nuragic communities and their need to reestablish their communal identity through renovated forms of elite self-representation, which were triggered by increased interaction with Levantine newcomers (Tronchetti and van Dommelen 2005).
Further evidence of interaction is the spread of Phoenician material culture—namely metal and ceramic objects, among local communities between the ninth and eighth centuries bce. Among metal objects of Levantine production or typology, two groups can be identified: “Phoenician” bronze figurines of the type described here, and bronze items related to the ritual/ceremonial sphere, such as Cypriot or Cypriot-style cauldrons, torch-holders and tripods. While it is unclear whether these objects (figurines in particular) are eastern imports or local productions, and their chronology usually covers a large time span in the early first millennium bce (Bernardini and Botto 2010), most typologically Levantine metal items come from ritual sites. For example, from sacred contexts are the Cypriot bronze torch-holders from the sanctuaries at Santa Vittoria di Serri and Su Monte, the bronze tripod from the cave shrine at Su Benatzu, the bronze cauldrons from the sanctuary at Sant’Anastasia, and the bronze statuettes from a ritual context at nuraghe Flumenlongu, and from the sanctuaries at Olmedo and Santa Cristina di Paulilatino. Less abundant are metal objects of eastern production or typology found at larger settlements, among which the Cypriot bronze torch-holder from nuraghe S’Urachi, and the bronze statuette from nuraghe Nurdòle at Orani (Tronchetti 2014: 271–74).
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