Traces of a 3000-year-old trade network: on the small island of Tavolara off Sardinia, people from two mysterious cultures apparently exchanged goods: the Proto-Etruscans of central Italy and the Sardinian Nuragi. This is evidenced by ceramic finds on Tavolara that are around 3000 years old and, according to the analyzes, came from different production sites in Etruria at that time. The results thus prove an overseas trade network that linked the two cultures in the early Iron Age, say the archaeologists.
The focus is on a region that would later become the nucleus of the Roman Empire: Central Italy and the region around the Tyrrhenian Sea. In the 9th and 8th centuries BC Two distinctive cultures existed in this area: The so-called Villanova culture in today’s Italian regions of Tuscany and Latium and the Nuragi on the island of Sardinia. The people of the Villanova culture are also known as Proto-Etruscans because they are considered to be the ancestors of this famous ancient people, who later played an important role in the development of the Roman Empire. Finds show that the Proto-Etruscan copper and iron mines operated in Tuscany and that they were skilled metal workers.
Traces in the nuragic realm
The island of Sardinia, which is not far away, was the kingdom of the Nuragi at this time. These ancient Sardinians produced a considerable level of culture, as evidenced by numerous traces of settlement and characteristic ceramic and metal finds. The special trademark of the culture, however, were the so-called nuraghi – stone towers, the remains of which can be found by the thousands on the island. What they were used for is still unclear. It could have been places of worship, tombs or residential and fortification structures. The fact that the Nuragi and the Proto-Etruscans had relationships is already proven – but mostly one-sided: ceramics and metal objects that came from Sardinia were found in central Italian Villanova tombs. Conversely, hardly any traces of the Villanova culture were known in Sardinia. This has changed now.
The finds come from a place that initially seems surprising: the ceramics were discovered by Italian archaeologists on a small flat headland on the island of Tavolara off the north-east coast of Sardinia. The island, characterized by a high rock massif, is only about six kilometers long, one kilometer wide and today has only 20 inhabitants. Since features of the ceramics suggested an origin from central Italy, they aroused particular interest among archaeologists. They have now been subjected to petrographic and chemical analyzes by experts led by Silvia Amicone from the University of Tübingen in order to obtain more precise information on the composition of the material and the manufacturing techniques.
Early antique overseas network
The results confirm that the finds were actually not made in Sardinia – they were imported goods. By comparing the material characteristics, the researchers were able to show that the ceramics had been brought to the island from different production centers along the Mediterranean coast of what is now Italy. From this it can be concluded that the entire region of Etruria was integrated into a trade network – from Tuscany to northern Lazio. And this region was in turn connected to Sardinia via the sea. “A kind of trade agreement between Nuragis and Proto-Etruscans is even conceivable,” the scientists write.
The location on the small island, which seems to stretch from Sardinia to central Italy, suggests that it served as a meeting point for the exchange of goods between cultures. Further investigations on Tavolara and on the archaeological finds should now clarify the role of the island within the overseas network of the early Iron Age in the Tyrrhenian Sea. In addition, the view is broadened: In addition to Tavolara, there could have been other contact points in Sardinia for cultural and economic relations, say the scientists.
Source: University of Tübingen. Articles: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, doi: 10.1016 / j.jasrep.2020.102452