West-central Sardinia Research Articles

Approaching Interaction in Iron Age Sardinia: Multi-Scalar Survey Evidence from the Sinis Archaeological Project and the Progetto S’Urachi

Abstract Using west-central Sardinia as a case study, this article explores how multi-scalar survey archaeology can be used to address questions of the intensity, nature, and scale of interaction in the Iron Age central Mediterranean. This large island played an important role in Mediterranean trade networks and was frequented and settled by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Romans, among others over the course of the first millennium BCE. These foreign groups interacted with local Nuragic people through trade, the exchange of ideas, and genetic admixing, which led to increasing connectivity over time. Large excavations at major colonial sites and genetic studies have reinforced the perception that interactions were felt most strongly in coastal regions, while inland communities remained more isolated. Our multi-scalar survey data, drawn from site-based survey at the inland nuraghe S’Urachi and regional survey in its surrounding territory (the Sinis Archaeological Project), supply information concerning how Iron Age interactions impacted inland rural communities. These data show how interaction transformed over time, as trade increased and agriculture intensified in response to external demands. Ultimately, we suggest that survey archaeology is an important tool for illuminating multi-scalar interaction in Sardinia and elsewhere.

FDEM and ERT measurements for archaeological prospections at Nuraghe S'Urachi (West‐Central Sardinia)

AbstractNuraghe S'Urachi is a monumental architectural complex in West Central Sardinia that was probably first built in the Bronze Age and remained occupied continuously into the early Roman Imperial period. It has been the object of systematic and large‐scale archaeological investigations in three different phases since 1948 when the first excavations revealed a complex building within a massive defensive wall and multiple towers. Intermittent fieldwork between the 1980s and 2005 subsequently showed that the central nuraghe might comprise up to five principal towers. In 2013, a new collaborative research project, sponsored by Brown University and the Municipality of San Vero Milis, brought together a multidisciplinary research project to investigate this important archaeological site. In this framework, multi‐frequency and multi‐coil electromagnetic measurements (FDEM) and Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) were carried out in 2018, 2019, and 2020, over and close to the nuraghe towers, to gain a better understanding of the inner part of the main structure and to investigate the surrounding area that was intensively settled in Phoenician and Punic times. The preliminary results of the geophysical measurements provide new and interesting evidence that supports new hypotheses and suggests possible future archaeological and geophysical strategies to investigate the unexcavated part of the archaeological site of S'Urachi.

Applications of Satellite Remote Sensing for Archaeological Survey: A Case Study from the Sinis Archaeological Project, Sardinia

ABSTRACTSatellite imagery has long been recognized as well suited for the regional and ecological questions of many archaeological surveys. One underexplored aspect of such data is their temporal resolution. It is now possible for areas to be imaged on an almost daily basis, and this resolution offers new opportunities for studying landscapes through remote sensing in parallel with ground-based survey. This article explores the applications of these data for visibility assessment and land-cover change detection in the context of the Sinis Archaeological Project, a regional archaeological survey of west-central Sardinia. We employ imagery provided by Planet, which has a spatial resolution of 3 m, in four spectral bands, and is collected daily. Using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values calculated for each survey unit, we find that there is a relationship between NDVI values and field-reported visibility in general, though the strength of this correlation differs according to land-cover classes. We also find the data to be effective at tracking short-term changes in field conditions that allow us to differentiate fields of similar land cover and visibility. We consider limitations and potentials of these data and encourage further experimentation and development.

Bronze Age stone tools in Nuragic Sardinia: The case of the ground-stone tools from Nuraghe Cuccurada-Mogoro (Sardinia, Italy)

The use of stone tools has always characterized the everyday life of Nuragic people, the communities that lived in Sardinia (Western Mediterranean, Italy) during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Several archaeological sites on this island attest to the great importance of stone-made instruments, among which are ground-stone tools. Although various studies on Sardinia have focused on the use of tools for food processing or transforming raw materials, they tend to exclude a systematic study of ground-stone tools and their role in Nuragic society. This paper considers a group of 39 ground-stone tools from nuraghe Cuccurada-Mogoro (west-central Sardinia), a Nuragic monument dated to the Bronze Age and re-used in the Iron Age. The study involved several forms of analysis including typology, macroscopic observation of use-surfaces and excavation data. The association of the Cuccurada's stone-tools with cooking instruments suggests the presence of areas devoted to food processing and cooking practices.The aim of this paper is first to underline the variety of stone tools employed by the Nuragic people, and second to consider the presence of common areas within the nuraghi likely used for everyday activities based on the analysis of the archaeological context in nuraghe Cuccurada-Mogoro and other similar Bronze Age contexts. Ethnographical examples on the use of stone tools provide evidence for the social value of these instruments and the organization of activities within the Nuragic community.

Lunati and the island of towers: Obsidian in Nuragic Sardinia

This paper discusses Bronze Age Nuragic obsidian exploitation by combining raw material sourcing with techno-typological analysis of a total of 363 obsidian artifacts from two sites in west-central Sardinia. The results are then combined with previously published data to make broader interpretations about obsidian reduction strategies and island-wide exchange networks, making it one of the largest compilations of data on Nuragic obsidian procurement, production, and consumption to date.These new data add nuance to prior generalizations of Nuragic obsidian consumption as an expedient flake-based technology centered on the exploitation of one primary outcrop of obsidian, in turn highlighting the presence of bladelet production as well as regional differences in source exploitation that are distinct from earlier time periods. Despite such diversity, lunates of SC obsidian are ubiquitous and may have circulated as finished products. In this context, the exchange of obsidian likely acted as a means of regulating social relations across space, in turn structuring the flow of goods, information, and ideas that were key to the creation and maintenances of Nuragic identity.

Contextualizing Bronze Age Obsidian Use at the ‘Ritual Spring’ of Mitza Pidighi (Sardinia)

This study focuses on obsidian consumption at the ‘ritual spring’ of Mitza Pidighi in west-central Sardinia, Italy. The site dates to the late Nuragic I to Nuragic III phases of the Bronze Age (ca. 1350–850 B.C.) and is found just east of a contemporaneous residential village, Nuraghe Pidighi. While recent years have seen a surge of archaeological literature on the subject of obsidian use at residential sites throughout the island, there has been little consideration of its role in other archaeological contexts, a research bias that this presentation aims in part to redress.For this study, 142 obsidian artifacts from Mitza Pidighi were analyzed non-destructively using a Thermo Scientific ARL Quant'X EDXRF spectrometer to determine their geological origins. In addition, each artifact was analyzed techno-typologically to allow for the reconstruction of the entire chain of events leading up to an artifact's discard. The sourcing results show that obsidians from all four Sardinian subsources are represented at the site, although most come from just one outcrop; the typological analysis indicates that people were physically knapping obsidian near the well to create expedient flake tools and non-prismatic bladelets. In combination, these results have important implications for interpreting the social, economic, and symbolic function of Mitza Pidighi and in understanding the role of obsidian outside of domestic contexts.

Land Use History and Site Formation Processes at the Punic Site of Pauli Stincus in West Central Sardinia

The site of Pauli Stincus is located near the town of Terralba, on the inland shores of the Gulf of Oristano in west central Sardinia, Italy, and was occupied between the mid‐4th and the late 2nd century B.C. The site and its surroundings were the object of a joint archaeopedological and geomorphological study, which complemented the data from archaeological excavations. This study allowed us to evaluate the suitability of the different landscape and soil components for crop production in the Punic period. The discovery of a buried plow soil at the site's edge enabled us to identify a set of agricultural practices carried out by Punic farmers. These included the removal of sandy topsoil to cultivate deeper horizons enriched in illuvial clay, the use of a "sodbuster" or "rip ard," and the periodic burning of weeds, stubble, and other harvesting residues. The present study helped us to better understand the formation processes of the archaeological record at Pauli Stincus. Large quantities of allochtonous calcareous material were imported to the site from wet areas closer to the coast in order to produce earth‐based construction material, such as bricks and daub. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Entangled Objects and Hybrid Practices

The Iron Age statues of Monte Prama (west-central Sardinia) have long been famous for their unique nature and reputation as the best known examples of Phoenician colonial influence on indigenous Nuragic traditions. These statues, however, form part of a much more complex site that in turn was integrated within a wider colonial landscape. In this paper we propose a new reading of the Monte Prama evidence both by examining the site itself in minute detail and by exploring its wider social and colonial contexts. This detailed analysis enables us to advance our understanding of the colonial situation in west central Sardinia during the 7th century BC.

On Colonial Grounds: A Comparative Study of Colonialism and Rural Settlement in First Millennium BC West Central Sardinia. P. Van Dommelen editor. 1999. University of Leiden, Dept. of Archeology and the European Science Foundation, Leiden, The Netherlands (The David Brown Book Company is sole North American distributor). 196 pp. $55.00 (cloth), ISBN 9-076368-02-3.

On Colonial Grounds: A Comparative Study of Colonialism and Rural Settlement in First Millennium BC West Central Sardinia. P. Van Dommelen editor. 1999. University of Leiden, Dept. of Archeology and the European Science Foundation, Leiden, The Netherlands (The David Brown Book Company is sole North American distributor). 196 pp. $55.00 (cloth), ISBN 9-076368-02-3. - Volume 66 Issue 3

On Colonial Grounds: A Comparative Study of Colonialism and Rural Settlement in First Millennium BC West Central Sardinia. By Peter van Dommelen.

As a study of the colonial situations of first millennium BC Sardinia, this book is as much an investigation into colonialism as a sociological category, as it explores the specific historical conditions of a particular region. Taking a fresh look at colonialism in Mediterranean archaeology from a so-called postcolonial point of view, it examined the archaeologically relevant features of this perspective in conjunction with other current ideas about society, human agency and material culture in order to sketch the contours of a postcolonial archaeology of colonialism. These ideas are subsequently elaborated and practically applied in a detailed study of rural settlement in west central Sardinia. The archaeological evidence for this is provided by the (preliminary) results of the Riu Mannu survey carried out in west central Sardinia since 1992 as well as by a wealth of existing published and archived data. Considering themes such as the (re)creation of identities and cultural resistance, this study especially looks into the ways in which people deployed material culture and inhabited the landscape in order to cope with the colonial situations. Comparing these specific instances of colonialism finally leads to a consideration of historical contingency and structure in colonial situations and to an assertion of the centrality of identity in colonial situations.

The Duos Nuraghes Project in Sardinia: 1985–1996 Interim Report

The ongoing excavation of the Bronze-Iron Age Nuragic culture village of Duos Nuraghes-Borore in west-central Sardinia (Italy) represents a major archaeological advance in documenting a little studied but common site type — the simple tholos-nuraghe settlement. This interim report presents assessments of architectural, ceramic, lithic, and faunal data collected during the first eight seasons of excavation and describes the background of the multi-year project within its regional context. The structures examined to date are yielding important evidence of settlement and social organization, agro-pastoral economy, native industries, and trade during the site's 3000-year history from ca. 2000/1800 B.C. to A.C. 1000. When completed, the project will be the first synthetic study of a typical Nuragic village through its phases of evolution and decline.

Colonial constructs: Colonialism and archaeology in the Mediterranean

This paper first explores colonialist traditions in Mediterranean archaeology: it exposes the relationships between representations of ancient colonial situations in the Mediterranean and the recent context of modern (neo‐)imperialism in which Classical Archaeology was formed as a discipline and in which many archaeologists have been working. It is argued that dualist representations of colonialism must be abandoned. As an alternative, the postcolonial concept of hybridity is introduced as a useful starting point for examining the more mundane and less polarized dimensions of colonial situations. Such an alternative postcolonial interpretation of Carthaginian colonialism in west central Sardinia during the fifth to third centuries BC is expounded in the second part of the paper.

Survey and Settlement Reconstruction in West-Central Sardinia

The University of Maryland-Wesleyan Survey has attempted to reconstruct the development of the countryside of Sardinia during the Roman period through the use of survey archaeology. The general assumption has been that Romanization in Sardinia produced major changes in the previous nuragic rural settlement structure. The Maryland-Wesleyan Survey selected two areas (Fordongianus and Usellus) with a strong nuragic presence and major Roman centers. The survey team found evidence for Roman-period continuity at a high percentage of nuragic sites. At the same time, the research produced little evidence for an alternative Roman rural landscape of villas and farmsteads. It appears that Roman rural Sardinia has a level of continuity from the pre-Roman period unusual for the western Roman Empire.

Studies in Nuragic archaeology: village Excavations at Nuraghe Urpes and Nuraghe Toscono in West-Central Sardinia. Edited by Joseph W. Michels and Gary S. Webster, vi + 169 pp., 31 figs. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, International Series 373, 1987. £12.00.

Studies in Nuragic archaeology: village Excavations at Nuraghe Urpes and Nuraghe Toscono in West-Central Sardinia. Edited by Joseph W. Michels and Gary S. Webster, vi + 169 pp., 31 figs. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, International Series 373, 1987. £12.00. - Volume 54

Duos Nuraghes: Preliminary Results of the First Three Seasons of Excavation

AbstractResults of excavations in 1985, 1987, and 1988 at the Bronze-Iron Age site of Duos Nuraghes in west-central Sardinia have shed new light on early Nuragic evolution. As perhaps the oldest continuously occupied nuraghe settlement known, Duos is providing an excellent opportunity to study village formation processes from ca. 2000 to 500 B.C.