- Fulvia Lo Schiavo –
the Gibraltar strait and beyond. The “Far West” history (as it was called in a paper
presented to the XXIX Taranto Conference in 1989) (Lo Schiavo, D’Oriano 1990) has
greatly changed due to the publication of the recovery of the discarded pottery and ivory
fragments and other items from Huelva (Gonzàles de Canales et al. 2004). The volume,
dated to 2004, marked a revival of interest, still far from being exhausted, and the new,
exciting discovery of Sardinian and Greek and more eastern fi ndings on the Atlantic
coasts, that will be mentioned below.
A second preliminary explanation concerns the expression “before the Etruscans,”
deliberately vague enough to include a large span of time, in order to allow us to evaluate
synthetically what can have infl uenced “the sea of the Etruscans,” therefore not only
from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, but beginning with references to the
extraordinarily rich season of Mediterranean interconnections, and of expansion and
fl ourishing of the archaeological local facies that occurred in the Recent Bronze Age
(approximately thirteenth century bc).
In this framework, “the Etruscans” are extensively considered – far from any ethnic
defi nition – the people of the Tyrrhenian coasts and inland of central Italy, that is present-
day Tuscany, Umbria and north Latium, considering also the Picentino region that in the
Iron Age became “Campanian Etruria,” and other adjacent areas.
THE MYCENAEANS IN THE WESTERN
MEDITERRANEANIn the Recent Bronze Age (Fig. 10.2), the two main protagonists of the Mediterranean
scene on the Western routes are the Mycenaeans and the Cypriots. Thanks to the
pioneering studies of Lucia Vagnetti, here summarised, there is much to be added to
our understanding of the way in which the Aegean sailors and merchants approached
the people of Peninsular Italy and of the Islands (Vagnetti 1982a; 1982b; 1999a; 2000;
2011a; 2011b; Vagnetti, Jones 1988; Jones, Vagnetti 1991).
Three main phases of contacts can be traced, beginning with the fi rst, dated Late
Helladic I and II (Italian Middle Bronze Age, hereafter MBA, 1 and 2, middle of
sixteenth century to the end of fi fteenth century bc), the phase of the earliest approach
to a few sites of Ionian and Tyrrhenian coasts, with a preference for small and rocky
islands in front of open gulfs and river mouths, acquiring a naturally defended lookout
in comparison with land routes that were wider and richer in resources but potentially
dangerous. The best examples are well known sites such as Scoglio del Tonno and Porto
Perone in the gulf of Taranto, Capo Piccolo and Torre Mordillo in the Sibaritide, Vivara
in the Gulf of Naples, the Aeolian Islands north-east of Sicily and Monte Grande on the
south coast of the island.
In the second phase, dated Late Helladic, hereafter LH, IIIA – IIIB early (Italian MBA
3 – beginning of Recent Bronze Age, end of fi fteenth-beginning of fourteenth century
bc), the archaeological evidence shows that the relationships between the Aegean and
the Central Mediterranean were more and more regular and active. The most important
sites are still Scoglio del Tonno, the Aeolian Islands, Thapsos, and other necropoleis in
eastern Sicily.
The earliest Mycenaean materials found in Sardinia are dated to the LH III A2
(equivalent to the Italian MBA 3 phase), consisting in two very special fi nds, an almost
complete alabastron from the foundation levels of Nuraghe Arrubiu-Orroli (Fig. 10.3;