- chapter 10: The Western Mediterranean before the Etruscans –
had a direct knowledge of the oxhide ingots and experienced their metal value. In fact,
nowadays it is known through chemical analyses that most if not all the copper oxhide
ingots analysed had such a high degree of purity (the average is from 97% up to 99% Cu)
as to allow their immediate use in any bronze workshop.
In a later period, fragments belonging to at least three different askoid jugs – a
Nuragic FBA 3 production, see below – were found in Carthage in secondary context,
but probably came originally from the earlier phase of settlement: this means that from
the very beginning Carthage was tightly connected to the Mediterranean maritime routes
(see also Chapter 17.)
ATLANTIC/MEDITERRANEAN INTERCONNECTIONSThe subject of the East/West interconnection was highlighted in two joint scientifi c
major events: the International Conference held in Rethymno (Crete) in 2002, followed
in 2003 by an outstanding exhibition displayed in the Cycladic Art Museum at Athens,
of the same title: Interconnections in the Mediterranean, ca. 1500–500 BC and sharing the
Greek word ΠΛΟΕΣ (PLOES = SHIP) as a logo, pointing out that the sea was the
element that brought near distant lands and allowed and facilitated material and cultural
long-distance transmission. In this framework, the network – focused on metallurgy –
intertwining in Nuragic Sardinia is certainly impressive (Lo Schiavo 2003a; 2003b).
The Cyprus/Nuragic Sardinia and the Iberian peninsula/Nuragic Sardinia connections
do not follow an equal pattern: from the chronological point of view, the oldest Cypriot
models and materials are, as we said before, related to LCII and LCIII production
(RBA and FBA 1 and 2, thirteenth-eleventh century bc), while the oldest western type
“Pistilliforme” swords can be dated to the FBA 2 (eleventh century bc). Later on (FBA
3, about tenth century bc) the western prevails and outnumbers the eastern infl uence.
In both cases Nuragic Sardinia most probably receives materials from an external region
- ascertained by archaeometrical analyses only for the oxhide ingots – and modify the
models according to local taste, fashion, necessity, thus creating the original and unique
Nuragic bronze production, side by side with an outstanding architecture and with an
incredible maritime and trading entrepreneurship. Thus, it is evident that trade is a part
of the whole picture and not all of it.
Local Nuragic production of Cypriot models can be explained in the light of the
considerable metallurgical experience acquired by Sardinian bronze craftsmen from those
of the eastern Mediterranean, supported and based (as stated above) on the excellent
quality and extreme pureness of the Cypriot copper; it obviously indicates a long-standing
deep familiarity and cultural, even more than material, exchange. A parallel explanation
must be sought for the reproduction – according to the results of the metallurgical
analyses (Begemann et al. 2001) – and imitation of western bronze items by the Nuragic
bronze craftsmen. If we should summarise this story using modern terminology it would
be appropriate to say that the Nuragic economic import/export balance in the middle
and late period of FBA inclined from East to West. There is still a lot to be said, but the
reasons why the axis of the interconnections inclines from the East to the West are, at the
moment, open to discussion and only some of them can be hypothesised (could it have
been the search for western tin?)
A list of Iberian weapons, ornaments and tools found in Sardinia was discussed many
years ago (Fig. 10.9): fl anged hilted and “fenestrated” hilted swords, daggers, spear-heads