The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

• chapter 10: The Western Mediterranean before the Etruscans –

Among this varied and peculiar collection of bronze items, one of the best documents of
the west-east connections through the medium of Sardinia is the Atlantic-type revolving
obelos – a technical device joining spit and fi redogs – a fragment of which was found in
the Monte Sa Idda hoard and a complete piece in Cyprus at Amathus, tomb 523, in the
same tomb group as a bronze fi re tongs and a shovel of characteristic LCII-III Cypriot
types, frequently found and also locally produced in Nuragic Sardinia (Karageorghis, Lo
Schiavo 1989).
Two points are by now acknowledged: the fi rst, and already discussed above, is
the Cypriot impact factor on Nuragic Sardinia, more than on any other western land,
specifi cally connected to the metallurgy. The second is the intermediary active role of
Nuragic Sardinia towards the contemporary regions of the western Mediterranean, where
the central position of the island is undeniable. To begin with the two complete oxhide
ingots found in Corsica and in southern France at the mouth of the Rhone river, to
follow with Nuragic, Cypriot and Iberian materials, scattered from the FBA 3/EIA 1
hoards of Tyrrhenian Italy (modern Tuscany and Latium, but also as far inland as Umbria
and through the Apennines to the San Francesco-Bologna hoard and S. Vitale-Bologna
necropolis), the number of the discoveries is large and progressively increasing, and the
variety of evidence is notable.

NURAGIC SARDINIA IN THE WESTERN

MEDITERRANEAN BEFORE THE ETRUSCANS

Two items are more than any others characteristic of Nuragic Sardinia in the last phase of
the Final Bronze Age (FBA 3): the askoid jugs and the miniature bronze boats.

The askoid jugs

Until not long ago, the peculiar Nuragic shape of a small pitcher, characterised by a
round body and a thin strongly asymmetrical neck, connected to the belly by a ribbon
handle and often decorated with geometrical incised and impressed patterns, was called
“Vetulonian”, on account of its diffusion in Early Iron Age (EIA) Vetulonia and other
Villanovan necropoleis. At the same time the extent and variety of Nuragic production
was almost unknown.
Today the prospects are totally changed: fi rst came the discovery and publication of a
similar jug from Khaniale Tekke in Crete (Vagnetti 1989; Ferrarese Ceruti 1991). Then
a few sherds were found in Carthage. Subsequently, a fragment of a handle from Mozia
(Marsala district, Trapani province) was found, recently followed by a second askoid jug
from the same site, comparable to Nuragic FBA 3 type. Also from Dessueri, southern
Sicily (Caltanissetta prov.) (Lo Schiavo 2005).
In the Iberian peninsula, the fi rst to have been noted by Mariano Torres Ortiz was
a fragment in the village of Carambolo, in association with impasto sherds but in a
mixed level (Torres Ortiz 2004); next, an almost complete askoid jug was found in Cadiz,
and many other fragments, together with other Nuragic pottery sherds, were published
from Huelva. In Huelva, recent discoveries in archaeological excavations are bringing to
light Nuragic askoid jugs in “pre-Phoenician” levels (Gomez Toscano, Fundoni 2010).
A splendid example of askoid jug came to light in the excavation of one of the most
striking Nuragic sanctuaries discovered recently, Su Monte (Sorradile district, Oristano