- F. Lo S ch iav o and M. Milletti -
same shape o f locally made S. Imbenia amphoras carrying wine have been traced from
Sardinia to Tyrrhenian Italy and all over the Iberian peninsula to the A tlantic seaboard.
The incentive for trade in the Bronze A g e had been copper, but most evidently in the
Iron A g e trade was driven not so much by metal, but by wine (Lo Schiavo forthcoming).
THE N U R A G IC HERITAGE
Focusing on materials produced in N uragic Sardinia and found in Etruria, Umbria,
Latium Vetus, “Villanovan Campania” and possibly elsewhere in southern Italy (Nuragic
bronze boat from Capo Colonna in the Hera Lacinia sanctuary) and Sicily (askoid jugs
from Dessueri and Motya), one must bear in mind three materially, culturally and
chronologically distinct sequences o f events (Fig. 1 1.4).
The first event is the original production in Sardinia o f objects either for a precise
destination or under a specific commission, which have a more or less long life.
The second is the “transport” o f objects from Sardinia to the place o f the discovery in
peninsular Italy. This “m ovem ent” can im ply a wide ranges o f possibilities: either a fam ily
transmission by a w edding or by a father-to-son entrustment, or a second “commission”
in a regular merchant trade, or a casual event such as sea piracy.
Figure 11.4 Principal categories o f N u ragic bronzes im ported into the peninsula (1—16) and o f
peninsular bronzes im ported into Sardinia ( 1 7 —21) (Lo Schiavo, R id gw ay 1987).1 2 3456 7 8 91011 12 13 14 15 161718 71920 21