CHAPTER TWELVE

PHOENICIAN AND PUNIC SARDINIA

AND THE ETRUSCANS

Rubens D’Oriano and Antonio Sanciu

PHOENICIAN SARDINIA AND THE ETRUSCANS

(RUBENS D’ORIANO)

T

he close relations that bound Sardinia and Etruria in Antiquity were motivated by
important geographical and cultural factors that can be summarized as follows: the
presence of important agro-pastoral and mineral resources in both areas; the vocation to
maritime commerce of human groups who were the protagonists of these relationships;
geographical proximity of the territories they inhabited, connected by short-distance
maritime routes whether along coastal paths (from Sardinia to northern Etruria via the
east coast of Corsica and the Tuscan Archipelago) or by deep sea (directly to the Etruscan
coast of Italy opposite eastern Sardinia) (Fig. 12.1) known through archaeological and
literary sources (speaking, for example, for an era that is indeterminable but certainly
quite old, of the “pirates” operating between Sardinia and Pisa).

Figure 12.1 The sea routes between Sardinia and Central Italy and the main

Phoenician settlements on the island.