Fashion And Jewelry 425
incised circular elements with an umbo at its center and radial decorations
probably meant for trinkets, brooches, or earrings that were to be produced by
lost-wax casting.16
After the fall of Carthage in around 697, the intensification of Arab raids in
the Mediterranean from the eighth century onwards contributed to the pro-
gressive isolation of Sardinia, until its complete separation from the Byzantine
Empire and, between the tenth and the eleventh centuries, the emergence of
four autonomous realms or giudicati.17 The near total lack of archaeological
and written documents from the entire tenth century makes any reconstruc-
tion relevant to the subject here impossible. Nevertheless, monastic registers
and civic statutes from between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries offer
information on how elements of attire, such as tunics, cloaks, hoods, footwear,
and boots, as well as local wool, linen, and hemp textiles were used on the
island side by side with textiles imported from southern France and northern
Italy.
For the high Middle Ages, available documentation is somewhat more com-
plex; in addition to objects from excavations, it also encompasses paintings,
frescoes, and sculptures representing people with their ornaments, as well as
written sources that include registers and notarial acts, or laws. Between the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a veritable revolution in both men and
women’s clothing occurred all across Europe; in this period long tunics that
had been worn since Late Antiquity were abandoned in favor of snugly fitting
garments that outlined the figure. Various items of clothing worn in layers also
16 Donatella Mureddu, “Cagliari: una matrice per gioielli dall’area di vico III Lanusei,” in
Corrias and Cosentino, Ai confini dell’Impero, pp. 243–244.
17 The debate overn when and how the giudicati system started is still largely open. The
written sources document the existence of the four kingdoms around the middle of the
eleventh century. However, the complex transition from the Byzantine organization
of the island to the four giudicati partition had to develop gradually at the turn of the
tenth and the eleventh centuries, probably with an intermediate single sovereign entity,
independent from Byzantium. See Settecento-Millecento. Storia, archeologia e Arte nei
“secoli bui” del mediterraneo. Dalle fonti scritte, archeologiche ed artistiche alla ricostru-
zione della vicenda storica: la Sardegna laboratorio di esperienze culturali (Cagliari 17–19
ottobre 2012), ed. Rossana Martorelli (Cagliari, 2013). See especially: Olivetta Schena,
“La Sardegna nel Mediterraneo bizantino (secoli VIII–XI): aspetti e problemi storici,”
pp. 41–54; Giovanni Serreli, “Il passaggio all’età giudicale: il caso di Càlari,” pp. 63–81;
Rossana Martorelli, “Alcune osservazioni conclusive per prospettive di ricerca futura: un
bilancio del Convegno,” pp. 949–956. See also, infra Corrado Zedda.