- chapter 10: The Western Mediterranean before the Etruscans –
The Nuragic bronze boats (Fig. 10.13) were exactly what they seem, that is to say
they are miniature reproductions of sailing craft, suffi ciently faithful to the originals
but not aimed – unlike the Cypriot examples – to represent the proportion and all the
technical equipment necessary for sailing, including human fi gures sitting at the stern
holding the helm or on the bench at the middle of the hull. In general, the shapes are the
fl at-bottomed craft or the “sutiles naves” of the most archaic forms, the round elongated
boats or the “racing” ships suitable for rapid journeys, especially if equipped with a mast,
namely a support system on which to haul up a sail, and the shorter, deeper round boats,
perhaps with cabin and double deck, or the commercial cargo ships.
Up to now, in the Nuragic Bronze Age no clay boats are known: this shape appears in
the EIA as a late reproduction of an old meaningful symbol (Lo Schiavo 2000; 2002). It is
not surprising that the Nuragic peoples at the apogee of their civilization should portray
the ship, for the very reason that it is the symbol of their familiarity with the sea, together
with the ownership of land and agricultural resources, as it is shown by the yoked oxen,
dogs, pigs/wild boars, birds and miniature Nuragic towers represented on board.
It seems possible to discern a systematic difference in the original destination of the
boats in comparison to the other bronze fi gurines, which may have had an infl uence on
the subsequent ancient destinations in the Italian Peninsula: they were probably votive
offerings, but not to the gods of the waters or to chthonic divinities. If the boats appear
more frequently in the hoards it is on account of their intrinsic meaningfulness, because
they signifi ed power and wealth, superiority and prestige. Perhaps the sea enterprise
could have at least reinforced, if not substituted, the sign (iconography) of power, and
perhaps the ownership of the boat was something similar to a royal attribute.
In this way, the deposition in Orientalizing tombs, even many centuries later, would
fi nd a rational explanation: not of a simply old valuable item such as can be bought, even
if at high price, through eastern traders, but an extremely precious heritage of a by-then
extinct mythical people, and the Tyrrhenian peoples were their direct heirs, as much as
the Phoenicians who settled on the island and revitalised it. Considering the far greater
intrinsic value of the boats, in addition to their symbolic and “historical” signifi cance, it
Figure 10.13 Nuragic bronze boat from Pipizu, Orroli (Nuoro).