- Rubens D’Oriano and Antonio Sanciu –
With regard to ceramics, it is especially Nora that has furnished us with assorted
evidence, also linked to the sphere of the symposium, among which are two wine-cups
(kantharoi) in bucchero of the second half of the sixth century bc and, in gray bucchero,
fragments of closed shapes, an oinochoe and a jug of the second half of the sixth century,
and of a bowl of the end of the sixth century-fi rst half of the fi fth century bc. There is also
evidence relating to trade and consumption of Etruscan wine on the island. The fragment
of an amphora from Vulci of Py type 5, dated to the second half of the sixth century bc,
was also found at Nora. Some Py 4 amphorae, dating from the mid-fi fth to the mid-third
century bc, were found in the waters of the east coast, particularly between the Ogliastra
and Cagliari (Fig. 12.15): this is clearly a stretch of the route from Etruria, reaching
Corsica and the re-born Etruscan center of Alalia (formerly the Greek “Alalíe”) with the
island of Elba as the bridge, then continuing along the Sardinian coast towards Carthage.
Other fi nds of Etruscan amphorae of the same type are associated instead with the west
coast and especially seem to concern the city of Neapolis.
The ancient sources are silent on Sardinia in the fi fth century bc, while for the next
century, Diodorus relates two incidents that could be linked. In 379 bc (or 387 bc) a
revolt of Sardinians and Libyans broke out, and shortly after, in 378 or 377 bc (or 386 bc)
(Diod. 15.27.4), the Romans attempted to establish their fi rst colony outside the peninsula
by sending 500 settlers to Sardinia. This information, which was previously questioned
by some scholars, seems now to be accepted by most. A similar attempt would also have
occurred, according to Theophrastus (Historia Plantarum 5.8. 2), in Corsica, but we do
not have in this case a precise chronological reference-point for the event. The location
of the Sardinian colony is unknown, but could reasonably be placed on the east coast,
perhaps at Posada, where according to the coordinates provided by Ptolemy (Geography
3.3.4) there existed, in the second century ad, a center called Pheronía polis, which
some experts correlate with the colony. The name brings to mind the Lucus Feroniae in
Figure 12.15 Etruscan wine amphora from the sea on the east coast of Sardinia
(mid-fi fth to mid-third century bc).