6 - Late Bronze Age Sardinia: Acephalous Cohesion

Summary

The late second millennium BC on Sardinia is among the most dynamic and vital periods in the island's history, when Nuragic society undergoes massive changes. This chapter examines this perplexing period, drawing on the evidence of imports and the built environment to construct a picture of a still inward-turning society whose emergent elites were unsuccessful at overcoming a tradition of acephalous cohesion. The chapter focuses on the best provenanced and best dated of Aegean imports and imitations, Cypriot-style goods, amber, Iberian imports, the Aegean-style pots, the copper oxhide ingots, and two amber bead types such as the Tiryns and Allumiere beads. The Cypriot-style metals, for which it is virtually impossible to confirm if they are imported or locally made, belong to the twelfth and eleventh centuries BC, with some objects dating to the tenth century BC. While some Cypriot-style oxhide ingots have been found in the south, they cluster more in the central zone.