Horned-helmet imagery continues to raise questions about what is local and what is global in Bronze Age Europe. How similar is the imagery found on Sardinia, in southwestern Iberia and southern Scandinavia in material appearance, medium of representation, and sociocultural setting? Does it occur at the same point in time? Does it spring from or transmit a shared idea? Analysis reveals intriguing patterns of similarity and difference between the three zones of horned-helmet imagery 1000–750 BC. The results point to actors and processes at the local level while also pinpointing interconnections. Across all three contexts, horns signify the potency of the helmet wearer, the quintessential warrior. Horns visualise a defined group of bellicose beings whose significance stems from commemorative and mortuary rites, sites, and beliefs – in conjunction with political processes. We suggest that the eye-catching imagery of very particular males wearing horned insignia relates on the one hand to local control of metals and on the other to the transfer of novel beliefs and cults involving embodied gigantisation. It is characteristic that the horned figure is adapted into some settings, but only sparingly or not at all in others. This imagery has a complex history, with Levantine roots in the LBA Mediterranean. The Scandinavian addendum to the network coincides with the metal-led Phoenician expansion and consolidation in the west from c. 1000 BC. A Mediterranean–Atlantic sea route is suggested, independent of the otherwise flourishing transalpine trading route.
This study examines the role of the Nuragic metal trade in the Mediterranean setting, seeking to advance the debate on this subject. Published metal-related data are considered alongside current interpretations. Although Sardinia is geologically rich in metals, including copper and lead (silver), scholars have nonetheless disagreed about the role of these metals in shaping the political economy of Nuragic Sardinia and its interaction with the outside world (c. 1350–720 BC). Traditionally the island has been seen as passively relying on the agency of foreign merchants from the eastern Mediterranean region. Lately, however, a divergent view has credited Sardinia with a more active and autonomous role in the Mediterranean marketplace. This study provides an analytical review of the complexity of such opinions, alongside isotope-derived and other archaeometallurgical evidence. As a scaffold for future inquiries, key features based on theoretical and historical perspectives are pulled together to form an exploratory model of Sardinia’s changing geopolitical position in the interlinked world of the Mediterranean between the Bronze and Iron Ages. The time around 1200 BC is identified as a major historical threshold.
The use of stone tools has always characterized the everyday life of Nuragic people, the communities that lived in Sardinia (Western Mediterranean, Italy) during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Several archaeological sites on this island attest to the great importance of stone-made instruments, among which are ground-stone tools. Although various studies on Sardinia have focused on the use of tools for food processing or transforming raw materials, they tend to exclude a systematic study of ground-stone tools and their role in Nuragic society. This paper considers a group of 39 ground-stone tools from nuraghe Cuccurada-Mogoro (west-central Sardinia), a Nuragic monument dated to the Bronze Age and re-used in the Iron Age. The study involved several forms of analysis including typology, macroscopic observation of use-surfaces and excavation data. The association of the Cuccurada's stone-tools with cooking instruments suggests the presence of areas devoted to food processing and cooking practices.The aim of this paper is first to underline the variety of stone tools employed by the Nuragic people, and second to consider the presence of common areas within the nuraghi likely used for everyday activities based on the analysis of the archaeological context in nuraghe Cuccurada-Mogoro and other similar Bronze Age contexts. Ethnographical examples on the use of stone tools provide evidence for the social value of these instruments and the organization of activities within the Nuragic community.
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