A. Depalmas, Trasmissione di manufatti, modelli e tecniche tra la Sardegna e il Mediterraneo orientale

In the Late Prehistoric period the first contacts between Sardinia and other areas of the Mediterranean date back to the Middle and Late Bronze Age, as attested by the numerous examples of Mycenaean and Aegean artefacts found in settlements on the island and, to a lesser extent, by Sardinian exports to Crete and Cyprus. During the Final Bronze Age there was a significant increase in goods extraneous to local production that appear to have been spread widely throughout the island as a result of the intensification of traffic passing through Sardinia and the evident direct involvement of the island. Several authors have for some time emphasised the special relationship established with Cyprus, which acted as an agent in the transmission of objects, models and, above all, technological know-how for metallurgical production, including the lost wax casting technique in particular. The evolution of ‘Nuragic’ metallurgy – which appears to have reached its maturity, complexity and originality in the Early Iron Age – would seem to be distinctly marked by a process featuring a good capacity for imitation and the processing of allogenous products. More specifically, the recent discoveries of ‘Nuragic’ vessels in Cyprus have reinforced the hypothesis of the active role played by Sardinian groups, not only as intermediary subjects, customers for raw metals and artefacts, but rather as an integral part of articulated alliances linked by common commercial interests in traffic and routes through the Mediterranean. The purpose of the contribution is to propose a new reflection on the typological models imported into Sardinia from the Aegean and on their transmission times in the light of recent updates on documentary data and their interpretation.