Findings of the Phoenician-Punic civilization in Sardinia

Oristano, Antiquarium Arborense, Maschera Fenicio-punica. Foto di Luigi Pietro Olivari, 2009, da Catalogo RAS

Around the 9th century BC, in Sardinia, the phenomenon of the colonization of the Phoenicians began, the Semitic population that occupied the coast of Lebanon since the 3rd millennium BC.
Subsequently, between the second half of the 6th century BC and 238 BC, Sardinia came under the direct control of the Punics, that is, the Phoenicians of Carthage, the powerful Phoenician colony founded on the coast of present-day Tunisia at the end of the 9th century BC. It is precisely the archaeological
evidence that provides explicit information on the history of the island in this short term.
The most striking innovation in the Sardinian scenario is represented by the Phoenician cities: in fact, the Nuragic civilization was never recognized in the urban housing module.
The arrival of the Phoenician peoples determined the entry into Sardinia of a very large series of new artifacts, both of direct Phoenician-Punic production and of other origin. As is well known, the Phoenicians were skilled traders and their trade served as a vehicle for cultural exchange in the Mediterranean basin.
The most recent archaeological investigations are bringing to light a fact of considerable importance: in fact, there are more and more archaeological traces of the strong and intense cultural mixture between Nuragic and Semitic peoples, triggered as a peaceful phenomenon since the early arrival of the Phoenicians in Sardinia.

Update

18/7/2025 - 13:02