A 400,000-year story
Sardinia is a land scattered with ancient archaeological evidence. Visiting its monuments means travelling thousands of years through the history of the Mediterranean. This is the story of the Nuragic civilisation.
The oldest traces of human presence in Sardinia date back around 400,000 years. Yet it was only from about 8,000 years ago that the island was permanently settled by Neolithic farming and herding communities.
During the Neolithic, Sardinia played a key role in the exploitation of obsidian, a glassy volcanic stone from Monte Arci — the main deposit in the western Mediterranean. Along with obsidian, ideas and innovations spread: hypogaeism (thousands of rock-cut burial chambers) and megalithism, with menhirs, megalithic circles and dolmens.
Social and economic changes driven by the discovery and exploitation of mineral resources led to the rise of complex societies and the construction of the first fortifications — laying the groundwork for the great Bronze Age civilisations.
Around 3,800 years ago the Nuragic civilisation was born — one of the most fascinating of the Bronze Age. The more than 7,000 nuraghi that define the Sardinian landscape are its most visible legacy: communal structures that formed the core of social, political and economic organisation.
Nuragic building skills also produced "giants' tombs" and mégaron temples. Finds reveal remarkable technical refinement: bronze objects, nuragic boat models and bronzetti — figurines depicting warriors, priests and animals — reveal a complex, stratified society. Sardinian objects found across the Mediterranean attest to trade with Mycenaeans, Phoenicians, Greeks and Etruscans: Sardinia was a key stop on east–west trade routes.
From around 700 BC, after roughly two centuries of symbiotic coexistence with Phoenician settlements, Nuragic culture gradually declined and most Nuragic centres were abandoned. It remains a long, complex and fascinating story that continues to offer archaeologists new clues and stimulating insights.
Visit the archaeological sites of the Municipality of Arzachena, among the most significant in the Mediterranean.
Explore the sites of Arzachena
