AARHUS, DENMARK—The enigmatic Nuragic civilization that flourished on the island of Sardinia during the Bronze Age is most recognized for building monumental stone towers known as nuraghi. However, they are also well-known for their small bronzetti figurines, which often depict warriors, gods, or animals. Scholars have long speculated about where the metal—mainly, the copper and tin—to create these tiny sculptures came from. According to a statement released by Aarhaus University, researchers recently used cutting-edge isotope analysis to examine 48 bronzetti fragments from three prominent Nuragic sites dating to the early first millennium b.c. It had previously been thought that the copper perhaps originated on the island of Cyprus or in the Levant, but analysis of a rare isotope called osmium ruled out that possibility. Instead, the figurines were produced from local copper sourced in Sardinia or from ore that had been imported from Iberia. It is believed that the two different types of copper were sometimes strategically mixed together to achieve certain effects such as color and strength. The tin used in the bronze alloy also originated in Iberia, underscoring Sardinia’s active role in Bronze Age exchange networks. “Having the opportunity to analyze the famous bronze figures from Sardinia is an important step towards understanding how the island has been a central piece of the metal trade during the Bronze Age,” said Moesgaard Museum researcher Heide Nørgaard. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS One. For more on Sardinia's Nuragic people, go to "Tyrrhenian Traders."
