A recent international study has explained the history of Sardinia’s iconic bronzetti statues, showing previously unknown facts about Bronze Age metallurgy and long-distance trade in the Mediterranean. Using advanced scientific methods, researchers have determined that the Nuragic people, who flourished on the island during the early first millennium BCE, used local and imported metals to make these distinctive bronze statues.
The Nuragic civilization is famous for the massive stone towers, or nuraghi, and small bronze figures of warriors, chieftains, animals, and deities. Although more than 7,000 nuraghi stand across Sardinia, the precise origins of the metals used in the figurines were unknown until recently.
To address this controversy, an interdisciplinary research team employed a multi-proxy approach combining conventional chemical analysis with rarely applied isotopic analysis of copper, tin, lead, and osmium. This method, developed at the Curt-Engelhorn Center for Archaeometry in Germany, allowed for a more precise identification of the metals’ origins than past studies.
The research revealed that copper for the bronzetti came primarily from southwest Sardinia, specifically from the Sa Duchessa mine in the Iglesiente-Sulcis district. On the other hand, evidence points to an additional supply from the Iberian Peninsula, notably from the Alcudia Valley and Linares districts of modern Spain. The findings confirm local Sardinian material as the center of Nuragic production, while also highlighting the island’s involvement in broader Mediterranean trade networks.
In particular, the study ruled out the use of copper from the Levant, i.e., Timna (Israel) or Faynan (Jordan), a conclusion that could only be reached through the inclusion of osmium isotope analysis. Osmium isotopes were applied for the first time to such research, providing a distinctive fingerprint of Sardinian copper.
The study of 48 figurines from sanctuaries such as Santa Vittoria, Su Monte, and Abini revealed that the artisans occasionally mixed copper from other sources, either to obtain desired qualities like color and durability or merely due to local market availability. In a number of instances, the items seem to have been produced over time through repeated mixing and casting events, rather than in single batches.
Even though Sardinia had its own tin and lead deposits, the figures showed no detectable presence of locally sourced tin. Instead, imported tin was used to create bronze, likely from the Iberian Peninsula, as well as perhaps from Cornwall, the Saxon-Bohemian Erzgebirge, or even Egyptian deposits. This emphasizes the far-reaching networks of trade in the Bronze Age, with Sardinia playing an active part in exchanges extending across Europe and the Mediterranean.
The evidence is also of great cultural importance. The style of the bronzetti has parallels in artistic work in other distant regions, including southern Scandinavia. Traditional horned helmets, familiar from sites like Viksø in Denmark, are found in both Sardinian miniature bronzes and in large representations, and suggest symbolic or cultural connections that reached far beyond the island.
Through the application of sophisticated geochemical techniques and archaeological context, the scientists have revealed Sardinia’s role as an important hub of metallurgical expertise and international exchange during the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age.
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