Panel 5.4 – Trade in ancient Sardinia


Organiser/Chair:

  • Salvatore De Vincenzo (Università degli Studi della Tuscia)

Speakers:

Panel abstract

The themes of this panel are the modes of trade in ancient Sardinia. What are the trade routes involving ancient Sardinia? Which areas and cities in Sardinia are most involved in these exchanges? Which products are exchanged and how is the island's production affected by trade? Which patterns are observable in importing and imitating foreign goods, which were carried to the island by traders? How do these aspects vary over time, from Archaic times to Late Antiquity?

This analysis on ancient trade in Sardinia will be carried out predominantly based on pottery contexts. But of course, other trade goods like iron ore, of which Sardinia possessed great amounts, thereby shaping trade routes from the first millennium BC onwards, will be taken into account as well. The chronological phases in question range from Archaic times to Late Antiquity, comprising transactions of indigenous people, Carthaginians, and Greeks, with particular regard to the trade in the Roman era.

Various aspects will be covered, one of the presentations analyses the trade of Archaic and, more in general, pre-Roman Sardinia, with particular reference to the Greek pottery trade. A second presentation will focus on the trade in Sardinia since the early Roman presence on the island until the middle Imperial age. Special attention will be given to Nora, one of the most significant centres of the island from the Archaic age onwards, analyzing the key elements related to production and trade of the city between the middle and the late imperial age by reviewing the material culture.

Another speaker will analyze data resulting from an examination of the most significant attestations of cults on the island, with particular regard to coroplastic artifacts offered as votives in a phase of transition from the Punic to the Roman era, in order to highlight the commercial and cultural dynamics of these sacred contexts.

The last presentation will examine the Late Antiquity trade on the island, especially with regard to 4th to 7th centuries AD along the central west coast of Sardinia by taking into consideration especially the materials found during the excavation of Cornus.

Paper abstracts

1. Salvatore De Vincenzo (Università degli Studi della Tuscia) / Chiara Blasetti Fantauzzi

Introduction: Trade in ancient Sardinia
The themes of this panel are the modes of trade in ancient Sardinia. What are the trade routes involving ancient Sardinia? Which areas and cities in Sardinia are most involved in these exchanges? Which products are exchanged and how is the island's production affected by trade? Which patterns are observable in importing and imitating foreign goods, which were carried to the island by traders? How do these aspects vary over time, from Archaic times to Late Antiquity?
This analysis on ancient trade in Sardinia will be carried out predominantly based on pottery contexts. But of course, other trade goods like iron ore, of which Sardinia possessed great amounts, thereby shaping trade routes from the first millennium BC onwards, will be taken into account as well. The chronological phases in question range from Archaic times to Late Antiquity, comprising transactions of indigenous people, Carthaginians, and Greeks, with particular regard to the trade in the Roman era.

"Introduction: Trade in ancient Sardinia" (Fulltext)

 

2. Chiara Blasetti Fantauzzi (Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen)

Import of Greek Pottery in Sardinia
This paper analyzes the trade in Archaic Sardinia, especially the Greek pottery trade. In particular, it will attempt to outline the traded classes of Greek pottery, the commercial routes connected to Sardinia as well as the island most involved urban centers in this trade.

"Import of Greek Pottery in Sardinia" (Fulltext)

 

3. Valentina Porcheddu

Anfore da Rodi in Sardegna. Dall’ ‘invenzione’ del commercio diretto all’economic network mediterraneo nel II secolo a.C.
I rinvenimenti di anfore rodie in Sardegna concernono soprattutto i siti di Tharros e Karales. Scoperte sporadiche di anse sono state effettuate anche ad Alghero (Nuraghe Palmavera), Calasetta, Nurachi, S. Gavino Monreale, Olbia, Nora e Neapolis. L’importazione del celebre vino egeo va dai primi decenni del II secolo sino alla fine della medesima epoca. Tale datazione è complessivamente valida per tutta l’isola, se si considera anche la sequenza dei fabbricanti noti, oltre che a Tharros e Karales, a Nurachi, Calasetta, Nora e Neapolis. Il primo ad avanzare un’ipotesi scientifica sul commercio di anfore rodie in Sardegna fu G.G. Porro, il quale sostenne che tali contenitori arrivarono sull’Isola durante la dominazione punica e per il tramite della Sicilia. Mezzo secolo più tardi, G. Pianu ipotizzò un commercio diretto fra la Sardegna e l’isola dell’Egeo, spostando l’arrivo del vino rodio all’epoca della conquista romana. A. Mastino propende per una redistribuzione delle anfore rodie in Sardegna a partire dalla Sicilia o dal Nord-Africa. Alla luce di nuovi studi sui contesti di rinvenimento delle anfore rodie in Sardegna e nel Mediterraneo occidentale, questo paper ha l’obiettivo di inserire l’Isola in un quadro geografico più esteso, analizzando le dinamiche economiche, sociali e culturali che hanno reso il vino rodio un prodotto ‘globalizzato’.

 

4. Salvatore De Vincenzo (Università degli Studi della Tuscia) / Matthias Block

Production and Trade in Sardinia in Roman Times
This paper will focus on the trade in Sardinia since early Roman times on the island until the middle Imperial age. This analysis on ancient trade in Sardinia will be carried out predominantly based on pottery contexts. But of course, other trade goods will be taken into account as well. Special attention will be given to the most significant urban centres of the island.

 

5. Chiara Pilo and Stefania Dore (Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo)

Imported pottery in the inner areas of southern Sardinia during the Roman period
The aim of this paper is to investigate the circulation of imported pottery in the inner areas of southern Sardinia during the Roman period. The analysis will be carried out considering some case studies in the historical regions of Marmilla, Trexenta and Sarcidano. The material consists of ceramic finds, mainly from necropoles but also from settlements, most of them not already published. Pottery products (fine ware, lamps and amphoras, etc…) especially from Africa, Italy and Gallia were traded within the rural areas along the main roads leading to the centre of the island and were largely used by the local inhabitants. The diffusion of imported pottery triggers also the phenomenon of imitation: vase shapes and types typical of foreign productions were reproduced in local fabrics as well. For example, a recent study of imperial grave goods found in the territory of Nurallao, has shown the presence in the region of Sarcidano of vessels made in Africa (among which a rare exemplar of Hammamet 1 amphora), in central Italy as well as local products.
The provenance and the distribution of imported pottery can contribute to shedding new light on trade and exchange in inner Sardinia during the Roman period.

"Imported pottery in the inner areas of southern Sardinia during the Roman period" (Fulltext)

 

6. Emiliano Cruccas (Università degli studi di Cagliari)

Productions, trade and pottery in the Roman city of Nora (South Sardinia) between the middle and the late imperial ages
The aim of this study is to underline, through an analysis of material culture, the key points related to productions and trades in the roman city of Nora (South Sardinia) between the middle and the late imperial ages (IInd - IIIth centuries AD / IVth – VIIth centuries AD). In particular, I try to analyze some changes in the importations and productions of pottery in relation to goods imported and produced in loco between the Severian (the floruit period of the municipium) and the late imperial age, until the abandonment of the roman settlement (VIIth - VIIIth centuries AD).

"Productions, trade and pottery in the Roman city of Nora (South Sardinia) between the middle and the late imperial ages" (Fulltext)

 

7. Romina Carboni (Università degli studi di Cagliari)

Cult places and votive objects as markers of commercial and cultural relations in Late Punic and Roman Sardinia
The aim of this paper is to show data coming from an analysis of most significant cultic finds from Sardinia, concerning both structures and votive deposits, with reference to coroplastic objects, between late Punic and Roman era. The purpose of this study is to highlight commercial and cultural dynamics, which on one hand introduce new religious languages and, on the other, facilitate a renewal of earlier cults. These phenomena, very interesting and, at the same time, difficult to understand, show the contemporary presence of local and external traditions.

"Cult places and votive objects as markers of commercial and cultural relations in Late Punic and Roman Sardinia" (Fulltext)

 

8. Filippo Pisciotta

Production and Trade in Sardinia in Late Antiquity
This paper will examine the Late Antiquity trade on the island, especially with regard to 4th to 7th centuries AD along the central west coast of Sardinia by taking into consideration especially the materials found during the excavation of Cornus (Oristano).