FROM SCANDINAVIA TO THE LEVANT: THE LATE BRONZE AGE METAL TRADE AND NURAGIC SARDINIA

Summary A growing body of evidence suggests that Nuragic Sardinia played a role, as yet poorly understood, in the metal trade between Scandinavia, Atlantic Europe, and the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. Provenance studies based on lead isotope and chemical analyses of copper‐based – and to a minor extent lead – artefacts from both continental Europe and the Mediterranean indicate that metals of Sardinian origin were exported and used in different and far apart regions over the second half of the second millennium BC. This noticeable flow of metals from Sardinia appears associated to distinct counter‐flows of Nuragic pottery both to the east and to the west of the island. Breaking down the chronology of such movements unveils specific distribution patterns over different phases of the Bronze Age. By critically assessing such patterns, this paper discusses how the study of Nuragic Sardinia may contribute to a refined understanding of the complex interplay between the socio‐political transformations that characterize Bronze Age Europe and what must have been a permanent demand for metal.