Late Bronze Age Obsidian Trade at Nuraghe Santa Barbara di Bauladu (Sardinia, Italy) (20 min)

Presenters

Robert H. Tykot, University of South Florida

Abstract

More than 1000 obsidian artifacts were recovered during the excavations of the Late Bronze–Early Iron Age site of Nuraghe Santa Barbara di Bauladu in Sardinia. In 2023, analyses were conducted identifying the specific geological sources that were used on 617 of the artifacts, allowing the reconstruction of prehistoric trade and exchange patterns. In particular, this study provides statistically significant data that may be compared with results from both contemporary Late Bronze Age/Eearly Iron Age sites as well as examination of changes over time from earlier Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites.

Santa Barbara di Bauladu is a complex Nuragic site with multiple external towers, constructed about 1500 B.C.E. The later village on the west side of the Nuraghe (1200–800 B.C.E.) has clear evidence for bronze, copper, and lead metal casting used for tools and the well-known bronze figurines (bronzetti). At this time, there were also contacts with the eastern Mediterranean, as indicated by finds of oxhide ingots and Mycenaean ceramics at sites in Sardinia. Obsidian stone tools continued to be used throughout the Bronze Age, however, with the material obtained from different subsources at Monte Arci.

Nondestructive analyses using a Bruker Tracer 5e X-ray fluorescence spectrometer were conducted, both on an extensive number of geological samples from each of the sources and the obsidian artifacts from Nuraghe Santa Barbara, with the results for trace elements used to assign each artifact to a specific Monte Arci subsource (SA-90, SB1-9, SB2-99, SC-419). The proportion of each is compared for different parts of the site, and with other Nuragic sites with at least 25 artifacts tested: Ortu Comidu (147), Duos Nuraghes (244), Serbine (35), Urpes (45), and Mitza Pidighi (142). The patterns for these Nuragic sites are then compared with those for the Neolithic and Copper Ages, and changes over time in socioeconomic complexity discussed.