NAPLES:
LIFE, DEATH & MIRACLES - ADJUNCT SECTION ON
SARDINIA
©
Jeff Matthews
The Beakers of Ozieri  “Manipulating
liquids” is the term used by
archaeologists for “pouring drinks.”
Apparently in the late Neolithic period in
European history, around 3500 BC, some
unsung cave-genius had a brilliant idea
(fire was good, the wheel also good—but this
was even better): “Hey, wait a minute!”—at
which point a very early version of the
incandescent light bulb went on in a thought
bubble above that person’s head—“I can use
this opposable thingie on my hand to
indent part of the rim of this clay bowl;
then we can maninpul...pour
drinks!” He or she (I’m betting it
was a guy) was not referring to water
because rivers were full of that stuff and
who cared if you spilled some. He meant
fermented liquids such as beer, mead, and
wine. Thus were born the “beaker cultures”
of Europe, peoples scattered across Europe
who made drinking vessels of different
shapes: the bell-beaker, the funnel-beaker,
the butt beaker, the claw beaker, and the
protruding-foot beaker.Extent of the beaker cultures  It is
not quite clear whether the spread of
“beaker culture” was the result of cultural
diffusion by invasion of a single “beaker”
people across the continent or the result of
a natural diffusion of knowledge along the
early trade routes of European rivers and
coastlines. The pottery in question appeared
rather abruptly, and the earliest examples
of it are found on the Iberian peninsula. A
plausible view is that the knowledge
of how to make these artifacts diffused
naturally across Europe; thus, you have new
knowledge —rather than the people
themselves—spreading out. (That is more
likely than a real invasion since the
purported invaders would all have been
crocked, or “beakered up,” as they used to
say in 3500 BC.)Beakers are among the artifacts of the so-called “Ozieri culture” in northern Sardinia, named for the town of Ozieri near Sassari, where archaeologist have found traces of these proto-Sardinians, who pre-date even the builders of the Nuraghi, now the icons of ancient Sardinia. The Ozieri culture is also termed, in Italian, the "San Michele culture" (named after a cave near Ozieri where artifacts were found). The general dating of this culture is generally given as 3800-2900 BC. It is difficult, indeed, for the non-specialist to keep the progression of early peoples straight; specialist judgments are based on often contradictory interpretations of the same evidence. In the case of Sardinia and the Ozieri culture, both archaeology and now genetics indicate a more varied origin of proto-Sardinians than previously thought. Genetics indicates an almost certain communality with people on the Iberian peninsula but also with peoples much farther to the east, Greece and Anatolia. Also, archaeology suggests early influence from the Aegean. None of this should surprise us; Sardinia, is, after all, an island, and people on an island have to come from somewhere. (Of course, nothing says they all have to come from the same place.) We can say with some certainty that Sardinia had vital trade and contact with continental sources by the middle of the 4th century—that is, 3500 BC.   One
of the most respected archaeologists
to have studied the Ozieri culture is
Giovanni Lilliu, whose 1967 book La civiltà dei
Sardi dal neolitico all'età dei nuraghi
[Sardinian
Civilization from the Neolithic to the Age
of the Nuraghi] (Torino, ERI
edition), indicates that about 200 Ozieri
sites have been found through northern
Sardinia. They are small, largely
undefended, and are characterized by
(besides their pottery) their dedication to
the dead, which means their hollowed-out
rock tombs (the domus de janas, photo,
right) and their megalithic, circular
cemeteries (photo, left). Other than that,
their sense of the divine focused on the
figure of the Mother God and even the Bull
God, figurines of which have been found.
These early Sardinian were not the
builders of the mighty nuraghi
fortifications, although they may have become
the builders of those fortifications. At a
certain point in time, then, Ozieri
artifacts become less decorative and sterner
and then, little by little, the fort
builders take over. They apparently
perceived the need to defend themselves
against incursions from as yet uncertain
quarters, perhaps attackers who could not be
mollified with a few beakers of good cheer. |
to Naples home page & index
to
Sardinia index
to Ancient
World portal
to top
of this page
© 2002 - 2023