ABSTRACT

The close relations that bound Sardinia and Etruria in Antiquity were motivated by important geographical and cultural factors that can be summarized as follows: the presence of important agro-pastoral and mineral resources in both areas; the vocation to maritime commerce of human groups who were the protagonists of these relationships; geographical proximity of the territories they inhabited, connected by short-distance maritime routes whether along coastal paths (from Sardinia to northern Etruria via the east coast of Corsica and the Tuscan Archipelago) or by deep sea (directly to the Etruscan coast of Italy opposite eastern Sardinia) (Fig. 12.1) known through archaeological and literary sources (speaking, for example, for an era that is indeterminable but certainly quite old, of the “pirates” operating between Sardinia and Pisa).