In 1979 human remains were found that were dated 150,000 BC. Following retrievals are of about 15,000 BC. It is supposed ancient Sardinians descend from a mysterious people: Shardana.
The first men to settle in Gallura and Northern Sardinia probably came from Italian mainland, maybe from Etruria. The central region might have been populated by people arrived from Iberian Peninsula through Balearic Islands. Southern settlements (around the gulf of Cagliari) were very likely founded by Africans.
Prehistoric arrowheads (third millennium B.C.) and sculptures of the Mediterranean Mother Goddess (now in the Archeological Museum of Cagliari) were retrieved which demonstrate a well developed industry of stone carving.
In prehistoric Sardinia a commerce in obsidian, a particular stone used for the production of the first rough tools, developed, and this activity brought Sardinians to have relationships with most of the Mediterranean peoples, from Lebanon to Phoenicians.
In the Archeological Museum of Sassari are some ceramics from the Copper or Aneolithic Age (2600 B.C.).
Nuragic age
Around 1000 B.C. Phoenicians began landing regularly in Sardinia with their ships, with increasing frequency. Setting sail from Lebanon, on their trade routes (to Britain too) they needed safe anchorages for a stop or to escape a weather storm. Main towns in which Phoenicians established: Caralis (Cagliari), Nora, Bithia, Sulcis, Tharros, Bosa, Torres and Olbia.
Although the Nuragici civilization, according to one of the outmost scholars of Sardinian proto-history and Etruscologist Massimo Pallottino, produced the most advanced and monumental architectures of the period in the western Mediterranean, included the Greek region, Italian interest for Sardinian archaeology, has been minimal, but for the illegal trade of bronze statues.
The use or meaning of Nuraghes has not been clearly identified: among the most believable theories it is supposed to have been a religious temple, or a dwelling, a military reference (stronghold), the house of the chief of the village, the place for the meeting of the wise men or the governors.
Nuragic art includes stone carvings or statues representing female divinities (Thanit, main religious entity, is a goddess); these works however have often been considered as partly a fruct of relationships with Phoenicians.
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