Sardinian people

The Sardinians, or also the Sards, are the people from or with origins in Sardinia, a western Mediterranean island and autonomous region of Italy.

Origin and influences

Prehistory

Sardinia was first colonized in a stable manner during the Upper Paleolithic and the Mesolithic by people from the Iberian and/or the Italian peninsula. During the Neolithic period, people from Italy, Spain and the Aegean area settled in Sardinia. In the Eneolithic-Early Bronze age the "Beaker folk" from Southern France, Northeastern Spain and then from Central Europe settled on the island, bringing new metallurgical techniques and ceramic styles and probably some kind of Indo-European speech.

The Nuragic civilization arose in the Middle Bronze Age, during the Late Bonnanaro culture. At that time the island was divided into three or more major ethnic groups, the most important being the Ilienses, the Balares and the Corsi. Nuragic Sardinians have been connected by some scholars to the Shardana, a tribe of the Sea Peoples, whose presence is registered several times in ancient Egyptian records.