Pre-Nuragic Sardinia

The Pre-Nuragic period refers to the prehistory of Sardinia from the Paleolithic until the middle Bronze Age, when the Nuragic civilization flourished on the island.

Paleolithic

The discovery of Paleolithic lithic workshops indicate a human presence in Sardinia in the period between 450,000 and 10,000 years ago.

According to the researchers, a hominid nicknamed "Nur" was the first to colonize the current territory of the island about 250,000 years ago, in the Lower Paleolithic; based on studies of a phalanx found in the Nùrighe caves of Cheremule, the researchers supposed that he may have been a pre-Neanderthal,Julien Vandevenne, Le doigt sur l'homo sardaignus
/ref> but some have expressed doubts, assuming a morphological distance from hominids.Barbara Wilkens, La falange della grotta di Nurighe presso Cheremule: revisione e nuove informazioni
/ref>

During the last ice age sea levels were lower by about 130 meters; at that time Sardinia and Corsica formed a single large island, separated from Tuscany only by a narrow arm of sea.

The oldest remains of ''Homo sapiens'' in Sardinia date back to the Upper Paleolithic; their tracks have been found in the central part of Sardinia in the "Corbeddu cave" of Oliena.Paolo Melis - Un approdo della costa di Castelsardo, fra età nuragica e romana
/ref>

Mesolithic

Mesolithic human remains have been found at the "Su Coloru cave" of Laerru, in northern Sardinia (Anglona). The material culture suggest that these people came to Sardinia from the Italian peninsula after a difficult navigation with rudimentary boats.

The oldest complete human skeleton (renamed "Amsicora") was found in 2011 in the territory of Arbus, it dates back to about 7,000 BC, the period of transition between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic.

Neolithic

Su Carroppu culture

The culture of Su Carroppu represents the earliest phase of the Neolithic in Sardinia (6th millennium BC). Since 1968, the excavations carried out by archaeologists Enrico Atzeni and Gérard Bailloud in a rock shelter on the limestone hills in the territory of Sirri called "Su Carroppu", found various coarse ceramics of a black-grey color decorated with the imprint of Cerastoderma edule along with tools made of obsidian from the Monte Arci.

There were also found the remains of ancient meals, with the discovery of bones of animals such as deer, Prolagus sardus, wild boar, thus documenting an economy based on farming, hunting and fishing. The presence of two human skeletons, along with ornaments made of shells, according to the researchers witnessed the customs of burial cave.

The culture of Su Carroppu has correspondence in Corsica, the Italian Peninsula and the Iberian peninsula, but especially the findings in Sardinia and Corsica confirm the key role of these two islands to understanding the neolithization of the north-west Mediterranean Sea.

Grotta Verde culture

The Grotta Verde culture is named after a cave located at Capo Caccia near Alghero, where important finds were made in 1979. It has been dated to the second phase of the Early Neolithic in the mid-fifth millennium BC .

This culture was present in the north-west part of Sardinia and was characterized by the production of refined pottery, decorated with a toothed tool .

On a vase found in the cave the handles depicted, in a stylized manner, human heads with small nose, eyes and mouth played. According to archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu, this would be the first anthropomorphic representation in Sardinian prehistory.

On a wall inside the cave unusual graffiti were also found - another singular testimony to these people.

Filiestru culture

In 1971 the priest and caver Renato Loria found in the territory of Mara, between Villanova Monteleone and Bosa, a ravine

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