Nuragic civilization
The Nuragic civilization,[1][2] also known as the Nuragic culture, was a civilization or culture on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, Italy, which lasted from the 18th century BC [3] (Middle Bronze Age) (or from the 23rd century BC [4][5]) up to the Roman colonization in 238 BC.[6][7][8] Others date the culture as lasting at least until the 2nd century AD[9] and in some areas, namely the Barbagia, to the 6th century AD[10][11] or possibly even to the 11th century AD.[5][12]
The adjective "Nuragic" is neither an autonym nor an ethnonym. It derives from the island's most characteristic monument, the nuraghe, a tower-fortress type of construction the ancient Sardinians built in large numbers starting from about 1800 BC.[13] Today more than 7,000 nuraghes[a] dot the Sardinian landscape.
No written records of this civilization have been discovered,[16] apart from a few possible short epigraphic documents belonging to the last stages of the Nuragic civilization.[17] The only written information there comes from classical literature of the Greeks and Romans, and may be considered more mythical than historical.[18]