Drones are flying over the island of Tavolara in search of new Proto-Etruscan traces to confirm the mountain's position in the Gallura Sea during Iron Age Mediterranean trade. Research has begun at Cala Spalmatore di Terra, an area of particular interest that preserves remains of human occupation from the pre-Protohistoric to Punic and Roman periods. This area has already been explored through the study of ceramic finds recovered between 2011 and 2013 from the beach excavation site. The results of these findings were collected in the publication "New Perspectives on the Early Iron Age Connections between Sardinia and Etruria: Archaeometric Analyses of Ceramics from Tavolara," completed in 2020 by the Baden-Wüttemberg Center for Archaeometric Competence at the University of Tübingen.
With the inspection carried out last Monday, a new season of the project opens, in search of data that confirms the strategic role of Tavolara in the control of the maritime routes between Gallura, Corsica and the Tyrrhenian area , hypothesized by the results of analyses on the ceramics that show their provenance from production sites in Etruria, the first evidence in Sardinia of a point of exchange of goods between the Nuragic and Villanovan civilizations.
Sponsored by the Tavolara Punta Coda Cavallo Marine Protected Area, under the scientific direction of the Faculty of Arts, Institute of Prehistory, Protohistory and Medieval Archaeology of the University of Tübingen, and conducted by archaeologists Paola Mancini and Silvia Amicone with the supervision of the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of Sassari and Nuoro, the investigation activities consist of non-invasive geophysical and surface surveys, filmed by drones, and territorial reconnaissance, whose preliminary results will be presented at the end of the work.