Exploring the course of metals between the Sardinian Bronze Age and Iberia. New data from Monte Sa Idda hoard provenance studies

The hoard of Monte Sa Idda (Decimoputzu, Cagliari), is one of the classic metal hoards of Nuragic archaeology in Sardinia (Taramelli 1921; Lo Schiavo 2008). The hoard was uncovered with all its goods grouped into a large pottery container (Figure 1), and located within a Nuragic building. It was composed of more than three hundred artefacts, most of them fragmentary, which are characteristic of the Late Bronze Age period in Sardinia. According to its typological aspects a chronology according to the Iberian Atlantic Bronze Age II-III (ca. 1100-850 BCE) can be suggested. In addition, most of the Sa Idda objects have been usually related with Iberian typologies as, for example, of the Sa Idda swords but also daggers, axes, cauldrons, handles and a rotary spit fragment. Furthermore, other Iberian artefacts have been also traditionally related within Sa Idda's types like the wax-lost handles. The main goal of this research is to approach the provenance of these metal artefacts using archaeometallurgical methods and, if possible, relate them to the original mineral source.