A Prehistory of Sardinia: 2300-500 BC.

A Prehistory of Sardinia: 2300-500 BC. One of the persistent problems for students of the prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to of thecentral Mediterranean is the lack of comprehensive and syntheticarchaeological studies of many areas published in English. There arerelatively few 'prehistories' of Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain,Sicily or Sardinia and elsewhere, even in national languages, but thosethat there are stand as monuments to scholarship and synthesis. It isoften difficult for the Anglo-American speaking world either to emulatelocal traditions or to offer studies which provide greater detail orknowledge than local scholars who have inherited a long tradition offieldwork and museum data. The trend is usually for younger scholars towade into a region and, wearing the hat of a particular theoretical ormethodological school, reinterpret re��in��ter��pret?tr.v. re��in��ter��pret��ed, re��in��ter��pret��ing, re��in��ter��pretsTo interpret again or anew.re the hard-earned local knowledge. TheMediterranean is a popular hunting-ground for this type of'research', and I, like many before and since, have enjoyedthe wealth of landscapes overflowing with remarkable prehistory andmuseums stuffed with treasures. It is superb material for all types ofprehistoric research, and thus there is no lack of reinterpretation re��in��ter��pret?tr.v. re��in��ter��pret��ed, re��in��ter��pret��ing, re��in��ter��pretsTo interpret again or anew.re formany regions, usually rather limited in their coverage of time andspace, but invariably in��var��i��a��ble?adj.Not changing or subject to change; constant.in��vari��a��bil offering a new view of traditional sequences,cultural interpretations and theory.This substantial volume by Webster aims to introduce the prehistoryof Sardinia, from its cultural origins to 500 BC. A volume entitled Theprehistory ... naturally assumes a summary of the cultural antecedentsof what is, in essence, a study of the Bronze Age Bronze Age,period in the development of technology when metals were first used regularly in the manufacture of tools and weapons. Pure copper and bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, were used indiscriminately at first; this early period is sometimes called the in Sardinia 2300 to500 BC. Webster sets out his aims early on, and defines his study as oneof social reconstruction, reinterpreting the rather Germanic andover-sequential emphasis that he sees as dominating earlier research andsynthesis. He states early on that his approach is processual ratherthan post-processual, but that he also aims to avoid the worst excessesof either camp.The main source for data is the monumental work by Giovanni Lilliu,La dei Sardi dal Neolitico all'eta dei nuraghi (1967) republishedas La civilta dei Sardi dal paleolitico all'eta dei nuraghi (2ndedition 1975, 3rd edition 1988). This work represents a vast synthesisof the prehistoric data of all Sardinia. Some is scanty, much lackseconomic and environmental detail, but it is comprehensive, as indeedany volume claiming to be a study of the island's prehistory mustbe. Webster models much of his Bronze Age phasing on Lilliu'sscheme, with modifications for the dates, but closely following thefour-phase divisions of the Nuraghic Bronze Age. The volume opens with ajustification for reinterpreting this ideal 'laboratory' forthe study of social change and cites the recent focus on island studies.Immediately, Webster brings in some current sociological theory Sociological Theory is a peer-reviewed journal published by Blackwell Publishing for the American Sociological Association. It covers the full range of sociological theory - from ethnomethodology to world systems analysis, from commentaries on the classics to the latest to applyto his laboratory, and reveals the approach that he employs throughoutmuch of the book. Reviewing the history of research on Sardinianprehistory, he claims that studies that attempt to explain thedevelopment and change of Nuraghic society remain scarce, and thatexcavation and survey data is still in its infancy. The chronology issummarized and the importance of the recent 14C sequences integratedwith the traditional scheme. Sardinia's place in the larger schemeof the west Mediterranean is also reviewed showing how other scholarshave applied theoretical models to comparable regions with varyingdegrees of success and conviction. Webster's background inanthropological research into chiefdoms and stratification is clearlydefined in the final paragraphs of the first chapter, and here is theoriginality of the book. No local study from Sardinia, or indeed mostother Mediterranean areas, has demonstrated such adherence to theclassic anthropological models developed to define and investigatestratified stratified/strat��i��fied/ (strat��i-fid) formed or arranged in layers. strat��i��fiedadj.Arranged in the form of layers or strata. , tribal and chiefly social structure. Whilst this approach isall well and good, the relationship between theory and data isinvariably far more difficult to demonstrate, and Sardinia proves to beno exception. Webster reviews the island setting, its geology andgeomorphology geomorphology,study of the origin and evolution of the earth's landforms, both on the continents and within the ocean basins. It is concerned with the internal geologic processes of the earth's crust, such as tectonic activity and volcanism that constructs new , climate, vegetation, fauna, land-use and the regionaldiversity. However this 'background' is skimpy skimp��y?adj. skimp��i��er, skimp��i��est1. Inadequate, as in size or fullness, especially through economizing or stinting: a skimpy meal.2. Unduly thrifty; niggardly. , the maps arewholly inadequate in terms of detail or sophistication so��phis��ti��cate?v. so��phis��ti��cat��ed, so��phis��ti��cat��ing, so��phis��ti��catesv.tr.1. To cause to become less natural, especially to make less naive and more worldly.2. , and there arefew bibliographic references to the environmental background that many ascholar would wish to refer to. Instead the bare facts are listed (andtheir drawbacks noted), but nevertheless becoming a framework forinterpretation, without sufficient information to support the assertionsthat are made in the later chapters of the book.Chapter 3 reviews the Palaeolithic-Neolithic in the space of somethree pages of text, followed by the same quantity for the Copper Age.The 'summary' is precisely that, even though Webster findsplenty of information to delve into the socio-political evolution thatunderpins the theme of the volume. Chapters 4-7 review the four phasesof the Nuraghic Bronze Age, the settlements, the monuments, the materialculture, the ritual and the sociopolitical so��ci��o��po��li��ti��cal?adj.Involving both social and political factors.sociopoliticalAdjectiveof or involving political and social factors organization that isdetectable at each phase of development. Naturally, anthropology creepsin and there are ample references to parallel 'acephalous,segmentary or tribal' societies in Africa and elsewhere, in anattempt to explain the rather difficult field data that is abundant butunexplained. For the later phases, the historical developments of theMediterranean are noted, and the impact that east Mediterraneansocieties had on the natives of Sardinia. Many of the major Nuraghicsites are summarily described and analysed, showing how they may havedeveloped and functioned, especially in view of emerging socialhierarchies, stratification and intensification.The book offers a rather particular approach to Sardinian prehistory.On the one hand there is the stated aim, amply borne out, ofinvestigating and explaining social stratification Noun 1. social stratification - the condition of being arranged in social strata or classes within a groupstratificationcondition - a mode of being or form of existence of a person or thing; "the human condition" , but on the other isa veritable shopping-list of sites and their characteristics. The middleground of economic data, details and facts pertinent to the argument,landscape features, regionality, local resources and the like are notmentioned. Lilliu's facts have been absorbed, and the theoryapplied to them, but not, it seems, with much originality of methodologyor of ideas. The result is a crude exercise in trying to apply aparticular brand of anthropological theory to an area of complex, subtleand still poorly understood local data. The poverty of detail is readilyacknowledged on every page, but few suggestions are made to provideeither a remedy, or a new approach to data-collection and futureresearch.In terms of style, I have some quarrel with the readability of thebook. As an introductory text to a regional prehistory, this is heavygoing. There are many references to sites and sources, but reference isconstantly made to the theory, so that one is given little impression ofthe sites or the material culture that support Webster's ideas andinterpretations. The drawn figures are almost all derived fromalternative sources, and they are badly reproduced, crudely drawn inthick pen, with unrealistic stippling stippling/stip��pling/ (stip��ling) a spotted condition or appearance, as an appearance of the retina as if dotted with light and dark points, or the appearance of red blood cells in basophilia. and linework. The site plans arecrude, and provide no sense of landscape - there is not a contour lineto be seen, and this is in an island of dramatic landscape, wheretopography is paramount! A little care and attention paid to map workand in reproducing the detail of individual sites and their settingsmight have visually described the complexities of the theoretical pointsthat the author is trying to make. Some of his own survey maps arereproduced, showing a range of symbols for different types of sites, butinadvertently, the key to the symbols is missing. What do the maps mean?This book offered a great challenge to its writer. The potential forpresenting and reinterpreting the superb prehistory of Sardinia wasgreat, but this book fails to meet the challenge as fully as it might.The results fall between many stools - it is neither a beginner'sintroduction, because too much is left unsaid and too much assumed, noris it a model of landscape study and social change. The detail ofmethodological approach, and of site and period, fail to providesufficiently for the elaborate and perhaps rather unrealisticdescriptions and explanations of social stratification and change. Thesocial and explanatory approaches espoused by this book are urgentlyneeded in Mediterranean prehistory. To be applied and thus achievedsuccessfully, they require either a more detailed regional study toprovide a model for wider interpretation, or else a broader and rathersimpler approach which offers an easier introduction.CAROLINE MALONE New Hall, CambridgeReferencesLILLIU, G. 1967. La civilta dei Sardi dal Neolitico all'eta deinuraghi. Turin: Nuova ERI Eri(ē`rī), in the Bible, son of Gad. .1975. La civilta dei Sardi dal paleolitico all'eta dei nuraghi.2nd edition. Turin: Nuova ERI.1988. La civilta dei Sardi dal paleolitico all'eta dei nuraghi.3rd edition. Turin: Nuova ERI.