The first man to settle in Gallura and Northern Sardinia probably came from Italian mainland and, in particular, from Etruria. Those who populated the central region of the island arrived, it seems, from the Iberian Peninsula by way of the Balearic Islands. Those who founded their settlements around the gulf of Cagliari were in all likelihood Africans. Hence, it can be said that in Sardinia there never was one single people but really several peoples.
As time passed, the Sardinian peoples became united in language and customs yet remained divided politically into various smaller tribal states. Sometime they were banded together, while at others they were at war with one other.
Tribes lived in villages made up round thatched stone huts, similar to the
present day pinnette of shepherds.
Prehistoric
arrowheads (III millennium B.C.) and sculpture of the the
Mediterranean Mother Goddess may be found in the Archeological Museum of Cagliari. In the Archeological Museum of Sassari are some
ceramics from the Copper or Aneolithic Age (2600 B.C.).
From about 1500 B.C. onwards the villages were built at the foot of a mighty truncated cone fortress (often reinforced and enlarged with embattled towers) called
nuraghe.
A
nuragic village may be found in Barumini (Cagliari).
The boundaries of tribal territories were guarded by smaller lookout nuraghi erected on strategic hills commanding a view of the enemy. Today some 7000 nuraghi dot the sardinian landscape.