Around the IX – VIII centuries BC, what attracted to Sardinia the Phoenicians [n] coming from Cyprus and the coasts of Palestine was the geographical position of the island (a bridge to the West) and its metal resources wealth (copper, silver and lead). Tradition attributes to Phoenician merchants from Cyprus the stele of Nora (IX century BC), which bears the first written reference to Sardinia: B SRDN.

Around 750 BC the trading visits of the Phoenicians to the Sardinian coasts were transformed into stable colonial settlements, above all in the coastal localities closest to the island’s metal resources, that is Nora, Sulci, Villasimius (VIII century BC) and, in subsequent centuries, Kirls - S.Gilla (Cagliari), Bitia, Bosa (Province of Oristano), Tharros (Oristano), Othoca - S. Giusta (Oristano). The first urban centres in Sardinia were Phoenician settlements: surrounded by curtain walls, centred around the port, near which stood the warehouses, the temple and residences of the upper classes, while the necropolis and tophet [i] were outside the walls.

The Phoenicians built fortified outposts (Monte Sirai - Carbonia; Pani Loriga - Santadi) to control the metal routes but they never settled in the interior regions of the island, limiting themselves to trading relations with the Nuragic villages of the hinterland.

The cohabitation between the Phoenicians and the Nuragic peoples was violently interrupted round 540 BC by Carthage. In that period, the other great mercantile power, Greece, was attempting to extend its influence also over the areas under Etruscan and Carthaginian control [n] and it founded a colony, Alalia [n], on the eastern coast of Corsica. To protect their trade, the Punics (as the Romans called the Carthaginians) reacted against Greek ambitions by taking possession by military force in a few decades of the peaceful Phoenician colonies of the Mediterranean area. This expansionist policy of Carthage led to the decline of Phoenician civilisation; the bloodshed involved Sardinia too, where Carthaginian domination came into being around 540 BC and ended in 238 BC, the year marking the beginning of Roman domination of the island.

It was Phoenician political exiles from Tyre who founded Carthage in Africa in 814 BC: while the hinterland only offered 200 km of desert bordering with Egypt the city had a series of excellent landing places and in a few decades it built two ports, became a famous market (gold, ivory and slaves) and embarked on a much more imperialistic policy than the Phoenicians’. The Carthaginians took military possession of Sardinia around 535 BC, destroying Nuragic and Phoenician settlements.

The Nuragic populations fought against the Carthaginians for almost a century and only from the IV century BC we begin to see progressive integration between the two peoples, less pronounced in the interior where, even after the Carthaginian conquest of Barumini (510 BC), Nuragic civilisation maintained proud resistance.

Under the thrust of Carthaginian commercial power, the south-western coastal settlements flourished; to mention just a few: Nora, Sulci, Bitia, Karalis and Tharros, into whose ports flowed grain, metals and salt. Sulci and Nora provided the Sardinian market with stele and pottery while Tharros (Oristano) was famous for its exquisite gold jewellery and the import/export of luxury goods.

In Sardinia, as in the rest of the Carthaginian Empire, the cities were governed by two Carthaginian magistrates elected annually by a Council of noblemen. The Carthaginian troops on the island were mainly mercenaries but starting from the III century BC native Sardinians too were recruited.

At the end of the first Punic War, the first episode of the Roman-Carthaginian feud for control of the western Mediterranean, groups of Sardinian mercenaries under the pay of Carthage revolted (in one of these revolts the temple of Antas was destroyed); the island fell into chaos and the rebels sought the help of the Romans who landed in Sardinia in 237 BC, easily seizing the coastal cities, thus marking the beginning of Roman dominion on the island.

Carthaginian religious practices and culture had however penetrated deeply into the lives of the Sardinians, so much that use of the language and Punic symbolism in handicrafts and cults persisted into the heyday of Roman domination. Southern Sardinia still shows important vestiges of the Carthaginian era: the necropolises [i] (Monte Sirai; S. Antioco; Tuvixeddu), the tophets [i] (Monte Sirai; S. Antioco) and the fortresses (Monte Sirai) are surrounded by fascinating landscape and enable us to take a fascinating trip into the past, back to the most ancient origins of Mediterranean civilisation.

Razors
The Phoenician-Punic necropolises have handed down to us a large number of bronze razors (VII - II centuries BC), very expensive objects, reserved for the upper class.

Gold (VI-IV centuries BC)
Tharros (Oristano) is the site which has yielded the majority of splendid Punic gold artefacts found in Sardinia. The gold probably came from Spain and North Africa and it is not known whether these jewels were produced in Sardinian workshops.

Scarabs (VI - II centuries BC)
These are small, carefully crafted objects in Egyptian style, made of green jasper (probably mined in Sardinia) and cornelian. They are often mounted in gold and were used as pendants, rings or seals. They have been found in the most important Punic settlements in Sardinia (Sulci, Monte Sirai, Monte Luna, Tharros) and show the engraved figure of Heracles or the sun/moon.

Amulets (V - II centuries BC)
Amulets were artefacts used to ward off the evil eye and were much used in the Punic world, confirming the Carthaginians’ taste for Egyptian culture. In Sardinia about 1700 have been found; they are small artistic objects in bone, ivory, semi-precious stone or rock crystal and they represent sphinxes, the Egyptian god Horus or other divinities. The same purpose was also served by the "grinning masks" of various sizes, in vitreous paste or terracotta.

Coins (IV-III centuries BC)
Punic coins minted in the Sicilian, Sardinian, Maltese and Numidian mints began to be issued in the IV century BC and their production ended with the abandonment of Sardinia on the part of Carthage (238 BC). These coins were made of gold, bronze or electrum (a natural or artificial alloy of gold and silver). They usually bore, on the obverse, the head of be-jewelled Kore and, on the reverse, figures on horseback, or palms or ears of corn (in reference to the fact that Sardinia was the granary of Carthage).

Ceramics - pottery (VII–III centuries BC)
The Phoenician-Punic necropolises have revealed pottery associated with funeral rites and jars for perfumed ointments. They have been found in various sizes and the smallest, about 10 cm high, were probably tied to the left wrist.