In this period Nuragic civilisation had its origins and created its most distinctive emblem - the Nuraghe [i], a powerful tower used both as a stronghold and as a dwelling.

The first Nuraghi were constructed some time round 1500 BC (but the earliest towers were probably built in the early centuries of the II millennium) and up to 1000 BC many thousands were built, on the high points of the coasts and the interior of the whole of Sardinia, almost always surrounded by villages of peasants and shepherds. The contacts which the early Nuragic inhabitants established with the Mediterranean cultures [i] brought into being new methods of metal working, new weapons and surgical techniques [n]. Weapons and tools were made of stone or copper (daggers, spear heads, axes, drills); their trinkets and jewels were fashioned in copper or silver (bracelets, pins). Bronze [n] as is shown by findings, made its appearance in Sardinia in the last centuries of the II millennium.

Megalithic tombs, displaying the prestige of the dominant clans, started to be built already in the early Nuragic age, and took the shape of imposing dolmens (above all in central-northern Sardinia) and subsequently monumental Tombs of the Giants, whose stern guardians were the menhirs, stones symbolising the divinity.

Then appeared the complex-plan Nuraghi [i] (more than 2000 of them, castles in the true sense of the word, out of the 7,000 Nuraghi known today) and, at the same time, thousands of single-tower Nuraghi were also constructed [i].

Sardinia had some 230,000 inhabitants and its territory was divided into scores of districts, each under the control of a more or less powerful clan. Each village (on an average 35 inhabitants, but at times many more) grew around the Nuraghe and had the use of about 40 hectares of territory for stock rearing, farming and in some cases mining activity. Around 1000 BC, the Nuragic peoples together with the Iberians and the Etruscans were among the main metal producers in Europe and this, together with their contacts [i] with the other Mediterranean cultures, made the Nuragic communities richer and culturally advanced.

While it never developed into a single political entity, Nuragic civilisation was "...a “moral” nation founded on the commonality of values and material production" (G. Lilliu), which possessed economic resources and skilled artisans able to create sanctuaries [i], Tombs of the Giants [i], Sacred Wells [i] and thousands of Nuraghi: some time round 1000 BC it is estimated that in Sardinia there were more than 15,000 (today more than 7,000 are extant). From 1000 BC very few new Nuraghi were built, and efforts focused rather on the restoration and extension – often of cyclopean proportions – of the thousands of towers already standing.

The image of the great economic and cultural development of Nuragic Sardinia is brought down to us – as concerns the central-southern portion of the island – by the castle-fortresses of Barumini, Orroli and Villanovaforru, by the bronze statuettes [n] and by the statues of Monti Prama (Cabras – Province of Oristano). In these centuries one of the icons of modern-day Sardinia also appeared, the pintadera, a stone disc, engraved with geometrical symbols, which was pressed onto the ritual loaves of bread.

More than 70 votive bronze lamps in the shape of boats (VIII-VII centuries BC) show that the Nuragic peoples had a close relationship with the sea; these boats reproduce both fishing and cargo vessels and were finely decorated votive offerings. Some of these boats bear the head of a bull, stag or ram on the prow an element reserved to royal vessels, which served as counterweight during sailing.

The first Phoenician ports of call along the central-southern coasts (IX century BC) had in the meantime become urban centres. The Nuragic peoples however had productive trading relationships with the Phoenicians and it was indeed between the X and VIII centuries BC that Nuragic civilisation saw the apogee of its economic and social development, although it never developed writing or urban organisation.

It was probably the frequent quarrels between the Nuragic princes which favoured Carthaginian occupation (about 540 BC) of central-southern Sardinia, the fall of the castle-fortress of Barumini (about 510 BC) and the end of Nuragic civilisation, whose remaining clans managed to resist only in the impenetrable hinterland of the island.