Phoenician scarab found at Nuragic site in Sardinia

"An excavation at the Nuragic site of Ruinas in Sardinia has unearthed a Phoenician scarab seal, produced 2,700 years ago in what is now Lebanon. The scarab is made of steatite stone and has a flat side engraved with hieroglyphic-like symbols. The scarab, currently undergoing a delicate conservation process and a battery of non-invasive diagnostic analyses in the laboratories of the Archaeological Superintendency, presents a morphology well known in the glyptic tradition of the ancient Near East."

"Its surface, precisely worked in soft but durable steatite, shows incisions of hieroglyphic characters that will be the subject of detailed decipherment once the stabilization work has been completed. According to the conventions of the time, these objects fulfilled a dual practical and symbolic function: they served as protective amulets, frequently worn around the neck, and acted as seals of authority or property, whose impression in clay or wax was unique and unrepeatable given the exclusive design of each piece,"

"Phoenicians established several coastal settlements on Sardinia, part of their extensive trade network of colonies and trading posts that spanned the whole Mediterranean between the 9th and 6th centuries B.C. The scarab, however, was found in the deep rugged interior of the island occupied by the Ilienses, a Nuragic people credited by ancient sources as the oldest population on Sardinia, inhabiting the interior since the Bronze Age."

A Phoenician steatite scarab seal manufactured about 2,700 years ago in present-day Lebanon was discovered at the Nuragic site of Ruinas in Sardinia. The scarab bears hieroglyphic-like incisions on a flat side and shows morphology typical of ancient Near Eastern glyptic traditions. The object is undergoing careful conservation and non-invasive analyses prior to detailed decipherment. Scarabs served as protective amulets and as seals of authority whose impressions in clay or wax were unique. Phoenicians maintained coastal settlements and trade networks across the Mediterranean, while Nuragic Ilienses territory contains imported goods like Mycenaean pottery and Cypriot oxhide copper ingots, with Iliense pottery found at Knossos.

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