The first Sardinians
Clactonian pebbles and incomplete skeletons date back to the Upper Paleolithic (45,000 to 11,700 years ago), making Sardinia one of the last regions in Europe to be populated. Its remoteness from the coast and the need for a sturdy ship could explain this late settlement. The first settlers probably came from nearby geographical areas, such as the Italian and Iberian peninsulas. The first funerary circles and megalithic structures distinctive of the Arzachena culture (-4,200 to -3,800 years) are thought to have come from peoples in southern France. Female bone statuettes from the Ozieri culture (-3,300 to -2,500 years) echo Cretan and Cycladic practices. Terracotta jars from the Campaniform culture and new metalworking methods from the Copper Age (-2,500 to -1,800 years) are thought to have come from Franco-Iberian and Central European peoples. Only a few tribes disembarked each time, bringing with them new skills that gave rise to social developments: villages, roads, military development, cult of the dead... The Nuragic civilization (-1,800 to -238 years), Sardinia's golden age, saw the arrival of more tribes. The island became organized around clearly identified ethnic groups, whose origins were sometimes controversial. The Corsi crossed the Bouches de Bonifacio to settle on the northern tip of the island. The Balari, who came from the Iberian Peninsula and the south of France, occupy a territory that stretches as far as Bosa and Orosei. The Ilienses, also known as Ioleïs, laid down their weapons and tools in the southern half of Sardinia. Myths, legends and scientific research all collide, but all agree that this ethnic group originated in Greece. But were they Trojans fleeing the conflict, Boeotians following their hero Iolaos, or people who came from the Aegean long ago? The mystery remains... During this period of Sardinian culture, the island developed. Exchanges sparked by Phoenician and Carthaginian incursions left their mark on culture and worship, and gave rise to a taste for war. Punic inscriptions appeared on stelae. Coastal dwellers retreated inland to escape Carthaginian ambitions. In 238 BC, the Romans seized the island. Rome sent thousands of inhabitants, a few slaves and exiles to colonize the island. This was followed by an Arab invasion, Pisan and Genoese influence on the Judicats, Spanish domination, a return to the Piedmont-Savoy fold, mining which brought its share of immigrants, and the misery from which the Sicilians fled... It's hard to pinpoint the origins of the Sardinian in this incessant to-and-fro of history, which never seems to leave Sardinia in peace.
The contribution of genetics
The genetics boom of the 1990s and the completion of human genome sequencing in 2003 have led to major advances in our understanding of the origins of the Sardinians. Research is being undertaken to determine the genetic heritage of the first Sardinians as well as contemporary Sardinians. The most recent study, conducted by the University of Chicago and published in Nature Communications in 2020, shows that Middle Neolithic Sardinians share a genetic heritage similar to that of Europeans of the same period. The study of DNA from 70 ancient skeletons also shows that genetic evolution remained stable until the end of the Nuraghic period. This means that the population influx to the island remained very moderate, as during the same period the genetic heritage of mainlanders diversified as a result of major exchanges across Europe and beyond. From 500 BC onwards, researchers have noted the contribution of Phoenicians and Carthaginians to the Sardinian genetic map. The result today is a gene pool in common with that of the Europeans, but with isolated variants. Genetics also tells us that Basques and Sardinians have the most similar DNA, although this cannot be explained by the Spanish contribution in the Middle Ages. Last but not least, geneticists are taking a keen interest in the Sardinian people, in order to unravel the mystery of certain autoimmune diseases, but above all the secret of Sardinian longevity.
The blue zone of the Nuoro
In the late 1990s, Gianni Pes, a doctor in clinical research and experimental medicine, spotted a region of Sardinia where the inhabitants seem to live as old as the trees. Somewhere in the Nuoro mountains, many men and women are over 100 years old and in good physical condition. He shared his discovery at a specialist conference attended by Belgian geographer Michel Poulain. The two of them decided to investigate in the field. Armed with a map, they set off to count the centenarians as others count sheep at bedtime. They circled in blue the localities where the density of centenarians was particularly high, and isolated the Punta la Marmora region. Here, there are almost 31 centenarians per 100,000 inhabitants - a record! On a global scale, figures, albeit uncertain, project a figure of 7.13 centenarians per 100,000 inhabitants. Dan Buettner, explorer and member of the National Geographic Society, learns of the results from the Nuoro "blue zone". He suggested that the two researchers set out to conquer the world and see if other blue zones existed. Since 2002, 4 regions with an abnormally high number of centenarians have been identified: Okinawa in Japan, the island of Ikaria in Greece, the Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica and an Adventist community in California. A comparison of these 5 societies revealed a predominantly vegetarian diet, low alcohol consumption and a healthy, outdoor lifestyle as common features. This lifestyle was undoubtedly that of the Melis family. In 2012, Italian journalists brought together in a single photo 9 siblings who between them totalled 818 years of age. With ages ranging from 78 to 104, the "world's oldest family" entered the Guinness Book of Records.
Demography
Sardinia may be a place where people die of old age, at 83 on average, but it's also a place where few are born. This is the region with the lowest fertility rate in Italy, with only 1.07 children per woman. With 45% of single people in a very Catholic country where marriage remains the norm, repopulation of Sardinia does not seem to be on the agenda. The pen-nib-shaped age pyramid shows a clear population deficit between the ages of 0 and 29. The average age is 47, and 16.66% of the population is between 45 and 54. The island has a negative demographic balance, losing 10,800 inhabitants per year. At the time of the last census in 2011, updated in 2019, Sardinia had a population of around 1,622,000. A quarter of the population lives in the metropolitan area of Cagliari, Sardinia's capital and largest industrial zone. Island-wide, population density is 68 inhabitants per km², compared with 200.27 inhabitants per km² in Italy. This density drops to 37 inhabitants per km² in the mountainous province of Nuoro. In the 1930s, the majority of the population lived between 500 and 600 meters above sea level, for historical as well as environmental reasons. The marshy plains were infested with malaria, and it wasn't until 1951 that the island was finally rid of this scourge. A few years later, Sardinia's tourism boom completed the exodus from the central regions to the coasts. Mining until the 1940s and then the tourism boom led to a slight migratory flow. Today, foreign residents account for 3.43% of the population, 5 points below the national average. The largest contingent comes from Romania, and only 800 French people live in Sardinia all year round. Immigration has little impact on Sardinian cohesion, particularly language. On the tourism front, however, almost 20% of foreign travelers to the island are French.
Limba Sarda Comuna
Italian was only imported to the island in 1760, when Sardinia fell into the hands of the Principality of Savoy. However, the language was imposed and taught in schools. It wasn't until 1997 that Sardinian was recognized as a language in its own right, and its use taught in schools. Teaching Sardinian poses a problem, as there is no single Sardinian language, but rather a number of regional ones. The two main branches are Campidanesu (Campidanian), spoken in the south, and Logudoresu (Logodurian), used in the center and west of the island. Sardinian is a neo-Latin language of oral tradition, drawing on the ancient Roman language. It is spoken by 62% of Sardinians and understood by 97%. Despite these good figures, the language is considered endangered by Unesco. In 2006, Sardinia adopted Limba Sarda Comuna (LSC) for its official documents. This is the scriptural form of Sardinian responsible for creating a single standard understood by all. Since then, LSC has become increasingly commonplace in press articles and on social networks. Courses are offered free of charge in certain towns or on the website of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia. Books are translated into Sardinian and made available online. The creation of a written language is intended to unify the use of the language and ensure its future. But there are also Sardinian dialects that are under serious threat. Tattaressu, spoken in the Sassari region, is a mixture of Pisan and Corsican; Nugoresu, with its Corsican accents close to the town of Sartène, is used in Galluria, in the north-east of the island. The linguistic mille-feuille also includes a number of dialects imported from abroad. A variant of Eastern Catalan is still spoken by the elders in Alghero. Tabarchino, a descendant of Genoese, sums up the complexity of population movements in the Mediterranean. In the 16th century, the Genoese Lomellini family obtained a concession to exploit coral on the island of Tabarka in Tunisia. They sent 50 people there. Two centuries later, 156 families emigrated to the island of San Pedro in south-west Sardinia, bringing their dialect with them. This is now only spoken in San Pedro and Sant'Antioco. Finally, Venetian is spoken by a few families who came from Italy under Fascism and settled in Fertilia and Arborea.
