Regione Autonoma della Sardegna
Regione Autònoma de sa Sardigna

Sos Battor Moros ("The Four Moors")
Map highlighting the location of Sardegna in Italy
Capital	Cagliari
President	Renato Soru (Independent-Union)
Provinces	Cagliari Carbonia-Iglesias Medio Campidano Nuoro Ogliastra Olbia-Tempio Oristano Sassari
Comuni	377
Area	24,090 km
- Ranked	3rd (8.0 %)
Population (2006 est.)
- Total	1,655,677
- Ranked	11th (2.8 %)
- Density	69/km

Sardinia (pronounced /sɑː(ɹ)ˈdɪnɪə/; Italian: Sardegna; Sardinian: Sardigna or Sardinnya) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily). The area of Sardinia is 24 090 square kilometers. The island lies surrounded (clockwise from north) by the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands. Sardinia is a constitutive part of Italy, with a special statute of autonomous region under the Italian Constitution.

At the beginning of the nuragic age circa 1500 BC the island was first called Hyknusa (Latinized Ichnusa) by the Mycenaeans probably meaning island (nusa) of the Hyksos, the people who had just been expelled by Ahmose I of Egypt circa 1540 BC. Sandalyon was its second name, probably due to its shape, recalling a footprint. Last and present name has been Sardinia, for the Shardana (whose invasion of Egypt was defeated by Ramesses III circa 1180 BC).

History

Main article: History of Sardinia

Sardinia's history is very ancient. In 1979 human remains were found that were dated to 150,000 BC. In 2004, in a cave in Logudoro, a human phalanx was found that was dated to ~250,000 BC.

In Prehistory Sardinia's inhabitants developed a trade in obsidian, a stone used for the production of the first tools, and this activity brought Sardinians into contact with most of the Mediterranean people. Desiccated grapes, recently found in several locations, were DNA tested and proved to be the oldest grapes in the world, dating back to 1200 BC. The Cannonau wine is made with these grapes and may qualify as the mother of all the European wines.

From Neolithic times until the Roman Empire, the Nuragic civilisation took shape on the island. Still today, more than 9,000 Nuraghe survive. It is speculated that, among others, the Shardana people landed in Sardinia coming from the eastern Mediterranean. Shardana had joined the Shekelesh and others to form the coalition of the Sea Peoples, but were defeated by Ramesses III around 1180 BC in Egypt. Shardana and Shekelesh were also called by the Egyptians as the "people from the faraway islands", implying that Shardana were already residents of Sardinia at the time of the Egyptian expedition. This assertion holds some truth; in fact most of the tombe dei giganti have a tombstone shaped like a ship vertically dug into the ground, bearing witness to their sea traveling activities. According to some linguistic studies, the town of Sardis (in Lydia) would have been their starting point from which they would have reached the Tyrrhenian Sea, dividing into what were to become the Sardinians and the Etruscans.

However most theories regarding the original population of Sardinia have been formulated prior to genetics research and in the traditional frame of east-west movements. Genetics seem to show Sardinia's population to be genetically quite distant from their neighbors. This is principally due to genetic drift, though other reasons, such as ties with pre-Indo-European Neolithic peoples may also have contributed to this distance.

The density, extensiveness and sheer size of the architectural remains from the Neolithic period, points to a considerable population of the island.

Beginning around 1000 BC, Phoenician mariners established several ports of trade on the Sardinian coast. In 509 BC, war broke out between the native Nuragic people and the Phoenician settlers. The settlers called for help from Carthage, and the island became a province in the Carthaginian Empire. In 238 BC, after being defeated by the Roman Republic in the First Punic War, Carthage was forced to fight an uprising against former mercenaries who had not received their promised pay in a conflict known as the Mercenary War, Rome took this as an opportunity to annex Corsica and Sardinia without resistance from the overstretched Carthaginians. During the Roman period, the geographer Ptolemy noted that it was inhabited by the following peoples, from north to south: the Tibulati and the Corsi, the Coracenses, the Carenses and the Cunusitani, the Salcitani and the Lucuidonenses, the Æsaronenses, the Æchilenenses (also called Cornenses), the Rucensi, the Celsitani and the Corpicenses, the Scapitani and the Siculensi, the Neapolitani and the Valentini, the Solcitani and the Noritani. Ptol. III, 3.

From 456 - 534, Sardinia was a part of the short-lived kingdom of the Vandals in North Africa, until it was reconquered by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. During this time a considerable number of Germanic Vandals and Iranic Alans settled on the island. Under the Byzantines, the imperial representative was a judge who governed from the southern city of Caralis. Byzantine rule was practically nonexistent in the mountainous Barbagia region in the eastern part of the island, and an independent kingdom persisted there from the sixth through ninth centuries.

Beginning in the eighth century, Arabs and Berbers began raiding Sardinia. Especially after the muslim conquest of Sicily in 832, the Byzantines were unable to effectively defend their most distant province, and the provincial judge assumed independent authority. To provide for local defense, he divided the island into four giudicati, Gallura, Logudoro, Arborea, and Caralis. By 900, these districts had become four independent constitutional monarchies. At various times, these fell under the sway of Genoa and Pisa. In 1323, the Kingdom of Aragon began a campaign to conquer Sardinia; the giudicato of Arborea successfully resisted this and for a time came to control nearly the entire island, but its last ruler William III of Narbonne, was eventually defeated by the Aragonese in the decisive Battle of Sanluri, June 30 1409. The native population of the city of Alghero (S'Alighera in Sardinian, L'Alguer in Catalan) was expelled and the city repopulated by the Catalan invaders, whose descendants still speak Catalan. After the merging of the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, Sardinia was incorporated into the newly created national entity, Spain.

Under Spain, Sardinians were regularly employed on the royal Spanish fleet. On October 7 1571, at the Battle of Lepanto, Sardinian mariners on board the admiralship of Infante Don John of Austria, half brother of Felipe II, boarded the Turkish admiralship, overpowered the crew, and cut off the head of a Turkish admiral . The sight of the admiral's head on a spear put such a fear in the heart of the Turks that they abandoned the fight and completely surrendered to the Christians. This was the first time Turks lost out to Europeans, signalling a trend of military decline and defeats from which Turks never recovered.

In 1718 Sardinia became an 'independent' vassal kingdom under the House of Savoy, rulers of Piedmont.

In 1792, Jean-Paul Marat, son of a Sardinian father from Cagliari and a Swiss mother, was one of the triumvirate leading the French Revolution. In 1793, Sardinians rebelled, demanding autonomy in exchange for helping to defeat French invasion forces. Autonomy was granted in the combined kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, but after the French threat to the kingdom lessened, the king took back his authority.

In 1860, Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia became also the first King of Italy after conquering the rest of the peninsula.

Political theorist Antonio Gramsci is arguably Sardinia's most famous native son, born in Ales on January 22, 1891.

Genetics

The original Nuraghe inhabitants of Sardinia, who are now concentrated in the interior of the island due to pressure from colonists, are a genetic « anomaly » in the region. They belong to Y-chromosome haplogroup I, which otherwise has high frequency only in Scandinavia and the Croatia-Bosnia area. Furthermore, the I haplogroup of the indigenous Sardinians is of the I1b1b subtype, which is unique to the island. The I1b1b haplogroup also has a low distribution in and around the Pyrenees, indicating some migration of Sardinians to that area. The Sardinian subtype is more closely related to the Croatian-Bosnian subtype than to the Scandinavian subtype. Sardinia also has a relatively high distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroup G, which results from people that migrated to Sardinia from Anatolia. Y-chromosome haplogroup G also has a relatively high concentration in and around the Pyrenees, again indicating migration of Sardinians to that area.

Geography

Sardinia is separated from Corsica by the Strait of Bonifacio.

Sardinia is divided in four provinces:

• Cagliari
• Nuoro
• Oristano
• Sassari

The following four provinces have been created by the Sardinian regional government, but still have to be recognized by the Italian government:

• Carbonia-Iglesias
• Medio Campidano
• Ogliastra
• Olbia-Tempio

Culture

Sardinia is one of two Italian regions whose inhabitants have been recognized as a "popolo" (i.e. a distinct people) by a local Statute (which is not a Constitutional Law). The other region is Veneto.

Sardinia is one of the world's most interesting musical destinations. It is home to one of the oldest forms of Vocal Polyphony, generally known as Canto a Tenores; several big names of music such as Frank Zappa, Ornette Coleman and Peter Gabriel found it irresistible. The latter travelled to the town of Bitti in the central mountain region, and recorded the now world-famous Tenores di Bitti CD on his Realworld label. The guttural sounds produced in this form make a truly remarkable sound, similar to Tuvan (Mongolia) throat singing. Another polyphonic style of singing, more similar to the Corsican Paghjella and liturgic in nature, is also found in Sardinia and known as Cantu a Cuncordu.

Another unique instrument is The launeddas. See also: Music of Sardinia. Three reed-canes (2 of them glued together with beeswax) producing distinctive harmonies, which have their roots many thousands of years ago, as demonstrated by the bronzette from Ittiri, of a man playing the 3 reed canes, dated back to 2000 BC.

Beyond this, the tradition of Cantos a Chiterra (guitar songs) has its origins in town squares, when artists would compete against one another. It lives on in new forms. Sardinian culture is alive and well, and young people are actively involved in their own music and dancing.

However, the new generation of Sardinian artists are a force to be reckoned with. Sardinia has produced some of the best jazz musicians in Europe (see Paolo Fresu). Of these, singer Elena Ledda stands out as the precursor and most widely acknowledged performer of the renewed tradition. In 2004, legendary BBC presenter Andy Kershaw (presented Live Aid in 1985), travelled to the island with Sardinian music specialist Pablo Farba, and interviewed many artists. His programme can be heard on [BBC Radio 3] [1]

Language

Main article: Sardinian language

The most spoken language in Sardinia is, undoubtedly, Italian, but Sardinian is widely spoken too. Sardinian is a Romance language of Latin origin, but with an obscure Pre-Roman element, including Phoenician, Etruscan, and Near Eastern languages. While it has been significantly supplanted by Italian for official purposes, Sardinian is still widely spoken in most rural parts and, stemming from a long history of oral tradition, is used culturally for folk songs and poetry. As a literary language, it is gaining clout, despite heated debate about the lack of standard orthography and controversial proposed solutions to this problem. Recently, the regional administration has approved the use of Limba Sarda Comuna [2] in official documents.

In the city of Alghero in the north, a dialect of Catalan is spoken (the name of the city in Catalan is L'Alguer) as the island was an Aragonese colony in the past. However, the two most widely spoken forms of the Sardinian languages are Campidanese, from the flatlands (Campidano) that cover most of the south (from Cagliari to Oristano), and Logudorese (Logudoro), from the central region, extending almost to Sassari.

Transport

Trains on Sardinia connect the whole island but are rather slow. Some run on narrow gauge track. Many tourists catch the trenino verde which runs through the wildest parts of the island. It is slow but it allows the traveller to have scenic views impossible to see from the main road. The train connects Cagliari to Arbatax in the south and Sassari to Palau in the north. It is highly recommended to make the trip from Macomer to Bosa Marina, where the train winds its way through the typical Sardinian landscape to reach the sea near the coastal town of Bosa situated in the west of the island.

Environment

Sardinia is a precious natural resource, containing thousands of rare or uncommon animal and plant species such as the Mediterranean Monk Seal and the boar. Found only in Sardinia, Sicily, and MaghrebIt, the Sardinian skink (genus Chalcides ocellatus) known more commonly as Tiligugu, can reach 30 cm in length, of which almost half is made up by the tail. Sardinia lacks many common species however, like the viper and the marmot, which are found everywhere else on the continent. The island's environment is improving due to strict environment laws.

Sport

Cagliari is also home to the Cagliari Calcio football club, that was founded in the year 1900 and plays in the Serie A, the Italian top division. Home matches are played at the "Stadio Sant' Elia", named after the area where it is located, with a capacity of 23,486. It was built in the year 1970, and refurbished before the Italia '90 football World Championships.

Sardinia also boasts a fine darting tradition, with many believing that the popular game in fact originated somewhere in the Sassaro region of the country towards the end of the 15th century. In those days, the darts themselves were carved from Beech (Fagus) wood and the flights were feathers drawn from the indigenous Pollo Sultano, a bird famed for its spectacular violet-blue plumage. The early 21st century has seen one darter in particular proudly continuing his nation's rich sporting heritage. Brett "The Sardinian" Welch, at 21-years-old, presents the island's greatest hope of one day becoming a world champion. With a current average of 101.4, and weighing in at 280 pounds, he is confident of qualify for next year's BDO World Professional Darts Championship at the Lakeside.

Windsurfing

Porto Pollo north of Palau, is a bay often used by wind- and kitesurfers. The bay is divided by a thin tongue of land that separates it in an area for advanced and beginning/intermediate windsurfers. There is also a restricted area for kitesurfers. Many Italian freestylesurfers come to Porto Pollo for training, and 2007 saw the finale of the freestyle pro kids Europe 2007 contest.

Because of a venturi-effect between Sardinia and Corsica, western wind accelerates between the islands and creates the wind that makes Porto Pollo popular amongst windsurfing enthusiasts.

Business and commerce

Sardinia's currency (as a part of Italy) is now the Euro, called francu in Sardinian.

Several gold and silver mines operate on the island.

The Sardinian economy is today focused on tourism (peaking with the Costa Smeralda), industry, commerce, services and information technology; an increasing income is coming from its famous wines and gastronomy.

Tourism

The island contains numerous extraordinary tourist areas, including the Costa Smeralda and Gennargentu. The island is particularly famous for its beaches, but is also rich in other interesting places, such as some charming sea towns and archaeological ruins. See also: Tourist destinations of Sardinia.

Marine and offshore

Saipem a contractor in the oil and gas industry and a subsidiary of Eni S.p.A, operates a shipyard on Sardinia. Their main activity is the fabrication of offshore oil rigs.

Trivia

• Casu Marzu is a cheese delicacy found in Sardinia, Italy, notable for being riddled with live insect larvae.
• The phrase "sardonic grin" comes from the grimace found on victims of those poisoned by a certain herb found in Sardinia which contains strychnine-like alkaloids. It is said that family members would poison the infirm and elderly with the herb when the family was no longer able to afford to take care of them.
• Sardines were named after the country where they were once found in abundance.
• Sardinia was the subject of the 1921 book Sea and Sardinia by D H Lawrence.

See also

• Sardinian language: Sardu logudoresu, Sardu campidanesu, Gallurese, Sassarese
• History of Sardinia
• Tourist destinations of Sardinia
• List of Sardinians
• List of rulers of Sardinia
• Sardinian archaeological and artistic sites
• Tavolara Island, an island off Olbia, Sardinia, which is a self-proclaimed micronation

External links

• Official regional website in Italian

Geographic locale

•  • [ e] Regions of Italy Abruzzo Aosta Valley Apulia Basilicata Calabria Campania Emilia-Romagna Friuli-Venezia Giulia Lazio Liguria Lombardy Marche Molise Piedmont Sardinia Sicily Trentino-Alto Adige/Sdtirol Tuscany Umbria Veneto

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