As I have posted herein a while back, my year 2024 began quite precipitously, in regard to my health. Things looked rather bleak but fortunately, I have turned the corner so far and am feeling far better than I was and I have happily returned to work on my passion project-to write a general audience history of Sardinia, from its Neolithic to Bronze to Phoenician/Carthaginian to Roman to Byzantine to Autonomous Judicates to the Aragonese and finally to the Savoy period and the unification of Italy-using scholarly information from archaeology, linguistics and ancient texts.

I was born in Sardinia in the small but lovely hill- town of Scano di Montiferro, located in the west-north-west region of the island. I grew up however in the US, as my biological mother Speranza decided that when I was less than one year old my best chance for a good and healthy life was to be adopted. Being a very curious sort and a voracious reader with a fascination for ancient history, I read all I could about Roman and Italian history. To my dismay, I could find little to nothing about Sardinia’s history of any period (not even classical or medieval periods–very popular for anyone interested in Sicily’s pre-Unification history.

My thirst for information was over time happily assuaged when I found scholarly journals and books both in English and Italian–often admittedly written for colleagues in archaeology and ancient art and history rather than for general interest. I persevered in accumulating sources, some very kindly furnished by Sardinian academics to whom I am deeply indebted.

For the next 30 days (perhaps longer) I plan to post brief tidbits–appetizing verbal canapes if you will–that is, facts in Sardinia’s history to share with my readers.

I will begin with Sardinia as a Roman province. Rome’s Republic and Empire are familiar to many readers/viewers, so that seems a good place to start. Sardinia’s history however extends backwards millennia before Rome was founded. Archaeology has so proven.

Without further ado…Stay Tuned for Day One of my 30-day Sardinia History Project. Those posts will not appear herein but you will probably find them quite easily.