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Conferences & Networking

The SAS regularly sponsors conferences, workshops, and conference sessions. If you are planning an event relevant to the goals of the society, please get in touch with the VP of Intersociety Relations so that we can explore a partnership.  If you're a student SAS member interested in promoting professional fellowship among your peers, check out the Student Ambassador program and reach out to our VP for Membership Development to learn more.

SAS Paper Spotlight – Silvia Amicone

SAS is happy to spotlight the work of member Silvia Amicone (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen), who recently published “Ritual and Connectivity in Nuragic Sardinia: An Interdisciplinary Study of Ceramics and Metalwork from Nuraghe Barru” in Open Archaeology.

Highlights

  • Interdisciplinary analysis of ceramics and metal artefacts from Nuraghe Barru provides new evidence for structured depositional and ritual practices during the Final Bronze–Early Iron Age transition in Sardinia.
  • Petrographic and pXRF analyses point to connections between Nuragic communities through the movement of objects, materials, technologies, and ideas across and beyond the island, showing how archaeological science can illuminate connectivity and rituality.
  • The study shows that nuraghi continued to play important ceremonial and social roles during a period of broader political and cultural transformation, highlighting the changing social life of monuments in later Nuragic society.

This paper presents an interdisciplinary study of ceramics and metal artefacts from Nuraghe Barru (Sardinia), dating to the transition between the Final Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. Combining archaeological analysis, ceramic petrography, and pXRF, the study investigates depositional practices, material circulation, and the social significance of the site. The evidence points to the intentional deposition of selected objects within a structured context, suggesting that the nuraghe retained an important ceremonial and communal role during a period of broader cultural transformation. Petrographic and compositional analyses indicate connections between Nuragic communities through the movement of objects, materials, technologies, and ideas across and beyond the island. Rather than viewing Nuraghe Barru as an isolated site, the paper situates it within wider networks of interaction and exchange, contributing to ongoing debates on ritual practices, connectivity, and social change in later Nuragic Sardinia.

Congratulations to Silvia and her colleagues! Find out more about how to share your work with a Spotlight.

Amicone, S., Tiezzi, V., Broisch-Höhner, M., Freund, K.P., Heinze, L., Morandi, L.F., Salis, G., Pilo, C., 2026. Ritual and Connectivity in Nuragic Sardinia: An Interdisciplinary Study of Ceramics and Metalwork from Nuraghe Barru. Open Archaeology 12. https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2025-0078

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