Phoenician trade in the lower Tyrrhenian sea between the 9th and 8th centuries BC: the case of Cumae

An examination of Phoenician and "Sardinian-Phoenician" ceramic production finds unearthed in a pre-Hellenic domestic context from Cuma ˗ brought to light since 2018 thanks to excavations directed by Matteo D'Acunto of the University of Naples L'Orientale ˗ has shed new light on the politics and international trade in the Lower Tyrrhenian Sea in the phases contemporary with or immediately preceding the founding of Pithekoussai. Among the most significant aspects, the key role played by Sardinia emerged. Without fossilizing on rigid schematics, which are entirely inappropriate for the historical periods examined here, two areas of different influence can be distinguished on the island. According to widely established lines of research, in fact, it appears that the Nuragic canton systems located in the northern and central-eastern sectors of the island were more projected toward trade with the Villanovan populations of northern Etruria, while those located in southern and western Sardinia maintained relations mainly with the Iberian Peninsula and the central Mediterranean within an established circuit managed by the main Phoenician foundations in which, however, local populations also played a leading role. What emerges from the most recent investigations, and what we hope to have clarified in the preceding pages, is that the two trade flows found a meeting point in the Lower Tyrrhenian Sea, particularly in Campania, in the stretch of coast between the Gulf of Naples to the north and the mouth of the Picentino to the south.