Did Nuragic Warriors Trigger the Bronze Age Collapse?

 by Mary Harrsch © 2025

I think the Nuragic people of Sardinia may have been one group of the "Sea Peoples" who ravaged other Mediterranean cultures triggering the Bronze Age collapse. Their warrior figurines bear a striking resemblance to the depictions of the Sherden warriors (one of the key Sea Peoples tribes) in Egyptian reliefs at Medinet Habu. The Egyptians specifically show captured Sherden warriors with distinctive horned helmets. Nuragic pottery has been found at various sites associated with the Sea Peoples' destructive path, including Kommos on Crete and in the Levant. This suggests they were present in these areas during the turbulent period (c. 1200-1150 BCE).

The Nuragic culture was highly advanced in metallurgy as this article discusses, producing vast quantities of bronze weapons. Their society, centered around thousands of fortress-like stone towers (nuraghi), was clearly martial in nature and Sardinia's location made it a natural seafaring culture. They had the ships and the expertise to travel throughout the Mediterranean. https://archaeologymag.com/2025/09/sardinian-figurines-reveal-bronze-age-metal-trade/

Bronzetti of the Uta-Abini style from Sardinia: Image courtesy of D. Berger 
of Plos.One

The name "Sherden" is strongly linked to Sardinia. Linguists suggest the name "Sherden" could be the root for "Sardinia" (just as "Philistine" became "Palestine"). Ancient historians like Herodotus also recalled that Sardinia was named after a people called the "Sardoi," who were thought to have come from the east.

However, my research points to the Sea Peoples being a loosely confederated group of raiders and immigrants from a number of different regions around the Mediterranean:

Peleset (likely the Philistines, possibly from the Aegean or Anatolia)

Lukka (from Lycia in Anatolia)

Shekelesh (possibly from Sicily)

Tjekker (origin unknown)

Sherden (the group linked to Sardinia)

The Nuragic people (as the Sherden) were one part of this mix, not the whole group.

Scholars have concluded the Bronze Age collapse was a systems collapse of apocalyptic proportions. It wasn't just an invasion; it was a "perfect storm" of interconnected events:

Climate Change: Paleoclimatology data shows evidence of severe, prolonged droughts in the Eastern Mediterranean around this time, leading to famine and mass migration.

Earthquakes: Archaeological evidence suggests many cities were destroyed by earthquakes in a short period, weakening the great empires.

Internal Rebellion: The highly stratified, palace-based economies of the Hittites, Mycenaeans, and Canaanites may have collapsed under their own weight, with internal uprisings by oppressed lower classes.

Disruption of Trade: The interconnectedness of the Bronze Age world was its strength, but also its weakness. The collapse of one node (e.g., the Mycenaeans) could catastrophically disrupt the trade in tin, copper, and luxury goods for all the others.

The Nuragic culture like other Sea Peoples were likely both raiders and migrants, pushed and pulled by the wider chaos of the Bronze Age collapse. They were not the sole cause, but rather both a symptom and an accelerant of the collapse. The initial trigger was likely the climate-change-induced drought, which caused famine, mass migration, and the breakdown of the political order. Warrior groups like the Nuragic Sherden, along with others from Anatolia and the Aegean, then took advantage of this weakness to raid, settle, and ultimately help bring down the weakened empires.

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