Resumen:
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In the last 50 years, archaeologists who studied the prehistory of Sardinia have shown great interest in other islands of the western Mediterranean. This interest has grown out of the need to expand our knowledge about the archaeology of typical island environments. In the early 1990s the project “Cap de Forma (Menorca): The Navigation in the Western Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age” was initiated, sponsored by the Universities of Cagliari (G. Tore, C. Del Vais) and Sassari (G. Tanda, A. Depalmas) and the Museu de Menorca (Ll. Plantalamor Massanet). The goal was to make a detailed comparison of some peculiar aspects of pre- and protohistorical periods in Sardinia and Menorca. One aim of the project is to acquire the means to verify whether insularity really stopped the cultural development of island communities (as often claimed) or whether, instead, it contributed significantly to the construction of specific cultures of extraordinary value and importance, some of which showed signs of advanced social and economic development, as seems to have been the case with the Nuragic civilization in Sardinia and the Talayotic culture in the Balearic Islands. Therefore, the specific objective of this research is to analyse whether there were relationships and cultural influences between the islands of Menorca and Sardinia during the Bronze and Iron Age. The investigation focused on the coastal fortification and the hypogeal necropolis of Cap de Forma (Mahon, Menorca). The idea was to identify potential similarities and differences with archaeological sites in Nuragic Sardinia. Cap de Forma is an archaeological complex of particular importance. It is coastal and fortified, as are few other sites on the island. Moreover, its strategic position, which overlooks and provides vistas of all the south coast of Menorca, is of particular relevance to the study of navigation and routes to and from the islands. Recently, research excavations at the site were completed and in the project for accommodation of the area aiming to visits, it seems important to think about the message we want to give to the visitor. The information that we would like to communicate to the public are not only technical ones, related to the excavated structures, but also about the type of research in international cooperation that has allowed the discoveries and about suggestions that a fortified site as Cap de Forma, gives us on the study of ancient navigation and contacts between Mediterranean peoples.
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