This is a list of ancient Corsican and Sardinian tribes, listed in order of ethnic kinship or the general area in which they lived. Some closely fit the concept of a
tribe. Others are confederations or even unions of tribes.
Before the
Roman conquest in the 3rd century BC, the islands of
Corsica and
Sardinia were inhabited by three main peoples or ethnic groups, the
Corsi, the
Balares, and the
Ilienses, each of them divided into several tribes. With the Roman conquest, the province of
Sardinia and Corsica was created, becoming the second province of the
Roman Republic to be created after that of
Sicily.
The ethnic and linguistic affiliation (
Paleo-Sardinian language) of the
Nuragic people and tribes remains to be further studied, moreover "Nuragic" might have also been a geographical and historical name designating different peoples and languages, rather than indicating a single origin. Current knowledge indicates that they may have been related to the
Iberians and the ancient
Basque: these peoples were Pre-Indo-Europeans and spoke
Pre-Indo-European languages,
Proto-Basque (the ancestor of modern
Basque) and
Iberian.[1] There is also the possibility that the Nuragic peoples may have been related to the
Etruscans and other
Tyrsenian peoples and languages.[2] One of the
Sea Peoples (the
Shardana or
Sherden) may have been either a population hailing from Sardinia (Ugas 2005, 2016) or a group of tribes that migrated to the island in the Late
Bronze Age (Sandars 1978).
Tibulati, they dwelt at the far northern Sardinia, about the ancient city of
Tibula, near the
Corsi (for whom
Corsica is named) and immediately north of the
Coracenses.
Mauri (Paleo-Sardinian tribe) (
Mauri Ilienses), in an area of far southwestern Sardinia (they may have been a tribe related to or of
Mauri origin that was assimilated by the
Ilienses (
Iolei))