POTTERY IN THE NURAGHI.

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stones, disposed like those of our modern buildings, presenting, that is to say, their larger end to the outer, and their smaller to the inner surface of the wall.

The most ancient Nuraghi have but one room, without niches or hiding-places constructed in the thickness of the wall, and terminated in a pointed arch. Three such niches usually occur in the dwellings of a later age, one opposite the door, and one on either side. Another niche to the right of the door was intended as a lurking-place for the defender of the entrance in case of attack.

The soil which has been formed round the earliest Nuraghi since their construction is no less than two or three yards in thickness. In the lowest layer we find remains of rude hand-made pottery, coal and bones crumbled to dust, but never bones of species extinct in the island, except stag's antlers and boar's tusks, intermixed with accumulations of the remains of birds. Pieces of flint and of obsidian occur also, axes of black basalt and porphyry of the archæolithic type, fragments of pottery, &c.,. some of which appear to belong to the earliest stone age.1

In the succeeding layers, we come to polished axes, arrow heads, knives, stones for slinging, fossilised teeth of the dogfish, pottery which has been partially baked by winter to about 500 pigs, driven down from the mountains by the swineherds.

1 Many French archæologists maintain that pottery dates only from the age of polished stone. We know, however, that M. de Serres found at Bize in Aude, and M. de Christol at Souvignargues in Garde, fragments of pottery which it is scarcely possible not to consider contemporary with the reindeer, perhaps even with the bear, in company with whose remains they were found. I myself extracted some from a bear cave at Nabrigas (Lozère), M. Ferry at Vergisson, near Mâcon, and M. Dupont in several bone caves of Belgium has observed specimens of still earlier date. Lastly, the Abbate Giovanni Spano assures us that he found in the different layers of soil which surround the Nuraghi of Sardinia, earthen vases (entire or in pieces) belonging to all the ages, ' stoviglie che in se portano il carattere di un' età la più rimota,' says the learned abbate. He calls attention also to the fact that the rudest specimens occur in the lowest layer. Those which are found in the second or middle layer are less rude, and so on until we arrive at the uppermost strata, where they are smooth and polished. Some few even appear to belong to the Roman epoch. On the other hand, in the giant tombs in the neighbourhood of the Nuraghi, we only find ill-formed pottery of the rudest description.

fire, with teeth of the wild boar and other animals, and shells of several species of molluscs, which appear to be the kitchen refuse of these primitive tribes. Lastly, smooth black fragments of pottery have been extracted from the upper layers, as well as pieces of bronze, which indicate the age of transition between stone and this metal. The Abbate Spano has not been able to find any iron objects: he accounts for the absence of iron by the destructive effect of damp ground and the influence of the atmosphere upon this metal.

The same savant attributes the construction of the

Nuraghi to the first immigrants who came from the East into Europe. Orientals or aborigines, archæolithic or neolithic, these peoples have in any case left us monuments of real and great value to the history of humanity, and although we do not adopt all the Abbate's theories without reserve, we recognise with gratitude the zeal which their discoverer has displayed in dispelling, to some extent, the obscurity which still envelopes them.

Similar monuments have been found in the Balearic isles, where they are known by the name of Talayoti; in the Island of Pantelleria, where they are called Sesi;

SIMILAR CONSTRUCTIONS IN IRELAND.

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and even in France, in the department of Hérault, according to M. Cazalis of Fondouce.

But they are especially numerous in Scotland and the neighbouring islands. They are there known as burghs or brochs, and we give an illustration of one of the most celebrated, the burgh of Moussa, one of the Shetland Isles (fig. 40). It will be seen that these monuments resemble in every respect the Nuraghi of Sardinia, and the existence of an identical type in so distant a country renders the truth of the hypothesis of the Abbate Spano with regard

FIG. 41. FORT OF STAIGUE (KERRY.)

to the origin of the builders of the Nuraghi extremely doubtful.

In the British Isles, moreover, the construction of similar buildings of uncemented stones continued until very late, and some of them, like Fort Staigue, for instance (fig. 41), are certainly subsequent not only to the age of stone, but even to that of bronze.

CHAPTER VI.

BURIAL PLACES.

I. VARIOUS MODES OF SEPULTURE. As the anatomist demands from death the secrets of life, so the archæologist seeks in the tombs a revelation of the secrets of the past. If many tombs are forgotten or silent, others are faithful narrators of the history of bygone times, and, as it were, bring again to life those whose bones they contain, and make us acquainted with the customs and the ideas of the tribes or the nations to which they belonged. Moreover, all ruins appeal to the imagination; and what ruins can be more eloquent or more suggestive than a skull or any other human remains?

Some ideas and certain feelings appeal to the sympathies of all humanity, and this is especially the case with those respecting the worship of, and respect for, the dead. But the manifestation of these feelings, and the thoughts which result from them, vary considerably according to time and place. Thus the modern Hindus commit to the waters of the Ganges the bodies of their aged parents, whom they have purposely allowed to die of starvation on the banks of the sacred river. The inhabitants of the Viti Islands, and the Esquimaux, bury their nearest relations alive when they have attained a certain age, in order to spare them the inconveniences and sufferings of old age. According to Dumont d'Urville, the natives of New South Wales burn the bodies of those who die young and bury those of the old. Sir Massinger Bradley tells us that certain tribes of South Australia do not bury their dead, but light a great fire in the hut, and suspend the corpse above the hearth: when it is dried they wrap

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it in a coarse cloth and lay it in a tree in the midst of the leaves. A yet stranger custom is that which the traveller Macdonald says that he observed among the natives of the Upper Mary River, in Queensland. They flay the dead, feed upon the flesh, and distribute the bones among the various members of the family. They prepare the skin with care, and bear it about with them. as a precious relic ('Revue scientifique,' November, 1873, p. 476).

The ceremonies practised by the Egyptians in the embalming of bodies are well known, as well as the processes. employed by the Peruvians of the time of the Incas in order to preserve the bodies of their deceased relations.

Burial places belonging to the archæolithic age are comparatively rare; and many which were first believed to belong to the earlier epoch have proved, upon a nearer examination, to date only from the age of polished stone. Very little is known of the funereal rites practised in the early part of the quaternary epoch; but in the reindeer age (Solutré; cave of Duruthy, &c.) the bodies were stretched horizontally upon the hearths, surrounded with ashes and embers; sometimes the bones are more or less carbonised.

We are far better informed as to the treatment of the dead in the subsequent ages. Thus, in the neolithic epoch interment was the most widely diffused custom, but cremation was already practised towards the end of the epoch of the dolmens. This custom prevailed, but not universally, during the age of bronze. The last asylum which the tribes of the age of polished stone reserved for the dead was sometimes the natural or artificial caves which often had served them as dwelling-places; sometimes monuments of huge stones of various construction, but usually formed of slabs of unhewn stone and of colossal size (uncovered dolmens, dolmens covered by a tumulus,

1 Gaetano Chierici asserts, however, that he discovered in Italy (a San Polo) some tombs which date in his opinion from the first stone age: he considers this burial ground to be hitherto unique in that country.