MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS.
Before leaving the Mediterranean Sea and the countries bordering
upon it, it seems desirable to say a few words regarding certain
"non-historic" monuments which exist in its islands. Strictly speaking,
they hardly come within the limits assigned to this book, for they are
not truly megalithic in the sense in which the term has been used in
the previous pages; for though stones 15 feet and 20 feet high are used
in the Maltese monuments, they are shaped and, it may be said, hewn
with metal tools, and they are used constructively with smaller stones,
so as to form walls and roofs, and cannot therefore be considered as
Rude Stone Monuments. Still they have so much affinity with these, and
are so mixed up in all works treating of the subject with Druidical
remains and prehistoric mysteries, that it certainly seems expedient to
explain as far as possible their forms and uses.
The monuments are of three classes. The first, found in Malta, are
there called giants' towers--"Torre dei giganti"--a name having
no meaning, but which, as also involving no hypothesis, it may be
convenient to adhere to. The second class, called Nurhags, are peculiar
to Sardinia. The third, or Talyots, are found only in the Balearic
islands. There may be some connection between the two last groups, but
even then with certain local peculiarities sufficient to distinguish
them. The Maltese monuments however stand alone, and have certainly no
connection with the other two, and, as it will appear in the sequel,
none of the three have any very clear affinity with any known monuments
on the continent of either Europe or Africa.
MALTA.
The best known monuments of the Maltese groups are situated near the
centre of the Isle of Gozo, in the commune of Barbato. When Houel
wrote in 1787,[487] only the outside wall with the apse of one of the
inner chambers and the entrance of another were known. He mistook
the right-hand apse of the second pair of chambers for part of a
circle, and so represented it with a dolmen in the centre, led to this
apparently by the existence of a real circle which then was found at
a distance of 350 yards from the main group. This circle was 140 feet
in diameter, composed of stones ranged close together and alternately
broad and tall, as shown in the next woodcut, which represents the rear
of the principal monument. The entrance was marked by two very tall
stones, apparently 20 feet high. The interior was apparently rugged,
but there is nothing in the plates to show from what cause. When Houel
made his plan,[488] it had all the appearance of being what was styled
a regular "Druidical circle," and might have been used as such to
support any Druidical theory. It is now however evident that it really
was only the commencement of the envelope of a pair of chambers, such
as we find in all the monuments of this class on these islands. If the
plan is correct, it was the most regular of any, which, besides its
having every appearance of never having been completed, would lead
us to suppose that it was the last of the series. This monument has
now entirely disappeared, as has also another of even more megalithic
appearance which stood within a few yards of the principal group, but
of which unfortunately we have neither plan nor details. It is shown
with tolerable distinctness in a view in Mr. Frere's possession, and
in the plates which are engraved from drawings by a native artist,
which Admiral Smyth brought home in 1827,[489] and which are engraved
in volume xxii. of the 'Archæologia.' Unfortunately the text that
accompanies these plates is of the most unsatisfactory character. This
he partially explains by saying that he had left his measurements with
Colonel Otto Beyer, who had just caused the principal pair of chambers
to be excavated.
The second pair of chambers was excavated by Sir Henry Bouverie when
he was governor, some time before or about 1836, when a careful plan
and drawings of the whole were published by Count de la Marmora.[490]
It has been re-engraved by Gailhabaud and others, and is well known to
archæologists.
The monuments thus brought to light consisted of two pairs of
elliptical chambers very similar in dimensions and plan to those at
Mnaidra (woodcut No. 179). The greatest depth internally from the
entrance to the apse of the principal pair is 90 feet; the greatest
width across both 130 feet. The right-hand pair as you enter is
comparatively plain. The outer chamber of the left-hand pair still
retained, when excavated, fittings that looked like an altar in the
right-hand apse, which was separated from the rest by what may be
called the choir-screen or altar-rail; and this was ornamented with
spirals and geometric figures neatly and sharply cut. In the inner
chamber was a stone, near the entrance, on which was a bas-relief of
a serpent, but no other representation of any thing living was found
elsewhere.
[Illustration: 178. View of the exterior of the Giants' Tower at Gozo.
From a drawing in the possession of Sir Bartle Frere, K.C.B.]
The external appearance of the monument may be gathered from the
woodcut No. 178. The lower part of the wall is composed alternately--as
in the circle just alluded to--of large stones laid on their sides and
smaller ones standing perpendicularly between them. Above this the
courses of stones are of regular masonry, and probably there was some
kind of cornice or string-course before the beginning of the roof, but
of this no trace now remains in any of these monuments.
The second group, known as Hagiar Khem, is situated near Krendi, on the
south side of the island of Malta, and is the most extensive one known.
The principal monument contains, besides the usual pair of chambers,
four or five lateral chambers; and a short way to the north is a second
monument, containing at least one pair; and to the south a third
group, but so ruined it is difficult to make out the plan. Only the
tops of the walls and the tall stones which still rise above the walls
were known to exist of the monument, till in 1839 Sir Henry Bouverie
authorized the expenditure of some public money to excavate it. An
account of these excavations, with a plan and drawings, was published
in Malta at the time by Lieutenant Foulis. The plan was repeated, in
less detail however, in the 'Archæologia,'[491] and afterwards in the
Norwich volume of the International Prehistoric Congress, by Mr. Furze,
from a survey recently made by the Royal Engineers.
The third group, known as that at Mnaidra, is situated not far from the
last, between it and the sea; and as it never has been published, a
plan of it is given here[492] from a survey made by Corporal Mortimer,
of the Royal Engineers. Like the Gozo monument, it consists of two
pairs of oval chambers in juxtaposition. The right-hand pair, in this
instance, is larger and simpler in design than that on the left, but
it is so nearly identical, both in plan and dimensions, with the
right-hand pair at Gozo that they are probably of the same age and
served the same purpose. They are also, as nearly as may be, of the
same dimensions: both would be enclosed, with their side walls, by
a circle 75 feet in diameter. The left-hand cone at Mnaidra would be
nearly of the same diameter; but at Gozo the corresponding enclosure
would require to be, and in fact was, 100 feet in diameter, and the
inner room, measuring 80 feet by 50 feet, including the apse, was the
largest and finest apartment of the class in the islands.
[Illustration: 179. Plan of Monument of Mnaidra. From one by Corporal
Mortimer.]
[Illustration: 180. Section, on the line A B, through Lower Pair of
Chambers, Mnaidra.]
The section through the lower chambers (woodcut No. 180) will suffice
to explain the general appearance of these buildings internally,
as they now stand. A is the entrance into a small square apartment
in which the altar or table stands, shown more completely in the
next woodcut (No. 181), from a photograph, which also renders much
more clear the peculiar style of ornamenting with innumerable "pit
markings," peculiar to these Maltese monuments. D is the entrance
into the other chamber, which but for the interference of that last
described, would have been of the usual elliptical form. My impression
is that the left-hand apse was removed at some time subsequent to the
erection of the monument, to admit of its insertion. On each side of
the doorway are seats, C and E, which are always found in similar
situations. Beyond, at F, is one of those mysterious openings which are
so frequent; it is also seen with another in Woodcut No. 182. Between
this apartment and the upper apartment H are two tiers of shelves or
loculi, which are also found at Gozo, and for which it is difficult to
suggest a meaning if they were not used as columbaria for sepulchral
purposes.
[Illustration: 181. Entrance to Chamber B, Mnaidra, showing Table
inside. (The Rod is divided into English feet.)]
A difficult question here arises as to which of these two pairs of
apartments is the older--the upper, with the simpler style and the
smaller stones, or the apartments with the larger stones and more
ornate arrangements. On the whole, I am inclined to think the simpler
the older: among other reasons because the floor of the right-hand pair
at Mnaidra is 10 feet above the level of the left-hand apartments. As
the edifices are all placed on heights, it seems improbable that the
first comer would have chosen a site commanded by a knoll 10 feet above
him, and touching his half-buried building. But, besides this local
indication, it seems probable that the style was progressive, and that
this right-hand chamber at Mnaidra may be the oldest, and the great one
at Gozo the last completed of all which we know.
[Illustration: 182. North End of Left-hand Outer Chamber at Mnaidra.
From a photograph.]
The excavations at Mnaidra as well as those at Hagiar Khem have
sufficed to settle the question of how these buildings were roofed. The
above woodcut, from a photograph, shows the springing of the roof of
the north end of the outer left-hand chamber, but, like photographs in
general, does so unintelligently. Colonel Collinson, however, informs
me that they bracket outwards, at the rate of 1 foot in 10, and he
calculates that they would meet at a height of 30 feet so nearly that
they could be closed by a single stone. He, however, overlooks the
fact that all these horizontally-constructed domes, whether in Greece,
or Italy, or Sardinia, are curvilinear, their section being that of a
Gothic pointed arch, and consequently, if corbelling forward at the
rate of 1 in 10 near the springing, they would certainly meet in this
chamber at 15 or 20 feet from their base. When we recollect that before
the Trojan war the Pelasgic architects of Greece roofed chambers 50 and
60 feet in diameter (_vide ante_, page 33), we should not be surprised
at the Maltese architects grappling with apses of 20 feet span. This
has generally been admitted as easy, but several authors have been
puzzled to think how the flat spaces joining the two apses could have
been so roofed. A careful examination of the plans of the Maltese
building seems to make this easy. Looking, for instance, at the plan
of Mnaidra, a retaining wall will be observed on the extreme right,
which is a segment of a circle 75 feet in diameter, and continuing it
all round, it encloses both chambers. If a similar circle is drawn
round the left-hand chambers, it equally encloses them, and the circles
osculate, or have one party wall at a point where there is the group
of cells. This granted, it is easy to see that the external form of
the roof was a stepped cone, covering the inner roofs, and so avoiding
the ridges and hollows which would have rendered independent roofing
impracticable. The external appearance of the building would thus have
been that of two equal cones joined together, and rising probably to
a height of 50 feet above their springing. To erect such a cone on an
enclosing wall only 8 or 10 feet thick may appear at first sight a
little difficult for such rude builders as the Maltese were when they
erected these domes, but when we recollect that the cone was divided
into two by a cross party wall, which may have been carried the whole
height, all difficulty vanishes.
When we apply these principles to the ruins at Hagiar Khem, their
history becomes plain at once. Originally the monument seems to have
consisted of a single pair of chambers of the usual form, A and B of
the accompanying plan; but extension becoming necessary, the central
apse of the inner apartment was removed and converted into a doorway,
and the left-hand lateral apse was also removed so as to make an
entrance into four other ovoid apartments, which were arranged radially
so as to be covered by a cone 90 feet in diameter. Here again the
difficulty, if any, of constructing a cone of these dimensions is got
over by the numerous points of support from perpendicular walls which
honeycomb the building. The external appearance of this building would
be that of one great cone 90 feet in diameter covering the cells, and
anastomosing with one 60 feet, or one-third less, in diameter covering
the entrance chambers.
[Illustration: 183. Plan of Hagiar Khem, partially restored.]
Restored in this manner, the external appearance of these monuments
would have been very similar to that of the Kubber Roumeia near Algiers
and the Madracen near Blidah. The former was 200 feet in diameter, with
a cone rising in steps to the height of 130 feet, which was lower in
proportion than suggested above, but its interior was nearly solid,
and admitted therefore of any angle that might appear most beautiful.
The Madracen looks even lower, but no correct section of it has been
published. The Kubber Roumeia has now been ascertained to have been the
tomb of the Mauritanian kings down to the time of Juba II., or about
the Christian era.[493] Judging from its style, the Madracen may be a
century earlier. Be this as it may, it hardly seems to me doubtful but
that these tombs are late Roman translations of a type to which the
Maltese examples belonged; but the intermediate links in the long chain
which connects them have yet to be recovered.
[Illustration: 184. View of Madracen. From a plate in Blakesley's 'Four
Months in Algeria.']
Internally, these Maltese monuments are rude, and exhibit very little
attempt at decoration. The inner apartments, being dark, are quite
plain, but the outer, admitting a certain quantity of light by the
door, have a proportionate amount of ornament. At Gozo, in the outer
apartment, there are, as mentioned above, scrolls and spirals of a
style very much more refined than is found in Ireland or in rude
monuments generally, but more resembling that of those found at Mycenæ
and other parts of Greece. At Hagiar Khem and Mnaidra the favourite
ornament are pit markings. Whether these have any affinity with those
which Sir J. Simpson so copiously illustrated,[494] is by no means
clear. In Malta they are spread evenly over the stone, and are such a
decoration as might be used at the present day (woodcut No. 181). An
altar was found in one of the outer chambers at Hagiar Khem, and in
both the Maltese monuments, stone tables from 4 to 5 feet high (one is
shown in the woodcut No. 181), the use of which is not clearly made
out. They are too tall for altars, and, unless in the Balearic Islands,
nothing like them is known elsewhere.
After what has been said above, it is hardly worth while to enter
into the argument whether these buildings are temples or tombs. Their
situation alone, in this instance, is sufficient to prove that they do
not belong to the former class. Men do not drop three or four temples
irregularly, as at Gozo, within a stone's throw of one another, on a
bare piece of ground, far away from any centres of population. The same
is the case at Hagiar Khem, where certainly three, probably four, sets
of chambers exist; and Mnaidra may almost be considered a part of the
same group or cemetery.
Malta, it is said, was colonised by the Phœnicians, at least was
so in Diodorus' time,[495] though how much earlier they occupied it,
we are not told, nor to what extent they superseded the original
inhabitants. We also learn incidentally that they possessed temples
dedicated to Melkart and Astarte. This is very probable, and if so,
their remains will be found near their harbours, and where they
established themselves; and Colonel Collinson informs me that remains
of columnar buildings have been found both at Marsa Sirocco and near
the dockyard creek at Valetta. These, most probably, are the remains
of the temples in question, though possibly rebuilt in Roman times.
The little images found in the apartments at Hagiar Khem may be
representations of the Cabeiri, though I doubt it; but little headless
deformities, 20 inches high, some of stone and some of clay, are not
the divinities that would be worshipped in such temples, though they
might be offerings at a tomb.
If these buildings were tombs, they were the burying-places of a people
who burnt their dead and carefully preserved their ashes, and who
paid the utmost respect to their buried dead long after their decease.
The inner apartments have shelves and cupboards in stone, and numerous
little arrangements which it seems impossible to understand except on
the supposition that they were places for the deposit of these sacred
remains. Some of the recesses have doors cut out of a single slab 2 and
3 feet square at the opening, some are so small that a man could hardly
squeeze himself through, and some are holes into which only an arm
could be thrust,[496] but from the rebate outside of all, the intention
seems to have been for them all to be closed.
Although from all these arrangements it may broadly be asserted that
they are not temples in the ordinary sense of the term; the outer
apartments may be considered as halls in which religious ceremonies
were performed in honour of the dead, and, so far, as places of
worship; but essentially they were sepulchres, and their uses
sepulchral.
We know so little of the ancient history of Malta that it is extremely
difficult even to guess who the people were who erected and used these
sepulchres. Most people would at once answer, the Phœnicians;
but, in order to establish their claim, one of two things is
necessary--either we must have some direct testimony that they erected
these monuments, or we must be able to show that they erected similar
tombs either near their own homes or elsewhere. Neither kind of proof
is forthcoming. No such tombs are found near Tyre or Sidon, or near
Carthage, and classical authorities are absolutely silent on the
subject. The monuments most like them are the tombs at Mycenæ, but the
differences are so great that I would hesitate to lay much stress on
any slight similarities that exist. The Greek monuments were always
intended to be buried in tumuli. Those at Malta have so strongly marked
and so ornamental a podium outside that it is evident they never were
so covered up. It may be difficult to prove it, but I fancy if we are
ever to find their originals, it is to Africa we must look for them.
They are too unlike anything else in Europe.
It seems even more difficult to define their age than to ascertain
their origin. Looking at the nature of the stone, their state of
preservation, and other circumstances, I cannot believe they are
very old. If they were in Greece, or in Europe, or anywhere where
they could be compared with other monuments, some useful inferences
might be drawn; but they are so unique that this mode is unavailable.
We have nothing we can confidently compare them with, and we are so
entirely ignorant of the ancient history of Malta that we cannot tell
in the least at what age she reached that stage of civilization which
the workmanship of these monuments represents. We are probably safe,
however, in assuming that they are pre-Roman, and as safe in believing
that they are not earlier than the monuments of Mycenæ and Thyrns;
in short, that they belong to some period between the Trojan and the
Punic wars, but are most probably much nearer to the former than to the
latter epoch in the world's history.
SARDINIA.
It is a curious illustration of the fragmentary nature of society in
the ancient world that Sardinia should possess a class of monuments
absolutely peculiar to itself. It is not this time ten or a dozen
monuments, like those of Malta, but they are numbered by thousands, and
so like one another that it is impossible to mistake them, and, what
is still more singular, as difficult to trace any progress or change
among them. The Talyots of the Balearic Islands may resemble them, but,
excepting these, the Nurhags of Sardinia stand quite alone. Nothing the
least like them is found in Italy, or in Sicily, or, indeed, anywhere
else, so far as is at present known.
A Nurhag is easily recognized and easily described. It is always a
round tower, with sides sloping at an angle of about 10 degrees to the
horizon, its dimensions varying from 20 to 60 feet in diameter, and its
height being generally equal to the width of the base. Sometimes they
are one, frequently two and even three storeys in height, the centre
being always occupied by circular chambers, constructed by projecting
stones forming a dome with the section of a pointed arch. The chamber
generally occupies one-third of the diameter, the thickness of the
walls forming the remaining two-thirds. There is invariably a ramp
or staircase leading to the platform at the top of the tower. These
peculiarities will be understood from the annexed section and plan of
one from De la Marmora's work.[497]
[Illustration: 185. Nurhag. From De la Marmora.]
[Illustration: 186. Nurhag of Santa Barbara.]
When the Nurhags are of more than one storey in height, they are
generally surrounded by others which are attached to them by platforms,
often of considerable extent. That at Santa Barbara has, or had, four
small Nurhags encased in the four corners of the platform, to which
access was obtained by a doorway in the central tower; but frequently
there are also separate ramps when the platforms are extensive. The
masonry of these monuments is generally neat, though sometimes the
stones are unhewn, but nowhere does there appear any attempt at
megalithic magnificence.
They are, at the same time, absolutely without any architectural
ornament which could give us any hint of their affinities; and no
inscriptions, no images, no sculptures of any kind, have been found in
them. They are in this respect as uncommunicative as our own rude-stone
monuments.
[Illustration: 187. Nurhag of Santa Barbara. From De la Marmora.]
Written history is almost equally silent. Only one passage has
been disinterred which seems to refer to them. It is a Greek work,
generally known as 'De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus,'[498] and ascribed
doubtfully to Aristotle. It is to the following effect:--"It is said
that in the island of Sardinia there exist, among other beautiful
and numerous edifices, built after the manner of the ancient Greeks,
certain domes (Θόλοι) of exquisite proportions. It is further
said that they were built by Iolas, son of Iphicles, who, having taken
with him the Thespiadæ, went to colonise this island." This certainly
looks as if the Nurhags existed when this book was written, though the
description is by a person who evidently never saw them. Diodorus so
far confirms this that he says: "Iolaus, having founded the colony,
fetched Dedalus from Sicily, and built numerous and grand edifices,
which subsist to the present day, and are called Dedalean, from the
name of their builder;"[499] and in another paragraph he recurs to
the veneration "in which the name of Iolaus is held." This, too, is
unsatisfactory, as written by a person who never visited the island,
and had not seen the monuments of which he was speaking.
* * * * *
It is little to be wondered at if buildings so mysterious and so unlike
any known to exist elsewhere should have given rise to speculations
almost as wild as those that hang around our own rude-stone monuments.
The various theories which have been advanced are enumerated and
described by De la Marmora[500] so fully that it will not be necessary
to recapitulate them here, nor to notice any but three, which seem
really to have some plausible foundation.
The first of these assumes the Nurhags to have been watch-towers or
fortifications.
The second, that they were temples.
The third, that they were tombs.
[Illustration: 188. Map of La Giara. From De la Marmora.]
Looking at the positions in which they are found, the first of these
theories is not so devoid of foundation as might at first sight appear.
As a rule, they are all placed on heights, and at such distances as
to be seen from one another, and consequently be able to communicate
by signal at least. Take such an example, for instance, as that of
Giara, near Isili (woodcut No. 188). Any engineer officer would be
delighted with the manner in which the position is taken up. Every
point of vantage in the circumference is occupied, and two points in
the interior fortified, so as to act as supports. The designer of the
entrenched camp at Linz might rub his eyes in astonishment to find
his inventions forestalled by three thousand years, and by towers
externally so like his own as hardly to be distinguishable to an
unpractised eye. The form of the towers themselves lends considerable
plausibility to the defensive theory. Such a Nurhag, for instance, as
that of Santa Barbara (woodcuts Nos. 186, 187), surrounded by four
lesser ones, connected by a platform, and dominated by the central
tower, is a means of defence we might now adopt, provided we may assume
the existence of a parapet, which has fallen through age.
When we come to look a little more closely at this military question,
we perceive that we are attempting to apply to a people who certainly
had no projectiles that would carry farther than arrows, principles
adapted to artillery or musketry fire. The Nurhags are placed at such
distances as to afford no support to one another before the invention
of gunpowder, and though in themselves not indefensible, they possess
the radical defect of having no accommodation for their garrisons.
It is impossible that men could live, cook, and sleep in the little
circular apartments in their interior, and the platforms added very
little to their accommodation. Had the four detached Nurhags at Santa
Barbara been connected with walls only, so as to surround the central
tower with a court, the case would have been very different; but as
in all instances this is filled up, so as to form a platform, it is
evident that it was exposure, not shelter, that was sought in their
construction.[501]
Another, and even stronger, argument is derived from their number. De
la Marmora asserts that the remains of at least three thousand Nurhags
can now be traced in Sardinia,[502] and there seems no reason to doubt
the truth of his calculation, nor his assertion that they were once
much more numerous, and that they are dispersed pretty evenly over the
whole island. Can any one fancy a state of society in such an island
which would require that there should be three thousand castles and
yet no fortified cities as places of refuge? They were not erected to
protect the island against a foreign enemy, because most of them are
inland. They could not be made to serve for the protection of the rich
during insurrections or civil wars, nor to enable robbers to plunder
in security the peaceful inhabitants of the plain. In short, unless
the ancient Sardinians lived in a state of society of which we have no
knowledge elsewhere, these Nurhags were certainly not military works.
When we turn to the second hypothesis and try to consider them as
temples, we are met by very much the same difficulties as beset the
fortification theory. If temples, they are unlike the temples of any
other people. Generally it is assumed that they were fire temples,
from their name _Nur_--in the Semitic languages signifying fire--but
more from their construction. The little circular chambers in their
interiors are admirably suited for preserving the sacred fire, and
the external platforms as well adapted for that Sabean worship of
the planets which is generally understood to be associated with
fire-worship. But assuming this to be the case, why so numerous? We
can count on our fingers all the fire-temples that exist, or were ever
known to exist, in fire-worshipping Persia; and if a dozen satisfied
her spiritual wants, what necessity was there for three thousand,
or probably twice that number, in the small and sparsely inhabited
island of Sardinia? Had every family, or little village community its
own separate temple on the nearest high place? and did each perform
its own worship separately from the rest? So far as we know, there
is no subordination among them, nothing corresponding to cathedrals,
or parish churches or chapels. Some are smaller, or some form more
extensive groups than others, but a singularly republican equality
reigns throughout, very unlike the hierarchical feeling we find in most
religions. In one other respect, too, they are unlike the temples of
other nations. None of them are situated in towns or villages, or near
the centres of population in the island.
Must we then adopt the third hypothesis, that they were tombs? Here
again the same difficulties meet us. If they were tombs, they are
unlike those of any other people with whom we are acquainted. Their
numbers in this instance is, however, no difficulty. It is in the
nature of the case that sepulchres should accumulate, and their number
is consequently one of the strongest arguments in favour of this
destination. Nor does their situation militate against this view.
Nothing is more likely than that a people should like to bury their
dead, on high places, where their tombs can be seen from afar. In fact,
there does not seem much to be said against this theory, except that
no sepulchral remains have been found in them. It is true that De la
Marmora found a skeleton buried in one at Iselle,[503] and apparently
so placed that the interment must have taken place before the tower was
built, or at all events finished; but the presence of only one corpse
in two thousand nurhags tells strongly against the theory, as where
one was placed more would have been found had this form of interment
been usual, and amidst the hundreds of ruined and half-ruined nurhags
some evidence must have been found had any of the usual sepulchral
usages prevailed. To my mind the conclusion seems inevitable that, if
they were tombs, they were those of a people who, like the Parsees of
the present day, exposed their dead to be devoured by the birds of the
air. If there is one feature in the nurhags more consistent or more
essential than another, it is that of the stairs or ramps that give
access to their platforms. It shows, without doubt, that, whether for
defence, or worship, or burial, the platform was the feature for which
the edifice was erected, and there it must have been that its purposes
were fulfilled. But is it possible that such a practice ever prevailed
in Sardinia? It is, of course, precipitate to answer that it did. But
the custom is old. Anything so exceptional among modern usages is not
the invention of yesterday, and it may have been far more prevalent
than it now is, and it may in very ancient times have been brought by
some Eastern colonists to this Western isle. I dare hardly suggest that
it was so; but this is certain, that such towers would answer in every
respect perfectly to the "Towers of Silence" of the modern Persians,
and the little side chambers in the towers would suit perfectly as
receptacles of the denuded bones when the time arrived for collecting
them.
One argument against their being sepulchres has been drawn from the
fact that frequently a different class of graves, called giants' tombs,
is found in their immediate proximity. The conclusion I would draw
from this is in a contrary sense. These giants' tombs are generally
long graves of neatly fitted stones, with a tall frontispiece, which
is formed of one stone, always carefully hewn and sometimes carved. On
each side of the entrance two arms extend so as to form a semicircle in
front, and when the circle is completed by detached menhirs, these are
generally shaped into cones and carved. The whole, in fact, has a more
advanced and more modern appearance than the nurhags, and, as I read
the riddle, the inhabitants adopted this form, and that found in the
nurhag at Iselle, after they had ceased to use the nurhag itself as a
means of disposing of their dead, but were still clinging to the spots
made sacred by the ashes of their forefathers.
That the nurhags are old scarcely seems to admit of a doubt, though
I know of only one material point of evidence on the subject. It is
that the pier of a Roman aqueduct has been founded on the stump of a
ruined and consequently desecrated nurhag.[504] Some time must have
elapsed before the primitive and sacred use of the nurhag had been so
completely forgotten that it should be so used. But the passages above
quoted from the 'Mirabilibus' and Diodorus show that in the first
and fifth centuries B.C. nothing was known of their origin by these
authors, and no other has ventured to hint at their age. In classical
times they seem to have been as mysterious as they are now:--
"In the glimmer of the dawn
They stand the solemn silent witnesses
Of ancient days,--altars--or graves."
BALEARIC ISLANDS.
The third group of monuments indicated above are the Talyots of Minorca
and Majorca. Unfortunately our guide, De la Marmora, deserts us here.
He went to explore them, but ill health and other adverse circumstances
prevented his carrying his intent fully into effect, and we are left
consequently very much to the work of Don Juan Ramis,[505] which is the
reverse of satisfactory.
[Illustration: 189. Talyot at Trepucò, Minorca. From De la Marmora.]
[Illustration: 190. Talyot at Alajor, Minorca. From De la Marmora.]
Externally they generally resemble the nurhags in appearance, and
apparently have always chambers in their interior, but De la
Marmora was unable to determine whether any of them had the internal
staircase[506] leading to the summit which is the invariable and
essential characteristic of the nurhag. If they had not this, they
must be considered as more nearly approaching to our chambered cairns
than to nurhags; and till this point is settled, and we know more
about them, we must refrain from speculations on the subject. One
characteristic feature they have, however, which it is useful to note.
It is a bilithon, if such a term is admissible--an upright flat stone,
with one across it forming a sort of table. In appearance it very much
resembles those stone tables which are found inside the chambers of the
Maltese sepulchres, but these are always larger, and placed, so far as
is known, externally. What their use may have been, it is difficult
to conjecture, but they were evidently considered important here, as
in woodcut No. 190 one is shown surrounded by a sacred enclosure,
as if being itself the "Numen" to be honoured. At Malta, as before
remarked, they certainly were not altars, because pedestals, which were
unmistakably altars, are found in the same apartments, and they are
very unlike them. They seem more like the great saucers in the Irish
tombs, and may have served the same purposes; but altogether these
Balearic outside tables are unlike anything we know of elsewhere.
Rude-Stone circles seem to be not uncommon in combination with the
talyots and tall altars, and on the whole they seem to bear as much
affinity to the monuments of Spain as to those of Sardinia, but again
till we know more it is idle to speculate on either their age or uses
beyond the conclusion drawn from all similar monuments--that their
destination was to honour departed greatness.
* * * * *
It would be not only interesting but instructive to pursue the subject
further, for the monuments of these islands deserve a more complete
investigation than they have yet received; but this is not the place to
pursue it. Indeed, it is only indirectly that they have any connection
with the subject of this work. They are not megalithic in the sense in
which the word is generally used. Nor are they rude, for all the stones
are more or less shaped by art, and all are used constructively. In
none of them is the stone itself the object and end of the erection. In
all it is only a means to an end.
It is their locality and their age that import them into our argument
if there is anything in the connection between the monuments of France
and Algeria, as attempted to be shown above. Whether the African ones
came from Europe, or _vice versâ_, it must have been in consequence
of long-continued intercourse between the two countries, and of
an influence of the dolmen builders in the Western Mediterranean
which could hardly have failed to leave traces in the intermediate
islands, unless they had been previously civilized and had fixed and
long-established modes of dealing with their own dead.
Assuming that the nurhags and giants' towers extend back to the
mythic times of Grecian history, say the war of Troy--and some of
them can hardly be more modern--it will hardly be contended now that
the dolmens are earlier. If they were so, it must be by centuries
or by thousands of years, if we are to assume that the one had any
influence on the other, for it must have taken long before a truly
rude-stone monument could have grown into a constructive style like
that of Sardinia or Malta; and I do not think, after what has been
said above, any one would now contend for so remote an antiquity. If
neither anterior nor coeval, the conclusion, if we admit any influence
at all, seems inevitable that the dolmens must be subsequent. But this
is just the point at issue. The nurhags did not grow out of dolmens,
nor dolmens out of nurhags. They are separate and distinct creations,
so far as we know, belonging to different races, and practically
uninfluenced by one another. Here, as elsewhere, each group must be
judged by itself, and stand on its own merits. If any direct influence
can be shown to exist between any two groups, there is generally very
little difficulty in arranging them in a sequence and seeing which is
the oldest, but till such connection is established, all such attempts
are futile.
In so far as any argument can now be got out of these insular
monuments, it seems to take this form. If the dolmen people were
earlier than the nurhag-builders, they certainly would have occupied
the islands that lay in their path between France or Spain and Africa,
and we should find traces of them there. If, on the contrary, the
nurhag-builders were the earlier race, and colonised these islands
so completely as to fill them before the age of the dolmen-builders,
the latter, in passing from north to south, or _vice versâ_, could
only have touched at the islands as emigrants or traders, and not as
colonists, and consequently could have neither altered nor influenced
to any great extent the more practically civilized people who had
already occupied them.
So far as we can see, this is the view that most nearly meets the
facts of the case at present known, and in this respect their negative
evidence is both interesting and instructive, though, except when
viewed in this light, the monuments of the Mediterranean islands have
no real place in a work treating on rude-stone monuments.
[Footnote 487: 'Voyage pittoresque en Sicile et Malte,' 4 vols.
folio, Paris, 1787.]
[Footnote 488: _Ibid._ pl. ccxli.]
[Footnote 489: The three formed part of a set of
nine, a duplicate of which has kindly
been lent to me by Mr. Frere, of Roydon
Hall, Norfolk. Unfortunately there is no
artist's name, and no date, upon them.]
[Footnote 490: 'Nouvelles Annales de l'Institut archéologique,' i.;
Paris, 1836.]
[Footnote 491: With a paper by Mr. Vance, 'Archæologia,'
vol. xxix. p. 227.]
[Footnote 492: For this plan and the photographs
of it I am indebted to the kindness of
Col. Collinson, R.E., who accompanied
them by a very full description and
notes on their history and uses, from
which much of the following information
is derived.]
[Footnote 493: Berbrugger, 'Tombeau de la Chrétienne--Mausolée des
derniers Rois de Mauritanie;'
Alger, 1867.]
[Footnote 494: 'Proceedings Soc. Ant. Scot.,' vi., Supplement.]
[Footnote 495: Hist., v. 12, 3.]
[Footnote 496: One at Mnaidra will be seen at F, in woodcut No. 180,
and also in the view,
woodcut No. 182.]
[Footnote 497: 'Voyage en Sardaigne,' par le Cte.
Albert de la Marmora; Paris, 1840. As
this is not only the best but really the
only reliable work on the subject, all, or
nearly all, the information in this chapter
is based upon it.]
[Footnote 498: Bekker, iii. p. 604, para. 100.]
[Footnote 499: Diodorus, iv. 30; v. 15.]
[Footnote 500: 'Voyage en Sardaigne,' chap. iv. pp. 117 to 159.]
[Footnote 501: The Scotch brochs, which are in their construction
the erections most like these, have all courtyards in their centre,
in which all the domestic operations of the garrison could be
carried on conveniently, and they only needed to creep into the
chambers in the wall to sleep.]
[Footnote 502: 'Voyage en Sardaigne,' pp. 46 and 116.]
[Footnote 503: 'Voyage,' p. 152.]
[Footnote 504: De la Marmora, pl. v. p. 149.]
[Footnote 505: 'Antigüedades Celticas de la Isla de Menorca, &c.;'
Mahon, 1818.]
[Footnote 506: 'Voyage,' pp. 547 _et seq._]