ROUGH STONE MONUMENTS 



while to remember that up to five years ago the 

 existence of dolmens in both Sardinia and Malta 

 passed unnoticed. 



If the inclusion of Sicily in the megalithic area 

 is doubtful there is fortunately no question about 

 the island of Sardinia. Here we have one of the 

 chief strongholds of the megalithic civilization, 

 where the architecture displays its greatest 

 variety and flexibilit}^. The simplest manifesta- 

 tion of megalithic building, the dolmen, was up 

 till lately thought to be absent from Sardinia, 

 but the researches of the last few years have 

 brought to light several examples, of which the 

 best known are those of Birori, where the chamber 

 is approximately circular in plan. 



The monuments, however, for which Sardinia 

 is most famous are the nuraghi. A nuraghe is a 

 tower-like structure of truncated conical form, 

 built of large stones laid in comparatively regular 

 courses (PI. II, Fig. 2). The stones are often 

 artificially squared, and set with a clay mortar. 

 The plan and arrangement of a simple nuraghe 

 are usually as follows (Fig. 17) : The diameter 

 of the building is generally under 30 feet. A door 

 of barely comfortable height even for an average 

 man and surmounted by a single lintel-block 

 gives access to a narrow passage cut through the 

 thickness of the wall. In this passage are, to the 

 right, a small niche (c) just large enough to hold 



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