ITALY AND ITS ISLANDS 



shield on his left arm. To the same effort at 

 impregnability we may safely ascribe the fact 

 that the staircase leading to the upper room did 

 not begin on the floor-level of the passage, but 

 was reached through a hole high up in the wall. 

 Many of the nuraghi are surrounded by elaborate 

 fortifications consisting of walls, towers, and 

 bastions, sometimes built at the same time as the 

 dwelling itself, sometimes added later. Those of 

 Aiga, Losa, and s'Aspru are among the most 

 famous of this type. All the nuraghi stand in 

 commanding situations overlooking large tracts 

 of country, and the more important a position is 

 from the strategical point of view the stronger 

 will be the nuraghe which defends it. All are 

 situated close to streams and springs of good 

 water, and some, as for instance that of Abbameiga, 

 are actually built over a natural spring. At 

 Nossiu is a building which can only be described 

 as a fortress. It consists of a rhomboidal en- 

 closure with nuraghe-like towers at its corners 

 and four narrow gateways in its walls. It is 

 surrounded by the ruins of a village of stone huts. 

 There cannot be the least doubt that in time of 

 danger the inhabitants drove their cattle into the 

 fortified enclosure, entered it themselves, and 

 then closed the gates. 



Each nuraghe formed the centre of a group of 

 stone huts. Mackenzie has described such a 

 village at Serucci, where the circular plan of the 



85 



