242 



Existing Analogues of Sionehenge and Avebury. 



wanting in the Baleares, viz., the spiral staircase or ramp, which is 

 found also in the brocks of Scotland. The plan of the grandest 

 structure in Minorca is square at the base, and forms a pyramid, of 

 which there is no example in Sardinia. In this building the angles 

 are rounded, as before described. 



There is historic reference to the Nurhags of Sardinia, and even 

 their builder, Iolaus, is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, but the 

 antiquity of the remains in Minorca is lost in the mist of ages, or 

 referred to the time of the very oldest of the mythological deities, 

 Saturn. 



I find a quotation from Homer, and also from Pindar, which I 

 have had not had time to verify, that there was a place in the 

 Balearides, supposed to have been the palace of Saturn. I can 

 imagine no place more suitable for this description than what I have 

 called the grand temple. 



The works of Iolaus in Sardinia are described in a way to prevent 

 mistake, and they are found to-day as then described — with the 

 domes or 6o\ot beautifully designed. There are some portions of 

 these Nurhags which appear of an earlier period, and these may 

 have been of the date of the towers in Minorca, as they are very 

 rude, and from these Iolaus probably designed and improved and 

 produced the present Nurhage, adding the staircase. 



The chambers which were large in the older structures, are much 

 smaller in the Nurhage. The first appear to have been used to 

 protect wheat, when it was a very precious article of commerce, and 

 when pirates, who existed from time immemorial in the Mediter- 

 ranean, sought their booty in that article ; and the smaller chambers 

 in the Nurhage were clearly, as found by the Count de la Marmora, 

 used for depositing ornaments of the precious metals, and other 

 smaller valuables, thus acting as treasuries. 



The number of Nurhags in Sardinia, is said to be unaccountable, 

 but the historian goes on to say, Iolaus divided the land by lot, and 

 no doubt each lord had his special tower, as seems to have been the 

 earlier custom in the Balearic islands. He reports also that in 

 time of danger the inhabitants of Sardinia sought refuge not in 

 the towers but in caves. This appears also to have been a custom 



