Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/53

NUKAGIIS. dignified name of " domus," afforded but the scantiest accommo- dation, and were of as poor a description as can well be imagined. But if the general outline of niiraghs is appreciably the same everywhere, this does not apply as regards their position ; for they may be observed on a mountain ridge, a hill top, or rearing their truncated heads amidst the solitary grandeur of a vast expanse. But no matter where found, they were always built on rising ground or mound, either natural or artificially made. A single nuragh is an exceedingly rare occurrence ; as a rule, and on examining the overgrowth immediately surrounding the tower above ground, others of similar nature are discovered. Niiraghs may be said to stand in groups of twenty and thirty, some attaining the number of a hundred, 1 distributed on so narrow a space that scores may be seen from any one of them. On viewing these monuments, scholars and travellers alike have asked themselves the question as to the purpose for which they were erected ; but up to the present time no solution has been put forward answering all doubts, and perhaps never will. Not because theories have been wanting ; in this respect nuraghs have had their full share, no less than four having been lavished upon them. These we will now briefly examine, pointing out that which, in our estima- tion, offers a greater degree of probability. 2 The oldest and more widely diffused opinion is that nuraghs were sepulchres. But if so, how does it come about that, despite numerous explorations undertaken to find buried bodies, so few have been disinterred as scarcely to deserve being taken into con- sideration. La Marmora knew of only one body found in a grave close to a nûragh chamber, which, on the testimony of an old man, was dug up fourteen years before his first visit to Sardinia. 3 The same applies to other facts, said to have occurred, but resting on 1 Pais, La Sardegna, p. 25. 2 See La Marmora, Voyage en Sardaigne, Pt. II. ch. iv., and Pais, La Sardegna, pp. 25-42. 3 With the exception of the Mercurio and Adoni, little can be made of the names applied to nuraghs in the various districts where they happen to be situated, for they are all modern, deriving their appellatives from some striking object near ; such as a bridge, a fountain, a local magnate, a church, tree, quarry, etc., or some other trifling circumstance. The word " Adoni" is supposed to be the same as the Phoenician Adona'i, " lord " ; similar names, however, are too few and susceptible of too many explanations to be of real value. La Marmora, Voyage en Sardaigne, Pt. II. pp. 151, 152-