Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/62

44 A History of Art in Sardinia and Judaea. By comparing the best preserved monuments and the sites in which they occur, it is possible to reproduce a picture, in broad outlines, of the life and manners of the more civilized natives. In the strict sense of the word, they had no cities — at least, not walled ones — and seem to have lived closely packed together in numerous villages, some of considerable size, occupying well-selected posi- tions, rendered conspicuous at a long distance by the truncated cones of the central towers. Some few hamlets and isolated dwellings there may have been, but all industrial activity, deserving the name, was carried on around niiraghs, where on stated days markets were held, and where the rustics, tillers, or woodmen repaired to have their quarrels settled by the elders, or to purchase arms, implements, utensils, and, during intervals of peace, imported objects. Thus these edifices were the nucleus around which the first glimmer of civilization was formed. When in perfect condition their imposing aspect, despite their rude make, struck the Greek mariners, who would seem to have penetrated in the interior, and whose astonishment at seeing them on every crest, jutting point, and mound was extreme. Aristotle seems to allude to these towers in the following passage : " Beautiful edifices, with vaults to heighten the effect of their fine proportions, disposed in true Greek style, are stated to exist in Sardinia." ' Now these vaulted buildings can only have been niiraghs, which the writer compared in his mind to the native " Thesaurions " at Mycenae and Orchomenos, associated with a semi-god or hero, and the object of frequent pilgrimages. Hence he ascribes a similar origin to the Sardinian towers, crediting Iolaos, grandson of of both tower and sepulchres. The plan (Fig. 36) is reduced between the first and second tomb "to fit," says La Marmora, "the printer's plate." As we had not the suppressed spaces of the monument, we have represented them closer to each other than they were in reality, the better to show the disposition of the sepulchres. The prism-like shape of the basalt stones surrounding is very striking. 1 Tlepl 6av/JLacri(»v aKovafxarmv, § IOO : 'Ev ttj SapSoî rrj vrjcro) KaTaa-Kevâa-fiaTa. (paaiv €Lvai etc tov 'EWrjviKov rpoirov &ia.Keip.eva tov âp^aîov, âAAa re iroÀÀà «ai KaXà, nai 66ovs ■n-tpicra-oi'i toÎs (wO/iols KaTe^eap-évov;. It seems probable that the matter rela. tive to Western Europe, contained in chapters 78-114, 119, 130, 132, was chiefly borrowed from Timœus; whilst Polycritus, Theopompus, and Lycos of Rhegium furnished the 112th. The first 151 chapters, however, were not written later than the second century b.c., probably much earlier, when Carthage still retained her prestige over the Baléares, and possibly Sicily (Valentine Rose, De Aristotelis librorum, etc., p. 55. Berlin, 1854; H. Schraeder, Uber die Quellen der pseudo. aristotelischen Schrift, Trepl 6avp.ao-l.iav ÔKovo-fiâriuv, in Iahrbiicher fur Philologie, torn, xcvii. pp. 217 and following.