Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/69

Giants' Tombs, Cromlechs, or Dolmens. 5i AWUm extremity, and tends sometimes to yielding as nearly ^_ - -^ _ as possible the sec- tion of a truncated egg (Fig- 37)- To- wards the hémi- cycle, the stela is surrounded by a raised border about one foot broad ; and a similar ornamen- tal band is laid across at about a third of its height, forming at the base a square compart- ment with a small aperture, either square or circular, wreathed like the stela by a raised, but narrower bor- der. This doorway, small for a child, was the only means of communication with the vault, which was sur- rounded sometimes by a low wall, like the hémicycle, or by a double or tre- ble row of juxta- posed slabs, fixed edgewise to the ground, forming a kind of passage about 1 m. 50 c. broad, covered over by more massive narrow towards the lower, &, Mnt Fig. 36. — Plan of the Tamulu Nuragh and neighbouring Tombs. La Marmora. Atlas, Plate III., fig. I, bis. A Giant's Tomb. La Marmora. Atlas, P ate IV.