Marmora was unable to determine whether any of them had the internal staircase[1] leading to the summit which is the invariable and essential characteristic of the nurhag.
If they had not this, they must be considered as more nearly approaching to our chambered cairns than to nurhags; and till this point is settled, and we know more about them, we must refrain from speculations on the subject.
One characteristic feature they have, however, which it is useful to note. It is a bilithon, if such a term is admissible—an upright flat stone, with one across it forming a sort of table. In appearance it very much resembles those stone tables which are found inside the chambers of the Maltese sepulchres, but these are always larger, and placed, so far as is known, externally. What their use may have been, it is difficult to conjecture, but they were evidently considered important here, as in woodcut No. 190 one
- ↑ 'Voyage,' pp 547 et seqq.
