Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/261

 THE PHOENICIAN TOMB AWAY FROM PIKKXICIA. 241 the island. It was directly in the way of ships steering towards Spain from Sicily or Africa. Nowhere else could a safer anchorage or a finer stretch of country in its neighbourhood be found. When the Tyrians began to visit Sardinia it was here, no doubt, that their first foot was planted, and that they founded a city which has remained the capital of the island ever since. As for Tharros, we know nothing of its history, 1 but its situation too was very- advantageous ; the broad haven that lies beneath it looks out to the Balearic Isles and the distant coast of Spain. It was here, perhaps, that the ships of Tarshish broke their long voyages both outwards and homewards, and took in food and water. We are FIG 168. Section of a tomb at Sulci> -. From La Marmora. inclined, therefore, to believe in a high antiquity for Tharros ; in any case, the extent of its cemetery and the richness of the deposits it inclosed prove that the city had a long and brilliant period of prosperity. Down to 1851 the chambers in which its dead took their rest were almost untouched, but in that year the excavations began, and in the necropolis of Tharros most of the objects which fill the museums of modern Sassari and Cagliari were found. Private collections in the island can show many more objects from the 1 Before the recent discoveries the town of Tharros was only known from Ptolemy's geography, and from the existence of a Roman milestone on which the distance between Tharros and Cornus is marked. In Ptolemy's manuscripts the word is written Tharras ; the form Tharros appears in the Latin text. VOL. I. I I