Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/118

 ioo A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud.-f.a. M. Pais has drawn a map of Sardinia, with an imaginary line dividing off the territory which owned Punic rule from that of the unsubdued tribes, based upon historical and archaeological evidence, as well as a thorough understanding of the configuration of the country. This line is marked with dots in Fig. 2. 1 Now, with one striking exception, this line exactly corresponds with the barrier set up by the nuragh scheme ; the Teti group alone thrusting the narrow end of the wedge beyond this perimeter into alien territory. Such a coincidence is of no small moment in our line of inquiry, inasmuch as we think that a strong presumption in favour of the theory we advocate is to be deduced therefrom. It is an hypo- thesis confirmed, moreover, by careful study of the monuments which represent what we have called " Sardinian art," which is at best but an inferior, far-off imitation of Punic effort. Inversely from those who think that the bronzes and Teti towers belong to prehistoric ages, i.e. long before contact between the aborigines and Phoenicians had taken place, we firmly believe that when the first nuraghs were built, Tyrian ships, if they were not wont already to run in the harbours on the south coast, paid regular and frequent visits to the island in order to dispose of their goods, and that such journeys were contemporaneous with the casting of figures and votive boats. To speak frankly, we are of opinion that few among the bronzes preserved are older than the Cartha- ginian period ; i.e. coeval with their first appearance on the Sardinian shores and their subsequent occupation of the stretches extending to the foot of the mountain range, when daily inter- course between settlers and aborigines, and when moreover the travelled experiences of the latter had placed them in more favourable conditions to receive the teachings of a higher civiliza- tion. The Punic occupation lasted about three hundred years, a lapse of time during which the suggestive examples the natives beheld around them stimulated them to rise to the highest grade of culture to which they were to attain — evinced in their industrial productions. These, it must be admitted, were never conspicuous for the rich and diversified treatment which characterizes Phoeni- cian art, notably in the wall and floor decorations that have come down to us, albeit in harmony with their mode of life and simple needs. The monuments which we feel justified in ascribing to the 1 Pais, La Sardeena, Plate IVa.