Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/119

 General Outlines of Sardinian Civilization. ioi natives bear no inscriptions ; whence the inference may be drawn that such among them who spoke the Punic language, were unable to write it. The tenour of life of this illiterate people was of as rude a description as can well be imagined. Cities they had none ; the bare, miserable huts which formed their villages, were arranged in serrated files around nuraghs. A saw, a wimble, a horn, and a comb in bronze, represent the whole of their domestic implements and objects of personal use. Jewelled fillets, ear drops, necklaces, armlets, and rings for the fingers, found in such abundance within Punic nécropoles, including enamelled clay and precious metals, are unknown in this region. Ceramic industry was at its very beginning ; the sparsely distributed clay figures with which we are acquainted are crude in the extreme ; nor is there much more taste or skill lavished upon their vases. On the other hand, the aptitude they showed in making use of lead, copper, and bronze, in fashion- ing figures, arms, and implements, evinces a decided progress when compared with pottery. But when we remember that these populations were chiefly composed of woodmen, hunters, or soldiers, such a disparity between the two art-industries ceases to cause surprise ; for they were still at that stage when means of self-defence are deemed of greater importance than creature com- forts or amenities of life. Thus the arms of their manufacture were of the particular form and make to suit their fancy or needs ; the supply was in ratio of the demand ; and had induced a certain degree of proficiency in the armourer and artificer ; evinced in their bronzes, here and there bringing to remembrance the more striking incidents of their lives, such as deer-stalking or lying in wait for the hated foe at the mouth of a narrow pass. Out of these workshops, in which lignite, found in some districts, may have been used, were fashioned those votive idols (which we have described), for the warrior rich with the spoils of many countries ; * those diminutive boats which recalled his sea adventures, those bulls' heads which testified to his liberality, and finally the statuettes that figured him attired in the armour he had worn when fighting in distant countries. It was natural that, accustomed to producing and using bronze for all the ordinary purposes of life, the need of iron implements should have been felt very late in the day by the aborigines. Pieces of iron have been recovered at Forraxi and in the necro- 1 Pieces of lignite were dug up at Teti (Pais, Bollettino, p. 148, 1884).