Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/121

Rh diffidence and scant respect, as a new-fangled invention. A similar spirit of dogged obstinacy is evident with the nuragh people. Steel arms were to be had at Kæaeralis and Tharros; but their purchase would have entailed a large sum of money, which they could ill afford, and must needs have been paid by instalments, much to their disadvantage with regard to their independent attitude towards the Punic tradesman; consequently they kept to those of their own manufacture, which were less costly and more easily obtained. Armed with his canetta, the native woodman felt equal to keeping intruders and the evilly disposed from his jealously guarded hearth. At those times, when the unsettled state of affairs in the Mediterranean prevented Punic traders paying their accustomary visits, and tin was scarce in consequence, he could recast and turn to account used up bronze.

If, therefore, during the whole period of the tower-builders' autonomy, we do not meet with fabricated iron in Sardinia, this does in no way warrant the conclusion that their civilization was anterior to the introduction of that metal in the. Midland Sea; neither does it invalidate the fact of the influence of Phoenicia having been deep and lasting—seen everywhere in their industrial arts. What were the deities worshipped by these tribes and what the names by which they were addressed? We know not; save that the god discovered at Teti is roughly suggestive of a Phœnician Baal; whilst the cultus attending him awakens in the memory visions of ceremonies in Punic temples, which these natives must have visited, be it at home or abroad. Thus to give an instance, one of the most striking features in these idols is the multiplicity of their visual organs (Figs. 51 and 52). Now the Phoenician Baal Sama'im or Baal of heaven, called by Philo Byblos "Kronos," was so represented ; and a temple in his honour was raised to him in Sardinia. The numerous statuettes set on pedestals, the votive objects that filled the Teti sanctuary, bring to mind those crowding the "haram" of the temples of Phoenicia and Cyprus. The small figures are not possessed of the noble proportions that distinguish the great stone idols which came out of Cypriotes' studios; they shadow forth, however, the same idea and the same rite: the devotee dedicating his own effigy in the fond belief that he will thereby indefinitely prolong the act of