Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/39

 NÛKAGHS. comparatively easy. It was natural that, in describing these monuments, the name by which they are known in the country and which has passed into the current language of archaeology, should have been preserved, with no more change than that in- volved by transcription from one language to another. 1 The word " nuragh," found in the Sardinian dialect, was supposed by some to be of Phoenician origin, from the Arabic nur, " light," " resplen- dency," and the Hebrew root jag, "roof," "covering," "house," 8. — The Zuri Nuragh, near Abbasanta. From Baux. corrupted into " hag ; " an impossible theory, for the initial^ would have become ch aspirate. 2 Upon this slender thread, however, was hung the theory that nuraghs were lighthouses, or signal towers. We do not deny that they were sometimes so used ; all we contend is that they were not solely built for that purpose, as examination of their arrangement will abundantly show. The derivation given above may be no more than a fortuitous coin- 1 Upon the modifications of this word in the various districts and by native writers, consult La Marmora, Voyage en Sardaigne, Pt. II. p. 36. He spells it nûr- hag, so as to fit it in with the Phoenician theory, now abandoned. s JVbur, or nur, lucere, splendere, whence n'er, lucerna. Gesenius.