Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/55

 N URACIL 1 37 in view of large congregations and the pomp of festivals ? A glance will convince the most prejudiced that nuraghs, with their low, irksome doorways, and gloomy chambers, could never have been raised for such a purpose. Supposing for a moment that the platform on the top was spacious enough to receive stags, sheep, and oxen, to be sacrificed to the tribal or national god, were not the entrance and steep narrow stairs formidable obstacles in the way ? Against this view are urged those objects of a votive character uncovered in a quad- rangular enclosure near Teti, whose many re- cesses disclosed pede- stals scattered about, which bore traces of weapons and figures having been soldered thereon (Fig. 29). The very mediocre plan we obtained of this struc- ture shows it to have been a spacious open court, whose angles were rounded off. 1 This was forthwith declared to have been a sanctuary, and the ad- joining building a nuragh. We readily admit the existence of the former, but we submit that the latter has not been proved. The Balearic " talayots," closely resembling Sardinian towers, were next adduced as evidence ; because in their immediate vicinity are usually met curious structures supposed to have been altars, formed of an upright post firmly fixed to the ground, upon which a huge slab is horizontally placed (Fig. 30). 2 But the awkward fact that whenever priest or layman wished to place offerings on the said slab a ladder was required, works against the altar theory. With all reserve, we think that they were intended as sepulchral stelae ; and whether this be so or not future discoveries will alone reveal. Finally, we might name scores of nûraghs whose position on the top of mountains, with abrupt precipitous sides, must have 1 Pais, Bollettino, p. 156. 1884. 2 Pais, La Sardegna, p. 32. Fig. 29.— Plan of ruins at Teti. From Gouin.