The talayoti, of which one hundred and fifty are still standing in the island of Minorca, are circular or elliptical truncated cones, built of huge unhewn stones, laid one on the other without cement ([Fig. 54]). The most remarkable of all of them, that at Torello, near Mahon, is thirty-three feet high. In many cases there are two stone, one placed upright, the other across it, in front of the talayoti. The meaning of these biliths is unknown.
Yet another series of cyclopean monuments are known under the name of nanetas, and are not unlike overturned boats. Seven such nanetas are still to be seen in the Balearic Isles. The one which is best preserved consists of large unhewn stones of rectangular shape, enclosing an inner chamber about six feet in width. The roof having fallen in, its height cannot be exactly determined; we only know that the lateral walls are some forty-five feet high.
In Algeria also have been preserved some towers built of stones without cement. Some of them are square (basina) and surmounted by a small dolmen, others are round (chouchet) and closed at the top by a large slab of stone, as in the nurhags we have just described.
It is difficult to bring this account to a close without mentioning the truddhi and the specchie of Otranto.[25] A truddhi is a massive conical tower consisting of a heap of scarcely hewn stones piled up without cement and with an exterior facing. Inside is a round room, the roof of which is formed by a series of circular courses of stone projecting one beyond the other. Sometimes a second chamber rises above the first, which is reached by steps cut in the facing, which steps also lead to the platform on the top of the tower. Thousands of truddhi are to be seen in Italy; they date from every epoch, and the people of Lecce and Bari continue to erect them as did their fathers before them. Side by side with the truddhi rise the specchie, which are conical masses of stone, of greater height and probably of more ancient date than the towers. Lenormant thinks they were used to live in; but his opinion has been much questioned, and it is necessary to speak on this point with great reserve.
The castellieri of Istria, which the Slavonian peasants call starigrad, are as yet but little known. Doubtless an examination of them will bring out their resemblance to the nurhags and talayoti. They are, however, more than mere towers, forming regular enceintes between walls formed of two facings of dry stones, the space between which is filled in with smaller stones. There are fifteen of these castellieri in the district of Albona, a little town on the southeast of Trieste. They were at first attributed to the Roman epoch, but later researches relegate them rather to prehistoric times, and the discovery near them of numerous stone implements rather tends to support this latter opinion, but it must not be considered conclusive.
Perhaps we ought also to connect with the earliest ages of humanity the stations recently discovered in Spain by MM. Siret.[26] These were evidently centres of population, surrounded by walls of a very primitive description. We shall have to refer again to these discoveries; we will only add now that in the black earth forming the soil were found worked flints, polished diorite hatchets, pierced shells, with various pieces of pottery, and mills for grinding corn. So far, however though many of the stations have been explored, no trace has been found of the use of metals.
A vast period of time, countless centuries, indeed, have passed away since the close of the Paleolithic epoch. The burghs, nurhags, and castellieri show the progress of civilization, and at the same time prove that this progress extended throughout Europe, and that at a time not so very far removed from our own. The close resemblance between buildings of different dates enables us to speak with certainty of the connection between the races which succeeded each other in Europe. The importance of these conclusions is very great, and will be brought out still more in our study of megalithic monuments.
[1] “El hombre seguramente habitaba las corazas de los Glyptodon Pero no siempre las colocaba en la posicion que acabo de indicar.”—“La Antiguedad del Hombre en el Plata,” vol. ii., p. 532.
[2] “On Some Recent Researches in Cone-Caves in Wales,” Proc. Geol., Asso., vol. ix. “On the Flynnon, Benno, and Gwyu Caves,” Geol. Mag., Dec., 1886.