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It is difficult to bring this account to a close without mentioning the TRUDDHI and the SPECCHIE of Otranto. 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.
In general appearance and design the nuraghi recall the modern truddhi, hundreds of which dot the surface of Apulia and help to beguile the tedium of the railway journey from Brindisi to Foggia. The truddhi, however, are built in steps or terraces and have no upper chamber. Who were the foes against whom such elaborate preparations for defence were made? Two alternatives are possible.
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.
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.
Caves, Kitchen-Middings, Lake Stations, "Terremares," Crannoges, Burghs, "Nurhags," "Talayoti," and "Truddhi." The earliest races of men lived in a climate less rigorous than ours, on the shores of wide rivers, in the midst of fertile districts, where fishing and the chase easily supplied all their needs.
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