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There cannot be the least doubt that in time of danger the inhabitants drove their cattle into the fortified enclosure, entered it themselves, and then closed the gates. Each nuraghe formed the centre of a group of stone huts. Mackenzie has described such a village at Serucci, where the circular plan of the huts was still visible.
The lowness of the door would at once put an enemy at a disadvantage in attempting to enter; it is significant that in the nuraghe of Su Cadalanu, where the doorway was over 6 feet in height, its breadth was so much reduced that it was necessary to enter sideways. Arrangements were made for the closing of the entrance from inside by a heavy slab of stone, often fitted into grooves.
The walls in one case stood high enough to show, from the corbelling of their upper courses, that the huts were roofed in the same fashion as the nuraghi themselves. Another village, that which surrounds the nuraghe of Su Chiai, was protected by a wall of huge stones. It is thus clear that the nuraghi were the fortified centres of the various villages of Sardinia.
He suggests that the existence of the fortified enclosure of Nossiu, where there is no sign of a true nuraghe, may mean that there were certain communities which succeeded in maintaining their independence in the face of these powerful rulers. But here, as he himself is the first to admit, we are in the realm of pure conjecture. Giant's Tomb at Muraguada, Sardinia.
The stones are often artificially squared, and set with a clay mortar. A door of barely comfortable height even for an average man and surmounted by a single lintel-block gives access to a narrow passage cut through the thickness of the wall. The upper chamber, which is rarely preserved, is similar in form to the lower. Elevation, section and plan of a nuraghe.
It is now established that in the Giants' Tombs of Sardinia we are to see the graves of the inhabitants of the nuraghe villages. Every Giant's Tomb lies close to such a village, and almost every village has its Giants' Tombs, one or more in number according to its size.
Even the extinct nation which has constructed those enigmatical sepulchral towers, called -Nuraghe-, by thousands in the islands of the Tuscan Sea, especially in Sardinia, cannot well be connected with the Etruscans, for not a single structure of the same character is to be met with in Etruscan territory.
Even the extinct nation which has constructed those enigmatical sepulchral towers, called -Nuraghe-, by thousands in the islands of the Tuscan Sea, especially in Sardinia, cannot well be connected with the Etruscans, for not a single structure of the same character is to be met with in Etruscan territory.
Those of Aiga, Losa, and s'Aspru are among the most famous of this type. All the nuraghi stand in commanding situations overlooking large tracts of country, and the more important a position is from the strategical point of view the stronger will be the nuraghe which defends it.
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