DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0063
chap, xxxiii.] HIGH ANTIQUITY OF THIS TOMB. 47
The similarity of the structure to the Cyclopean gallery
at Tiryns is striking; the masonry, it is true, is far less
massive, but the style is identical, showing a rude attempt
at an arch, the true principle of -which had yet to be dis-
covered. It is generally admitted, not only that such a
mode of construction must be prior to the discovery of the
perfect arch, but that every extant specimen of it must
have preceded the knowledge of the correct principle. It
is a mode not peculiar to one race, or to one age, or the
result of a particular class of materials, but is the expedient
naturally adopted in the formation of arches, vaults, and
domes, by those who are ignorant of the cuneiform prin-
ciple ; and it is therefore to be found in the earliest
structures of Egypt, Greece, Italy, and other parts of the
Old World, as well as in those of the semi-civihsed races of
the New.6 The Cloaca Maxima, which is the earliest
known instance of the perfect arch in Italy, dates from the
days of the Tarquins; this tomb then must be considered
as of a remoter period, coeval at least with the earliest
days of Rome—prior, it may be, to the foundation of the
City.7
Nurhags or Nuraghe of Sardinia and and terminate not in a point, but in a
the Talajots of the Balearics, in as far square head, formed by the imposition
as they are roofed in on the same of flat blocks ; the peculiarity consists
principle. And they are probably of not in the courses being often almost at
inferior antiquity. Like the Nuraghe right angles with the line of the arch,
they may with good reason be regarded showing a near approach to the cunei-
as the work of the Tyrrhene Pelasgi. form principle.
The Druidical barrows of our own " Cavalier Canina (Cere Antica, p. 80)
country sometimes contain passage- refers its construction to the Pelasgi, or
formed sepulchres like these of Cervetri. earliest inhabitants of Agylla, and assigns
6 Stephens' Yucatan, I. p. 429, et seq. to it and its contents an antiquity of not
This traveller's description and illus- less than 3000 years, making it coeval
trations show the remarkable ana- with the Trojan war. He says it can be
logy between these American pseudo- determined that precisely in the reign of
vaults and those of ancient Europe. Tarquinius Priscus, the change in the
The sides of the arch are hewn to a mode of constructing the arch was
smooth curved surface, as in the Regu- effected in Rome, for Tarquin introduced
lini tomb (see the woodcut at page 46), the style from Tarquinii. But though
The similarity of the structure to the Cyclopean gallery
at Tiryns is striking; the masonry, it is true, is far less
massive, but the style is identical, showing a rude attempt
at an arch, the true principle of -which had yet to be dis-
covered. It is generally admitted, not only that such a
mode of construction must be prior to the discovery of the
perfect arch, but that every extant specimen of it must
have preceded the knowledge of the correct principle. It
is a mode not peculiar to one race, or to one age, or the
result of a particular class of materials, but is the expedient
naturally adopted in the formation of arches, vaults, and
domes, by those who are ignorant of the cuneiform prin-
ciple ; and it is therefore to be found in the earliest
structures of Egypt, Greece, Italy, and other parts of the
Old World, as well as in those of the semi-civihsed races of
the New.6 The Cloaca Maxima, which is the earliest
known instance of the perfect arch in Italy, dates from the
days of the Tarquins; this tomb then must be considered
as of a remoter period, coeval at least with the earliest
days of Rome—prior, it may be, to the foundation of the
City.7
Nurhags or Nuraghe of Sardinia and and terminate not in a point, but in a
the Talajots of the Balearics, in as far square head, formed by the imposition
as they are roofed in on the same of flat blocks ; the peculiarity consists
principle. And they are probably of not in the courses being often almost at
inferior antiquity. Like the Nuraghe right angles with the line of the arch,
they may with good reason be regarded showing a near approach to the cunei-
as the work of the Tyrrhene Pelasgi. form principle.
The Druidical barrows of our own " Cavalier Canina (Cere Antica, p. 80)
country sometimes contain passage- refers its construction to the Pelasgi, or
formed sepulchres like these of Cervetri. earliest inhabitants of Agylla, and assigns
6 Stephens' Yucatan, I. p. 429, et seq. to it and its contents an antiquity of not
This traveller's description and illus- less than 3000 years, making it coeval
trations show the remarkable ana- with the Trojan war. He says it can be
logy between these American pseudo- determined that precisely in the reign of
vaults and those of ancient Europe. Tarquinius Priscus, the change in the
The sides of the arch are hewn to a mode of constructing the arch was
smooth curved surface, as in the Regu- effected in Rome, for Tarquin introduced
lini tomb (see the woodcut at page 46), the style from Tarquinii. But though