Dennis, George: The cities and cemeteries of Etruria: in two volumes (Band 2) (London, 1848)

chap, xl] THOLI, OR DOMED SEPULCHRES. 161

Excavations are still carried on at Volterra, but not

Tables, were found. Gori, Mus. Etrus.
III. p. 100, tab. XVIII. 6. They also
closely resemble the Nuraghe of Sar-
dinia, and still more the Talajots of the
Balearics, inasmuch as the latter are
cones containing but one such chamber,
while the Nuraghe have often several.
The point of difference is, that these domed
tombs of Volterra, like that of Gubbio,
must have been covered with a mound
of earth, while the Nuraghe and Talajots
are solid cones of masonry, like one of
the towers in the Cucumella of Vulci,
but hollowed into chambers, and built
above the surface. The Nuraghe, al-
ready referred to at page 47, still exist
in great numbers in Sardinia. No fewer
than 3000 are said to be scattered over
the shores of that island (De la Marmora,
Voyage en Sardaigne, II. p. 46), and the
Talajots are not much less numerous in
the Balearics. The former, which rise
30 or 40 feet above ground, have some-
times two or three stories, each with a,
domed chamber connected by spiral
passages left in the masonry; sometimes
several chambers are on the same floor,
communicating"by corridors; the struc-
ture, instead of being conical, is some-
times three-sided, yet with the angles
rounded. Some of them have basements
of masonry like these tombs of Volterra;
and others are raised on platforms of
earth, with embankments of masonry
twenty feet in height. Though so nu-
merous, none are found in so complete a
state of preservation that it can be de-
cided whether they terminated above in
a perfect or a truncated cone. They
are, in general, of regular though rude
masonry, but a few are of polygonal con-
struction. They are evidently of high
antiquity. The construction of the
domed chambers, formed, like the Trea-
sury of Atreus, by the convergence of
horizontal strata, establishes this beyond
VOL. H.

a doubt. But to what race to ascribe
them is still in dispute. De la Marmora,
Micali, and Arri, assign them to the
Phoenicians or Carthaginians. Petit-
Radel, on the other hand, ascribes them
to the Tyrrhene Pelasgi, in which he is
followed by Abeken; and to this view
Inghirami also inclines. Muller, how-
ever, regarded them as Etruscan, rather
than Pelasgic (Etrusk. IV. 2, 2). For
Petit-Radel's opinion there is ancient
authority; for the pseudo-Aristotle (de
Mirab. Auscult. cap. 104) mentions the
tholi of Sardinia, built by Iolaus, son of
Iphicles, in the ancient Greek style.
Diodorus (IV. p. 235, ed. Rhod.) speaks
of them under the name of Dsedalia, so
called from the architect who built
them. These tholi can be no other than
the Nuraghe. Though Micali (Ant. Pop.
Ital. II. p. 45) does not take them to be
tombs, and Canina (Archit. Ant. V.
p. 547) thinks they were treasuries or
forts, there is little doubt of their sepul-
chral character; for skeletons have often
been found in them, and other funereal
furniture, chiefly in metal. For detailed
descriptions and illustrations of these
singular tombs, see De la Marmora,
Voyage en Sardaigne, torn. II., and Bull.
Inst. 1833, p. 121 ; 1834, pp. 68—70 ;
Petit-Radel, Nuraghes de la Sardaigne,
Paris, 1826-8; Arri, Nur-hag della Sar-
degna, Torino, 1835; Micali, Ant. Pop.
Ital. II. pp. 43, et seq.; III. p. Ill, tav.
LXXI.; Abeken, Bull. Inst. 1840, pp.
155—160; 1841, pp. 40-2 ; Mittelitalien,
pp. 236-8.

Conical structures, roofed in exactly
on the same plan as the Treasury of
Atreus and other ancient tholi, have
been discovered in the Valley of the
Ohio. Stephens' Yucatan, 1. p. 433.
Mr. Stephens wisely forbears to infer
hence a common origin, which could be
no more satisfactorily established by

M