the number of the skeletons in each tomb
steadily decreases. The sitting posture is still frequent, though
occasionally the body lies flat on one side with the legs slightly
contracted. Flint is now rare, but objects of bronze are plentiful. The
local painted pottery has almost entirely given place to simpler yet
better wares with occasional Mycenean importations.

It is impossible to decide whether this Sicilian civilization ought to
be included under the term megalithic. If, as seems probable, the idea
of megalithic building was brought to Europe by the immigration of a new
race it is possible that a branch of this race entered Sicily. In that
case I should prefer to think that they came not at the beginning of the
First Siculan Period as we know it, but rather earlier. Certain vases
found with neolithic burials in a cave at Villafrati and elsewhere in
Sicily resemble the pottery usually found in megalithic tombs; one of
them is in fact a bell-shaped cup, a form typical of megalithic pottery.
It is thus possible that an immigration of megalithic people into Sicily
took place during the stone age, definitely later than the period of the
earliest neolithic remains on the island, but earlier than that of such
sites as the Castelluccio cemetery. This, however, is and will perhaps
remain a mere conjecture, though it is quite possible that there are in
the interior of Sicily dolmens which have not yet come to the notice of
the archaeologist; in this connection it is worth while to remember that
up to five years ago the existence of dolmens in both Sardinia and Malta
passed unnoticed.

If the inclusion of Sicily in the megalithic area is doubtful there is
fortunately no question about the island of Sardinia. Here we have one
of the chief strongholds of the megalithic civilization, where the
architecture displays its greatest variety and flexibility. The simplest
manifestation of megalithic building, the dolmen, was up till lately
thought to be absent from Sardinia, but the researches of the last few
years have brought to light several examples, of which the best known
are those of Birori, where the chamber is approximately circular in
plan.

The monuments, however, for which Sardinia is most famous are the
_nuraghi._ A _nuraghe_ is a tower-like structure of truncated conical
form, built of large stones laid in comparatively regular courses (Pl.
II, Fig. 2). The stones are often artificially squared, and set with a
clay