ighbours. 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.

[Illustration: Fig. 18. Giant's Tomb at Muraguada, Sardinia. (Mackenzie,
_Papers of the British School of Rome_, V.)]

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. A
Giant's Tomb consists of a long rectangular chamber of upright slabs
roofed by corbelled masonry (Fig. 18). The slab which closes one end of
the tomb is of great size, and consists of a lower rectangular half with
a small hole at the base and an upper part shaped like a rounded gable.
There is a raised border to the whole slab, and a similar band in relief
marks out the two halves. This front slab forms the centre-piece in a
curved facade of upright slabs. The chamber is covered with a coating of
ashlar masonry, which is shaped into an apsidal form at the end opposite
to the facade. Occasionally more than 50 feet in length, the Giants'
Tombs served as graves for whole families, or even for whole villages.
Mackenzie has shown that the form is derived from the simple dolmen, and
has pointed out several of the intermediate stages.

The inhabitants of Sardinia in the megalithic period also buried their
dead in rock-hewn sepulchres, of which there are numerous examples at
Anghelu Ruju. The contents of these graves make it clear that they are
the work of the same people as the Giants' Graves. Were further proof
needed it could be afforded by a grave at Molafa, where a Giant's Grave
with its facade and gabled slab has been faithfully imitated in the
solid rock. There is a similar tomb at St. George. Two natural caves in
Cape Sant' Elia on the south of the island contain burials of this same
period.

The neighbouring island of Corsica also contains important megalithic
remains. They consist of thirteen dolmens, forty-one menhirs, two
_alignements_, and a cromlech. They fall geographically into two groups,
one in the extreme north and the other in the extreme south of the
island.

The stones used are