Nuraghe

Since we were just discussing whether the alleged 3rd millenium BC fortress at Cortijo Lobato in Spain might really be that old, I thought it might be worth looking at the most famous collection of old stone forts in the Mediterranean World: the Nuraghe of Sardinia.

There were once at least 7,000 of these stone structures on the island, and more than 500 survive to some height. They are generally dated to the Bronze Age, roughly 1900 to 1000 BC; the recent scholarship asserts that most of the major sites were established before 1500 BC. That doesn't mean, though, that everything you see was that old, since many were added to over time and dating stonework is an extremely trick business.

They were noted by Greek visitors, some of whom speculated that the builders were the descendants of Deadalus. At least, various online sources say so, although I have not yet identified the ancient source.

All contain at least one tower, many of them about 60 feet (20m) tall; one is supposed to have been 100 feet (30m) tall when measured in the eighteenth century.

Inside is a corbel-vaulted chamber or tholos, the same technique as was often used for Bronze Age tombs.

Some of them have double exterior walls with a winding staircase between them, like Pictish brochs.

The argument over what they were began in Roman times and continues. They look like the fortress homes of clan chiefs to me, but various authorities have made them out to be temples, border forts, and various other even less likely things. 

Some Italian archaeologists reconstruct their original appearance like this. I do not know how widely accepted these interpretations are, but renderings like this appear on the official government signs by some of the major sites. 

Here is a digital rendering from Radio France. Part Disney, part sand castle, all strange.

We call the culture of the people who built these Nuragic, but that's just a recent formation from the name of their fortresses. Besides the forts, the most famous thing about them is their delightful bronze figurines, many of which have been found in tombs.

But to get back to where we started. This is the small, central fort at Cortijo Lobato, supposedly dating to around 2900 BC.

And these are Nuraghe. The shapes are similar, and they are all built of stone, but the small fort at Cortijo Lobato still looks to my eye very different, based on very different building technologies. I will keep my eye out and if I ever find any serious discussion of the dating evidence from Cortijo Lobato, I will pass it along; and if any of you have found any academic discourse on the subject, please share it.