Re: Megalithic mapping
Posted: 12:07 pm
We noted earlier that Sardinia had the "Nuragic culture" with their Nuraghe megalithic towers,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuraghe
Which, we are assured by the ortho-archeos are "unique to Sardinia" and exist nowhere else in the world. Except for (cough) the broch towers in Scotland.
I'd let that sit as a historical curiosity. And yet, only this week did it occur to me : 4,000+ years ago, when the Nuragics started building those Nuraghe, sea levels were lower, and Sardinia and Corsica might still have been joined as a single island. So, onto the next and bleeding-obvious question - did Corsica have anything like the Nuraghe megalithic towers?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrean_civilization
Oh, right, now you tell me. A map of the locations of these torri shows them in the south of Corsica, nearest their Sardinian Nuraghe neighbours.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrean_c ... orsica.svg
With some delightful synchronicity, another old article resurfaced yesterday, also connecting Corsica with Scotland:
That's "yesterday", 22nd February 1999
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/napoleo ... s-1.155832
Crieff has a "Brochel Castle", but not to be confused with the more famous version on Raasay
https://www.isleofraasay.com/index.php/ ... el-castle/
Dating to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, the nuraghe, which evolved from the previous proto-nuraghe, are megalithic towers with a truncated cone shape; every Nuragic tower had at least an inner tholos chamber and the biggest towers could have up to three superimposed tholos chambers. They are widespread in the whole of Sardinia, about one nuraghe every three square kilometers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuraghe
Which, we are assured by the ortho-archeos are "unique to Sardinia" and exist nowhere else in the world. Except for (cough) the broch towers in Scotland.
A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland.
I'd let that sit as a historical curiosity. And yet, only this week did it occur to me : 4,000+ years ago, when the Nuragics started building those Nuraghe, sea levels were lower, and Sardinia and Corsica might still have been joined as a single island. So, onto the next and bleeding-obvious question - did Corsica have anything like the Nuraghe megalithic towers?
The Torrean civilization was a Bronze Age megalithic civilization that developed in Southern Corsica ... The characteristic buildings of this culture are the torri ("towers"), megalithic structures similar to the Sardinian nuraghes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrean_civilization
Oh, right, now you tell me. A map of the locations of these torri shows them in the south of Corsica, nearest their Sardinian Nuraghe neighbours.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrean_c ... orsica.svg
With some delightful synchronicity, another old article resurfaced yesterday, also connecting Corsica with Scotland:
The family of Napoleon Bonaparte, one of France's greatest rulers, may have come from a tiny Scottish village, according to new research published yesterday.
That's "yesterday", 22nd February 1999
Evidence that Napoleon's grandfather came from Balloch, near the Scottish town of Crieff in Perthshire, has been uncovered by a local historian, Mr Robert Torrens. He found an account in a book published more than a century ago of how a labourer named William Bayne left Balloch shortly after the collapse of the Jacobite uprising of 1745. He and his family were shipwrecked in a storm and landed in Corsica, where they were hospitably received, according to Mr Torrens. "They were known as Bayne, or Buon, and his party," he told the Daily Telegraph. "In course of time, his sons were called Buon-departy. "His grandson was named Buon-de-party and now figures in history as the great Napoleon," Mr Torrens said.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/napoleo ... s-1.155832
Crieff has a "Brochel Castle", but not to be confused with the more famous version on Raasay
https://www.isleofraasay.com/index.php/ ... el-castle/