CHAPTER VI

ITALY AND ITS ISLANDS


Italy cannot be called a country of megalithic monuments. In the centre
and north they do not occur, the supposed examples mentioned by Dennis
in his _Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria_ having been proved
non-existent by the Italian Ministry of Education. It is only in the
extreme south-west that megalithic structures appear. They are dolmens
of ordinary type, except that in some cases the walls are formed not of
upright slabs, but of stones roughly superposed one upon another. On the
farm of the Grassi, near Lecce, are what appear to be two small dolmens
at a distance of only 4 feet apart; they are perhaps parts of a single
corridor-tomb. In the neighbourhood of Tarentum there is a dolmen-tomb
approached by a short passage, and at Bisceglie, near Ruvo, there is an
even finer example, the discovery of which is one of the most important
events which have occurred in Italian prehistoric archæology during the
last few years. The tomb is a simple rectangular corridor 36 feet in
length, lying east and west. Only one cover-slab, that at the west end,
remains, and the exact disposition of the rest of the tomb is
uncertain. In one of the side uprights which supports this slab is a
circular hole, which, however, seems to be the work of Nature, though
its presence may have led to the choice of the stone. The tomb was
carefully excavated, and the remains of several skeletons were found,
one of which lay in the contracted position on the right side. Three of
the skulls were observed by an expert to be dolichocephalic, but their
fragile condition prevented the taking of actual measurements. Burnt
bones of animals, fragments of pottery, a terra-cotta bead, and a stone