Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

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The Sky-Pillar in Sardinia
stantial square base, with a column at each angle, rises a central
shaft, broken at the summit, which—as A. Taramelli infers from a
votive bronze boat found in the same place (fig. 84)^—was originally
Fig- 84.
topped by bull's horns supporting a dove. Adjoining this structure
is a small edifice with a gabled roof, on the ridge of which are the
remains of three doves. It seems probable that the quincunx of
pillars rising from a solid base was in effect a model of the sky
uplifted above the earth-, that the bird resting on the central shaft
nuragico ed i monumenti primitivi di S. Vittoria di Serri (Cagliaii) ' in the Alon. d. Line.
1915 xxiii. 390 ff. fig. 93 ( = my fig. 83 : restorations after Milani loc. cit.). As to the
date of the nuraghi civilisation, ' All we can say is that, although it may have reached
its highest development in the bronze age, it certainly flourished in the eneolithic
period' (T. E. Peat The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy and Sicily Oxford 1909, p. •236).
1 A. Taramelli loc. tit. p. 390. The boat in question is published by L. A. Milani in
the Hilprecht Anniversary Volume p. 333 n. 2 fig. 34 ( = my fig. 84). It is a two-wicked
lamp in the form of a bull-headed boat with a timenos on board : an enclosure with four
pillars surrounds a taller column, on the capital of which is a pair of horns supporting a
bird. Milani and Taramelli both compare the prow of a stag-headed bronze boat from
Vetulonia, on which four clustered pillars are surmounted by a single shaft with horns and
bird (L. A. Milani Studi e materiali di archeologia e numismatica Firenze 1902 ii. 87
fig. 274). Similar too is a seal-impression found by A. J. B. Wace in a well at
Mykenai, which represents a pillar topped by ritual horns with a dove between them
and flanked by two other doves.
" L. A. Milani 'II tempio nuragico e la civilta asiatica in Sardegna' in the Rendiconti
d. Lincei 1909 xviii. 579—592 (cp. id. in the Hilprecht Anniversaiy Volu7ne p. 312,
A. Taramelli loc. cit. p. 389 ff.) compares the pillared base of the Sardinians with the
zikkiirat oi \\\& Babylonians. The analogy is remote; but it is certainly thinkable that the
solid plinth, like the zikkiirat (supra i. 603), was a conventionalised form of mountain, or
at least stood for terra Jirnia.
C. Brandenburg ' Reisenotizen aus Sardinien ' in the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic 19 14
xlvi. 643 says: 'Das Objekt ist als " Tempelmodell " bezeichnet ; es konnte aber
moglicherweise auch ein ex voto sein, etwa das Haus eines Hauptlings mit holzernem
Wachtturm daneben, das zum Dank fur die Errettung aus irgendeiner Katastrophe den
Gottern geweiht wurde.' My experienced friend Mr T. Ashby agrees with me in thinking
this solution of the problem unlikely (July 11, 1920).