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The Wiltshire Magazine published an paper by Dr Phené read to the British Archaeological Association at devizes, 1880. In it Dr Phené describes some of the monuments of Menorca, none of which had been documented anywhere in print before. He was specifically tracing trilithons as at Stonehenge, from Africa across Europe. I believe he was shown Sa Comerma de Sa Garita, which Dr Phené describes as having a square plan. This is the only site in Menorca which seems to fit the bill as most are horse shoe-shaped and not bounded by open trilithon-style stones. Here is an extract from the paper: "Of the extraordinary remains in Minorca we have absolutely no historic information; the masonry indicates that they are Cyclopean of the oldest type, while that of the Nurhags of Sardinia, with which many suppose they agree, is often in courses, of wrought or well-trimmed stone. The grand feature of the Nurhage is also wanting in the Baleares, viz., the spiral staircase or ramp, which is found also in the brocks of Scotland. The plan of the grandest structure in Minorca is square at the base, and forms a pyramid, of which there is no example in Sardinia. In this building the angles are rounded, as before described. There is historic reference to the Nurhags of Sardinia, and even their builder, lolaus, is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, but the antiquity of the remains in Minorca is lost in the mist of ages, or referred to the time of the very oldest of the mythological deities, Saturn. I find a quotation from Homer, and also from Pindar, which I have had not had time to verify, that there was a place in the Balearides, supposed to have been the palace of Saturn. I can imagine no place more suitable for this description than what I have called the grand temple."

Posted by Whoop_John 6th July 2013ce

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