In some Archæological Notes contributed to the _Academy_ of March 25, 1882, on the Terra d’Otranto in the South of Italy, M. Lenormant mentions a peculiar usage still kept up by the inhabitants of the provinces of Bari and Lecce of constructing in their fields structures of uncemented stones called _truddhu_, which exactly reproduce on a smaller scale the type, arrangements, and mode of building characteristic of the Nuraghi of Sardinia, the Sesi of the island of Pantellaria, and the Talayots of the Balearic Islands. Like the Nuraghe, the Truddhu is a massive conical tower of uncemented stones with a central circular chamber rudely vaulted by the overlapping of the successive courses of its masonry. A low door gives access to the chamber. Sometimes a second chamber is constructed over the first, and approached by a narrow flight of steps winding along the side of the tower. These steps are present even when there is no second chamber, and forming a spiral round the outside of the tower, they give access to the paved platform on the top of the structure. The Truddhu serves as a shelter in bad weather and as a dwelling-place by night in the agricultural season, as the peasant proprietors often live in the towns and travel to and fro in bands for fear of brigands. Sometimes this structure is changed into a permanent home, and the village of Alberto-Bello consists wholly of houses of this form. Thousands of these constructions stud the plains. Some are being built, others are in all stages of dilapidation and decay. Although it is almost impossible to distinguish those that are ancient from those that were made but yesterday, M. Lenormant is of opinion that the origin of the custom must be referred to prehistoric times. A similar custom of constructing stone-built towers of refuge also prevails in the Caucasus, and Mr. Freshfield speaks of having as many as sixty of these structures in view at one time.
If it be thus suggested by the relations of the Brochs to the arable lands of the districts in which they are situated, that they belonged to the possessors and cultivators of the soil, the affinities of the typical structure itself go far to show that in its character and origin it is distinctively Celtic. None of its essential features have been observed in any construction outside of the Celtic area. And within that area no building with a stair and an arrangement of galleries similar to that of a Broch has been met with out of Scotland. But the circular wall, with chambers in its thickness, which may be regarded as the germ from which the Broch structure has grown, is a characteristic feature of Celtic construction. We have met with it in the walls of the cashels surrounding the ecclesiastical settlements of Christian times. It is common in Irish Cloghauns and Scottish beehive houses, and is so persistently Celtic that it appears also in Wales and Cornwall. The ground plan of the most perfect of a group of beehive huts at Bodinar, in Cornwall (Fig. 184), exhibits an arrangement of oval chambers in the thickness of its wall precisely similar to the arrangement which prevails in the Brochs. The long narrow gallery (the essential feature of the earth-houses of Scotland, Ireland, and Cornwall) is also a form of construction which is specially characteristic of the Celtic area. The typical Broch structure thus presents a combination of features and forms of construction[78] which are found existing separately in other constructions of Celtic character and origin, although the typical combination which distinguishes the Broch structure from all others is confined to Scotland alone.