Courtesy of the University of Haifa Department of Archaeology
Remembrance of things past. This corridor entrance unearthed in el-Ahwat resembles the entrance of a corridor at Nuraghe Genna Maria in southwestern Sardinia (see photograph). Not until Zertal visited the nuraghi, huge stone structures built by residents of Sardinia in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1500–1200 B.C.E.), did he find any architectural remains resembling those he had unearthed at el-Ahwat. The nuragic culture, which flourished on the island from about 2000 to 1200 B.C.E., used dry-laid, minimally dressed stones to construct rounded buildings and irregular complexes that included interior corridors and tholoi (igloo-like stone rooms)—features also found in el-Ahwat. Zertal was immediately struck by the distinct similarities in building techniques, proportions and design in the structures they had unearthed in el-Ahwat and those produced by the nuraghe dwellers.