PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 173 



shovel, except that the socket alters its pitch ; and three 

 plough-shares from Syria, all lent me by friends who 

 obtained them in the country. The first is a model only, 

 but precisely matching my shovel : the second and third 

 are actual implements taken from field-work. But these 

 two plough-shares from Palestine have a curious spike 

 forged in front of each, and the rudiments of the same 

 projecting point are visible on the Syrian hoe and the 

 Svrian shovel pictured in the Quarterly Statement already 

 cited. What is this ? Evidently it is nothing more or 

 less than the imitation, by the maker of the first iron 

 plough, — the slavish imitation of the pointed stick of the 

 wooden plough that went before it, and that remained, 

 and is still used in Asia, alongside of it. It is in fact a 

 survival, which the more revolutionary blacksmiths of the 

 Caucasus rightly discarded, as unavoidable in wood, but 

 needless in metal. 



In conclusion : In what way can we account for the 

 identity which we have shown to exist between the mining 

 tools used in Germany and Cornwall, and the Caucasus, 

 and between the hoe and shovel of the Caucasus, with the 

 like tools of Palestine ? 



They must have come, originally, from one centre ; and 

 in endeavouring to trace where this was, we instinctively 

 turn in the first place to the sources of two of the great 

 civilizations of the East — Egypt and Assyria. But I am 

 assured by the Authorities of^ the British Museum that 

 hitherto we have no evidence of the shovel having been 

 u.sed either by the Egyptians or the Assyrians. In repre- 

 sentations of brick-making on Egyptian Monuments we 

 find -the broad hoe used for working the clay, similar to 

 the No. 14 at Illahun, much as the mamooty is used in 

 India, and the hoe (fig. 3) is employed by the Spaniards 

 in the Rio Tinto mines, instead of the shovel. 



On the other hand, we not only find that both the hoe 

 and the pointed shovel are now employed in Syria ; but 

 L 



