174 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



the latter was used anciently in countries, like Italy, that 

 came strongly under Phoenician influence,'"" and is used 

 to-day, as well as the pick in Germany and Cornwall, 

 where that influence afi'ected the mines. 



I cannot find the same shovel at the Rio Tinto Mines, 

 which are near the Phoenician colony of Gades (Cadiz), 

 but Capt. Rich, the manager there, has favoured me with 

 the gift of an ancient pick found in the workings (fig. 6) 

 which corresponds in form to the one I brought from 

 Tiflis, and to some ancient Cornish ones in the Truro 

 Museum. f The hole for the handle in each of these is 

 round. In the modern Cornish pick it is made oval to 

 prevent the haft from twisting round in the head. 



That the Syrian pattern of the triangular hoe and shovel 

 is the oldest is proved by the survival, in them, of th"e 

 spike imitating the preceding wooden hoe. 



I therefore think Syria the original centre from which 

 these implements came. 



The Phoenician commerce will account for their being 

 met with in Italy ; and Phoenician Mining explains their 

 use in Germany, Spain, and Cornwall. I believe the 

 Hebrew migration under Shalmenezer to Armenia and 

 Aderbijan, and the exile of Phoenicians under Nebuzaradan, 

 will account for the presence in the Transcaucasus of these 

 Syrian tools, the Syrian chant-music, as well as perhaps 

 of the Syrian oven. 



In ancient times not only were the Phoenicians the 

 best artisans in the world, in metals, but both they and 



* The pointed shovel with the Syrian Crossbar is still met witli in It.ilv, and 

 appears on an ancient Tomb in Rome. 



■]■ Suspecting tliat the cloths made by the peasantry in so Phffinician a district, 

 might still show some similarity to Western Asian fabrics, I asked Capt. Rich whether 

 certain striped patterns are used near Rio Tinto. He has sent mc some interesting 

 specimens of native cloths : one of them from a bolt that has been in the same family 

 for 150 years. Some of these are almost identical with the woollen cloths woven and 

 dyed by the Armenians among whom 1 travelled. But tliis is too wide a subject for 

 the present paper. 



