610 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION Hi.” : 
Assuming that there is a connection between the monuments of the various 
regions, was the custom of building such structures spread from its original 
source by influence or by actual immigration? Montelius supposes the custom: 
to have been carried from one country to another by the influence of trade, &c. 
This involves the assumption of great trade-routes in the neolithic age—an 
assumption which there is little evidence to justify. Further, the theory demands 
that the inhabitants of certain countries—e.g., Spain—abandoned the method of 
burying the dead in the bare earth for burial in dolmens and other megalithic 
tombs, solely because certain other peoples with whom they had trade relations: 
disposed of their dead in this way. To suppose that such a change was wrought 
by mere trade relations and in one country after another is impossible. 
There remains the explanation that megalithic architecture was practised by 
some great race which at the end of the neolithic age spread over parts of Kurope, 
Asia, and Africa, carrying this method of building with it. This involves a great 
racial movement, but not a single valid objection has ever been made against it. 
Montelius’ criticism is based on an Aryan theory which has now been generally 
abandoned. Déchelette sets it aside with the remark that ‘ anthropological obser- 
vations have long since destroyed this risky hypothesis,’ but he omits to tell us 
what these anthropological observations are. There is nothing d@ priori absurd in 
the idea, and we have good parallels in the movement which gave the Medi- 
terranean its early neolithic population and in the Arab migrations of the Middle 
Ages. As to the direction of this movement we have no evidence, but it is possible 
that Mackenzie is right in placing its starting-point somewhere in North Africa. 
5. The Prehistoric Monuments of Malta and Sardinia. 
By Tuomas Asusy, D.Litt. 
The British School at Rome has had the advantage during three seasons of 
co-operation with the Government of Malta in the excavation of several mega- 
lithic monuments on the islands of Malta and Gozo, some of which were being 
examined for the first time, while at others, such as Hagiar-Kim and Mnaidra, 
which were already known, supplementary excavations were conducted, which 
produced objects of some importance. ‘The results of the work show that these 
monuments undoubtedly belong to the neolithic period, or at latest to the very 
dawn of the age of metals. The pottery is characteristic, and has affinities with 
wares discovered in Western Mediterranean lands where the megalithic civilisa- 
tion flourished (Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, the Balearic Islands, &c.), and in remains 
connected with it or related to it. Not a trace of metal was found in the 
whole course of these explorations, nor in the excavation of the hypogeum of 
Halsaflieni, an enormous ossuary which is certainly contemporaneous with the 
megalithic monuments above ground. ‘These buildings were probably in part 
sanctuaries, in part dwellings, the original part of the building being generally 
that devoted to sacred uses, with a very distinct and typical plan; and the 
cult was symbolised in the baetyli found sometimes in isolation, but more often 
in architectural union with the dolmen-like niches which frequently appear in 
these edifices.’ The baetyli no doubt symbolised the departed heroes who were 
worshipped there, but it seems improbable that these monuments actually 
served a sepulchral purpose: the burials which have been found at Torri ta 
Santa Verna, in the island of Gozo, which was excavated in 1911, while apparently 
of the neolithic age, belong to the latest phase of the existence of the building. 
And besides the hypogeum of Halsaflieni (which was probably not the only 
one of its kind), many burials of the neolithic period have recently been found 
by Professor Tagliaferro in a cave at Bur-meghez, near Mkabba; while a well- 
tomb came to light in November 1910 near Attard; and further researches in 
the caves of the island will no doubt be fruitful. In Sardinia the School has 
confined itself to surface exploration, the excavations being in the hands of the 
Italian authorities, whose friendliness and courtesy deserve full acknowledg- 
ment. Dr. Duncan Mackenzie, in the course of three campaigns (in the last 
* Actual menhirs and dolmens, it should be noted, are not lacking in Malte 
and Gozo, but there is unluckily no soil around them to excayate, 
