TRANSACTIONS OF SKCTION H. 669 



and perforating the lips and nose ; (/) to practise weaving linen, and in some 

 cases also the use of Tyrian purple, pearls, precious stones and metals, and 

 conch-shell trumpets, as well as the curious beliefs and superstitions attached 

 to the latter; (r/) to adopt certain definite metallurgical methods, as well as 

 mining; (/<) to use methods of intensive agriculture, associated with the iise 

 of terraced irrigation, the artificial terraces being retained with stone walls ; 

 (i) to adopt certain phallic ideas and practices; {j) to make use of the swastika 

 symbol, and to adopt the idea that stone implements are thunder-teeth or 

 thunderbolts, and the beliefs associated with this conception ; (A') to use the 

 boomerang; {1} to hold certain beliefs regarding 'the heavenly twins'; (»») to 

 practice couvad© and [n) to display a special aptitude for and skill and daring 

 in maritime adventures, as well as to adopt a number of curiously arbitrary 

 features in boat-building. 



jNIany of the items in this list I owe to Mr. W. J. Perry, who in the 

 course of this discussion will deal with other aspects of the problem, and especi- 

 ally the incentives that impelled these ancient mariners to undertal^e these 

 remarkable adventures. 



That this remarkable cargo of fantastic customs and beliefs was really 

 spread abroad, and most of them at one and the same time, is .shown by the 

 fact that in jjlaces as far apart as the Jlediterranean and Peru, as well as in 

 many intermediate localities, these cultural ingredients are linked together in 

 an arbitrary and highly artificial manner to form a complex structure, which 

 it is utterly impossible to conceive as having heen built uip independently in 

 different places. 



The fact that some of the practices which were thus spread abroad were 

 not invented in Egypt and Phoenicia until the eighth cenlury B.C. makes this 

 the earliest possible date for the commencement of the great wandering which 

 distributed the whole culture-complex, though certain of its constituent elements 

 were diffused abroad to neighbouring lands long before then. 



(/)) Oil Ihr III fliiencc of Egyptian Civilisalion upon the World's CiiUure. 



By W. J. Perry, B.A.' 



If on Fergusson's ' dolmen ' map for Spain, Portugal, and France'' be plotted 

 out the distribution of ancient pre-Roman and pre-Grsecian mines mentioned 

 by Professor Gowland,'' it will be found that the area occupied by the two 

 are identical. In Northern Africa megalithic structures are found in that 

 region comprising Tunis and Algiers which contains mineral wealth, and 

 where ancient mine-workings are recorded ; also the stone ruins and terraces 

 of Rhodesia and the country to the south are associated with ancient mine- 

 workings. Those parts of India which show signs of megalithic influence, as, 

 for example, Southern India, with Ceylon, Chota Nagpur, Assam, and the 

 sub-Himalayan States, and also Thibet, are those parts which contain much 

 mineral wealth in the form of gold and precious stones of various kinds. 

 Assam, Tibet, Chota Nag^'pur, and Southern India were gold producing regions 

 in ancient times; the States of Kullu, Garhwal, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim, 

 as well as Southern India and Rajputana, formerly produced much copper. 



The distribution of the pearl oyster in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, as 

 well as the Gulf of Mexico, closely defines the area of megalithic influence. 

 The exceptions are West Australia, where pearls are fomid in abundance, 

 their presence being unaccompanied by any signs of megalithic influence ; and 

 Peru, where ample signs of megalithic influence are present without pearls. 

 But in South America the area of megalithic influence agrees well with that 

 of metals and precious stones. The distribution of amber and metals in the 

 Baltic region seems to agree closely with that of megalithic .structures. 



The pile-dwelling region of Switzerland and Upper Austria, as well as the 



' Published in full in Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary 

 and Philosophical Soc, vol. 60, pt. 1, 1915; pp. 1-36. 

 ■* Riidf; Stove Monvme,nfs. 

 ' Huxley Memorial Lecture, Jour. Boy. Anth. Inst. 1912, Archaologia, 56. 



