54 G. Elliot Smith on 



Cxulf, along with the knowledge of copper working, by means of 

 the early maritime intercourse between the Red Sea and the 

 Persian Gulf. 



The easterly link of this bond was not strongly forged until 

 the Sumerians learned from the Egyptians the ritual use of 

 incense and begain to exploit southern Arabia for it. 



The extension of the use of copper to North-western India^ 

 is another indication of the easterly diffusion of culture, which is 

 perhaps to be associated with the finding of painted pottery in 

 Baluchistan. 



But though the contact between Elam and India may have 

 been brought about by land in the third millennium B.C. it is 

 possible that the exploitation of the western coasts of India for 

 wood and spices may have been begun by sea also. Certain hints 

 of this were suggested by Professor Sayce,^ but they are so slight 

 that I would not attach much importance to them, if the com- 

 pleteness of the preservation in Burma of the type of Egyptian 

 ship distinctive of the Pyramid Age did not suggest the 

 possibility of such ships reaching India before they were super- 

 seded in the west by later models. 



But by the time of the seventh century B.C., and I believe 

 at least a century or more earlier still, regular sea-traffic between 

 the Persian Gulf and the Malabar Coast was definitely established.^ 



I^efore we can appreciate the reasons for the sudden extension 

 of the range of maritime adventure in the eighth and seventh 

 centuries B.C., the nearest analogy to which is afforded by the 

 exploits of European seamen in the fifteenth century A.D., we 

 must consider certain events which were happening in the 

 Mediterranean. 



At the time when Queen Hatshepsut's great expedition went 

 to the Land of Punt in the fourteenth century B.C.. Egypt's 



1 W. Crooke, "Northern India, 1907," p. 18. 



■' Hibbert Lectures, 1887, p. 138. 



■'On this, see T. W, Rhys Davids, "Buddhist India," 1911, pp. 113—117, 



