24 PERRY, Megalithic Monuments and Ancient Mines. 



sidered in the future. Two distinct forms of furnaces are 

 known : that, already mentioned, which is found in 

 Europe west of the Apennines; and another, in which the 

 blast is led in at the bottom, which is found to the east 

 of the Apennines. 30 The comparative lateness of iron 

 smelting in many places makes it quite unnecessary to 

 examine the matter here, pregnant though it is with 

 possibilities. 



The statements of Professor Gowland which I have 

 re-produced here make it quite clear that he considers 

 the whole process of obtaining metals by mining and 

 smelting to have been essentially the same everywhere in 

 ancient times. The furnaces employed were similar : 

 the crucibles were of the same material and generally of 

 the same form : the process of smelting, first in the 

 furnace and then in crucibles was found everywhere, 

 even persisting down to present times in the absence of 

 any fresh cultural influence. 



The study of the technique of mining and smelting 

 has served to consolidate the floating mass of facts which 

 we have accumulated and to add support for the con- 

 tention that one cultural influence is responsible for the 

 earliest mining and smelting and washing of metals and 

 the getting of precious stones and pearls. 



In the consideration of these problems it is of crucial 

 importance not to forget that the mining and working of 

 metals had been carried on for several centuries around 

 the Eastern Mediterranean before the knowledge of these 

 arts burst the bounds of that region. Within the limits 

 of the latter the spread of these practices occurred 

 under circumstances very different to those that came 



; ' "It is important to note . . . that the type of furnace which 

 still survives in India among the hill tribes of the Ghats is closely analogous 

 to the prehistoric furnace of the Danube, and of the Jura district in Europe. 

 " Gowland, Jottrtt. Roy. Anth. Inst., XLIL. p, 279. 



