32 PERRY, Megalithic Monuments and Ancient Mines. 



It is also not without significance that the same 

 expedition was responsible for introducing into Egypt, at 

 least for the sacred purposes of Queen Hatshepsut's 

 Theban temple, the " myrrh-terraces of Punt " (Southern 

 Arabia). This is the earliest reference to terrace-cultiva- 

 tion (about 1500 B.C.). 



On the present occasion it is not my intention to 

 follow up the multitude of complex problems suggested 

 by these references. They have, however, a double bear- 

 ing on the present discussion, in that they afford a certain 

 amount of prima facie evidence in support of the conten- 

 tions, (a) that some time after the 16th century B.C., 

 Ethiopian gold-miners may possibly have begun to work 

 in the Colchian area, and that the type of dolmen found 

 there may have been inspired from Egypt in that way ; 

 and (F) that Egyptian elements of culture may have 

 reached the Danubian area by way of the Black Sea. 



But whether this be so or not the megalithic monu- 

 ments both of Spain and India represent the degraded 

 survivals of monuments originally inspired by the methods 

 of tomb-construction that prevailed in Egypt many 

 centuries before, in the remote Pyramid Age. The crews 

 of the Phoenician ships, or the skilled miners who ex- 

 ploited the wealth of the distant settlements, were 

 responsible for distributing these customs far and wide. 



The Black Sea littoral provides a most important 

 series of megalithic monuments ranging from Bulgaria to 

 the Caucasus, in every case in association with ancient 

 mining settlements. In fact, Mr. Perry might have re- 

 ferred to this area in the same way as South- Western 

 Europe and India have been used to demonstrate his 

 contention. 



In his statements concerning the pile-dwellings and 

 Terramara of Switzerland and Italy, he has touched upon 



